Acis and Galatea (The Royal Ballet / The Royal Opera) 2009 streaming

This is an effective staging, though the set looks medieval and the costumes are modern. It’s well paced, well played, well sung. Jonas Kaufmann is an ideal Tito. His voice is not only beautiful and flexible, it’s also ample, retaining warmth and sweetness when he sings out. The character of Tito is too good to be true, but Kaufmann makes him intense, noble, and beliveable. Vesselina Kasarova is riviting as Sesto. Her voice is gorgeous and multi-colored, her technique exquisite, her immersion in the role complete....

Since its premiere on 2 June 1937 in Zurich, Alban Berg's second opera "Lulu" has the reputation of being surrounded by scandals. On the one hand, this is due to the dubious character of the subject, the man-eating femme fatale, which Berg had taken from Frank Wedekind's two Lulu tragedies – "The Earth Spirit" and "Pandora's Box" – and combined into one opera libretto. On the other hand, Berg's window had (for personal reasons) repeatedly refused to have the opera completed, which was unfinished when Berg died. This video is of the unfinished two-act torso of "Lulu."...

A collaboration between award-winning American filmmaker Sofia Coppola and Italia haute couture king Valentino comes in the form of a revival of Giuseppe Verdi's classic opera, La Traviata. Captured live from the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma....

County Durham England 1984 the miners strike has started and the police have started coming up from Bethnal Green starting a class war with the lower classes suffering caught in the middle of the conflict is 11-year old Billy Elliot who after leaving his boxing club for the day stubbles upon a ballet class and finds out that he's naturally talented. He practices with his teacher Mrs Wilkinson for an upcoming audition in Newcastle-upon Tyne the audition is for the royal Ballet school in London....

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is a remarkably talented young Viennese composer who unwittingly finds a fierce rival in the disciplined and determined Antonio Salieri. Resenting Mozart for both his hedonistic lifestyle and his undeniable talent, the highly religious Salieri is gradually consumed by his jealousy and becomes obsessed with Mozart's downfall, leading to a devious scheme that has dire consequences for both men....

Don Alfonso bets with Ferrando and Guglielmo that their brides, Dorabella and Fiordiligi, will be unfaithful if they go to war....

Luise, called Pünktchen, and Anton are closest of friends. Being the daughter of a wealthy surgeon, young Pünktchen lives in a great house. Her mother, who always travels through the world more for public relation reasons than for the social tasks she pretends to fulfill, is never available to her as a mother. Anton, son of a single and sick mother in financial trouble, does his best to help her out of it by working late. Pünktchen decides to help her only friend (as nobody else would anyway) and starts singing in public places. Trouble arises when Anton can't resist stealing a golden lighter and Pünktchen's secret life is discovered by her parents. Two troubled families finally can see the need for actions to be taken....

First of all it is impossible to conceive of the creative genius who wrote this music when only [...]. Add to this the outstanding musicianship of the young singers/actors and orchestra members.Christiane Karg has a voice that is pure beauty; her range, precision and her ability to convey tremendous emotion are astounding.Her aria "Laetari, iocari" is a tour de force, tossed off with the greatest ease. Then there is the beautiful duet she sings with Maximilian Kiener. This is to die for! The staging, the singing and the acting are of an extremely high level. On the second disc Christiane Karg plays a totally different character, wily and playful, but oh, that voice!...

Modern treasure hunters, led by archaeologist Ben Gates, search for a chest of riches rumored to have been stashed away by George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin during the Revolutionary War. The chest's whereabouts may lie in secret clues embedded in the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, and Gates is in a race to find the gold before his enemies do....

Takarazuka Revue's Phantom based on the play by Maury Yeston and Arthur Kopit....

Interrupted Melody is the inspirational filmed biography of world-renowned Australian soprano Marjorie Lawrence. She’s a foremost Wagnerian, equal to the vocal and physical demands of the composer’s oeuvre. And she’s a beacon of triumph to anyone who fights back when personal tragedy strikes....

When a beautiful young woman in rural Moravia becomes unexpectedly pregnant, she learns that love is sometimes only skin-deep. Janáček took Gabriela Preissová's grim tale of infanticide and redemption, and condensed it into a masterful, spine-chilling drama. The tragic plight of the protagonists is presented with unsentimental realism that cannot help but trigger a response of deep compassion. Premiered at the National Theatre in the composer's hometown of Brno 115 years ago, the opera took him nine years to complete and is the first in which his distinctive voice can clearly be heard....

This animated short by Evelyn Lambart is a visual adaptation of the famous Aesop fable "The Lion and the Mouse," in which a mouse proves to a lion that the weak and small may be of help to those much mightier than themselves....

Big money artists and mega-collectors pay a high price when art collides with commerce. After a series of paintings by an unknown artist are discovered, a supernatural force enacts revenge on those who have allowed their greed to get in the way of art....

PRELIMINARY EVENINING OF THE RING CYCLE. Upon the banks of the ageless river Rhine, the Rhinemaidens play. Alberich, a Nibelung dwarf, tries vainly to seduce one of them. To taunt him, they reveal their secret: out of the gold they guard one can forge a Ring to rule the world, but at the cost of giving up Love forever. Alberich steals the gold, makes the ring and plans his world take-over. Meanwhile, Wotan, King of the Gods, must figure out how to finance the construction of Valhalla. He has promised his sister-in-law as payment to the giant construction workers led by Fafner, but his wife Fricka disapproves. Loge (God of Fire) tricks Alberich and brings him to Wotan, who takes the Ring. In revenge Alberich curses it: lack of the Ring will fuel desire for it and possession will only lead to misery. Wotan gives the Ring to Fafner as ransom for Fricka's sister. Filmed at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus in June & July 1991....

SECOND DAY OF THE RING CYCLE. Alberich's brother Mime raises the orphan Siegfried, hoping that Siegfried will kill Fafner and enable Mime to gain the ring. Mime attempts unsuccessfully to reforge the Nothung. Fulfilling prophecy, Siegfried reforges the sword himself and kills Fafner, who has the form of a dragon. When he accidentally tastes the dragon's blood spilt on his hands, Siegfried understands the song of a woodbird, who instructs him to take the Ring from Fafner. Reading Mime's thoughts of betrayal, Siegfried kills the dwarf as well. The woodbird also informs Siegfried of a mysterious woman asleep in the midst of fire, and Siegfried sets off to find her. After defeating a disguised Wotan and breaking his spear, Siegfried successfully awakes Brünnhilde, and the two fall in love. Filmed at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus in June & July 1992....

THIRD DAY OF THE RING CYCLE. Günter, the lord of the Rhine people, gives Siegfried a love potion that causes Siegfried to forget Brünnhilde and fall in love with Günter's sister Gutrane. Siegfried has given Brünnhilde the Ring as a token of their love, but her Valkyrie sister urges her to destroy it, because their father Wotan has lost his spear and power and is hiding out in Valhalla. Instead, Brünnhilde keeps it, and under the influence of the potion, Siegfried steals it from her. Enraged, Brünnhilde helps Alberich's son murder Siegfried, but Siegfried's memory returns, and he dies thinking of Brünnhilde. Brünnhilde repents and orders a funeral pyre to be built. She rides into the fire herself, and the Rhinemaidens get the ring back. The story closes with flames flickering about Valhalla in the background. Filmed at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus in June & July 1991....

This is a beautifully conducted and thoughtfully staged performance of the first opera (the prologue) in Wagner's Ring Cycle. As soon as the clouds of mist have dissipated, while the daring, long-held opening chord is still reverberating, the screen clears to show not only the River Rhine and the three maidens (dressed like prostitutes in this production) assigned to guard the gold hidden there. It also shows an enormous dam (not mentioned in Wagner's text). This is the underwater base of a hydroelectric plant, and its presence tells us two things immediately: that this production takes the story out of the vaguely medieval fantasy world in which Wagner had placed it, and that a basic theme of the four-opera cycle would be power. Alberich, the Nibelung, is willing to renounce the love of women, after stealing the gold from the Rhine, to become the ruler of the world. Another basic theme is greed....

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2017 TMR stage production of Verdi's "Il Trovatore"...