Operetta

Milada Subrtova, Eduard Haken, Ivo Zidek, and Marie Ovcacikova star in this 1975 Czech TV Prague production of the Dvorak opera with Zdenek Chalabala conducting the Orchestra and Choir of the National Theatre in Prague.

The Places - Vienna was already an ancient Celtic town called Vindobona when around 15 BC the Romans fortified it with a military camp. The town prospered and grew, undergoing considerable further development under the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, who died...

Arthaus presents a lavish and naturalistic staging of Eugene Onegin by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840- 1893) performed in Moscow, the city where the work had it's world premiere on 29 March 1879. In their October 2000 production, the Bolshoi not only...

Opera Highlights is both a visually exciting introduction for new viewers to opera as well as a unique opportunity to see great singers talking to camera, then performing roles for which they are famous. The opening title sequence has been specially desig

Nicholas Hytner's enchanting production, sung in the original Czech, is conducted by Sir Charles Mackerras, a master of the best Jan?'ek style. Through myriad shifts of scene, the episodic story is presented in brightly-coloured sets and costumes of bliss

Arguably Mussorgsky, Modest's greatest work, Khovanshchina was incomplete at the time of his death and so this glorious production, from the Vienna State Opera, employs Shostakovich's scoring with the addition of the final chorus composed by Stravinsky in

For their perfection of composition and link with important literary works, the two operas Wozzeck and Lulu - the latter left unfinished at the composer's death - must rank among the most outstanding music theatre pieces of the 20th century. In April 1914

This Cologne Opera production, one of Rossini's most brilliant compositions, was directed by Michael Hampe and boasts a star-studded cast with Ileana Cotrubas, Carlos Feller, David Kuebler and Alberto Rinaldi. Rossini's opera is a perennial favourite and

The double title of the opera "Tannh?user oder der S?ngerkrieg auf der Wartburg", which had it's grand premiere on 19 October 1845 under Wagner"s direction in the Hoftheater in Dresden, is already an indication of how Wagner"s work unites two circles of...

Franz Leh?r's operetta "Paganini" (Vienna, 1925) marked the start of a new period in the composer's work that was strongly influenced by the tenor Richard Tauber. Leh?r now began to write works that were highly demanding in vocal terms and stylistically...

Created specially for television and recorded in studio, this short opera by one of today's most eminent Finnish composers is based on a Christmas story by the American writer O. Henry. Rautavaara sets The Gift of the Magi in a poor district of Helsinki

Everybody knows Schiller, everybody can Schiller, Schiller moves everybody, Schiller is performed, Schiller is sung. Numerous operas are based on his dramas, not to mention the countless poems, which were set to music by Schubert. Beethoven's 9th ends...