Orchestral & Symphonic

Emilio de' Cavalieri's Rappresentatione di Anima et di Corpo was premiered in 1600 in Rome. It was conceived to be performed in costume, bringing text and music together in a dramatic form, and is accepted as the first surviving opera, pre-dating works...

Building on the success of Cavalleria rusticana, Pietro Mascagni's commedia lirica L'amico Fritz was given seven encores and thirty-five curtain calls at it's premiere in Rome in 1891. Considered by critics to be one of Mascagni's best operas, the story...

Having been granted unprecedented authority by Louis XIV, the Sun King, no one could stage operas in France without Jean-Baptiste Lully's permission. By 1686, however, Lully's authority was waning and his long-standing librettist deserted him to write...

Treading a tightrope between death, life and intense romance in the opulent world of 19th-century Habsburg royalty, Elisabeth tells the story of the beautiful Empress of Austria, from her wedding, to her tragic assassination by the hand of the Italian...

Nicola Porpora was a composer who helped to turn Italian opera into the most successful and spectacular genre in Europe. One of the few luminaries of the 'Neapolitan School' to actually be born in Naples, Porpora wrote L'Angelica, a serenade for six...

?La Perricholi - in reality, Micaela Villegas - was Lima's leading theatrical l lady in the 1770s when Peru was a Spanish colony. Her life was fictionalised in a one-act play by Prosper M?rim?e and a libretto was fashioned on which Offenbach created his...

The composer's great-granddaughter was keen to stage Cord Garben's abridged version of the cycle at the Teatro Colin in Buenos Aires, but in the event things turned out rather differently. The present documentary provides a thrilling and visually...

This live recording was taken in the Theatre antique d'Orange in June of 2015, and features the Orchestre PHilharmonique de Radio France, conducted by Myung-Whun Chung. Classic favorites bookend this concert, beginning with Berlioz's Roman Carnival...

Gergiev conducts the World Orchestra for Peace in works by Rossini, Prokofiev, Tchaikovsky, and Johann Strauss II. Also included is a bonus documentary - Solti's Vision - the World Orchestra for Peace - the First 15 Years: 1995-2010.

Sergiu Celibidache conducts the Orchestra Sinfonica di Torino della RAI in Symphonies by Mozart and Schubert in this rare footage recorded for TV.

The next installment of the acclaimed Bruckner cycle by the Staatskapelle Berlin and conductor Daniel Barenboim. The 7th Symphony is characterized by great spaciousness and profound solemnity; it speaks of grief and lamentation, but also of their...

The New York Philharmonic - America's preeminent symphony orchestra gave 'A Concert for New York' to mark the tenth anniversary of the events of 9/11. What work could be better suited to the occasion than Mahler's 'Resurrection' Symphony with it's...