Krassimira Stoyanova

José Cura sings and acts here with an inwardness and intensity which make a profound impression. So does Krassimira Stoyanova as Desdemona, not in the first flush of youth, but heartfelt and direct; while Lado Ataneli's Jago is a brilliantly understated study in jovial malevolence. With strong conducting from Antoni Ros-Marbà, the whole cast collaborate to give us the truth of this desperately upsetting work, as no other DVD and few live performances I've seen of it ever have.

Live performance from Wiener Staatsoper, 2003. Vjekoslav Šutej conducting Chor und Orchester der Wiener Staatsoper. Stage director Günter Krämer.

Beethoven · Missa Solemnis (Staatskapelle Dresden, Christian Thielemann)

Tchaikovsky's much-loved opera Eugene Onegin, a story of love, rejection and tragedy based on Pushkin's verse drama of the same name.

With their “comedy for music” in the spirit of Mozart, Richard Strauss and his inspired librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthal created the most popular of all their works and one of the most frequently performed operas of all time. In the guise of a gossamer-light and supremely entertaining high-class comedy, Der Rosenkavalier touches on universal themes such as love, sex, marital fidelity and the changes that human relations undergo over time – and all of it set to music of the most glorious kind imaginable. With its stellar cast under the inspired direction of Harry Kupfer, the 2014 Salzburg Festival’s production of Der Rosenkavalier was one of the most internationally acclaimed interpretations of the work since the start of the new millennium. “A musical feast from beginning to end“ (Wiener Zeitung).

Described by Tchaikovsky as ‘lyric scenes’, Eugene Onegin receives a spectacular reinterpretation from the Norwegian director Stefan Herheim. His productions create controversy and excitement around Europe, and here he takes Pushkin’s story of illusion, disaffection and frustrated love, and places the protagonists – world-weary Onegin and naïve, passionate Tatyana – in a triple temporal perspective, referencing the theatrical present, the period of the work’s composition, and the pageant of Russia’s history. Mariss Jansons, renowned for his mastery of Tchaikovsky’s symphonies, conducts this performance from Amsterdam’s Muziektheater.

Princess Aida has been kidnapped: a valuable prize in a war between Egypt and Ethiopia. The ambitious soldier Radames wrestles with his feelings for her. As they draw closer together, each must make a painful choice between their loyalty to home, and their love for each other. his new production of Rome combines the colossal and the intimate. For Michele Mariotti, conductor and music director of Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Verdi’s genius lies in his managing to combine spectacular, triumphal elements with a love story that unfolds far from public space in delicate pianissimi and sotto voce singing.