A Midsummer Night's Dream

Richard Strauss's opera, from the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.

Live performance at the Metropolitan Opera in 2000.

Live performance from the Opéra National de Paris, 2003.

Live performance from the Zurich Opera House, January 2002.

Stephen Wadsworth’s production of Mussorgsky’s epic masterpiece brilliantly captures the suffering and ambition of the Russian people at a critical time in their nation’s history. René Pape is riveting as the Tsar of the title, giving a commanding and charismatic performance of one of the greatest bass roles in the repertoire—his Boris is dominating, tortured, flawed and utterly unforgettable. The extraordinary cast and the Met Orchestra and Chorus are led by Russian maestro Valery Gergiev, the foremost Mussorgsky interpreter of our time.

A stage performance of the Shostakovich opera, filmed at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona.

Live performance of Alban Berg's opera at the Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona. Inspired by "Pandora's Box" by Frank Wedekind, Lulu describes the social ascent and the demise of a deadly woman, driven by men to behave in murder, to her own. dead.

Maometto II (or Maometto secondo) is an 1820 opera in two acts by Gioachino Rossini to an Italian libretto by Cesare della Valle. Set in the 1470s during a time of war between the Turks and Venetians, the work was commissioned by the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples. Della Valle based his libretto on his earlier play Anna Erizo. The name of the title character, Maometto II, refers to the real-life Ottoman Sultan and conqueror of Constantinople Mehmed II, who lived from 1432 to 1481.

Live from the Metropolitan Opera: Simon Boccanegra

Live performance from the Teatro Comunale di Modena

Live performance from Opéra National de Lyon.

The gorgeous and evocative Otto Schenk/Günther Schneider-Siemssen production continues with this second opera in Wagner’s Ring cycle. Hildegard Behrens brings deep empathy to Brünnhilde, the favorite daughter of the god Wotan (James Morris) who nevertheless defies him. Morris’s portrayal of Wotan is deservedly legendary, as is Christa Ludwig, as Fricka. Jessye Norman and Gary Lakes are Sieglinde and Siegmund, and Kurt Moll is the threatening Hunding. James Levine and the Met orchestra provide astonishing color and drama. (Performed April 8, 1989)

Siegfried is the third of the four operas that constitute Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung), by Richard Wagner.

Live performance from Teatro alla Scala, 7 December 2009 .

Live performance from the Vienna State Opera, 6 May 2010.

This 2003 performance of Georges Bizet's 19th century opera Carmen was produced and directed by filmmaker and stage director Franco Zeffirelli, best known to many for the Academy Award-winning big-screen adaptation of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Shot at the Arena di Verona, the production features Marina Domashenko in the title role and music by the Orchestra of the Arena di Verona under conductor Alain Lombard.

Valery Gergiev conducts Mariusz Trelinski’s thrilling new production of these rarely heard one-act operas. Anna Netrebko stars as the blind princess of the title in Tchaikovsky’s lyrical work, opposite Piotr Beczala as Vaudémont, the man who wins her love—and wakes her desire to be able to see. Nadja Michael and Mikhail Petrenko are Judith and Bluebeard in Bartók’s gripping psychological thriller about a woman discovering her new husband’s murderous past.

David Alden’s elegant 2012 production moves Verdi’s thrilling drama to a timeless setting inspired by film noir. Marcelo Álvarez is Gustavo III, the Swedish king in love with Amelia (Sondra Radvanovsky), the wife of his best friend and counselor, Count Anckarström (Dmitri Hvorostovsky). When Anckarström joins a conspiracy to murder the king, tragedy ensues. Stephanie Blythe is the fortuneteller Madame Ulrica Arvidsson and Kathleen Kim sings the page Oscar. Met Principal Conductor Fabio Luisi is on the podium.

Audiences went wild for Bartlett Sher’s dynamic production, which found fresh and surprising ways to bring Rossini’s effervescent comedy closer to them than ever before. The stellar cast leapt to the challenge with irresistible energy and bravura vocalism. Juan Diego Flórez is Count Almaviva, who fires off showstopping coloratura as he woos Joyce DiDonato’s spirited Rosina—with assistance from Peter Mattei as the one and only Figaro, Seville’s beloved barber and man-about-town.

It is a rare opera indeed that calls for one soprano diva and no fewer than six tenors. Mary Zimmerman’s fanciful production of Rossini’s drama, designed by Richard Hudson and with choreography by Graciela Daniele, provides the perfect setting for superstar Renée Fleming’s captivating performance of the title role. A beautiful but evil sorceress in the times of the Crusades, Armida sets out to regain the love of the Frankish knight Rinaldo (Lawrence Brownlee) by putting her magical spells on him. She at first succeeds to draw him into her web of sorcery, but ultimately divine intervention—and his fellow soldiers—free Rinaldo from his enchantment—much to the vengeful fury of Armida and her demons.