Royal Opera House 2023/24: Madama Butterfly

An aggressive agent turns a hotel porter into an overnight sensation.

Disciplined Italian composer Antonio Salieri becomes consumed by jealousy and resentment towards the hedonistic and remarkably talented young Viennese composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

The story of an Indian girl falling in love with an American in 80s USA.

Fidelio

an honest, unforgiving character study into love, tragedy, acceptance and bits of trees.

Set in colonial French Indochina during the 1930s to 1950s, this is the story of Éliane Devries, a French plantation owner, and of her adopted Vietnamese daughter, Camille, set against the backdrop of the rising Vietnamese nationalist movement.

Alfredo, a young man from the provinces, falls in love with Violetta, the stylish toast of Paris. But she’s not the marrying kind – at least not until now. However, their dreams are threatened by both a merciless society that condemns Violetta’s racy past and an equally merciless disease. Russian soprano Venera Gimadieva portrays the iconic role of Violetta, alongside American tenor Michael Fabiano as Alfredo. The visual beauty of Tom Cairns’s opulent production aptly echoes the irresistible allure of this beloved opera.

Semiramide - Teatro La Fenice - du 19 octobre au 27 octobre

When the most voluptuous, sought-after courtesan in the world meets an ascetic monk whose life is devoted to God, you know erotic sparks are going to fly. And when the clash takes place in a glorious, but rarely performed, opera by Massenet, it’s a delight to the ear just as much as to the eye. Renée Fleming is every inch the glamorous Thaïs, swathed in elegant gowns designed by Christian Lacroix. Thomas Hampson is Athanaël, the tortured man of God. This production by John Cox, which premiered in December 2008, brilliantly sets the stage for a confrontation as old as civilization itself.

A celebrated new production of Puccini’s La fanciulla del West from the Vienna State opera featuring Jonas Kaufmann and Nina Stemme. Staged by Marco Arturo Marelli, who sets it in a modern-day mining village, with the feel of a gritty modern drama, during the American gold rush of 1849. An unlikely setting for an Italian opera, but one that has a happy ending. It tells the tale of Minnie, the bartender in the saloon whom all the local men adore, and Dick Johnson alias Ramerrez, a notorious bandit. Dick and Minnie fall in love on first meeting, so much so that he vows to change his life as a bandit, sung by two contemporary great singers: Nina Stemme and Jonas Kaufmann. A new production from Marco Arturo Marelli brought one of Puccini’s rarely performed works to the Vienna State Opera stage in September 2013. Jonas Kaufmann in his role debut as the wanted and notorious bandit Ramerrez proves ideally cast, full of power, with his breathtakingly beautiful baritone timbre.

A mythical performance from la Monnaie - Bruxelles. Parsifal is a strange and enigmatic work. At the end of his life, did Wagner wish to celebrate asceticism, which he himself had never practised? Did he fall upon his knees before the Cross, as claimed by Nietzsche? And what does the secret society of knights based on pure blood signify, desperately waiting for the saviour to regenerate it? What is the true nature of the opposition between the worlds of Klingsor and the Grail? What can Parsifal tell us today? In his artistic will and testament, Wagner condenses his moral idea of the world and returns to the roots of love and religion - to the very heart of art according to him. With the participation of conductor Hartmut Haenchen who is passionated by the score, Italian stage director Romeo Castellucci proposes an original reading of this brilliant work and explores the essence of Wagnerian ‘Kunstreligion’ in a different light.

Wagner's tale of the struggle between spiritual and profane love, and of redemption through love, is given a radical visual update in Sebastian Baumgarten's controversial yet thought-provoking Bayreuth production. Joep van Lieshout's giant installation 'The Technocrat'; dominates the stage, its industrial interior giving credence to the idea that Tannhäuser is one big experiment and playing host to some magnificent performances, among them Torsten Kerl's robust interpretation of the title role and Camilla Nylund's wonderfully empathetic Elisabeth. Recorded live at the Bayreuth Festspiele, August 2014.

When Written on Skin had its premiere at the 2012 Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, conducted by George Benjamin himself, it received a standing ovation. The opera's arrival at Covent Garden in 2013 was eagerly anticipated, and provided audiences with the opportunity to experience the work of two of Britain's greatest living artists. Benjamin previously collaborated with playwright Martin Crimp on Into the Little Hill, a magical retelling of the Pied Piper fairytale, and for this new work they joined forces with acclaimed stage director Katie Mitchell. For all three, the production marked their main-stage debut at the Royal Opera House. The tale, inspired by a medieval legend, tells of an ill-fated troubadour, drawn into a liaison with an innocent maiden. But they are observed by the jealous eye of her protector, who wreaks a shocking revenge on the young couple. Written on Skin draws on a 12th-century Occitan legend about the troubadour Guillaume de Cabestanh.

The Wiener Philharmoniker mounts, and Andrea Breth stages, this 2007 production of Pyotr Illych Tchaikovsky's opera Eugene Onegin, starring Peter Mattei, Joseph Kaiser, Anna Samuil and Renée Morloc. The Konzertvereinigung Wiener Staatsopernchor lends added musical accompaniment, under the baton of Daniel Barenboim.

Obsessive in gambling and in love, the soldier Hermann is the protagonist of Tchaikovsky’s Pique Dame, based on a story by Pushkin. He is smitten with the aristocratic Lisa and fixated on learning the winning secret of ‘the three cards’ from her grandmother, the Countess, played by iconic contralto Ewa Podles. This opulent production from Barcelona’s Liceu captures St Petersburg in the era of Catherine the Great, while the house’s Music Director Michael Boder conducts a large and impressive cast. Recorded at the Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona, 30th June & 1st July 2010.

Alexandre Tarta's production of Berlioz's opera, recorded live at the Salzburg Festival in 2000. Sylvain Cambreling conducts, with performances by Jon Villars, Russell Braun and Tigran Martirossian.

This production of Hans Werner Henze's opera Upupa & Der Triumph der Sohnesliebe features Laura Aiken, John Mark Ainsley, and Alfred Muff in lead roles. Markus Stenz conducts the Wiener Philharmoniker. Live at the Salzburg Festival 2003.

Claudio Monteverdi's operatic adaptation of this story from Homer's The Odyssey receives a modern and distinctive staging in this 2002 production directed by Humphrey Burton for Les Arts Florissants. Penelope Marijana Mijanovic is left to her own devices when her husband, the heroic Ulysses Kresimir Spicer, goes off to fight in the Trojan Wars. After many years alone, Penelope finds herself attracting a number of suitors who wish to claim her hand; however, what she doesn't realize is that jealous Ulysses has his ways of keeping an eye on her. Production of the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence; from the Theatre du Jeu de Paume.

The three main soloists have voices on a scale that can compete with these flashy production values – White and Kasarova, in particular, sing at a level of intensity that would swamp anything less; the climactic seduction trio has rarely been sung so well or with such an overpoweringly polymorphous eroticism. Cambreling marshals his forces effectively, giving full rein to the work's showstoppers like the "Hungarian March" but not neglecting the subtler less kinetic Gluckian side of Berlioz's vocal writing. Recorded live at the Salzburger Festspiele, 1999.

Puccini's Il Tabarro & Leoncavallo's Pagliacci; Pavarotti and Domingo star in MET 1994-1995 season opener.