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1-15 of 15
- Her position at the side of her husband, Emperor Claudius, is not enough to satisfy the ambition of Agrippina, Empress of Rome. She schemes to elevate her son by her first marriage, Nero, to the throne. Then she will need only Nero to accomplish and acquire everything she dreams of.
- TARARE is an opera in five acts composed by Antonio Salieri (1750 - 1825) to a French libretto by Pierre Beaumarchais. It was performed for first time by the Paris Opera at the Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin on 8 June 1787.
- For the public of music lovers talking about Domenico Cimarosa means, essentially, talking about just one of his operas, the Matrimonio segreto which, first staged in Vienna on 7th February 1792, was also one of the greatest successes in the history of eighteenth-century opera. At the time of the Matrimonio segreto Cimarosa had already some fifty operas to his credit. With Giovanni Paisiello he was the most prestigious and authoritative representative of Neapolitan opera. Il matrimonio segreto, is universally recognised as Cimarosa's masterpiece and the only one of his operas to have survived in the regular repertoire to this day. The reasons for its success are quite simple: the opera is practically perfect, splendidly balanced, accompanied from start to finish by an unfailing vein of felicitous melodic invention, orchestrated with unwonted attention, rich in irresistible arias and ensembles, always amusing but never farcical, and based on a libretto of good quality: "a sweet fable, not even lightly touched by the suspicion of its improbability", as Francesco Delgado has justly defined it. The opera contains memorable passages, once heard never forgotten, like the beautiful overture wholly worthy of Mozart, Paolino's aria Pria che spunti in ciel l'aurora, and the formidable duet between the Count and Geronimo in the second act Se fiato in corpo avete, that was soon to become a landmark in Italian comic opera, destined to survive to Rossini and beyond. In the nineteenth century, Il matrimonio segreto was to find illustrious admirers including Stendhal.
- Il signor Bruschino is the last of the five one-act operas - farsa giocosa - in which the young Rossini first demonstrated his operatic genius. Among the 'peculiarities', which caused a sensation at its premiere 1813, was the daring experiment in search of new tonal effects in the overture, during which the second violins are required to tap their bows on their music stands. The opera is a mixture of saucy elegance, sizzling wittiness, cheeky orchestration and also some touching lyricism. It was realised to perfection in the small, jewel-like Rococo Theatre in Schwetzingen Palace, which was built in 1752. The stage is small and the beautifully elegant and this shining production by Michael Hampe, recorded in May 1989, provides one and a half hours of the entertaining story about "the son won in a game" as it is subtitled. The staging transfers to the screen perfectly and the cast of principals, led by Alessandro Corbelli, Alberto Rinaldi and Amelia Felle provide musical excellence together with the flexible Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra under Gianluigi Gelmetti.
- Rossini's first staged opera already contains all the elements that would take the music world by storm in Il barbiere di Siviglia, L'italiana in Algeri and La Cenerentola in the years to come: melodic inventiveness, ingenious connections between sung lines and orchestral accompaniment in the exuberant finale, musical humour and ensembles using breathtakingly fast parlando singing. This sparkling production continues the Rossini one-act opera series emerging from the Schwetzingen Festival with excellent direction, acting and stagecraft. Director Michael Hampe created a perfect realization of the opera in the small, jewel-like Rococo Theatre of Schwetzingen Palace in May 1989. The staging is perfectly suited to the screen and the cast of principals, led by John Del Carlo; Janice Hall and David Kuebler provide musical excellence together with the flexible Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra. The lively performance is led by Gianluigi Gelmetti, who was awarded the Rossini d'Oro Prize in 1999.
- When Sir John Falstaff decides that he wants to have a little fun he writes two letters to a pair of Window wives: Mistress Ford and Mistress Page. When they put their heads together and compare missives, they plan a practical joke or two to teach the knight a lesson. But Mistress Ford's husband is a very jealous man and is pumping Falstaff for information of the affair. Meanwhile the Pages' daughter Anne is besieged by suitors.