Live from ROH 1985. Giordano's Andrea Chenier is one of the greatest of verismo operas, full of heart-stopping big tunes and powerful emotional situations. If it is not as well-known as it should be, it is because in summary it sounds a little too like Puccini's Tosca: there is a tussle between political opponents over a woman, an attempt to save a condemned man, a tenor aria about writing poetry on the eve of execution. The difference is that Gerard (Giorgio Zancanaro) is not a villain like Scarpia, he is an idealist whom the French Revolution has betrayed as much as it has his rival the poet Chenier (Placido Domingo). His temptation to abuse his power to seduce the virtuous Maddalena (Anna Tomowa-Sintow) is a momentary one, though its consequences are terrible. There is a streak of post-Wagnerian decadence in much of this--Maddalena is at least as much in love with death as she is with Chenier, and the final love duet has a deeply sinister aspect. -- From Amazon.co.uk
Don José is a guard who begins an affair with the tempestuous Carmen. He is imprisoned and loses his job, then flees with her to the mountains. When the relationship starts to break down José refuses to acknowledge it and will not leave, even when he gets news that his mother is dying. Carmen, meanwhile, has taken up with the bullfighter Escamillo. Bizet's most famous opera is brought to the Glyndebourne Festival Opera by Sir Peter Hall, with Maria Ewing and Barry McCauley heading an international cast.
Escaping from a distasteful marriage, Nanki-Poo, the son of the Mikado, arrives in the town of Titipu - disguised as a musician. He has chosen Titipu because a beautiful girl, Yum-Yum, with whom he has fallen in love, lives in the town. A desire to marry Yum-Yum, however, is not enough. Nanki-Poo has to contend with her guardian, Ko-Ko, the Lord High Executioner, who has every intention of marrying Yum-Yum, himself. Problems are compounded when the Mikado, accompanied by Katisha, Nanki-Poo's jilted bride, also arrive in the hitherto peaceful town of Titipu
The D'Oyly Carte production of the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta. Love blossoms between members of different social classes among a general lampooning of the British class system.
