Director
Verdi’s life-long love affair with Shakespeare’s works began with Macbeth, a play he considered to be ‘one of the greatest creations of man’. With his librettist, Francesco Maria Piave, Verdi set out to create ‘something out of the ordinary’. Their success is borne out in every bar of a score that sees Verdi at his most theatrical: it bristles with demonic energy.
Director
Recorded live at the Royal Opera House, December 2012. Daniel Oren conducting Royal Opera House Orchestra and Chorus. A grand opera that dominated the stages of Europe for most of the 19th century, Robert le diable is a masterpiece. Director Laurent Pelly breathes new life into Giacomo Meyerbeer's great spectacle and audaciously entertaining moral fable, in this colourful new staging for The Royal Opera.
Director
Macbeth, the Thane of Glamis, receives a prophecy from a trio of witches that one day he will become King of Scotland. Consumed by ambition and spurred to action by his wife, Macbeth murders his king and takes the throne for himself.
Executive Producer
A three-part BBC dramatized documentary series taking a look at the life and work of Ludwig van Beethoven.
Director
David McVicar's spectacular production of Charles Gounod’s Faust, featuring a divine cast of opera’s superstars: Roberto Alagna, Angela Gheorghiu, Bryn Terfel, Simon Keenlyside and Sophie Koch – recorded at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden on 19 June 2004.
Director
The Magic Flute opens with Prince Tamino being rescued from a serpent by Ladies in the employ of the Queen of the Night. Papageno the bird-catcher arrives and claims he killed the serpent, but the outraged Ladies padlock Papageno's mouth for his lie. They also show Tamino a portrait of Princess Pamina, the Queen's kidnapped daughter, and he immediately falls in love. Protected by a golden flute, he sets off with the bird-catcher Papageno to rescue Pamina from the clutches of the sorcerer Sarastro and a madcap adventure involving magicians, wild animals and very Masonic-like trials. Triumphing over all adversity, the lovers unite, as the forces of light banish the darkness and Papageno even finds a true love of his own. The internationally renowned Mozart interpreter Sir Colin Davis conducts the chorus and orchestra of the Royal Opera House and a glittering cast in David McVicar's 2003 production of the opera Mozart wrote in the final year of his life, recorded live at Covent Garden.
Director
Durante un viaje por España, el azar convierte al escritor francés Prosper Mérimée en testigo de una historia apasionante. La naturaleza libre y enigmática de una mujer llamada Carmen, su belleza meridional, su carácter arrebatado y pasional, hacen que el sargento navarro José se convierta en víctima y protagonista de acontecimientos extraordinarios, de amores y pasiones incontrolables, en una cadena de fatalismo, celos y sangre.
Director
La corrupción de la inocencia se sitúa en el centro mismo de la potente tragedia de Verdi en la producción de David McVicar para The Royal Opera. La producción de David McVicar subraya la crueldad en el seno de la corte de Mantua. Cortesanos ricamente vestidos participan en orgías y jolgorios al son de las pegadizas y animadas danzas de Verdi. Entre los muchos números musicales famosos de la ópera se encuentran la efervescente “La donna è mobile”, en la que el duque alardea de su desprecio por las mujeres; los exquisitos y quejumbrosos dúos con Rigoletto y el duque; y el extraordinario cuarteto del Acto III, que entreteje hermosamente las voces al tiempo que la historia se encamina a toda prisa hacia su devastadora conclusión.
