Sally Matthews

The Marschallin is relishing time with her young lover, when her cousin’s sudden arrival ignites a comic chain of events. With honour at risk, social status bartered and happiness illusive, the Marschallin accepts time cannot be stopped and she must set young love free. After opening the 2022-23 season in Brussels with Pikovaya Dama, La Monnaie / De Munt now streams Der Rosenkavalier live on OperaVision. The mystery of time resonates throughout Hugo von Hofmannsthal’s highly spiritual and nostalgic libretto, for which Richard Strauss took a step back in time to eighteenth-century Vienna. Waltzing in neoclassical style, with sublime lyricism and a refined orchestral palette, the opera looks back to the past, faded beauty, lost loves.

A drama about fundamentalist obstinance, hatred, and revenge.

Nothing is what it seems in an old English manor. When a new governess arrives, the children entrusted to her care seem to receive visits from the ghosts. What horrors occurred here before her arrival? Are the children innocent? Can we really trust what we see? Based on a ghost story by Henry James, Benjamin Britten’s The Turn of the Screw is a psychological thriller in chamber opera format.

Praised by critics as “magnificent”, “breathtakingly theatrical” and full of “zestful imagination”, Melly Still’s “spine-tingling” Rusalka is a Glyndebourne classic – a magical contemporary reimagining of a much-loved fairy tale. Light and darkness, beauty and danger come together in this passionate tale of love against the odds. At once evocative and unsettling, this production collides two contrasting worlds in Rae Smith’s elegant designs made of “brilliant stage-pictures”. Rusalka’s forest home is a dappled space of sunshine and shadows, full of strange woodland creatures, while the Prince’s court is a world of sleek modernity and sophistication – a world of man.

After the acclaimed Met premiere of Thomas Adès's "The Tempest" in 2012, the composer returned with another masterpiece, this time inspired by filmmaker Luis Buñuel's seminal surrealist classic "El Ángel Exterminador", during the 2017–18 season. As the opera opens, a group of elegant socialites gather for a lavish dinner party, but when it is time to leave for the night, no one is able to escape. Soon, their behavior becomes increasingly erratic and savage. The large ensemble cast tackles both the vocal and dramatic demands of Adès's opera with one riveting performance after another. Tom Cairns, who also penned the work's libretto, directs an engrossing and inventive production, using a towering wooden archway to trap the characters onstage. And Adès himself takes the podium to conduct the frenzied score, which features a host of unconventional instruments, including the eerie electronic ondes Martenot.

New production. Live from Glyndebourne 2015.

A splendid Jenůfa, one of Janáček's best-known operas, here directed for stage by Alvis Hermanis and conducted by Ludovic Morlot at La Monnaie / Die Munt in Brussels.

Perhaps no opera is as closely and affectionately associated with a single opera house as Le Nozze di Figaro is with Glyndebourne. Michael Grandage's staging is no less than the seventh in the festival's history, and sets the opera in the sleazy Sixties. Directed by Robin Ticciati, the production was lauded for its "ideal pacing" and youthful cast (which includes "no weak link" and "looks gorgeous"—The Sunday Times), and continues Glyndebourne's rewarding explorations of Mozart and Da Ponte's "day of madness".

Here is a rare and exceptional example in which the director and costume designer amuse themselves with `silly' costumes, but it actually works. I usually loath the stupid concept of 'clever' producers' of dressing opera singers in an motley set of `modern' and bizarre costumes (mostly tasteless) to help the `stupid' spectators to understand the universality of the opera across time and place. However, in this particular production I enjoyed every moment of it. All my reservations withstanding, I found that the costumes have actually helped highlight the `buffa' aspects of this supposedly `siria' opera. This work may not be among Handel's greatest masterpieces, but the way it is presented and sung here makes it a thorough pleasure for the senses.

A live recording of the premier of Korean composer Unsuk Chin's Alice in Wonderland opera at National Theater Munich in June 2007. It is a modern opera based on Lewis Carroll's fantasy novel of the same name. The amazing characters Alice meets are portrayed with a colorful combination of puppets and singer-actors.

Alessandro Corbelli takes the title role in Annabel Arden's whirlwind production of Puccini's compact opera, in which the scheming Gianni Schicchi retrieves for himself the spoils of a disinherited family to pave the way for his daughter to marry her love.

The annual New Year’s Eve Concert is one of the highlights in the calendar of every classical music fan in Berlin and beyond. On New Year‘s Eve, the Berliner Philharmoniker invite an exceptional soloist for a festive gala. Together, the musicians bid farewell to the old year and welcome the new. The 2004 concert was conducted by Simon Rattle and featured Sally Matthews (soprano), Lawrence Brownlee (tenor), Christian Gerhaher (baritone), Rundfunkchor Berlin, Knabenchor des Staats- und Domchores Berlin. On the programme: Ludwig van Beethoven: Leonore - Overture, Carl Orff: Carmina Burana.

Opera in one act, libretto by G. Forzano based on Dante's Divine Comedy. Third part of his opera Triptych. The plot is based on canto XXX of "Inferno" from "The Divine Comedy", which are dedicated to the rogue and deceiver Gianni Schicchi, who was punished for his sins: he impersonated a dying rich man in order to make a forged will on his behalf. Gianni Schicchi is Puccini's only comic opera, a brilliant example of a modern opera buffa based on the tradition of Verdi's Falstaff. The most expressive recitative, bubbling melody, sharp character, impetuous tempo distinguish her music. Recorded live at Glyndebourne Opera House, Sussex, UK on 11 July 2004.

Director David McVicar's original-period vision for this Mozartian gem allows its genius to speak for itself, offering a ‘mesmerising, sensitive … outstanding’ portrayal of Enlightenment-era fascination with the East that is both ‘exquisitely acted and sung’, featuring a Konstanze and a Belmonte sung with ‘finesse and bravura’ and a ‘sensationally voiced’ Osmin (The Guardian *****). Comic relief in Glyndebourne's ‘brilliant production’ is provided by ‘beautifully sung live-wire performances’ of Pedrillo and Blonde, and Robin Ticciati leads the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment through a restored, authentic rendition of the critical score with ‘lovely fizz’ and ‘poignant gravitas’ (The Independent). Filmed in High Definition and recorded in true Surround Sound.