Nicolas Courjal

In the cold of winter, an exuberant poet lives in poverty with his three bohemian flatmates. His heart is warmed when he falls in love with his fragile neighbour, but then her illness takes a turn for the worse. In Opéra de Monte Carlo's production of Puccini’s beloved opera, set in Paris to the interwar period, the artists’ misery looks more like a chosen lifestyle than a suffered fate. Jean-Louis Grinda’s sumptuous staging reflects on Puccini’s romantic glorification of the precariousness of the human condition.

This release from Erato consists of highlights from the live concert of April 15, 2017 in the city of Strasbourg in eastern France. A magnificent cast of singers, predominantly Francophone, assembled under the baton of John Nelson, an acknowledged master of Berlioz’s music who has conducted Les Troyens more frequently than anyone else over a period of more than 40 years; he made his name with the piece when he led performances at New York’s Metropolitan Opera in 1974 and enjoyed great acclaim for a production at the Frankfurt Opera shortly before the Strasbourg concerts.

The young soldier Don José intends to marry Micaëla, a girl from his home village. But when he meets the sensual and high-spirited Carmen, he sacrifices everything to be with her. Carmen grows tired of Don José and falls in love with the toreador Escamillo. Unable to bear her leaving him, Don José tracks Carmen down to a bullring where Escamillo is fighting and murders her.

New production. Recorded live at Royal Opera House, July, 05, 2015.

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.

2010年6月に英ロンドンのロイヤル・オペラ・ハウスで上演されたジョルジュ・ビゼーによる名作オペラ「カルメン」を、米リアルD社の最新3Dカメラで撮影し映像化。17世紀セビリア、タバコ工場で働くカルメンは竜騎兵の伍長ドン・ホセを誘惑するが、同郷の娘との結婚を決めていたホセに無視されてしまう。ある日、ケンカ騒ぎを起こして投獄されたカルメンは、ホセを再び誘惑し牢から逃げ出すのだが。