Léopold
"The White Horse Inn" is the last Berlin operetta of the interwar period. It is a hybrd work that mixes Tyrolean folklore, Viennese operetta, Berlin cabaret tunes and dance hall numbers. The arrival of eccentric clients from the south of France breaks the serenity of a charming establishment in the Austrian Alps, and the once civilised party becomes a free-for-all.
Tamino
Basilio
In this new "Marriage of Figaro", Jérémie Rhorer revisits this composer and US film director James Gray makes his first foray into opera. This opera is recorded for broadcast by Louise Narboni.
Valère
Ilioneo, Mercurio
Live performance by Les Arts Florissants at the Théâtre de Caen, recorded on 18 Octorber 2011. "One of the earliest operas deserving of the name, Didone is our first surviving musical version of the famous episode in Virgil's Aeneid where the Trojan Hero loves and then cruelly leaves the noble Dido." — from the DVD back cover
Here is an irreverent take on the tragic story of the lovers Orpheus and Eurydice. With his librettists Hector Crémieux and Ludovic Halévy, Jacques Offenbach creates a wonderful array of characters from the heavens who find themselves caught up in domestic antics. In this enchanting production from the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence from 2009 with a young cast from the European Academy of Music, director Yves Beaunesne transposes the action to the 1940s and spreads it over the four floors of a bourgeois residence. From the kitchen (Orpheus' home) to the attic (the Underworld), via the dining room (Olympus) and the bedroom (Pluto's boudoir), he succeeds in teasing out all the humour and elegance of Offenbach’s satirical masterpiece.
This comic opera, which made its debut in Paris in 1847, tells the story of a Venetian admiral, Loredan (Bruno Comparetti), his bitter rival Malipieri (Paul Medioni), who knows a secret from Loredan's past, and Haydee (Isabelle Philippe), the Cyprus prince's daughter who loves one but would marry the other to save his reputation.
