Inva Mula

Inspired by true events from the spring of 1944 when the Nazis organized a football match between a team of camp inmates and an elite Nazi team on Adolf Hitler's birthday. A match the prisoners are determined to win, no matter what happens.

Live performance from Chorégies d'Orange, 11 July 2015.

In 2009, Frédéric Mistral’s tale of love and loss in Provence came to the Opéra de Paris with a new production of Gounod’s 1864 opera Mireille. Nicolas Joel’s naturalistic staging frames the accomplished performances of Albanian soprano Inva Mula as Mireille and American tenor Charles Castronovo as her ardent country lover Vincent.

Including world-class artists such as Bryn Terfel, Cecilia Bartoli, Anne Sofie von Otter, Jose Cura, Simon Keenlyside and Agnes Letestu, this 50-minute sampler will give you a taste of many beloved classics in opera and ballet.

Madrid's legendary Teatro Real staged this production of Giacomo Puccini's seminal opera La Bohème, starring Inva Mula, Aquiles Machado and Jesús López Cobos in the principal roles. Giancarlo del Monaco directed for the stage, Michael Scott designed the sets and costumes, and The Chorus and Orchestra of the Teatro Real provide musical accompaniment.

In Rigoletto, the deformed figure of the hunchbacked jester at the Mantuan court acts as a foil to his cynical and powerful master, an unscrupulous philanderer contrasted with his cruel and unforgiving fool. Rigoletto encourages and welcomes the Duke's conquests, pitilessly mocking his victims until he discovers that the Duke has abducted the one person he genuinely loves, his own daughter. As a result, the character of the court jester is transformed into a tragic figure who, in spite of his evident immorality and malice, allows us to sense the devotion he feels for his daughter and his horror at being destroyed by the same despotic world as that which he himself has helped to create.

Rigoletto is a jester in the court of the Duke of Mantua. He has a hunch-back and he's rather unattractive, but he's good at his job of humiliating the courtiers for the amusement of the Duke. The courtiers, of course, are not amused. The Duke is a ladies man who feels his life would be meaningless if he couldn't chase every skirt he sees. In fact, we learn as the opera begins that he's recently been noticing a young lady every Sunday on her way to church, and he's vowed to have his way with her. What nobody realizes is that the girl is the jester's beloved daughter, Gilda, and that Gilda has seen the Duke every Sunday and is smitten with him. Suddenly Count Monterone appears at court, furious that the Duke has seduced his daughter. Rigoletto ridicules Monterone, the Duke laughs, and Monterone casts an awful curse on both of them. Later, the courtiers discover that Rigoletto is secretly living with Gilda...

Washington National Choir and Orchestra

1914年、ナイル河畔の地下の神殿で見つかった古代文字は火・水・土・風以外の“第5の要素”があると示す。2214年、ニューヨーク。久しぶりに地球を訪れたモンドシャワン人の宇宙船は、武器商人ゾーグとその手下マンガロワ人に撃墜される。宇宙船にあった細胞を再生すると、地球の言語が分からない美少女が生まれ、町に逃げ出す。彼女、リールーはタクシー運転手コーベンに救われ、彼女の言葉が分かる神父のもとへ向かう。