Iain Paterson

Frank Castorf’s staging of the Ring, premiered in 2013 and filmed in 2016, provoked controversy right from the beginning. For Castorf, the Rheingold of our days is oil; thus he places the first part of the tetralogy at a gas station on Route 66. Die Walküre is situated in Baku, Azerbaijan, which was seized by the Bolsheviks in 1920 for its oil, whereas Siegfried takes place in a socialist equivalent of Mount Rushmore and at Berlin’s Alexanderplatz. Götterdämmerung is set somewhere in the GDR, ending up at New York’s stock exchange. Whilst Castorf’s staging polarized, Marek Janowski’s musical reading was unanimously praised, as was the excellent cast including in this opera Iain Paterson (Wotan), Nadine Weissmann (Erda), Albert Dohmen (Alberich) and Roberto Saccà (Loge).

RICHARD WAGNER - Tristan und Isolde - Bayreuther Festspiele Stephen Gould, Evelyn Herlitzius, Georg Zeppenfeld, Iain Paterson, Christa Mayer Bayreuth Festival Orchestra, Christian Thielemann Staged by Katharina Wagner

Christian Thielemann conducts the Bayreuth Festival Orchestra in this production of Wagner's opera recorded in 2015. Starring Stephen Gould as Tristan and Evelyn Herlitzius as Isolde, the cast also includes Georg Zeppenfeld, Iain Paterson, Raimund Nolte and Christa Mayer.

The last of the four music dramas in Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen. On the rock of Brünnhilde the three Norns weave fate. Valhalla must burn, bringing an end to the gods. Siegfried acquires Brünnhilde’s strength as a Valkyrie. He gives her his ring, and she gives him Grane, her horse. Hagen urges his half-brother Gunther to marry Brünnhilde, although she is fated to be the wife of Siegfried, who is tricked into marrying their sister, Gutrune. Brünnhilde curses Siegfried and tells Hagen he can be wounded only from the back. Hagen pierces Siegfried’s back and mortally wounds him. Siegfried's body is brought back, to Gutrune's distress. Gunther and Hagen fight and the former is killed, but the ring cannot be taken from Siegfried's body. Brünnhilde orders a pyre to be raised and rides into it on Grane, wearing the ring, which will return, on her death, to the Rhinemaidens, who drag Hagen down to the depths of the river. Valhalla finally burns.

Ring Cycle, pt 4. Siegfried is drugged and tricked into kidnapping his wife, since she has the Ring now. More double-crossings, Siegfried ends up dead. Brunnhilde has had enough of this, tosses the Ring into the river and torches the place.

Captain Vere, an old man, is haunted by a moment in his life when he was tested and found wanting. Based on Herman Melville's novella of naval life in the late 18th Century, Benjamin Britten's 'Billy Budd' is a gripping reflection on good and evil, innocence and corruption.

A spectacular production of Aida filmed at Bregenz Festival's lakeside stage in 2009, with Carlo Rizzi conducting the Vienna Symphonic Orchestra and the Polish Radio Choir.

Live from the Royal Opera 2008. David McVicar’s powerful 2008 production of Strauss's opera – based on a play by Oscar Wilde – takes the controversial and disturbing film 120 Days of Sodom as its visual reference. The action is set in a debauched palace, which has suggestions of Nazi Germany. Strauss’s ravishing and voluptuous score adds to the sexual alchemy that is conjured by an international cast led by Nadja Michael in the title role. Salome is filmed for the big screen with High Definition cameras and recorded in true surround sound.

The story of Little Richard Penniman, from his poor Southern upbringing to dealing with the trials and tribulations of being a Black singer in the 1950s, to his born-again phase and brief "retirement" from rock and roll.