Major-domo
헤르만 장교는 ‘스페이드의 여왕’이라고 불리는 백작부인의 손녀 리자와 사랑하는 사이지만, 백작부인이 카드놀이에서 반드시 이기는 방법을 알고 있다는 이야기를 듣고는 그 비결을 알아내기 위해 백작부인에게 접근한다. 그 과정에서 부인이 갑작스런 충격으로 죽고, 리자는 배신감에 휩싸인다. 헤르만은 백작부인 유령으로부터 이길 수 있는 카드의 순서를 전수받고 도박장으로 달려가 처음 두 번은 성공하지만 마지막 게임에서 스페이드 퀸이 아닌 스페이드 에이스에 돈을 거는 바람에 모든 돈을 잃고 미쳐 버린다.
First Priest
밤의 여왕은 타미노 왕자에게 자신의 딸인 파미나 공주가 자라스트로라는 폭군에게 납치되었다며 구출을 도와달라고 한다. 타미노는 새잡이 파파게노와 함께 파미나를 구하기 위한 여정을 시작한다. 그들은 여왕이 건넨 마술피리의 도움으로 공주를 만나지만, 자라스트로가 여왕의 말과 달리 폭군이 아니고 철학자라는 사실을 알게 된다. 타미노 왕자는 그들의 일원이 되기 위해 침묵의 시험을 받게 되고, 공주는 말 없는 타미노를 오해하기 이른다.
Le Remendado
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.
Le Doyen de la Faculté
Massenet composed his opera about Cenerentola nearly 80 years after Rossini did his. And if you are looking for the outburst of the non-stop hilarity and the musical jokes of Rossini, you won't find it here. Also, while the Cendrillon was highly successful and popular in its time, it does not reach up to the artistic and musical levels offered by Massenet's other operas, like Manon, or Thais or Werther. Nevertheless, this is a delightful opera and it is well presented by The Royal Opera. Laurent Pelly created a ingenious setting with movable walls which are covered [in French] with the story of Cinderella, and which open and close book-like.
Le Remendado
Passion, jealousy and betrayal take center stage at Londons Royal Opera House in a spectacular production of the worlds most popular opera. Bizets Carmen is packed with some of the best-loved and memorable music in all of opera. In this characteristically vivid and vibrant stage production by Francesca Zambello, beautifully filmed in 3D by Julian Napier, Seville is brought to life with ranks of soldiers, crowds of peasants, gypsies and bullfighters as well as a magnificent horse, a donkey and even some chickens! This spectacular RealD and Royal Opera House production features a supremely talented cast, gripping drama and Bizets energetic and passionate score. It is truly a musical event to remember!
Daniel Buchanan
The opera takes place on the doorstep of a tenement on the East Side of Manhattan on two brutally hot days in 1946. The story focuses on two plotlines: the romance between Rose Maurrant and her neighbor Sam Kaplan; and on the extramarital affair of Rose's mother, Anna, which is eventually discovered by Rose's irritable father, Frank. The show portrays the ordinary romances, squabbles and gossips of the neighbors, as the mounting tensions involving the Maurrant family eventually build into a tragedy of epic proportions. Broadcast on BBC Two on New Years Day, 1993, this production was performed by the English National Opera and conducted by James Holmes.
