Opera

In Great Scott, the Kansas-born mezzo-soprano, one of today’s best-loved classical singers, creates a role conceived specifically with her in mind. The character she plays, Arden Scott, just happens to be an opera star, and she is the lynchpin of what Fred Plotkin of WQXR, the USA’s leading classical music radio station, welcomed as a “deeply moving and musically brilliant work” that “should enter the standard repertory just as Heggie’s two previous masterpieces – Dead Man Walking and Moby-Dick – already have”.

Donizetti's three-act tragic opera Belisario was a resounding success in its day, driven by its composer’s superlative theatrical instinct and his skilful interweaving of intense tragic narrative and emotional pathos. Belisario is betrayed by his wife Antonina, who falsely accuses him of high treason. Belisario is blinded and exiled, with proof of his innocence coming too late, and is mortally wounded during a final military victory. This production was performed and recorded without an audience in Bergamo during the Covid-19 lockdown in November 2020 – a moving performance reflecting a spirit of defiance amidst ruin and darkness.

Dmitri Tcherniakov’s acclaimed new production of Borodin’s Russian epic—the opera’s first Met staging in nearly a century—stars Ildar Abdrazakov in the title role of the tormented prince who leads his army against the Polovtsians. The stellar all-Russian-language cast also includes Oksana Dyka as his wife, Yaroslavna, Anita Rachvelishvili as Konchakova, Sergey Semishkur as Igor’s son, Vladimir, Mikhail Petrenko as Prince Galitzky, and Štefan Kocán as Khan Konchak. Gianandrea Noseda conducts the Met’s vast musical forces in this colorful score, which includes the celebrated Polovtsian Dances.

Dmitri Tcherniakov’s acclaimed new production of Borodin’s Russian epic—the opera’s first Met staging in nearly a century—stars Ildar Abdrazakov in the title role of the tormented prince who leads his army against the Polovtsians. The stellar all-Russian-language cast also includes Oksana Dyka as his wife, Yaroslavna, Anita Rachvelishvili as Konchakova, Sergey Semishkur as Igor’s son, Vladimir, Mikhail Petrenko as Prince Galitzky, and Štefan Kocán as Khan Konchak. Gianandrea Noseda conducts the Met’s vast musical forces in this colorful score, which includes the celebrated Polovtsian Dances.

With a world-beating roster of exclusive opera singers including Luciano Pavarotti, Cecilia Bartoli, Renee Fleming and Joan Sutherland, Decca Classics has always invested infinite energy and enormous care on its productions, blending the greatest casts with experienced opera orchestras and great conductors. The result of this mix of world-beating artists, unrivalled technical skill and know-how is an opera catalogue of matchless artistry and superb sound, garlanded with award around the world.

This is the story of Phaéton, valiant driver of the Sun’s chariot, led here by Vincent Dumestre and Benjamin Lazar, armed with a rich acquaintance of two decades of Lullyist cooperation. Just like at the time, they will make the Versailles Opera resonate with this production of this flamboyant tragédie lyrique which was first presented in Perm in Russia in 2018.