Daniele Caluri

Don Carlos is a five-act grand opera composed by Giuseppe Verdi to a French-language libretto by Joseph Méry and Camille du Locle, based on the dramatic play Don Carlos, Infant von Spanien by Friedrich Schiller. This new production at the Teatro alla Scala was recorded live on opening night, December 7, 2008. The cast is lead by Ferruccio Furlanetto, Stuart Neill, Dalibor Jenis and Dolora Zajick. Danielle Gatti conducts the Orchestra and Chorus of La Scala. The opera is presented in a four-act Italian-language version that Verdi prepared for the 1884 La Scala premiere. Includes 'behind the scenes' bonus material.

Move over Mendelssohn: new recordings of six summery string quartets composed by the prodigiously gifted teenage Rossini.

When Donizetti’s comedy, updated to the mid-20th century by the Uruguayan-born director Mario Gas, was mounted at Barcelona’s magnificent Liceu opera house in 2005, Opera News wrote that: “The absolute hit of the production was … Rolando Villazón, a commanding, vulnerable and hilarious Nemorino. His stage presence dominated every scene he was in …[and] his lovable innocence was a joy to behold. Villazón’s perfect technique and creamy, malleable voice conquered the audience … His athletic and expressive body language–midway between Cantinflas and Mr. Bean–fits this role and this production perfectly.” The Mexican tenor, making his debut at the Liceu, was called upon the encore the opera’s most famous aria, the plaintive ‘Una furtiva lagrima’.