Opera 2023

Pawel Lukaszewski (*1968) gehört zu den bekanntesten und bedeutendsten polnischen Komponisten seiner Generation.

This 1960 Norma represents Maria Callas’s final complete documented version of her signature role. Seven recordings of the opera exist with Callas (1950-60), plus numerous snippets and scenes captured between 1949 and 1965. With 89 performances, Norma is Callas’s most performed part; certainly no other 20th-century diva is more closely associated with the role, and no one since has even remotely eclipsed Callas in the perception of opera lovers. Countless moments, too numerous to catalogue here, raise this Callas Norma to the level of genius. From a haunting ‘Casta Diva’ to a final scene of incomparable grandeur and sweep, in every startlingly brilliant detail, Callas is Norma.

Born in Birmingham, Alpesh Chauhan studied cello under Eduardo Vassallo at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester before continuing at the RNCM to pursue the prestigious Masters Conducting Course.

Variations and salon miniatures by the father of the classical tradition in Russia.

Soprano Alexandra Lowe and pianist Patrick Milne explore music and text inspired by Greece, the Middle East, and Lowe’s home country, Spain, in Le Voyage; an international journey told through French romantic song.

Early opera underwent a strange development in the 17th century: under pressure from the paying public, comic elements increasingly overshadowed the fates of the great heroic figures it was supposed to be about. At some point, the brakes were applied and opera seria emerged, in which only noble characters acted.

Following our historical live opera collection here we present Carmen by Georges Bizet (1838-1875) with Pedro Lavirgen and Fiorenza Cossotto.

Puccini died in Brussels of throat cancer in November 1924. I used to smoke compulsively, almost since I was a child. He liked it as much as driving.

Hans Knappertsbusch (born March 12, 1888 in Elberfeld (today: Wuppertal); October 25, 1965 in Munich) was a German conductor.

The Orchester der Deutschen Oper Berlin's performance of Mozart's beloved opera Le nozze di Figaro under the baton of conductor Karl Böhm, released in 1968 by Deutsche Grammophon, is a timeless masterpiece.