1. Mussorgsky: Khovanschina
One of Modest Mussorgsky's great talents was his unique ability to transpose words, psychological states, and even physical movements, into music. Kent Nagano rises magnificently to the challenges presented by this score. And Dmitri Tcherniakov's fascinating production emphasizes the timeless quality of this sombre tale of intrigue and power struggles reminiscent of a Greek tragedy, reflecting Mussorgsky's own maxim: "The past in the present - that is my task."
2. La Bohème (Sydney Opera House) (La Bohème (Sydney Opera House))
(La Bohème (Sydney Opera House))
It has an average vote of 7 on TMDB.
3. The Narcissistic Fish
A phone call during a busy shift in the restaurant kitchen of The Narcissistic Fish sparks a war between the owner Angus and his brother Kai. As they argue over their dead father, talented and underpaid chef Belle has a revelation of her own. Join Scottish Opera’s Emerging Artists for a visceral exploration of the clash between class, gender and workplace pressure in 21st century Scotland, in this brand new digital opera with music by Samuel Bordoli, libretto by acclaimed Scottish writer Jenni Fagan and directed by in-house film-maker Antonia Bain.
4. Falstaff (Falstaff)
It is to composer and librettist Arrigo Boito and his constant pestering of the octogenarian Verdi that there remained within him one last great comedy fighting to get out that we owe this absolute miracle of an opera. Produced in 1893 as Verdi turned 80 there is much in this masterpiece that can be identified as a modernist neoclassical work. The use of short motifs instead of long arioso melodic lines, the spry and reduced orchestral textures and the lack of a single 'stand and deliver' dramatic declamatory aria all serve to make this more of a 20th century work than an example of 19th century late-Romanticism.
It has an average vote of 8.2 on TMDB.
5. Eugene Onegin (Eugene Onegin)
Tchaikovsky's much-loved opera Eugene Onegin, a story of love, rejection and tragedy based on Pushkin's verse drama of the same name.
6. The Cunning Little Vixen (Příhody lišky Bystroušky)
In the forest, the animals and insects are playing and dancing. The Forester enters and lies down against a tree for a nap. A curious Vixen Cub inquisitively chases a frog right into the lap of the surprised forester who forcibly takes the vixen home as a pet. Time passes and we see the Vixen, now grown up into a young adult tied up in the forester's yard with the conservative old dachshund. Fed up with life in confinement, the vixen chews through her rope and runs off to freedom.
7. Verdi: Aida (Bregenz Festival) (Aida)
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.
8. Metropolitan Opera At Home Gala
In its most ambitious effort yet to bring the joy and artistry of opera to audiences everywhere during the Met’s closure, the company presented an unprecedented virtual At-Home Gala, featuring more than 40 leading artists performing in a live stream from their homes all around the world.
It has an average vote of 9 on TMDB.
9. Mozart: Don Giovanni (Don Giovanni)
Premiered in 1787, “Don Giovanni” exposes the timeless theme of a man hovering between vitality and destruction. Neither morality nor the law can stop this serial lover in his quest to conquer all women as he places his own pleasure above all other principles. Today, the rich depth of Mozart’s masterpiece still astonishes audiences with its mix of comedy and seriousness, pleasure and love, entertainment and murder. At the helm of this new Salzburg Festival production, in a near-live broadcast from the Great Festival Hall, director Romeo Castellucci promises to focus on the ambiguity and inner turmoil of this serial lover whose immoral behaviour condemns him to a deadly solitude. The exceptional cast – featuring Italian baritone Davide Luciano , Russian soprano Nadezhda Pavlova and Finnish bass Mika Kares – is accompanied by the chorus and musicians of the musicAeterna ensemble, conducted by Vitaly Polonsky and Teodor Currentzis.
It has an average vote of 10 on TMDB.
10. The Death of a Composer: Rosa, a Horse Drama
"Rosa", with a libretto by Peter Greenaway and score by Louis Andriessen, is the first in a projected series of 10 operas, each dealing with the death of a famous composer - some real, others fictional. "Rosa" falls into the latter category; it tells the story of Juan Manuel de Rosa, a Brazilian who went to study music in America but spent most of his time in the cinema instead, becoming particularly entranced by Westerns. Now 32 years old and residing in an abandoned Uruguayan slaughterhouse, Rosa has become one of Hollywood's foremost composers, specialising in Westerns. He also has a beautiful 19-year-old fiancee, Esmeralda, but he pays her little heed, instead lavishing his attentions on a black mare named Bola. One day, a group of men attired as cowboys arrive at the abattoir and kill both Rosa and Bola; an investigation is conducted, with particular suspicion!
It has an average vote of 4 on TMDB.
11. Die Nacht aus Blei
A surreal movie by peter Weigl starring Michael Biehn and Lubomir Kafka.
It has an average vote of 8 on TMDB.
12. John Adams: Nixon in China (John Adams: Nixon in China)
Besides the landing on the moon by the Apollo 11 mission in 1969, Richard Nixon’s meeting with China’s leader Mao Zedong in February 1972 then represented one of the biggest media spectacles in history. Nixon himself established the reference between the two events: “We came in peace for all mankind” not only marked the lunar module Eagle’s landing spot – Nixon also spoke of it into the microphones just before his departure to China. It was not John Adam’s aim to create a superficial or even a caricaturing representation of Nixon’s visit when composing his opera. He attempted to create a “heroic opera” about the construction of modern myths by using archetypical characters and situations. Director Marco Štorman stages Adams’ minimal music opera as a deconstruction review about the power of images, the politics of staging and the staging of politics.
It has an average vote of 10 on TMDB.
13. Korngold: Die tote Stadt (Korngold: Die tote Stadt)
Erich Wolfgang Korngold's "Die tote Stadt" in a Bayerische Staatsoper production from 2019, directed by Simon Stone. Kirill Petrenko is conducting Jonas Kaufmann and Marlis Petersen.
14. Britten: Gloriana
Benjamin Britten’s opera Gloriana was written in 1953 for celebrations around the Coronation of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, to whom the opera is dedicated. It had its first performance at the Royal Opera House on 8 June 1953, in the presence of The Queen then just 6 days into her reign. The centenary in 2013 of Britten’s birth prompted this new Royal Opera production, in which director Richard Jones uses the setting of a celebratory pageant in 1953 to explore the work’s alternating splendour and intimacy. This theatrical, inventive and colourful staging has at its core the symbolic reflections between the Tudor Elizabethan and the New Elizabethan ages that characterize the opera. The juxtaposition of the modern and the archaic in William Plomer’s libretto is wonderfully amplified in music that artfully fuses the sounds and manners of Tudor England – from lute songs to courtly dances – with Britten’s own distinctive style.
15. Soho Conspiracy
The plans of a publicity agent to put on a charity concert are nearly wrecked by a lawyer who wants to take over a restaurant, but the situation is saved by local co-operation.
It has an average vote of 3.5 on TMDB.
16. Britten: Death in Venice
A staging of Britten's opera filmed at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice in June 2008.
17. La Belle Hélène (La Belle Hélène)
(La Belle Hélène)
It has an average vote of 8 on TMDB.
18. The Flying Dutchman: Teatro Real Madrid (The Flying Dutchman: Teatro Real Madrid)
Spectacular! Opera in three acts. Filmed at a series of outstanding performances at the Teatro Real de Madrid in December 2016, this recording will especially delight lovers of Wagnerian music drama with its faithful reflection of the grandiose staging of Alex Olle, a member of La Fura dels Baus, whose earlier productions have attracted widespread attention. A conductor equally at home in Monteverdi, Boulez, Praetorius and Schumann, Pablo Heras-Casado can rely on a cast totally committed to this breathtaking musical hurricane!
19. Gallup (Na'nízhoozhí)
Two mystical beings emerge from the scenery, embarking on a journey through Gallup— Na'nízhoozhí in the Navajo language— before melting back into the desert at nightfall.
20. MeTube 2: August Sings Carmina Burana
The sequel to the 2013 short, August sings Carmen 'Habanera'. After Elfie and her nerdy son August successfully proved themselves on their home webcam in MeTube 1, the odd pair venture onto the street to present the biggest, boldest, and sexiest operatic flash mob the internet has ever witnessed!
It has an average vote of 6.7 on TMDB.