1. 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.
2. Positive
Twenty-two year old Neuroscience student Wendy is in the midst of a transition from pre-med to performance when she is thrown into quarantine with her 17 year-old sister, April. Suddenly sharing a full-sized bed, the sisters struggle to make peace with their newfound living quarters. But, while editing April’s college essays, Wendy discovers her purpose–to help April find hers. Over fourteen days, the girls grow from acquaintances to artistic allies as they realize their unstoppable potential to pursue their passion. Based on a true story, this film was shot in Houston with an entirely Texan cast & crew. Creator Abby Tozer donated $2500 to the Cynthia Woods Mitchell young performing artists' scholarship.
3. Love Me Forever
A man who loves an aspiring opera singer is prepared to sacrifice everything to help her with her career, even though he knows she doesn't love him.
It has an average vote of 4 on TMDB.
4. 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.
5. dei notturni splendori (dei notturni splendori)
“And, 'twixt the shadows and frights of nocturnal splendors, My beloved will secretly be hiding. Say what you will, say what you may.” The sound of a distant whistle and theorbo calls a sleeping singer through the empty streets of Stuttgart in a midnight journey to the opera house. ‘dei notturni splendori’ is an experimental opera film made for the Staatsoper Stuttgart in the early months of the Coronavirus pandemic lockdown. Anderson Matthew captures the singer Helene Schneiderman through a midnight dream with a hand-cranked kino camera in an ecstatic 35mm photo roman, in search for her own performance of the Tarquinio Merula madrigal Folle é ben chi se crede from 1638.
6. The Metropolitan Opera: Lulu (The Metropolitan Opera: Lulu)
William Kentridge’s multi-layered production of Berg’s masterpiece stars charismatic soprano Marlis Petersen in the title role—the enigmatic and alluring woman who is equal parts femme fatale, innocent girl, and abused victim. The men around her, whose lives she forever alters, are Johan Reuter as newspaper publisher Dr. Schön; Daniel Brenna as his composer son, Alwa; Paul Groves as the Painter; and Franz Grundheber as Schigolch. Susan Graham sings Countess Geschwitz, and Lothar Koenigs conducts Berg’s landmark score.
It has an average vote of 10 on TMDB.
7. Wagner: Tannhäuser
Met Music Director James Levine leads this Live in HD presentation of Wagner’s early Romantic opera, starring Johan Botha in the title role of the minnesinger torn between earthly passion and true love. Eva-Maria Westbroek is Elisabeth, whose unswerving devotion redeems Tannhäuser’s soul, and Peter Mattei sings Wolfram, his faithful friend. Michelle DeYoung as the love goddess Venus and Günther Groissböck as Landgraf Hermann complete the cast. Otto Schenk’s classic production was the first of his acclaimed Wagner stagings at the Met.
8. The Metropolitan Opera: Hansel and Gretel
This deliciously dark take on the beloved Brothers Grimm fairy tale, appealing to audiences of all ages, was part of the Met’s popular English-language holiday series. Alice Coote and Christine Schäfer star as the famous siblings lost in the woods, who battle the ravenous Witch—a zany portrayal by tenor Philip Langridge—while the Met orchestra, under the baton of Vladimir Jurowski, glories in the rich, folk-inspired score.
9. The Ride to the Abyss (La course à l’abîme)
‘La course à l’abîme’ is a depiction of the final ride into hell from ‘La Damnation de Faust’ by Hector Berlioz.
It has an average vote of 5.9 on TMDB.
10. 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.
11. Show Boat
Hammerstein and Kern’s Show Boat is a true classic of American musical theater - a tale of life on the Mississippi from the 1880s to the 1920s is both a poignant love story and a powerful reminder of the bitter legacy of racism. The exuberant production from the San Francisco Opera features songbook classics such as “Ol’ Man River” and “Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man”.
12. Mozart and Salieri (Моцарт и Сальери)
Film version of the Rimsky Korsakov opera from the Pushkin story. Motsart i Salyeri , based on a legend that Salieri poisoned Mozart, meditates on the nature of creativity while introducing, in brilliantly compressed speeches, what was to be one of the important Russian themes—metaphysical rebellion against God.
13. Les contes d'Hoffmann - Opéra Bastille novembre 2016 (Les contes d'Hoffmann - Opéra Bastille novembre 2016)
(Les contes d'Hoffmann - Opéra Bastille novembre 2016)
It has an average vote of 9 on TMDB.
14. Britten: Death in Venice
A staging of Britten's opera filmed at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice in June 2008.
15. Opera of Cruelty
In this surreal drama, a Young Victim invited to an immersive operatic production led by the Famed Fiend, a collector and protector of talent, finds himself infatuated with the Tempestuous Tigress, a young woman and the favorite performer, who wants nothing but to escape.
16. 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.
17. Tristan Und Isolde (Tristan und Isolde)
Christian Thielemann conducts the Bayreuth Festival Orchestra in this production of Wagner's opera recorded in 2015. Starring Stephen Gould as Tristan and Evelyn Herlitzius as Isolde, the cast also includes Georg Zeppenfeld, Iain Paterson, Raimund Nolte and Christa Mayer.
18. Carmen (Carmen)
High Definition recording June 2014, Arena di Verona. This opulent production was directed by Franco Zeffirelli and sung by an international cast of excellent singers: Russian mezzo-soprano Ekaterina Semenchuk, soprano Irina Lungu, tenor Carlo Ventre and Carlos Alvarez. The famous opera is staged as a colourful feast for the eyes, true to its source and convincingly acted by soloists, chorus and ballet alike. Conducted by Henrik Nánási it is a gloriously sung musical experience.
19. Chabrier: The Star (Chabrier: L'étoile)
L’Étoile did much to establish Chabrier as a major force on the Parisian stage and his contemporary Henri Duparc praised him specifically for creating a French comic genre, both funny and musical – described as something of a French Die Meistersinger. The fanciful story is set in an imaginary kingdom and all, naturally, ends well. However, despite the slight plot line L’Étoile is something of a pivotal work, a unique example of French 19th-century light opera, orchestrated with great sophistication and flooded with gossamer wit.
20. 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.
