CMajor

Any performance of Giuseppe Verdi’s Aida at La Scala, Milan, is guaranteed to be an experience – but, when it’s a new production, it becomes a major event, especially given the theatre’s notoriously critical audience. Legendary stage director Peter Stein succeeds in delivering a lucid production acclaimed in equal measure by the press and public: “a perfect coup de théâtre” (Giornale della musica). A “stellar cast” (La Stampa) contributes to the production’s success under the musical direction of Verdi specialist Zubin Mehta, who leads the orchestra in a “gorgeously colourful performance”, while “the entire ensemble is brilliant in its portrayal of the characters” (Die Presse).

Known as a creator of astonishing images, stage director and visual artist Robert Wilson delivers a magnificent production of Mozart’s adaption of Handel’s Messias. Mozart was commissioned by Gottfried van Swieten to modernise the score fifty years after Handel’s popular composition (1742), mainly by arranging the wind parts and partially re-composing them. With Marc Minkowski a conductor has been engaged who understands perfectly how to combine baroque style with the tonal possibilities of an orchestra of the classical period like the Musiciens du Louvre. The excellent soloist quartet with Elena Tsallagova, Wiebke Lehmkuhl, Richard Croft and José Coca Loza merges perfectly into Wilson’s enormous flood of images.

Venus has promised Paris that he can have the most beautiful woman in the world: Hélène. Unfortunately, however, she is married. After much subterfuge, Paris succeeds in seducing Helen. Their affair is discovered by Menelaus, her husband, and they flee together.

Acclaimed pianist Víkingur Ólafsson shares his deep connection with music, from Icelandic songs to the works of Bach, Mozart, Rameau, and Philip Glass. He explores how these pieces shaped him and how his feelings differ when performing works like the Goldberg Variations or Bartok’s Folk Song. Ólafsson invites us into his world where musical knowledge, Nordic roots, and creativity merge in his interpretations.

Hits like 'La donna è mobile', 'Sempre libera' and many more from the most popular Verdi operas such as Aida, La Traviata, Il Trovatore, Rigoletto etc. Great Singers: Nino Machaidze, Leo Nucci, Daniela Dessì, Marcelo Álvarez, Francesco Meli, Dimitra Theodossiou, Giacomo Prestia and more. A beautiful visual festival of great stagings, costumes and settings (staged by Pier Luigi Pizzi, Stephen Medcalf, etc).