Giovanni Battista Parodi

Part of Tutto Verdi series - Oberto (2007) Parma. Oberto was the first of Verdi’s operas to be staged and was heard for the first time at La Scala, Milan, in November 1839. As a young and unknown composer, Verdi was subject to the rules then governing the opera industry in Italy. Even so, there are already many scenes in this early work that reveal unmistakable signs of the composer’s individual style.

En 1800, à Rome, peu après la victoire de Napoléon à Marengo, Floria Tosca, une chanteuse napolitaine, accepte tous les sacrifices pour l'amour de Mario Cavaradossi, un noble aux convictions libérales. Mais celle-ci est courtisée par le baron Scarpia, ministre de la police pontificale. Ce dernier soupçonne le peintre d'offrir l'hospitalité à son ami Angelotti, révolutionnaire évadé du château de Saint-Ange. Il attise la jalousie de Tosca à l'égard de la marquise Attavani, dont Cavaradossi fait le portrait.

Live recording at Royal Opera House, 22 September, 2001. Television live relay. In one of the Royal Opera’s most celebrated and popular productions, director David McVicar mixes lavish historical costumes and dark stylized settings to highlight the savagery and excitement of Verdi’s tale of misdirected revenge. Paolo Gavanelli is vocally and theatrically electrifying as the hunchback anti-hero, acclaimed soprano Christine Schäfer is his doomed daughter, and superstar tenor Marcelo Alvarez is her fickle lover. With superb playing from the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, it adds up to a thrilling Rigoletto for both opera aficionados and newcomers.

Part of Tutto Verdi series - Attila (2010) Parma. 'Attila' is an opera in a prologue and three acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Temistocle Solera, based on the 1809 play 'Attila, König der Hunnen' ('Attila, King of the Huns') by Zacharias Werner. The opera received its first performance at La Fenice in Venice on 17 March 1846.

PART 2. Late 2000s. A opening in a plush art gallery. Among the hand-picked guests, Carlo, Giuseppe and Lorenzo, three old friends, meet again after many years. Within the installation on display, a documentary showing footage of their revolutionary youth is being screened. Each of them seems to remember that time differently, but they do share one feeling: the shadow of Laura, who disappeared without a trace forty years earlier, still haunts them…

Conducted by Riccardo Muti, the master of the Scala in Milan for twenty years, the Verdian melodrama unfolds before our eyes. This Cavani's approach is ageless and excellence is pre-eminent: to start with, the role of Riccardo is played by the wonderful Salvatore Licitra. As for Maria Guleghina, she plays an exceptionally good Amelia. Riccardo Muti proves once again what a wonderful Verdian he is.

Bruno Bartoletti conducts the orchestra and chorus of the Teatro alla Scala in this production of Puccini's opera from 2003. The performers include Cristina Gallardo-Domas, Hei-Kyung Hong, Marcelo Alvarez and Roberto Servile.

The story takes place in Corinth, in Creon's palace. Glauce (the king's daughter) is making preparations for her wedding with Jason; the hero has repudiated Medea, his wife - with whom he had two children - who once helped him to recover the Golden Fleece. The Argonauts arrive to pay homage to the bride, who cannot hide her fear of Medea. Medea manages to enter the king's palace and begs for Jason's return; when he refuses, the sorceress curses him and swears vengeance; then, alone with him, she recalls the happy moments of their love. Creon orders Medea to leave Corinth and she pretends to agree, obtaining permission to spend one more day with her children; meanwhile, she orders Neris, her maidservant, to take to Glauce her wedding present: the diadem and mantle given to her by Apollo.

This was Domingo's last set of performances as Otello in La Scala. In spite of his relatively advanced age, he is still in excellent form, both vocally and in terms of stage presence. Nucci is also his usual self, delivering a performance of very high standard. Barbara Frittoli is an excellent Desdemona, in good voice and gives a very moving performance. Muti conducts with great emotion and tight accuracy, conveying the full orchestral drama of the score.

Rinaldo Alessandrini, one of the most eminent baroque and pre-baroque music specialist, conducts Monteverdi's Orfeo, performed by singers who have been working with the Maestro for many years, and who now play in the middle of Robert Wilson's fairy sets...

Set in the artistic but impoverished milieu of early 19th-century Paris, the tragic love of the poet Rodolfo and seamstress Mimì is one of the most affecting in all opera. La Bohème’s arias are also some of the most intensely passionate Puccini ever wrote, making it is one of the best-loved of all his works. In what Opera News called a ‘thorough rethinking and brilliant re-creation’ this exceptional Oslo production, strongly cast and conducted, and staged by internationally acclaimed director Stefan Herheim, explores the work as never before to create what The New York Times called an ‘ultimately haunting’ experience.

« Corleone » (parfois appelé également en français par son titre original Il capo dei capi) raconte la vraie histoire du chef de la cosa nostra Salvatore « Toto » Riina, qui était connu par ses ennemis comme « la bête » et soupçonné d’avoir tué des centaines de personnes. Cette série fait vivre sa longue et sanglante ascension dans la mafia, de son enfance à Corleone, jusqu’à la guerre violente qu’il a mené dans les années 1980 et 90 à la fois contre les gangs rivaux et les forces de l’ordre.