Kostas Smoriginas

The Galilean Princess Salome is one of the mythical female figures in Western cultural history. Her erotic dance in front of her stepfather Herod is already mentioned in the gospels of the Bible, for whom she has the severed head of John the Baptist brought on a bowl in return.

When a precious hoard of gold is stolen from the river Rhine, it unleashes a chain of destructive events, pitting gods and mortals against one another for generations. Wagner’s Ring cycle boasts some of the greatest music ever written for the opera stage. Join us as we embark on a spectacular journey into the world of myth, dream and memory, with the figure of Erda – Mother Earth herself – at its centre.

La Bohème, de Puccini, est l'histoire d'un amour impossible entre Rodolfo, le poète idéaliste, et Mimi, phtisique. L'action se situe à Paris, dans le milieu de la « bohème » littéraire du XIXème siècle, et est adapté de la pièce La Vie de Bohême d'Henri Murger. L'opéra est une merveilleuse suite de tableaux dépeignant la joie de vivre contagieuse de la jeunesse, et le gâchis tragique que représentent la maladie et le séparation.

New peoduction, 2009. Filmed by the Royal Opera House in co-production with Opus Arte, June 13/17.

L'exquise soprano colorature Natalie Dessay interprète pour la première fois en Europe le rôle de Violetta, sous la direction musicale de Louis Langrée et mise en scène par Jean-François Sivadier. Une soirée d'exception enregistrée au Festival d'Aix-en-Provence.

This ever-popular opera is given a fresh point of view in Barrie Kosky’s highly physical production, originally created for Frankfurt Opera. The Australian director is one of the world’s most sought-after opera directors, whose Royal Opera debut with Shostakovich’s The Nose in 2016 was greeted with delight. For Carmen he has devised a far-from-traditional version, incorporating music written by Bizet for the score but not usually heard, and giving a new voice to the opera’s endlessly fascinating central character.