Pier Luigi Samaritani

The story of a young man of the working class, who has grown up practically an orphan due to his father’s repeated jailings for anarchistic activism. Struggling with life in 19th-century Italy, Metello Salani is determined to change his situation for the better - but love, marriage and politics complicate things considerably...

In 18th-century Rome, a young man in a choir of castrati falls for the beautiful wife of a powerful aristocrat.

Verdi's early masterpiece is based on a Victor Hugo play with a complicated plot concerning a young woman and the three men vying for her affections—her elderly uncle, a king destined to become Holy Roman Emperor, and a bandit who is actually an overthrown nobleman. Though there is plenty of action arising from the various passions and grudges scattered among these characters, the opera is best appreciated as a feast of beautiful and dramatic Italianate singing. With virtuosic roles for a quartet of principals, the opera delivers one feat of heroic vocalism after another.

In Boston, at the governor’s palace. The courtiers, divided into friends and foes—including Tom and Samuel—await the arrival of the governor, Count Riccardo di Warwick. He makes his entrance, and his page, Oscar, hands him the guest list for the masked ball scheduled for the following day. Among the guests is Amelia, whom he secretly loves, but who is the wife of his adviser and friend Renato. Renato arrives and believes he has guessed the cause of his master’s visible distress: a plot being hatched against his life. But Riccardo wishes to ignore this plot and its instigators; in vain does Renato implore him not to take the matter lightly... ‘Un ballo in maschera’ is an opera by Giuseppe Verdi, with a libretto by Antonio Somma based on a story by Eugène Scribe. It premiered on 17 February 1859 at the Teatro Apollo in Rome. From the ‘Tutto Verdi’ box set of 27 Verdi operas. Recorded live at the Teatro Regio di Parma on 1, 5, 9, 13, 20 and 23 October 2011.

Set in the Royal India of the past, La Bayadère is a story of eternal love, mystery, fate, vengeance, and justice. The ballet relates the drama of a temple dancer (bayadère), Nikiya, who is loved by Solor, a noble warrior. She is also loved by the High Brahmin, but does not love him in return, as she does Solor.

Rising Met star Angela Meade is Elvira, the young woman caught between three men: her lover, the nobleman-turned-outlaw Ernani (Marcello Giordani); her guardian, the rich, elderly de Silva, who wants her for himself (Ferruccio Furlanetto); and Don Carlo, the King of Spain, who also desires Elvira (Dmitri Hvorostovsky). Verdi’s early drama is full of sweeping melody and rousing rhythms, delivered masterfully by the Met Orchestra and Chorus conducted by Marco Armiliato.

The 2006 revival of Natalia Makarova's 1992 production of La Bayadere, recorded at the Teatro alla Scala featuring two international ballet stars Svetlana Zakharova and Roberto Bolle.