Acting
Valentina Vilaça is a wealthy woman who inherited a vast fortune from her parents after they died in a car accident. She lives in a mansion in Mexico City with her aunt, Isabel Rangel de Dorantes, and her cousin, Ivana Dorantes Rangel—who treats Valentina with great indifference and harbors envy toward her. Everything changes for Valentina when her fiancé, Alonso Penalva, conspires with Ivana and leaves her waiting at the altar on their wedding day. From that point on, Valentina becomes a bitter woman, eventually discovering love alongside José Miguel Montesinos.
Guillermo is an old man who has wasted the best years of his life due to the belief that there is still much time to live. After the death of his parents, Guillermo takes refuge in his house. The days were long and the years passed until he meets someone who shows him a world he has never seen before.
The prologue to Wagner's giant masterpiece Der Ring des Nibelungen unfolds the beginning of an epic journey when Alberich seizes the ring of gold, its awesome power unleashing an unstoppable story of deceit, destruction, death and transfiguring love. Filmed at Barcelona's Gran Teatre del Liceu in 2004, Harry Kupfer's stunning production first staged in Berlin, and recorded in sumptuous surround sound, numbers among the greatest productions of modern times.
Live performance at the Grand Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona in 2009. When Donizetti s comedy, updated to the mid-20th century by the Uruguayan-born director Mario Gas, was mounted at Barcelona's magnificent Liceu opera house in 2005, Opera News wrote that: The absolute hit of the production was . . . Rolando Villazón, a commanding, vulnerable and hilarious Nemorino.
Natalie Dessay and Rolando Villazón bring Jules Massenet's classic opera to the stage in this dazzling production. In 18th-century France, Manon (Dessay) faces life as a nun, despite catching the eye of many men. When she meets the handsome but penniless des Grieux (Villazón), she falls deeply in love. The pair elopes, but their future together is threatened by outside forces.
Cenerentola (Joyce DiDonato) is the stepdaughter of Don Magnifico but is treated as a servant in his household. As she sweeps the floor and obeys every command given to her, Cenerentola dreams that she will find her very own Prince Charming. Then one day the handsome Prince Ramiro (Juan Diego Florez) arrives at the mansion, announcing that he's looking for the most beautiful girl in the land to be his bride - which changes Cenerentola's life forever!
This is an excellent version of one of the greatest of all comic operas, featuring superb singing and orchestral playing. And it's not just the two headliners; listen, for example, to the entrance of the stepsisters at the beginning of Act One. Nevertheless, some viewers may find the staging problematic, with singers in clown-like costumes and sets featuring human-sized rodents. Those seeking a more conventional production might want to consider the Houston Grand Opera DVD, also on Decca, with Cecilia Bartoli and Raul Jimenez. Both sets are wonderful, but, for me, Joyce Didonato and Juan Diego Florez are slightly to be preferred. Highly recommended.
