Giovanni Sala

In search of an opera for his theatre, an impresario finds himself grappling with a group of egotists and jealous individuals. Based on a score by Florian Leopold Gassmann, this caustic satire of the 18th-century opera world is directed by Laurent Pelly. Starring Julie Fuchs as the prima donna.

At one of her lavish parties, celebrated Parisan courtesan Violetta is introduced to Alfredo Germont. The two fall madly in love, and though hesitant to leave behind her life of luxury and freedom, Violetta follows her heart.

The ground-breaking and award-winning production of Giuseppe Verdi’s tense moral drama Stiffelio staged by famous opera director Graham Vick. Opera in three acts (1850) Libretto by Francesco Maria Piave after Le Pasteur, ou l’Évangile et le Foyer by Émile Souvestre and Eugène Bourgeois Graham Vick’s innovative staging of the ‘most unjustly neglected of Verdi’s operas', Stiffelio, was presented with a Special Award at the 37th 'Franco Abbiati' Music Critics' Prize (2018) for the director's unique theatricality and the unprecedented level of audience involvement. Performed at the Teatro Farnese on four mobile platforms, the audience was free to move around the auditorium and choose their own vantage points, mingling with actors, chorus members and cameramen. The Italian tenor, Luciano Ganci (Stiffelio), and the Mexican soprano, Maria Katzarava (Lina), deliver tense and dramatic performances in what was the highlight of the 2017 Festival Verdi in Parma.

Opera buffa in two acts (1790) New Production! A top-flight cast features in a new staging of Mozart and Da Ponte’s comic masterpiece of love, trust and the fickleness of human behaviour from acclaimed director Robert Carsen. As part of a bet with Don Alfonso (Gerald Finley), Ferrando and Guglielmo (Giovanni Sala and Luca Micheletti) must try to seduce each other’s fiancées, Fiordiligi and Dorabella (Elsa Dreisig and Nina van Essen). When both yield, and the ruse is revealed, all four must reckon with the fallout.

A handsome prince falls in love with an abducted princess. Armed with musical instruments, he and his singing sidekick mount a rescue mission that tests their commitment to truth, love and humanity itself. Staging a mass revolt against the powers that be, British director Graham Vick has enlisted a good hundred locals and immigrants as demonstrators occupying makeshift camps on the flanks of Sferisterio's impressive open air stage. Sung in simple, modern Italian, Mozart's famous Singspiel takes on a liveliness and spunk that stresses the opera's folk roots and conveys the sense that the action is unfolding around us today.

Maestro Riccardo Muti returns to the podium of the Orchestra and Chorus of the Teatro Regio di Torino for a new production of *Macbeth* directed by Chiara Muti. Set design by Alessandro Camera and costumes by Ursula Patzak.

What if Don Juan were a woman? At the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, director David Hermann presents a bold and modernist reinterpretation of Mozart’s opera, elevated by the collective excellence of its cast.