Claudio Monteverdi

Jacques Mayano, a French journalist who has lived a traumatic experience, is recruited by the Vatican to be part of a task force that must investigate the veracity of a supernatural apparition allegedly happened in a small French village.

At the end of the war, Odysseus, the wandering hero, with his companions begins his sail back home to the Mediterranean. The conclusion of his adventure is delayed by many natural obstacles and he takes an internal journey of fleeting memories of his childhood, his parents, love for a beautiful girl, nostalgia for the past, regret for what he did, and the deep silence that envelops everything. He confronts the most terrible loneliness following a shipwreck in which all the comrades perish.

Live performance, part of Monteverdi cycle staged by Oper Zürich with Nikolaus Harnoncourt conducting the Zürich Opera House Monteverdi Ensemble. Staged and directed by Jean-Pierre Ponnelle

Mauro Bigonzetti's ballet based on Franz Kafka, performed by the National Theatre Ballet. Choreographer Mauro Bigonzetti, fascinated by the irresistible language of Prague native Franz Kafka and the enduring relevance of his novel "The Trial," was drawn into the dark world of Josef K and created a modern dance production depicting the world of the protagonist and his hopeless struggle with a cold and heartless modern society. Bigonzatti used music by a number of composers from different historical periods, from D. Buxtehude to H. Górecki, C. Monteverdi, and M. P. Mussorgsky. This selection is remarkably balanced and surprisingly contemporary.

Claudio Monteverdi's operatic adaptation of this story from Homer's The Odyssey receives a modern and distinctive staging in this 2002 production directed by Humphrey Burton for Les Arts Florissants. Penelope Marijana Mijanovic is left to her own devices when her husband, the heroic Ulysses Kresimir Spicer, goes off to fight in the Trojan Wars. After many years alone, Penelope finds herself attracting a number of suitors who wish to claim her hand; however, what she doesn't realize is that jealous Ulysses has his ways of keeping an eye on her. Production of the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence; from the Theatre du Jeu de Paume.

Live performance, part of Monteverdi cycle staged by Oper Zürich with Nikolaus Harnoncourt conducting the Zürich Opera House Monteverdi Ensemble. Staged and directed by Jean-Pierre Ponnelle. Filmed 28 March – 20 April 1978 in Vienna, sound recorded 1 – 25 December 1977 in Zürich.

Love conquers all – ruthlessly and irresistibly – as Emperor Nero and his mistress Poppea remove the obstacles to their union. At Barcelona’s Gran Teatre del Liceu David Alden’s visually sumptuous production, with its suggestions of a giant game of chess, puts the opera’s potent blend of sex and politics in a context that sets ancient against modern– just as the action juxtaposes scurrilous comedy and stark drama. Monteverdi’s magnificent score, meanwhile, accommodates intrigue, wit, nobility, tragedy and sensuality, and, led by the intense Sarah Connolly and the delectable Miah Persson, the cast brings both drama and music startlingly to life.

The Full Monteverdi follows the simultaneous break-up of six couples, from shocking revelation, vengeful anger and erotic longing for reconciliation, as an ensemble film. Vulnerable and disarming, it draws viewers into its emotional journey and intensely moving portrait of contemporary love.

In a series of long held shots, men are observed performing simple tasks in real time, while on the soundtrack we hear excerpts from opera.

Commissioned by Opera North, the Brothers Quay created the installation and film 'She, So Beloved' inspired by Rainer Maria Rilke’s poem ‘Orpheus. Eurydice. Hermes.’ The Orfeo myth is re-told through a combination of art forms; film, dance, music and visual art contained within a contemporary staged installation to provide an intimate sensory experience.

Experience Claudio Monteverdi's three-act opera in the environment it was meant to be seen with this release of a filmed performance captured live during a 2000 production staged at the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence in France. Mireille Delunsch, Anne Sofie Von Otter, and Sylvie Brunet star, and conductor Marc Minkowski leads the Les Musiciens du Louvre, Grenoble. Klaus Michael Grüber directs for stage.

First seen at La Monnaie in Brussels on 13 May 1998, this production of Monteverdi’s L’ORFEO seen through the eyes of Trisha Brown and René Jacobs has become an operatic classic in a few short years. This is doubtless because it offers a total symbiosis of music, text and movement – described by the critic of the Daily Telegraph of London as being ‘as close to the perfect dance opera as I have ever seen’. Or to quote Gilles Macassar in Télérama: ‘In the pit and onstage, the Brussels production has only one watchword: mobility, nimbleness, dexterity. The singers run, fly, whirl like dancers defying gravity. From the flies down to the footlights, the whole theatre is under a fantastic spell.’ For Christophe Vetter, on ConcertoNet: ‘This Orfeo can be seen again and again with immense pleasure. . . . René Jacobs’s conducting continues to arouse admiration for its precision, its stylistic rigour, its inexhaustible inventiveness and its feeling for the contrasts so vital to this repertoire.’

Live performance, part of Monteverdi cycle staged by Oper Zürich with Nikolaus Harnoncourt conducting the Zürich Opera House Monteverdi Ensemble. Staged and directed by Jean-Pierre Ponnelle

In memory of the countless victims of armed conflict, Patricia Kopatchinskaja presents a concert conceived as a mosaic of deeply moving music and texts from a wide variety of sources and authors. The violinist breaks down the traditional barrier between the stage and the audience.

Taped live in Barcelona's Gran Teatre del Liceu on January 31, 2002, this L'Orfeo is both a visual delight and a musically satisfying representation of Monteverdi's opera

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Monteverdi's mini-opera, starring Cathy Berberian.

This is a finely tuned opera with music by the Italian composer, Claudio Monteverdi, libretto by G. E. Busenello, and the fine voices of contralto Maria Ewing, baritone Dennis Bailey, and several other sub-leads is not to be missed and will be fully enjoyed. No lead tenor here and none needed. No soprano here as a lead and none needed. One of the joys of my watching and listening outside the opera hall. The story line is strong and the tale well carried out.

Love, power and ambition meet on the stage of the Teatre de Liceu in Barcelona with L'Incoronazione di Poppea by Monteverdi directed by Jordi Savall and directed by Calixto Bieito.

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