The Prompter

The Metropolitan Opera: Cavalleria Rusticana & Pagliacci

2015

Director David McVicar’s new production brings opera’s favorite double bill to new life, setting the two operas in the same Sicilian setting, separated by two generations. Marcelo Álvarez takes on the rare feat of singing both leading tenor roles. In Cavalleria, he is Turiddu, the young man who abandons Santuzza (Eva-Maria Westbroek) in his pursuit of the married Lola (Ginger Costa-Jackson)—and ends up being killed in a duel with her husband, Alfio (George Gagnidze). In Pagliacci, Álvarez is Canio, the leader of a traveling vaudeville troupe. Patricia Racette sings Nedda, his unfaithful young wife, whose plans to run away with her lover are foiled by her spurned admirer Tonio (George Gagnidze)—with equally tragic consequences. Met Principal Conductor Fabio Luisi is on the podium.

River of Fundament

2014

Visionary artist Matthew Barney returns to cinema with this 3-part epic, a radical reinvention of Norman Mailer’s novel Ancient Evenings. In collaboration with composer Jonathan Bepler, Barney combines traditional modes of narrative cinema with filmed elements of performance, sculpture, and opera, reconstructing Mailer’s hypersexual story of Egyptian gods and the seven stages of reincarnation, alongside the rise and fall of the American car industry.

Orfeo ed Euridice: Vienna Version

From the Baroque Theater at Český Krumlov Castle: Christoph Willibald Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice (Orpheus and Eurydice) starring Regula Mühlemann, Bejun Mehta and Eva Liebau, with Collegium Vocale 1704 & Collegium 1704 under the baton of Václav Luks. Directed by Ondřej Havelka A co-production of Clasart / Unitel / ORF in association with Czech Television / SVT / YLE / RSI / Arthaus Music

Berlioz: La Damnation de Faust

2008

Radiant mezzo-soprano Susan Graham and dashing Italian tenor Marcello Giordani are unlucky lovers in La Damnation de Faust, Hector Berlioz’s classic take on dancing with the devil.

Les Contes d'Hoffman

2017

This adaptation of three tales by E.T.A. Hoffmann, with a sprinkling of Goethe’s Faust, portrays the German poet as both narrator and hero recounting his love affairs with Olympia, Antonia and Giuletta. Robert Carsen’s spectacular production highlights the melancholy genius of a man marked by life, with a coherence and dramatic sense remarkable for a work that leaves numerous questions unanswered. Under the baton of Philippe Jordan, Stéphanie d’Oustrac, Ermonela Jaho, Kate Aldrich, Yann Beuron and Ramón Vargas and Stefano Secco in the main role, interpret the legendary airs of this work whose brilliant mystery will continue to dazzle opera houses for countless years to come.

Bluebeard

1984

When Barbe-bleue loses his fifth wife, the turbulent Boulotte is selected at random to be the next one. But Barbe-Bleue falls in love with Hermia – who loves the shepherd Saphir – and soon wearies of Boulotte. So, he asks his alchemist to concoct for him an “anti-wife” philtre. But, as on the previous occasions, it is merely a sleeping potion and Boulotte wakes up the other five “dead” wives. They reappear, dressed up as gypsies and bring the truth to light.

Valkyrie Limited

2009

The documentary draws a portrait of an opera director who is staging Richard Wagner’s Die Walküre. He is torn between the tragicomic routine of an opera house and his own perception of Wagner and the Ring cycle. The film witnesses the director’s drama in maintaining the fragile link between a well-constructed performance and his own vision that lies within the music and the narrative, and is seen as German expressionism-like nightmares.

Giuseppe Verdi: Macbeth

2018

The acclaimed Italian director, Emma Dante, presents a powerful, barbaric and at time frenzied Macbeth with great attention to detail. Staged and filmed in Italy's largest theatre, the Teatro Massimo in Palermo, Sicily, this production captures remarkable performances by the Italian soprano Anna Pirozzi as Lady Macbeth, the renowned Verdi specialist, baritone Roberto Frontali, in one of his signature roles, and the rising star, Croatian bass-baritone Marko Mimica as Banco (Banquo). The conductor, Gabriele Ferro, has opted to use the 1865 Paris version of the score, sung in Italian and without the ballets, for a production that received generous praise in Palermo and on tour.