Here's the playlist for our end of year concert - with gems from the operas we've explored over the last half year. Abduction from the Seraglio " Martern aller arten ," – 'tortures of all kinds'.  It’s acknowledged widely as one of the most challenging arias in the coloratura repertoire. It's long and it's elaborate, with relentless fiery coloratura meant to convey Konstanze's determination to defy the will of her captor, the Pasha Selim, and to plead for her release. Edita G

Die Zauberflöte  premiered, in a popular theatre, 30 September 1791, two months before Mozart's death. Since then, it has defied simple summary, challenged directors to ever more exotic productions and casts of dancing animals, and delighted audiences with the magical story, the vivid imagery of the libretto and the extremes of the stunning music. Tamino with that Flute in David McVicar's production, Royal Opera House. And it has continued to puzzle interpreters and leav

Così fan tutte (1790) was the third and last of Mozart’s radical operas with librettist Lorenzo da Ponte. All shocking in their rejection of formality and exploration of humanity. All very different musically from operas of the past. What a plot! Lorenzo da Ponte’s libretto reflects on the nature of love, showing a number of stereotypes regarding femininity and masculinity. The main plot focuses on the efforts of Don Alfonso to persuade his younger companions, Ferrando and

What's next after Marriage of Figaro for Mozart and Da Ponte? Don Giovanni is a total contrast - a dark comedy with an evil antihero, dragged from an old Spanish legend into Enlightenment morality. Ah, but a sort of happy ending. Don Juan and all those women The original version of the story of Don Juan appears in the 1630 play El burlador de Sevilla y convidado de piedra  ( The Trickster of Seville and the Stone Guest ) by Tirso de Molina . The play includes most of the

Best opera of all time? The Marriage of Figaro was hugely popular when it premiered (1786) and ever since. But it nearly didn't happen. ...

Would Mozart have approved? His music is untouched (and splendidly sung) in Victorian Opera's production of an entirely new opera - new...

The Abduction from the Seraglio , a year after Idomeneo , took Mozart into the "far east", and far from opera seria . It's a " singspiel...

Idomeneo is poised at the pass between Baroque and Classical opera. Commissioned for an opera seria , Mozart turned to Greek mythology...

"Music, even in situations of the greatest horror, should never be painful to the ear but should flatter and charm it, and thereby always...

Opera has several foolish women demanding to know who their lover is, but Semele's punishment was particularly harsh. She was the only...

Alcina (1735) was composed for Handel's new company, the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden. It ran for 18 performances, the last, and...

With Saul , after 40-odd operas, Handel shifted across to oratorio. There are lots of official explanations: English audiences had...

Handel's 'Julius Caesar in Egypt' is a fairly faithful account of Caesar's Egypt adventures, according to historians. His librettists...

As the Baroque era shifted in Europe, the excitement moved back to Britain. Purcell (1659-1695) had provided the early Baroque music and...

The operas of the "greatest French composer of the century" were mainly about gods, with the exception of Platée , which is about...

Born in Florence, 1632, with musical and dancing skills, Lully made his way from Italian city life to become first, 'chamber boy' to a...

Purcell's Dido and Aeneas is widely seen as the dawn of English Baroque - and the best of British opera - at least before Britten. It...

Enter Henry Purcell, the leading - indeed pretty much only - creator of Baroque opera (and then only one) in Britain.  Titania, Bottom...

What could go wrong for Cavalli? His singing voice was beautiful, his father was the maestro di cappella of the duomo of Crema,...

Emperor Nero has been likened to many leaders in our times, most recently of course, to Trump. The comparison is not pretty, and it...