Masque of Might - Opera North, 2023, Harry Bicket, Sir David Pountney
James Glossop
Opera North

Masque of Might

Sir David Pountney creates an eco-entertainment with the music of Purcell.

play more info
Full performances
Show all

Coming soon

Lili Elbe
Edyta Dufaj
Theater St. Gallen

Lili Elbe

Picker
08.12.2023
19h00 CET
L'Enfant et les Sortilèges
Rikimaru Hotta
New National Theatre Tokyo

Suor Angelica / L'Enfant et les Sortilèges

Puccini / Ravel
15.12.2023
19h00 CET
Giselle
Julien Benhamou / Opera National de Bordeaux
Opéra National de Bordeaux

Giselle

Adam
19.12.2023
20h00 CET
Il Giustino
Markus Gårder
Drottningholm Court Theatre

Il Giustino

Vivaldi
26.12.2023
19h00 CET

Behind the scenes

Show all

Explore

Henry Purcell in 1695 painted by John Closterman
Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons
Purcell

Henry Purcell is arguably England’s finest composer of music for the stage before Benjamin Britten, yet he wrote only one opera.

Romeo und Julia
Hans Jörg Michel
Inspired by Shakespeare

Shakespeare’s plays have been a rich source of inspiration for composers throughout history.

Verdi
Ferdinand Mulnier
Verdi

Giuseppe Verdi is regarded as one of the greatest opera composers who played a pivotal role in shaping the evolution of Italian opera during the 19th century.

Anne-Marie Antwerpen
Young artists

In partnership with young artists’ programmes in Europe and beyond, OperaVision streams performances, masterclasses and concerts by the next generation of talent, as well as following their stories through a podcast series.

Sarah Champion as Daisy and Mark Le Brocq as Harry King in Anthropocene. Scottish Opera 2019.
James Glossop / Anthropocene, Scottish Opera 2019
Opera for our time

For over four centuries, opera has continually reinvented itself by experimenting with new ideas and adapting to evolving tastes.

Orfeo
Craig Fuller / Garsington Opera
Greek myths and tragedies

Greek mythology, with its timeless themes of love, heroism, and the divine, has inspired composers to write operas throughout the centuries.

Tchaikovsky
Alfred Fedetsky
Tchaikovsky

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s work stands out as among the greatest in Russian repertoire.

Mozart
Mozart

A man of the Enlightenment, Mozart is not a political animal; he has a sharp eye on the world around him.

Rossini
Rossini

Gioacchino Rossini is considered one of the most talented Italian composers of his time and his best known for his comic operas.

Xerxes
Hans Jörg Michel / Deutsche Oper am Rhein
Baroquissimo!

The first ever operas were written around 1600 by baroque composers, including Monteverdi and Cavalieri, who used dramatic text and music to express their stories, which were often based on Classical Greek and Roman mythology.

Moniuszko
Moniuszko

Stanisław Moniuszko is generally regarded as the founder of Polish national opera and the most important composer of the 19th century after Chopin.

La sonnambula
Monika Rittershaus / Deutsche Oper am Rhein
Bel canto

The Italian for ‘beautiful singing’ is used to describe Italian opera of the first part of the 19th century. Three pre-eminent Italian composers of that era are Rossini, Donizetti and Bellini.

Britten
Britten

Britten's operas explore profound human experiences that continue to captivate audiences around the world with their touching portrayal of the human condition.

Janáček
Janáček

Czech composer Leoš Janáček is a unique musical voice with an uncanny ability to suggest mood with just a few notes, an understated but passionate lyricism, and an emotional charge to his operas as powerful as any in the 20th century.

Puccini
Puccini

Giacomo Puccini is regarded as the greatest Italian composer of the generation after Giuseppe Verdi.

Pelléas et Mélisande
Annemie Augustijns / Grand Théâtre de Genève
Costume workshop

Diverse and dramatic, opera costumes are the first thing to appear in the spotlight, even before the performer has sung a note.

Tenors, La fille du régiment, Donizetti Opera Festival
Donizetti Opera Festival
Tenors

Tenors in opera frequently take the leading male role. They are said to have irresistible charm - on and off stage!

Tara Erraught
Patrick Redmond / Irish National Opera
Mezzo-sopranos

Mezzo-soprano, or ‘half-soprano’ is the female voice that stands between the soprano and the contralto.

Angela Meade
Fabrizio Sansoni, Teatro dell'Opera di Roma
Sopranos

Soprano is the highest operatic voice and the most common in the female range.

Orfeo, Garsington Opera
Craig Fuller
Orpheus

Orpheus has became the emblem of the artist who rises above earthly worries and brings us closer to eternal truths.

Strong women
Sandra Then
Strong women

Opera is certainly not the most tender artform to women. Between sacrifices, rapes, forced marriages, illnesses, suicides or even murders, women are often presented as the victims of a destiny. Here we focus on female roles who stand out by virtue of their strong, independent and enterprising character.

Wagner
Wagner

Composer Richard Wagner, despite the controversies surrounding his life and political views, bestrides German opera like a colossus.

Show all

Extracts

Show all

New to opera

Show all

Features

Show all