Weber’s ‘great heroic-romantic’ opera Euryanthe premiered in Vienna in 1823. It concerns the wronged Euryanthe, victim of a plot to establish her unfaithfulness, but her love imbues her with colossal strength which Weber characterises with acute psychological insight.

Through-composed and dispensing with spoken dialogue, its chivalric plot provides opportunities for a series of arias, ariosos, duets, cavatinas and choruses that contain some of his greatest operatic music. This production employs the opera’s original version with a few, very minor cuts.

With the collaboration of Naxos

The première of Parsifal in major opera houses was not until 1914, after the Bayreuth Festival had maintained the exclusivity of the opera since its opening in 1882. It was a huge success, in part because the opera score was to become one of the most momumental and inspiring scores in music history. As well, its turbulent theme was associated with the Great War and post-war era. Parsifal arrives after years of wanderings through the wilderness to save the Temple of the Grail, encapsulating the emotional climate in Europe at the time, a period of great sacrifice and hardship, collective disorientation and the desperate search for a leader.

Parsifal,  the innocent, compassionate "guileless fool", embodies the spirit of redemption. This is the starting point for the staging by German director Claus Guth. One of the most important names in contemporary staging,  he made his début at the Teatro Real with this most acclaimed production. The action takes place in  a  dilapidated hospital for war-wounded soldiers. Inspired by the sanatorium in The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann, it embodies the trauma and despair following World War I, when hopes for a new leader led to disaster.

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Samson et Dalila is a representative example of that exoticism which in the 19th century acted as one of the main movements of the French imagination. The only one of his thirteen operas that has remained in the repertoire, Saint-Saëns adheres to an authentic stage tradition that includes titles such as Meyerbeer's L'Africaine, Bizet's Les pêcheurs de perles, or Delibes' Lakmé. The well-known biblical plot is used to create a work that is somewhere between an oratorio and a grand-opera. From the former, the structural sense, the importance of the chorus and a certain staticism, evident in Act I. From the latter, the almost grandiloquent tone, the spectacular staging and the importance of the ballet, as well as an enveloping voluptuousness.

Along with the frequent choral interventions, the numbers of Samson, a tenor with heroic tonalities, and especially those of Delilah, one of the most important roles assigned to the mezzo-soprano voice in the history of the genre, such as the beautiful "Mon coeur s'ouvre à ta voix", from Act II, are worth mentioning. In the orientalism that dominates the brilliant setting, Saint-Saëns uses procedures derived from Arab music, often from North Africa, and which are also reflected in the last of his piano concertos, subtitled "Egyptian" in the Suite Algérienne or in Africa, for piano and orchestra.

Pagliacci and Cavalleria rusticana are probably the most famous double bill in the history of opera. Packed with love, infidelity, betrayal, jealousy and murder, these two pinnacles of the Italian opera repertoire have it all. Both are classic examples of “verismo” operas, telling so-called realistic stories about the lives of ordinary people. Here, hot-headed southern temperaments spark off rivalries and threaten relationships. Whereas Pagliacci is fuelled by the tension between everyday life and the aesthetic world of the stage, Cavalleria rusticana juxtaposes unbridled passion with profound faith.

Robert Carsen flips tradition by opening with Pagliacci and plays a masterful game of theatre-in-theatre, calling into question the nature of reality. Are the emotions we see on stage acted, or are they real? And in how far do we project ourselves into the characters? When the masks come off, truth becomes theatre and theatre becomes truth.

With the collaboration of Naxos

La bayadère is the first production of Nacho Duato for his return to St Petersburg. The Spanish choreographer has already worked on Russian golden ballet classics: his original versions of The Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker, created for the Mikhailovsky Theatre, were staged to great critical acclaim in many cities of the world – from Milan and Berlin to Novosibirsk.

The exquisite simplicity of the classics blends with the exotic opulence of the Maharajas in this ballet, which boasts a history of over a hundred and fifty years. Nacho Duato has created a production that harks back to Marius Petipa’s original, preserving the customary order of the scenes and the libretto’s climaxes, and leaving intact valuable pieces of the canonical choreography. At the same time, the ballet has freed itself of anachronisms and static pantomime episodes, replacing them with lavish, sculptural decor. In this story, Ancient India becomes a brilliant backdrop for the love of a temple dancer and a fine warrior who are fated to remain apart in both the real world and the astral one.

With the collaboration of Naxos

The titles of some operas are in themselves sufficient to capture the imagination. For the centenary of Pushkin's birth in 1899, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov drew inspiration from one of his celebrated fairy tales and composed a delightfully imaginative opera, with the Flight of the Bumblebee as instant hit.
The composer's gift for melody and orchestration combines perfectly with the poet's often absurd humour and overflowing imagination. Alain Altinoglu can here revel in the role of orchestral wizard, while the Russian director Dmitri Tcherniakov returns with a many-layered psychological staging.

Tsar Saltan marries the youngest of three sisters, having heard that it is her dearest wish to present him with a heroic son and heir. Her jealous sisters and the old Aunt Barbarikha cannot bear this, and by trickery see to it that the Tsaritsa and her newborn son Gvidon are thrown into the sea. In their barrel they are washed ashore on an enchanted island where the rapidly growing tsar’s son saves a swan from the clutches of a wizard. In gratitude, the swan helps Gvidon to visit his native country once again in the guise of a bumblebee. Three wishes, three miracles and three bee-stings later, father and son are finally able to get to know each other.

With the collaboration of Naxos

It was at the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg that the ballet The Sleeping Beauty premiered in 1890, with a score by Tchaikovsky and choreography by Marius Petipa. This New Year's Eve programme revolves around Act III, in which Princess Aurora is brought out of her long sleep by the prince of her dreams and marries him. This is the Mariinsky troupe in a veritable explosion of grace and virtuosity. In addition, prima ballerina Uliana Lopatkina dances Camille Saint-Saëns' famous Dying Swan, first performed by Anna Pavlova.

In conclusion the soloists of the Mariinsky Theatre's Young Singers' Academy perform the finale of Rossini's Journey to Rheims in a joyous celebration of the coming of the New Year. 

With the collaboration of Naxos

A powerful narrative dance production based on Hans Christian Andersen’s dark tale, choreographed by Arthur Pita and starring Natalia Osipova.
International dance superstar Osipova, principal of the Royal Ballet, stars alongside multi-award winning dancer Jonathan Goddard. The Mother is set to original live music by Frank Moon and Dave Price and is choreographed by Arthur Pita, the choreographer of critically acclaimed productions The Metamorphosis and The Glass Menagerie.

As a young single mother sets out to save her child, she must face fantastic creatures, impossible trials and cross the line between life and death itself. Will she succumb to the forces of evil, or will the power of motherhood prevail?

With the collaboration of Naxos

With its combination of enchanting love story and broad, burlesque comedy, Cendrillon is one of the great operatic fairy tales – a Cinderella that looks back to Charles Perrault’s original story in all its richness and ambiguity. Massenet’s sensuous belle époque fairy tale is gilded with lavish orchestral textures and glittering vocal writing, drawing on everything from baroque dances to Wagner-inspired chromaticism to bring its story to colourful life, conjuring a world of infinite musical and emotional variety.

Fiona Shaw’s original Tour production makes its Festival debut here, re-directed by Fiona Dunn and conducted by John Wilson, with a cast led by Glyndebourne favourites Danielle de Niese as Cendrillon and Kate Lindsey as her Prince.

With the collaboration of Naxos

On the occasion of 13 years since the inauguration of the National Centre for the Performing Arts, this concert is offered with music by Ludwig van Beethoven, musical direction by Lü Jia, and the NCPA Orchestra and Chorus.

La voix humaine (1958) is a lyrical tragedy in one act for soprano and orchestra with music by Francis Poulenc based on the homonymous play by Jean Cocteau. The play (1929) premiered on February 17, 1930 at the Comédie-Française in Paris, while the opera premiered on February 6, 1959 at the Opéra Comique in Paris by Denise Duval and under the direction of Georges Prêtre. The composer finalized the score for voice and piano on June 2, 1958, a version that was performed at LIFE Victoria in 2019.

A woman, alone, in an apartment in Paris, late at night, desperately clings to a phone that is the only connection she has left with her partner and lover, who has abandoned her despite the fact that she does not accept it. Ridiculous - as she herself says - and annulled by this addiction to the other person, she has no name. It is simply elle (she), without even us as the public, knowing that there is truly a lui (he) on the other end of the phone. Throughout this hectic telephone conversation, the viewer discovers things in the life of this lonely woman, reaching a final desperate climax

The two resident artists of LIFE Victoria 2019, Mercedes Gancedo and Julius Drake collaborate for the first time presenting the pianistic version of this powerful opera by Poulenc.

Goats from Tibet, swans, turkeys, lions, dolphins ... all kinds of animals visit us in this program devised by the baritone Christopher Maltman and the pianist Malcolm Martineau that they presented at the Life Victoria last November 2018. Two of the most expected debuts at the Festival united in this recital: the English baritone dominates the Lied with the same ease as the opera, being a regular both at the Salzburg Festival, the Royal Opera House or the Metropolitan Opera House as well as the Wigmore Hall or the Oxford Lieder. He sang at Life with his regular pianist, Malcolm Martineau, who also accompanies artists such as Susan Graham, Anna Netrebko or Thomas Hampson, being considered one of the most prolific of his generation.