Operatic version of a spaghetti-western, and unusual in Puccini's output - the hero and heroine are both still alive at the end! Set during the California Gold Rush, this tells the story of the homesick miners, saloon keeper Minnie, and a mysterious visitor to the camp, who might be the notorious bandit, Ramirrez. When Minnie falls for the stranger, Sheriff Rance becomes jealous, and a game of poker will seal someone's fate.
Richard Nixon's historic trip to visit Chairman Mao re-established relations between the USA and China. Both sides wonder if this will prove to be beneficial to either country. Only time and history will be able to answer that.
One of Gluck's so-called "reform" operas. For decades leading up to this period, it was the singers (primarily the castrati) who ruled the opera world, and vocal showmanship overruled every other aspect of performance. Plots didn't matter, neither did characterization, and singers often made up their own vocal lines just to impress the audience. Gluck's operas went radically in a new direction: the music was simplified, plots were shortened and focused, and frequently drew on ancient Greek plays. Iphigenie is considered the prime example of how far Gluck went to bring sense and taste back to the art form.
Lucia's always been a bit unpredictable and on edge; lately she's been seeing ghosts and such too. But when her brother Enrico forces her into a marriage she doesn't want, and her real boyfriend shows up at the wedding, that does it - she goes right over the edge. Sorry, Arturo, she just wasn't that into you. This performance uses the same production team as the 2009 performance, but with a new cast.
Rossini borrowed freely from two of his earlier works to compose Le Comte Ory, and so the story and the musical styles are something of a potpourri. This production is similar: it tells this farcical piece as a play -within - a - play. Leaving aside the challenges in Rossini's remnants of a storyline, Juan Diego Florez and Joyce diDonato, last seen in The Barber of Seville, manage to save this with some spectacular bel-canto coloratura singing.
