Master thief Mac and his equally crooked father-in-law, Peachum, are coerced by the FBI into mounting a sting operation against a cadre of corrupt bankers. Instead, they soon hatch schemes of their own. A nightclub cabaret in 1928 New York is the setting for this musical tale of deception, double-cross and sudden demise.

Inspired by the 18th-century classic The Beggars Opera, this trenchantly satirical new play with songs exposes a world of corporate crime thats all too familiar today.

Content Advisory: Suitable for teens and up. There is some depiction of violence and sexuality and occasional coarse language.

Beethoven/Stravinsky

The French and the Russians have always had a soft spot for each other – in music at least!

These are the composers who give us orchestral colour, sweeping melodies and vibrant exoticism, the composers who temper Germanic convention with brilliance and fantasy. Which all makes for a perfect match when we bring a Russian conductor and a French soloist together to perform vividly imagined music with an Oriental cast.

Let your imagination loose on the tender Adagio and thrilling dances that accompany Spartacus’s uprising. Surrender to the spinning violin solos and rich orchestral palette of Scheherazade’s nightly tales – a spirited heroine in an exotic world. And discover the charming panoramas of Saint-Saëns’ most evocative concerto, with its thudding steamship propellers and croaking frogs on the Nile.

KHACHATURIAN Spartacus: Suite
SAINT-SAËNS Piano Concerto No.5 (Egyptian)
RIMSKY-KORSAKOV Scheherazade

Alexander Lazarev conductor
Jean-Yves Thibaudet piano

When it comes to heartfelt emotion, no one can match the genius Tchaikovsky. Join us for his soaring violin concerto and music from the Sleeping Beauty ballet.

here should be every reason to think of Tchaikovsky as out of touch – he was an aloof personality, full of insecurities – and yet his music cuts to the core with the irresistible impulse of honest emotion.

You can’t help but feel his astonishing gift for melody and great dramatic instincts. In this concert we celebrate his genius with the soaring themes and infectious virtuosity of the Violin Concerto and music from his ballet masterpiece, Sleeping Beauty.

Following the 2008 Elgar festival, Vladimir Ashkenazy has invited Canadian James Ehnes, “a tremendous violinist”, to return to play another great Romantic concerto.

SIBELIUS Finlandia
TCHAIKOVSKY Violin Concerto
TCHAIKOVSKY Sleeping Beauty: Suite

Vladimir Ashkenazy conductor
James Ehnes violin

TEA & SYMPHONY - 10 DECEMBER
Short program: Violin Concerto and Sleeping Beauty Suite.

Discover the genius of Bernstein on stage and in the concert hall with music from Candide and West Side Story, and his Age of Anxiety symphony.

For most of us, Leonard Bernstein’s genius lives on the stage – in the dazzling optimism of his music for Candide and the urban cool of West Side Story. But there’s another side to Lenny: the “serious” composer who wanted to write the Great American Symphony. So how did he go? The Age of Anxiety gives a clue: it’s called a symphony but it looks like a piano concerto and its narrative structure is set by Auden’s poem.

This is a symphony that encompasses a quest for identity and the glitter of the jazz age. Lenny was no ordinary musician, and in this concert David Robertson gives us the best of all possible Bernstein.

BERNSTEIN
Candide: Overture and Suite
The Age of Anxiety (Symphony No.2)
West Side Story: Suite for voices and orchestra

David Robertson conductor
Orli Shaham piano
and a cast of singers

The greatest composers are always on the brink of something new. Join us for Haydn, Schoenberg, Beethoven and Max Bruch’s enchanting first violin concerto.

Here’s what you need to know…

Haydn: a witty composer with a deft touch for workplace politics; his Farewell Symphony cleverly ends up with just two musicians on the stage and won his orchestra the change of scene they were hankering after.

Bruch: a dreamer who heard the soul of music in melody; from its opening flourishes to its bravura gypsy finale, his much-loved First Violin Concerto sums up everything that is rich and enchanting about the Romantic style.

Schoenberg: rewrote the rulebook but believed only in inspiration; his symphony is “little but vast”, concentrated, forward-looking and daring.

Beethoven: ditto.

The greatest composers are always on the brink of something new and fresh. Hear it for yourself in a boldly imagined program that doesn’t stand still.

HAYDN Symphony No.45 (Farewell)
BRUCH Violin Concerto No.1
SCHOENBERG Chamber Symphony No.1
BEETHOVEN Symphony No.8

Oleg Caetani conductor
Daniel Hope violin

Celestial vision and heavenly inspiration in a concert that begins with Beethoven and ends with Sibelius’s magnificent Fifth Symphony.

In space, if you listen, you can hear the stars sing. Georges Lentz, with his profound musical vision and love of the night sky, brings that sound into the concert hall – pure and serene.
We premiered Guyuhmgan in 2001, and for its return Lentz has added solos for two of our woodwind principals. The music’s soft tones find affinity in the delicate austerity of Stravinsky’s Symphonies of Wind Instruments, and Beethoven’s heroic tone-poem in miniature balances Sibelius’s most memorable symphony.

Sibelius also claimed heavenly inspiration. Writing his Fifth Symphony, he said it was if God had thrown down mosaic pieces from heaven and asked him to put them back as they were – for Sibelius composing was like a celestial jigsaw puzzle, an aching mystery that even he didn’t fully understand. We may not understand the process either, but we recognise the result – invigorating and life-affirming.

BEETHOVEN Leonore Overture No.3
LENTZ Guyuhmgan
STRAVINSKY Symphonies of Wind Instruments
SIBELIUS Symphony No.5

Matthew Coorey conductor
Diana Doherty oboe
Alexandre Oguey cor anglais

TEA & SYMPHONY - 14 MAY
Short program: Beethoven, Lentz and Sibelius.

When Roy Goodman arrives in Sydney he’ll bring a 30-year reputation as a violinist and director specialising in baroque music, and that reputation has shaped the program he’s put together for us. Two magnificent baroque suites provide the frame and a baroque-inspired concerto from English composer Michael Tippett brings it up to date.

You’re allowed to ask where Edouard Lalo’s Cello Concerto fits into the scheme of things and we could jump through hoops explaining it: a French Romantic bridge between Bach’s French-style suite and a 20th-century concerto perhaps?

The truth is, this is heart-warming and lyrical music, and if you heard the rich intensity of Jian Wang’s Elgar concerto in 2008, this will be another chance to hear him play to his strengths. But in the end, Handel upstages everybody with his spectacular Music for the Royal Fireworks.

BACH Orchestral Suite No.4 in D
LALO Cello Concerto
TIPPETT Concerto for double string orchestra
HANDEL Music for the Royal Fireworks

Roy Goodman conductor
Jian Wang cello

Simone Young conducts Bruckner

Szymanowski’s Violin Concerto begins with magical, shimmering sounds that seem to have flown straight out of Stravinsky’s Firebird ballet.
It’s music born in the crucible of Romanticism, Impressionism and something more: a truly unique voice. Szymanowski sends his soloist soaring to ecstatic heights and in Arabella Steinbacher we have the ideal violinist to project the rarefied beauty of this luxuriant and lively concerto.
The euphoria continues with Bruckner’s finest and most beautiful symphony. If you’re a Bruckner fan there’s really no more to say – you’ll want to hear Simone Young conduct this music. If you’re still to be won over, brace yourself for an intoxicating experience. Bruckner transcends Beethoven to build a noble architecture on the grandest scale – flamboyant and contemplative, earthy and spiritual. Sublime.

WAGNER
Lohengrin: Prelude to Act III
SZYMANOWSKI
Violin Concerto No.1
BRUCKNER Symphony No.7

Simone Young conductor
Arabella Steinbacher violin

Venue: Concert Hall
Dates: 5 – 7 August

On Christmas Eve, a splendid party is taking place at the Stahlbaum's house. The magical Drosselmeyer brings gifts - for Clara, a beautiful wooden Nutcracker doll. Later that night, Clara is unable to sleep and as the clock strikes midnight, very strange things start to happen ...

The Nutcracker is one of the world's favourite ballets, but if you haven't seen this production, you're in for a treat! Set to Tchaikovsky's immortal score, this fairytale bonbon bursts with bewitching dancing, magical sets and the prettiest costumes imaginable. The Nutcracker sold out three cities in 2007 - don't miss this very special encore season!

Credits

The Nutcracker (1990)

Choreography Peter Wright, Lev Ivanov, Vincent Redmon
Composer Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Set and costume design John F Macfarlane
Sydney: with Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra

Venue: Opera Theatre
Dates: 3 - 22 December

We’re ushering in the Sydney summer with Mahler’s Third Symphony – his sunniest symphony of all. “The finale is just unbelievably uplifting,” says Ashkenazy, “and no one, not even the most pessimistic person, will be able to resist it.”

But before the music arrives at that glorious conclusion, radiant in its affirmation of love, it traces a musical journey inspired by nature and the dream of a summer morning.
It’s an expansive, all-embracing symphony that finds as much meaning in a dainty meadow flower as in the voices of angels. This, said Mahler, is a symphony that wakes from unfathomable silence and sings and rings!

Vladimir Ashkenazy conductor
Lilli Paasikivi mezzo-soprano
Ladies of the Sydney
Philharmonia Choirs
Sydney Children’s Choir

Venue: Concert Hall
Dates: 2 – 4 Dec

When words fail, music begins. Three musical visions of heaven from the sound of moonlight to Mahler’s wide-eyed unveiling of paradise: “hung with violins.”
Sometimes words fail, and that’s where this concert begins, with instrumental moments from Strauss’s musical “conversation piece”, Capriccio – a prelude for just six players and a glimpse of moonlight in a delicate intermezzo. The heavenly image is sustained in the clarinet concerto, with the mellow purity of the instrument that Mozart taught to sing.

We’d guess that Mahler’s Fourth Symphony is the ‘first’ Mahler symphony for many music-lovers – it’s the shortest and the most candid, and you can’t help but be won over by its singing optimism and dancing innocence. Even the “dance of death” for a devilish violin doesn’t spoil its beauty. Then in its charming finale, soprano Emma Matthews unveils a child’s vision of heaven – “hung with violins!”

R STRAUSS Capriccio: Prelude and
Moonlight Music
MOZART Clarinet Concerto
MAHLER Symphony No.4

Vladimir Ashkenazy conductor
Dimitri Ashkenazy clarinet
Emma Matthews soprano

Venue: Concert Hall
Dates: 24 – 27 Nov

A sophisticated showcase of Australian dance

When Stephen Baynes' Molto Vivace first premiered, the Handel score was accompanied by the sound of dropping jaws.Boldly colourful, playful and laugh-out-loud funny, it showed the future of ballet was very bright indeed. This triple bill teams Vivace with Baynes' achinhly romantic At the edge of night and the brand-new Halcyon from breakout choreographer Tim Harbour. Athletic, engaging and elegant, Edge of night showcases Australian Ballet at its very best.

Credits

At the edge of night (1997)

Choreography Stephen Baynes
Music Sergei Rachmaninov
Set and costume design Michael Pearce

Halcyon (2010)

Choreography Tim Harbour
Music Gerard Brophy
Design Bluebottle

Molto Vivace (2003)

Choreography Stephen Baynes
Music George Frederic Handel
Costume Design Anna French
Set Design Richard Roberts

SUPPORTED BY THE AUSTRALIAN BALLET ENDOWMENT
Tim Harbour's choreography supported by The Robert Southey Fund for Australian Choreography, endowed by The Sidney Myer Fund

Sydney: with Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra

Venue: Opera Theatre
Dates: 11 - 29 November

Gershwin and Friends

Enter the jazz age – the Paris of Josephine Baker and Picasso, the New York of Dorothy Parker and Irving Berlin, the smooth sound of the clarinet, the smoky trumpet.
Mix it all up with folk mythology, authentic jazz, and real Parisian taxi horns and you get the heady impression of music at its most vital.

The 1920s were an amazing era of cross-fertilisation and mutual inspiration: as Gershwin was putting the concert hall into jazz with his Rhapsody in Blue, Darius Milhaud on the other side of the Atlantic was capturing the chaos and steamy vitality of Harlem for the ballet theatre. Where did the bold experiments take us? Duke Ellington, Leonard Bernstein and John Adams complete the itinerary: New York, Paris, and the world!

ADAMS The Chairman Dances – Foxtrot for orchestra
MILHAUD The Creation of the World
GERSHWIN An American in Paris
BERNSTEIN Prelude, Fugue and Riffs
GERSHWIN Rhapsody in Blue
ELLINGTON Harlem

Kristjan Järvi conductor
Michael Kieran Harvey piano
Francesco Celata clarinet

Venue: Concert Hall
Dates: 8 – 9 Oct

Strauss’s rapturous tale of life, love and the passage of time is back with a new Marschallin, Cheryl Barker, gliding her way through this classic production. The words are ever bittersweet, and the music finds timeless and complex beauty in a Viennese waltz, heartache in a simple song.

The Marschallin has kindly offered Octavian as the Rosenkavalier, the knight who is to present a silver rose to Baron Ochs's fiancée, Sophie. A fine gesture, except that Octavian is far more loveable than Sophie's bovine betrothed, Baron Ochs. One look, and Sophie and Octavian have fallen for each other. So where does this leave Ochs and the Marschallin?

On the surface, Der Rosenkavalier is as light and fluffy as a bedroom farce, but in spite of all the plot twists and pratfalls Richard Strauss and his librettist, Hofmannsthal, are never shallow. The words are ever bittersweet, and the music finds timeless and complex beauty in a Viennese waltz, heartache in a simple song.

Based on a production originally conceived by Göran Järvefelt and Rennie Wright, this work comes with a magnificent cast and creative team. Conductor Andrew Litton brings his wide ranging experience of Strauss's works to Australia for the first time.

Venue: Opera Theatre
Dates: 1 October – 30 October
Duration: four hours and fifteen minutes including two twenty-five-minute intervals.

“Rach 2”
Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto

Rachmaninoff was the last of the great Romantic composer-pianists, and the music he wrote for himself to play marries supreme virtuosity and impeccable style to a gift for rhapsodic melodies and richly imagined harmonies.

There are no piano concertos quite like Rachmaninoff’s, and Bernd Glemser will bring to the second concerto the grandeur and distinction it demands.

But don’t let the most popular piano concerto of all time distract you from the frame in which it sits. Shostakovich’s intriguing symphony is like a toy shop, with a riot of clever quotations from other composers – and himself! We’re playing it first so we can leave you with the strangely familiar conclusion of Rossini’s William Tell overture galloping through your ears.

SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No.15
RACHMANINOFF
Piano Concerto No.2
ROSSINI William Tell: Overture

Mark Wigglesworth conductor
Bernd Glemser piano

Venue: Concert Hall
Dates: 22 – 25 Sep

From the mood of unrestrained celebration to the mysteries of the spirit, this concert swings to the extremes. In Dvořák’s noisily exuberant overture, night-time revellers vent their feelings in songs and dances. Ross Edwards’ dancing chanting violin concerto veers between deep introspection and ecstatic rhythms, and it has an irrepressible impulse to dance that’s made it a winner with audiences all over the world. But for philosophy, euphoria and a dizzying vision of music, no one can beat Scriabin, the Russian mystic.

His Divine Poem is no mere symphony – it’s a revelation of the pleasures of the physical senses and the joys of “untrammelled existence”.

DVOŘÁK Carnival Overture
EDWARDS
Maninyas – Violin Concerto
SCRIABIN
The Divine Poem (Symphony No.3)

Vladimir Ashkenazy conductor
Dene Olding violin

Venue: Concert Hall
Dates: 11 - 12 August

Prepare to be swept away when Opera Australia presents its first production of Bellini’s La sonnambula. Maestro Richard Bonynge conducts soprano Emma Matthews as the sleeping songbird Amina. In a remote hamlet in the foothills of the Alps a wedding is about to take place. Much to the innkeeper Lisa’s chagrin, Amina and Elvino are in love, and all looks set for a happy ending. But as the sun goes down Amina is discovered in the bed of another man. Will there still be a wedding? Will Amina be the bride? And could the mysterious stranger who has just arrived from afar solve the mystery?

Director Julie Edwardson brings a twentieth-century insight to this nineteenth-century tale as she pits the quaint superstitions of a rustic community against the uncharted realms of the subconscious. This elegant new production is inspired by the writings of Freud and Jung, the vibrant colours of German Expressionist art and, of course, Bellini’s exhilarating tumble of sweet melodies.

The dazzling coloratura of Amina’s show-stealing arias is one of the great challenges of the soprano repertoire. Under the leadership of Richard Bonynge, two of our own take the challenge, Emma Matthews and Hye Seoung Kwon. With Aldo Di Toro as Elvino, Lorina Gore as Lisa and Stephen Bennett as Count Rodolfo, it will be a performance to be treasured.

Venue: Opera Theatre
Dates: 05 - 25 Aug 10
Duration: approximately two hours and forty minutes including one twenty minute interval.

Figaro loves Susanna. The Countess thinks she still loves the Count. Cherubino loves anything in a skirt and as for the Count, love is not quite the right word for how he feels about Susanna. Confused? You will be in this crazy day of match-making and breaking. Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro has been described as a near perfect opera. Words and music come together, brilliantly, in a comedy spiced with the politics of revolution. Don’t miss Teddy Tahu Rhodes in his role debut as Figaro.

Venue: Opera Theatre
Dates: 23 July – 23 October
Duration: three hours and twenty minutes including one twenty-minute interval.

At the end of the Doctor Atomic Symphony, John Adams gives us powerful but sombre music. In the original opera it accompanies a John Donne sonnet: “Batter my heart, three-person’d God”. It’s music for a scientist in awe and fear of what he’s done, a man struggling with conscience.

Respite comes in the form of Chopin’s Second Piano Concerto, the music that Liszt said was “of a perfection almost ideal… now radiant with light, now full of tender pathos.”

The second half of the concert begins with the most famous four notes in the world, the notes that Beethoven is supposed to have said were like Fate knocking at the door. The emotion, the awe and the struggle couldn’t be more intense, and no matter how well you know the Fifth Symphony, this will be your chance to hear it anew.

ADAMS Doctor Atomic Symphony
AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE
CHOPIN Piano Concerto No.2
BEETHOVEN Symphony No.5

David Robertson conductor
Garrick Ohlsson piano

Venue: Concert Hall
Dates: 21 - 16 July

In the male world of the Californian Gold Rush a single woman comes in for plenty of attention. Everyone is sweet on Minnie, and the Sheriff, Jack Rance, is prepared to pay good money for just a kiss. But although Minnie has steely nerves, she is a romantic at heart. She knows love will walk in through the door one day. It just hasn’t, yet. Then Dick Johnson, aka the dastardly bandit Ramerrez, arrives in town, and Minnie…Well,you can guess the rest.

Puccini’s The Girl of the Golden West is an irresistible mixture of the Old World and New. The setting is the stuff of Hollywood westerns, the action has all the ingredients of Italian romantic opera, and the music has a startling originality. The orchestration is as finely-wrought as Debussy, the melodies span the grand drama with an almost Wagnerian intensity, and there is the emotional immediacy that is Puccini.

Internationally celebrated master of spectacle, Nigel Jamieson, makes his directorial debut for Opera Australia with a new production of Puccini’s Wild West opera, with set designs by Michael Scott-Mitchell. It is no small undertaking. He will direct a huge ensemble cast which includes Lisa Gasteen, Dennis O’Neill and John Wegner to create Puccini’s expansive web of characters in a visually rich evocation of frontier life. Chief Conductor of Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, Arvo Volmer, conducts Puccini’s expressive score.

Venue: Opera Theatre
Dates: 14 Jul 10 - 6 Aug 10
Duration: approximately three hours including two twenty minute intervals.

In 2010 the Sydney Symphony Brass Ensemble returns to Tea & Symphony with an honorary member, David Drury, playing the Grand Organ of the Sydney Opera House.
Hear the glories of music for trumpet and organ and the warm magnificence of the full band.

In association with the International Trumpet Guild Convention.

Sydney Symphony Brass Ensemble
David Drury organ

Complimentary morning tea served in the Concert Hall foyer from 10am.

Venue: Concert Hall
Dates: 9 July 11am

Midori found fame as a prodigy, playing Paganini at seven and making her New York Philharmonic debut at 11. But even as a mature artist she hasn’t lost her enthusiasm or her intensity.
There’s still a spirit of youth that fills her playing, and this concert too. Mozart and Schubert are represented by virtuoso violin music they wrote in their teens, which makes for a program that darts between the spectacular and the exotic, the vivacious and the captivating.
By the time he wrote his great G minor symphony (No.40)Mozart was a grown-up, but he too never lost his intensity of expression. And even Stravinsky, composing in his
60s, keeps a neoclassical twinkle in his eye.
It’s a celebration of the violin in Classical mode for the young and the young-at-heart.

STRAVINSKY
Concerto in D for strings (Basel)
MOZART
Violin Concerto No.5 (Turkish)
MOZART Symphony No.40
SCHUBERT
Rondo in A for violin and strings

Antonello Manacorda conductor
Midori violin

Venue: Concert Hall
Dates: 1 – 2 July

Three Swedish generations gather for a midsummer weekend in the country, suffused with the glow of a sun which never quite sets. Sigrid Thornton stars as Desirée Armfeldt in a musical which mixes action, words and music in equal parts.

The deliciously sophisticated A Little Night Music arrives in Sydney with a much-loved star of stage and screen, Australia's own Sigrid Thornton, as Desirée Armfeldt.

It is Desirée who sings the show s biggest hit, 'Send in the Clowns'. Although this unforgettable number was made famous by the likes of Frank Sinatra and Judy Collins it was written not for a singer but for an actress. Full of wise questions: isn't it rich? Are we a pair? and poignant answers: well maybe, next year... it is the dramatic turning point of a musical which mixes action, words and music in equal parts.

Director Stuart Maunder and designer Roger Kirk have created a dreamy, elegant production which brings together the finesse of Australia s national opera company with the flair and energy of great music theatre. Sigrid Thornton is joined by a heavenly quintet of high society ladies and gentlemen. Meanwhile, Nancye Hayes threatens to steal the show as the feisty matriarch, Madame Armfeldt.

Venue: Opera Theatre
Dates: 28 June – 13 July
Duration: approximately two hours and forty minutes including one twenty-minute interval.

Schubert’s gift was for irrepressible tunes, and there’s nothing more deliciously tempting than to take his Unfinished Symphony and chill-out to its spontaneous melancholy.
Who knows what Percy Grainger would have made of that? This maverick Australian turned the music world on its head with The Warriors, one of the most magnificently ambitious pieces ever written.

It’s only 20 minutes long but it calls for assistant conductors, off-stage musicians, and at least three pianos armed with “strong, vigorous players”. It’s just as well Grainger was happy to think of it as an imaginary ballet. But Ravel’s ballet was a real one, his luscious and hyper-erotic sounds inspired by a love story from Greek mythology. Swooning is an option.

SCHUBERT
Symphony No.8 (Unfinished)
GRAINGER The Warriors
RAVEL Daphnis et Chloé – Ballet

Oleg Caetani conductor
Sydney Philharmonia Choirs

Venue: Concert Hall
Dates: 23 – 28 June

A concert of farewells – to life, to love and times gone by. Richard Strauss’s waltzing nostalgia is matched to Mahler’s elegy for voices and orchestra. Unbearably sad, unbelievably beautiful.
Where will the music take your emotions? It doesn’t matter when it sounds as magnificent as this. Mozart’s sparkling overture to The Marriage of Figaro barely hints at the catharsis of the opera’s conclusion. But after that it’s a concert of farewells – to life, to love and times gone by. Richard Strauss’s music for Der Rosenkavalier embodies a spirit of waltzing nostalgia and its opulent beauty is distilled in this orchestral suite.

Mahler’s Song of the Earth is an elegy for voices and orchestra, the work of a man obsessed with his own mortality. Its imagery places a spiritual stamp on the physical world – wine, love, the moon and the turning of the seasons – and ends with the farewell that is forever. The music is unbearably sad and tinged with longing, but this is Mahler and never has the urge to cry felt so satisfying.

MOZART
The Marriage of Figaro: Overture
R STRAUSS Der Rosenkavalier: Suite
MAHLER The Song of the Earth

Vladimir Ashkenazy conductor
Lilli Paasikivi mezzo-soprano
Stuart Skelton tenor

Venue: Concert Hall
Dates: 26 - 29 May

Richard Strauss and Mahler make a pair in this concert featuring one of Mahler’s most popular symphonies – the one with the heartbreakingly beautiful Adagietto for strings and harp. Ashkenazy says it’s not just interesting but right to play the music of Richard Strauss alongside Mahler. They could have been rivals, but were friends, even though musically, as Mahler put it, they were like miners, tunnelling from opposite sides and “meeting on their subterranean ways”.

From one side this concert unearths the overture from Strauss’s first opera and strikes a seam of witty allusion in the virtuoso Burleske for piano and orchestra. From the other side comes Mahler’s Fifth Symphony, making its way from the sombre tread of a funeral march to the ecstasy of its finale. But our hearts are won by the musical declaration of love embraced by these two extremes: the Symphony’s Adagietto, in which strings and harp give voice to a wordless passion.

Vladimir Ashkenazy conductor
Clemens Leske piano

Venue: Concert Hall
Dates: 20 – 22 May

Three acts of magic, mayhem and mistaken identity

Coppélia has everything a good story ballet should: a touch of magic, a dash of romance and masses of sumptuous costumes. It all begins at the Harvest Festival, where the appearance of Dr Coppelius and his mysterious 'doll' Coppélia upset the celebrations. Village boy Franz falls for Coppélia but when his feisty fiancée exacts her revenge, he learns the hard way not to romance living dolls. Coppélia has been a family favourite for 140 years now, and this production is one of the very finest, with fairytale sets and costumes and a thoroughly danceable score.

Credits

Coppélia (1979)

Production George Ogilvie & Peggy van Pragh
Music Leo Delibes
Costume and set design Kristian Fredrickson
Sydney: with Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra

Slava Grigoryan plays Rodrigo

Dance the farruca, malambo, fandango! Hear all the colours of Spain when Miguel Harth-Bedoya, the Peruvian-born conductor, returns to Sydney with this fantastic program.
Joaquín Turina leads the dancing with music that rises “like incense” and seizes the listener with its elegant fervour.

From Argentina, young composer Esteban Benzecry reveals the colours of the Southern Cross in a five-movement suite ending in a red-blooded malambo. Manuel de Falla brings the music that made him world-famous: The Three-Cornered Hat – a high-spirited ballet that radiates sensuousness and virility. Joaquín Rodrigo doesn’t dance. But his much-loved guitar concerto blends the ardent flamenco soul with a rococo elegance inspired by the palace of Aranjuez.
This is the music that sealed Rodrigo’s fate as the composer of “that concerto”, and Slava Grigoryan makes his Sydney Symphony concert hall debut as its soloist.


TURINA Danzas fantásticas
RODRIGO Concierto de Aranjuez
BENZECRY
Colours of the Southern Cross
FALLA
The Three-Cornered Hat: Suites

Miguel Harth-Bedoya conductor
Slava Grigoryan guitar

Venue: Concert Hall
Dates: 22 – 24 April

An Australian premiere from Graeme Murphy

Choreographic legend Graeme Murphy returns to The Australian Ballet stage in 2010 with a dazzling new full-length work. Based loosely on The Rose Cavalier, The Silver Rose is a ballet of romantic intrigue and love gone wrong. The Marschallin, an actress, is still very beautiful but fears her lover might fall for a younger woman. Inevitably he does. Against spectacular Art Nouveau sets, the cast tie each other in romantic knots. It seems in turn-of-last-century Vienna, love is a dangerous game. With music by Australian composer Carl Vine, The Silver Rose is set to be Murphy's sell-out success of 2010.

Credits

The Silver Rose (2005)

Choreographer Graeme Murphy
(based on Der Rosenkavalier by Hugo von Hofmannsthal)
Creative associate Janet Vernon
Music Carl Vine
Set and costume design Roger Kirk
Sydney: with Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra

Venue: Opera Theatre
Dates: 9 - 29 April

Lewis Carroll’s timeless classic is brought to life in this delightful and imaginative play for the whole family.

Alice’s adventures begin when, one Summer’s afternoon, she follows a white rabbit down a rabbit hole. There she meets all kinds of strange and wonderful characters, taking tea with The Mad Hatter and playing croquet with The Queen of Hearts.

Physical theatre, puppetry, live music, audience interaction and an explosion of colour bring to life the original story of Alice’s extraordinary adventures.

Suitable for ages 4+.

Presented by Uncontained Arts in association with Buxton Opera House.

New production

The centrepiece of Donizetti’s historical opera is a clash that never took place, between Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots. Charting events leading to Mary’s execution, Donizetti courted controversy by treating such powerful material, and the opera was initially banned.

Maria Stuarda is one of Donizetti’s most dramatic and affecting works, and with soprano Antonia Cifrone (Lady Macbeth here in Spring 2008) and mezzo Sarah Connolly (Romeo in I Capuleti e i Montecchi last Autumn) battling it out as the rival queens, fireworks are forecast.

Sung in Italian with English titles
Lasts approximately 2 hours 30 minutes

Olivia Fuchs’s production of Rusalka reveals all the tragic beauty of Dvořák’s operatic masterpiece: as Anna Picard wrote in the Independent on Sunday, ‘fascinating, well-directed, expertly sung and acted . . . this is another unmissable production from Opera North’.

Suffused with music that is by turns earthy and ethereal, the opera relates the story of a water nymph who yearns to be part of the human world. The haunting score is famed for Rusalka’s poignant ‘Song to the Moon’, and this production is altogether a spell-binding experience.

Sung in English
Lasts approximately 3 hours 15 minutes

One fateful night in Paris in the 1950s the poet Rodolfo meets the beautiful seamstress Mimi.

They fall passionately in love, but Mimi is incurably ill and the unbearable pressure of this eventually causes their relationship to crumble.

Mimi, alone and near death, sends word that she wants to spend her last hours with Rodolfo, but can he reach her before it is too late?

Directed by Phyllida Lloyd, whose stage production and film of the hit musical Mamma Mia! have created a global phenomenon, this production of Puccini's masterpiece that is not to be missed. Get the tissues ready - you'll need them!

Sung in Italian with English titles.

A black comedy with songs thus originated, a comedy whose current impact no one in a real capitalist country need worry about. Especially in our country – unfortunately.

Yet The Threepenny Opera is not just an eternal comedy of capitalism. It is also a brilliantly written play, bringing to theatre the necessity of extraordinary dramatic performance and the opportunity to find new potentialities and contents in the text, as well as in the manner of its interpretation. The play will be staged with Kurt Weill’s original and world-famous music.

Staging team

Choreography: L. Vaculík
Stage director: L. Vaculík
Set designer: J. Dušek
Costume designer: R. Šolc

Cast

Marguerite Duplessis: A. Ščekaleva, I. Povrazníková
Armand Duval: J. Vrublevskij
Angel of Death: O. Novotný, D. Stránský
Olympia Chandebusy: I. Povrazníková, A. Ščekaleva
de Giray: M. Boček
George Duval: M. Šebor, P. Ďumbala
Nichette: I. Blažková
Priest: M. Boček, P. Ďumbala

Choreographer and director Libor Vaculík, based on the immortal novel by Alexander Dumas Jr. and applying the principles of neo-classical dance technique, tells the story of the famous Paris courtesan Marguerite. The main character is based on a genuine person of whom few people knew that she suffered from a devastating disease. She appeared in society adorned with a delicate camellia flower, therefore she was nicknamed the “Lady of the Camellias”. She was worshiped by men but she chose to adapt her own emotional life to their volatile interests. It was not before she met Armand that she learned real love but her fate was mightier than their desires. The musical score is based upon the best known melodies from the famous opera by G. Verdi La traviata, adapted for the ballet by Sergey Onsoff.

Running time: 2 hours with 1 intermission

Giselle is a ballet, in two acts, from the Romantic period. Its music was composed by the French ballet and opera composer Adolphe Adam (with additions by Friedrich Burgmüller and Léon Minkus) and libretto by Théophile Gautier and Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges. It was choreographed by Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot. Giselle was first presented by the Ballet of the Académie Royale de Musique (today known as the Paris Opera Ballet) on 28 June 1841. It is one of the few ballets of that era which has survived.

In the first act, a young, innocent village maiden named Giselle is in love with a man she knows only as Loys. In reality, the man is Albrecht, a nobleman disguised as a peasant, and who is betrothed to Bathilde, daughter of the Duke. When Giselle discovers the deceit, she is inconsolable and goes mad, then dies of a broken heart.

In the second act, her undying love for Albrecht saves him from the wicked magic of the wilis (Fairies in Slavic mythology), vampiric ghosts of betrothed girls who have died before their wedding day. Though their leader, Myrtha, Queen of the Wilis, forces Albrecht to dance again and again, Giselle intervenes long enough to spare his strength and allow him to survive until the dawn.

At sunrise, wilis must return to their grave; Giselle must return as well but not before showing Albrecht that she forgives him for his treachery. The two pledge their love to each other and she descends back into her grave, but will forever be separated as Giselle is now a wili for all eternity.

Conductor: P. Šnajdr
Choreography: J. Coralli, J. Perrot, M. Petipa, P. Ďumbala
Stage director: P. Ďumbala
Libreto: T. Gautier, V. de Saint-Georges
Set designer: M. Černý
Costume designer: L. Várossová

With this exclusive packaged hotel deal you can choose from the range of "Carmen" tickets and choose your duration at our selection London of hotels.

The O2 is set to host its first fully staged opera.

Carmen, the world's most popular opera, will take over The O2 in May 2010 for just three performances and follows on from highly successful and popular classical stagings of Carmina Burana, Andrea Bocelli and the world premiere of Ben Hur Live at the venue.

Directed by David Freeman, founder of The Opera Factory and whose previous credits include Madam Butterfly Tosca and Carmen at the Royal Albert Hall, his production of Bizet's masterpiece comes to The O2 on a grand and spectacular scale. From the very first note to the final tragic chords, this stunning in-the-round production vividly portrays the powerful story of lust, superstition and murder that passionately unravels with fatal consequences.

Carmen is presented by Raymond Gubbay and The O2 and will be performed by a superb cast of over 150 artists, including dancers, acrobats and fire-eaters. The wonderful set and fabulous costumes will bring to life the dusty atmosphere of the town square, the cool night air of the smugglers' mountain hideout and the colourful festivities outside of the bullring in Seville.

Sung in English, Bizet's unforgettable score contains some of opera's finest arias and best loved music. The rousing Song of the Toreador, the beguiling Seguidilla, the tantalising Habanera and the enchanting Flower Song - sensual music that perfectly captures the very essence of Spain. Accompanied by The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Gareth Hancock, this world class company of singers, musicians and artists will provide an unforgettable production of Bizet's Carmen, staged on an epic scale at The O2.

The principle roles will be shared by Cristina Nassif and Louise Poole (as Carmen) and John Hudson and Philip O'Brien (as Don Jose).

Conductor: H. M. Frster
Stage director: P. Kracik
Based on the concept of: D. Neuner
Set designer: V. Nvlt
Costume designer: J. Jelnek

Verdis penultimate opera, Otello, would most likely never have been written had it not been for the composers publisher, Giulio Ricordi.

For after finishing Aida in 1871, Verdi decided he would bring his magnificent career as an opera composer to its close. Naturally enough, this did not make Ricordi happy.

Consequently, he did not hesitate and invented a way of deflecting Verdi from his set course: namely, by offering him a libretto he would find irresistible.

The composers admiration of the Bard was generally known, so Ricordi shrewdly steered his attention towards Othello and chose Arrigo Boito to be the librettist.

The outcome was obvious: on November 1, 1886, Verdi completed the score, so rehearsals at Milans La Scala could start in January 1887. The part of Iago was sung by the French baritone Victor Maurel, who couldnt stand the interpreter of Otello, the Italian tenor Francesco Tamagna, a scorn on a par with that of Iagos hatred of Othello, underlying which was the fact that the tenor received much higher royalties On Verdis insistence the rehearsals were closed to the public, and the press was barred from any information about the new opera.

The composer was convinced he and Boito had created a masterpiece and he was not mistaken. The premiere, on February 5, 1887, was a major public occasion, with streets in the neighbourhood of La Scala thronged with people.

The opera instantly embarked on a triumphant international trajectory. As early on as January 7, 1888, its Czech-language version was first performed at Pragues National Theatre, thanks to the promptitude of its director Frantiek Adolf ubert.

The premises of todays Prague State Opera witnessed the premiere of the then New German Theatres first production on December 20, 1911, followed by further stagings, on May 4, 1924 (conducted by Alexander Zemlinsky), January 13, 1928, and November 15, 1932.

There ensued a long hiatus, until November 19 1991, when the then already autonomous Smetana Theatre presented an exceptionally successful production conducted by Martin Turnovsk, with Germanys Dominik Neuner as the stage director.

Performed in Italian with Czech and English captions.

Performance Info

* Wed, 25th August 2010, 7.00 PM
* Sun, 29th August 2010, 7.00 PM
* Wed, 22nd September 2010, 7.00 PM
* Sun, 24th October 2010, 7.00 PM

Customer must exchange voucher at: Bohemia Ticket, Na Prikope 16, Prague 1.

Staging team Conductor: J. L. Knig
Stage director: M. Lombardero
Set designer: D. Filiano
Costume designer: L. Gutman
Chorus master: T. Karlovi, A. Melichar

Dangerously fascinating, frighteningly and sweetly infinite, was how Friedrich Nietzsche characterized the opera, Tristan und Isolde, written by Richard Wagner to his own libretto between 1857 and 1859.

He drew inspiration from the epic, Tristan und Isolt, by Gottfried von Strassburg (d. around 1210), who in his turn based it drew on an ancient Celtic legend.

The first company to show interest in staging the work was the Court Opera in Vienna. At the end of a string of 70 harrowing rehearsals between 1862 and 1864, though, the work was declared unperformable.

Only after the intercession of Wagners admirer, Ludwig II of Bavaria, did the premiere take place, at Munich, on June 10, 1865, under the baton of Hans von Blow.

The Prague State Opera building saw four previous productions of Tristan und Isolde, premiered on September 1, 1896, March 31, 1907, March 9, 1912 (by Alexander Zemlinsky), and June 21, 1934.

All of these stagings were mounted by the then New German Theatre. This means the anticipated new production will return Tristan und Isolde under this roof after an absence of 76 years!

Performance Info

* Sun, 23rd May 2010, 6.00 PM
* Thu, 27th May 2010, 6.00 PM
* Tue, 1st June 2010, 6.00 PM
* Thu, 17th June 2010, 6.00 PM
* Wed, 2nd February 2011, 6:00PM

Customer must exchange voucher at: Bohemia Ticket, Na Prikope 16, Prague 1.

Conductor: R. Hein
Choreography: P. mok, P. umbala
Stage director: P. mok, P. umbala
Libretto adaptation: P. mok, P. umbala
Set designer: K. Glogr
Costume designer: R. olc
Musical advisor: P. Pokorn

Cast

Cinderella: N. Mrov, as a guest, A. ekaleva
Prince: O. Novotn, M. tpa, as a guest
Jester: J. Kolva, D. Strnsk
Stepmother: M. Boek
The Ugly Sisters: A. ekaleva, I. Povraznkov
Cinderellas Father: M. ebor
Dancing Master: J. Svoboda
Fairy Godmother: S. Doubkov

The ballet by Sergey Prokofiev represents one of the most charming stagings of Charles Perraults fairy tale of the modest and graceful girl who, unlike her two step-sisters, did not hunt for her luck and still won the love of a handsome prince in the end.

This staging of Prokofievs ballet by the outstanding Czech choreographer Pavel mok and the Prague State Opera ballet chief Pavel umbala, immediately became one of the most successful performances of the Prague State Opera.

The main roles are performed by the outstanding soloists Miss Lucie Holnkov (Cinderella), Mr Michal Chovanec and Mr Ondej Novotn (the Prince) and Mr Milan Boek (The Step-Mother).

A review printed in the Financial Times of London said after the first night that it was the best imaginable introduction to ballet for a child spectator.

Performance Info

* Tue, 16th March 2010, 7.00 PM
* Sun, 16th May 2010, 2.00 PM
* Sun, 16th May 2010, 7.00 PM
* Mon, 21st June 2010, 11.00 AM
* Wed, 6th October 2010, 7.00 PM
* Wed, 20th October 2010, 7.00 PM
* Sun, 5th December 2010, 2.00 PM
* Sun, 5th December 2010, 5.00 PM
* Mon, 20th December 2010, 7.00 PM
* Sat, 26th March 2011, 2.00PM
* Sat, 26th March 2011, 7.00PM

Running Time: 1hr 45 mins with 1 intermission

Customer must exchange voucher at: Bohemia Ticket, Na Prikope 16, Prague 1.

Staging team

Conductor: F. Drs, P. najdr
Choreography: L. Ivanov, M. Petipa, P. umbala, H. Vlilov
Stage director: P. umbala, H. Vlilov
Libretto adaptation: P. umbala, H. Vlilov
Set designer: M. ern
Costume designer: L. Vrossov
Assistant choreographers: M. ebor, K. Dedkov-Frankov, J. Nmeek

Cast

Odette/Odile: N. Mrov, as a guest, A. ekaleva
Prince Siegfried: O. Novotn, M. tpa, as a guest
Von Rothbart: M. Boek, Z. Petr
Jester: A. Jurakov, J. Kolva
Queen: Z. Stejskalov
Master of Ceremonies: J. Nmeek
Pages: Children from the SOP Ballet School
Pas de trois: O. Alexeeva, S. Doubkov, M. Gornalova, Z. Hvzdalov, O. Novotn, I. Povraznkov, V. Prokov, J. Slipi, V. Telnarov, M. Urban, as a guest, A. Jurakov

Despite the many noteworthy titles in the ballet heritage, only one has made it into the broad public awareness as the synonym for classical dance: It is Swan Lake by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.

This colourful and moving story about the love of the Prince and the subtle Odette, who was turned into a swan by the evil Redbeard, has achieved immortality thanks to the overwhelming invention of the composer, and also thanks to the surviving choreographed passages of M. Petipa and L. Ivanov.

Since the original version, each new generation of ballet soloists and ensembles has encountered this exciting challenge in order to present the ultimate brilliance in dance.

Our production deliberately respects the original version of the work and its sublime fairy-tale spirit, while also wishing to meet the expectations of those who admire the finest ballet technique.

Performance Info

* Sun, 21st March 2010, 2.00 PM
* Mon, 5th April 2010, 5.00 PM
* Tue, 13th April 2010, 7.00 PM
* Tue, 4th May 2010, 7.00 PM
* Sun, 6th June 2010, 7.00 PM
* Sun, 13th June 2010, 7.00 PM
* Tue, 15th June 2010, 7.00 PM
* Sun, 5th September 2010, 2.00 PM
* Sun, 5th September 2010, 7.00 PM
* Sat, 9th October 2010, 2.00 PM
* Sat, 9th October 2010, 7.00 PM
* Sun, 31st October 2010, 2.00 PM
* Sun, 31st October 2010, 7.00 PM
* Tue, 23rd November 2010, 7.00 PM
* Wed, 1st December 2010, 7.00 PM
* Sat, 25th December 2010, 2.00 PM
* Sat, 25th December 2010, 7.00 PM
* Sat, 29th January 2011, 7pm
* Sat, 29th January 2011, 7pm
* Sun, 20th February 2011, 7pm
* Sun, 27th February 2011, 7pm
* Wed, 16th March 2011, 7pm
* Tue, 19th April 2011, 7pm
* Wed, 4th May 2011, 7pm
* Wed, 11th May 2011, 7pm
* Wed, 25th May 2011, 7pm
* Sun, 5th June 2011, 2pm
* Sun, 5th June 2011, 7pm

Running Time: 2hrs 25mins

Customer must exchange voucher at: Bohemia Ticket, Na Prikope 16, Prague 1.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Premiere: October 20, 1995

Staging team Conductor: G. Tourniaire, R. Hein
Stage director: L. tros
Set designer: V. Nvlt
Costume designer: J. Jelnek
Choreography: O. anda
Chorus master: T. Karlovi

Cast

Sarastro: M. Brger, L. Hynek-Krmer, L. Mlejnek
Tamino: A. Briscein, M. rejma
1st priest: L. Havlk, J. Moravec
Speaker and 2nd priest: P. Kleka, R. Vocel
Queen of the Night: A. Todorova, J. Sibera, D. Vaktov
Pamina: L. Vernerov, P. Vykopalov, A. Miro
1st Lady: D. Koklesov, H. Jonov
2nd Lady: S. mugrov, P. Vykopalov
3rd Lady: A. Kalivodov, J. Levicov
Papageno: A. Plachetka, V. Sibera
Papagena: J. Sibera, M. Bauerov
Monostatos: J. Hruka, J. Ondrek
1st slave: J. ilhn
2nd slave: T. Kyndl
Genius: Slist sboru Pueri Gaudentes, Khns Children Choir

Is The Magic Flute a remarkable fairy-tale with comic elements, a folk comedy or an encoded work, full of freemason symbols? Is it merely a story of love overcoming all obstacles, or a piece motivating the viewer to attempt achieving perfection? The work contains all these planes and because of this it remains a challenge for all producers.

Mozarts last opera, a fairy-tale singspiel from 1791 to the libretto of E. Schikaneder is a true masterpiece. The magical fairy-tale story is a multi-layered play full of fantasy, humour, but also philosophy. The characters of prince Tamino, princess Pamina, the wise Sarastro, the evil Queen of the night and especially the jolly bird-fancier Papageno address and entertain their viewers worldwide for over 200 years.

Performed in German with Czech captions

Performance Info

* Sat, 6th March 2010, 7.00 PM
* Fri, 19th March 2010, 7.00 PM
* Sat, 3rd April 2010, 7.00 PM
* Tue, 11th May 2010, 7.00 PM
* Fri, 21st May 2010, 7.00 PM
* Tue, 7th September 2010, 7.00 PM
* Thu, 30th September 2010, 7.00 PM
* Sat, 23rd October 2010, 7.00 PM
* Tue, 21st December 2010, 7.00 PM
* Fri, 28th January 2011, 7pm
* Fri, 22nd April 2011, 7pm
* Fri, 13th May 2011, 7pm
* Tue, 31st May 2011, 7pm

Running Time: 2hrs 35mins with 1 intermission

Customer must exchange voucher at: Bohemia Ticket, Na Prikope 16, Prague 1.

Jules Massenet

Premiere: March 18, 2010

Staging team Conductor: H. M. Frster
Stage director: J. Nekvasil
Set designer: D. Dvok
Costume designer: J. Jelnek
Chorus master: T. Karlovi, A. Melichar
II. conductor: T. Brauner

The protagonists of Jules Massenets operas and oratorios are mostly female, as is indeed implied already by the names of his works: Thais, Hrodias, La Navarroise, Sappho, Ariane, Threse, Grislidis, Cendrillon, Cloptre, Manon, Marie-Magdeleine.

Setting an exception to the rule, the hero of Massenets last opera is a man, after all. Namely, Don Quixote, in the eponymous opera subtitled comdie hroique.

Massenets librettist, Henri Cain, drew his material from a French stage adaptation of the Cervantes novel, from the pen of Massenets contemporary, Jacques Le Lorrain, entitled Le Chevalier de la longue figure.

The role of Don Quixote was made to measure for the legendary Russian bass, Fyodor Shalyapin. The latter triumphed in the operas premiere, in Monte Carlo, on February 19, 1910, and it was doubtless thanks to him that the work became widely staged and known.

He also guest-appeared at the National Theatre in Prague, on June 1, 1934. The premises of todays Prague State Opera saw one previous staging of Don Quichotte, a production that ran from 19651967 on the stage of the then Smetana Theatre under the baton of Albert Rosen and directed by Ludk Mandaus.

Performance Info

* Thu, 18th March 2010, 7.00 PM
* Sat, 20th March 2010, 7.00 PM
* Wed, 31st March 2010, 7.00 PM
* Wed, 7th April 2010, 7.00 PM
* Wed, 14th April 2010, 7.00 PM
* Wed, 21st April 2010, 7.00 PM
* Wed, 12th May 2010, 7.00 PM
* Wed, 2nd June 2010, 7.00 PM
* Wed, 8th December 2010, 7.00 PM

Running Time: 2hrs 55mins with 1 intermission

Customer must exchange voucher at: Bohemia Ticket, Na Prikope 16, Prague 1.

Georges Bizet

Premiere: March 7, 2004

Staging team

Conductor: G. Tourniaire, F. Drs
Stage director: Z. Troka
Set designer: M. Ferenk
Costume designer: J. Jelnek
Choreography: M. Benoniov
Chorus master: T. Karlovi
Assistant director: O. Kyndlov

Cast

Carmen: V. Hajnov Fialov, G. Ibragimova, A. Kalivodov, J. Skorov
Don Jos: Y. Chung, I. Jan, M. Lehotsk
Escamillo: M. Babjak, M. Brta, V. Chmelo, M. Cavalcanti
Micaela: J. Burgetov, S. Prochzkov, L. Vernerov, A. Miro
Frasquita: H. Jonov, J. Sibera, D. Vaktov
Mercedes: S. mugrov, P. Vykopalov, E. Jarkovsk
Zuniga: I. Hrachovec, L. Mlejnek, R. Vocel
Morales: O. K, M. Matouek, V. Sibera
Dancairo: L. Havlk, J. Hruka, M. Matouek
Remendado: J. Kovacz, J. Ondrek

The first night of Bizets Carmen in Paris in 1875 passed almost unnoticed, without success. Only eight years after Bizets death did Carmen triumphantly enter opera houses and ever since has been one of the most frequently staged operas.

Librettists Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halvy were inspired by Prosper Merims extensive novelette on beautiful and reckless Carmen, whose volatile life is ended by the hand of the refused lover, and rendered the story as an impressive tragedy imbued with dazzling Spanish atmosphere.

Bizets masterpiece still fascinates contemporary audiences by the magnificent color of the orchestra, the sense of engrossing drama and splendid melodic arias.

Performed in French with Czech and English captions

Performance Info

* Fri, 5th March 2010, 7.00 PM
* Thu, 15th April 2010, 7.00 PM
* Sat, 29th May 2010, 7.00 PM
* Sat, 5th June 2010, 7.00 PM
* Fri, 18th June 2010, 7.00 PM
* Sat, 4th September 2010, 7.00 PM
* Thu, 9th September 2010, 7.00 PM
* Thu, 23rd September 2010, 7.00 PM
* Wed, 29th September 2010, 7.00 PM
* Tue, 5th October 2010, 7.00 PM
* Fri, 19th November 2010, 7.00 PM
* Tue, 30th November 2010, 7.00 PM
* Thu, 30th December 2010, 7.00 PM
* Fri, 18th February 2011, 7.00 PM
* Fri, 25th March 2011, 7.00 PM
* Tue, 12th April 2011, 7.00 PM
* Sat, 23rd April 2011, 7.00 PM
* Fri, 6th May 2011, 7.00 PM
* Fri, 27th May 2011, 7.00 PM
* Fri, 10th June 2011, 7.00PM

Running Time: 2hrs 55mins with 1 intermission

Customer must exchange voucher at: Bohemia Ticket, Na Prikope 16, Prague 1.

The Czars Last Daughter Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Premiere: January 23, 2010

Staging team Conductor: P. najdr
Choreography: Y. Vmos
Stage director: Y. Vmos
Libreto: Y. Vmos
Set designer: M. Scott
Costume designer: M. Scott
Lighting designer: K. Grditz
Assistant choreographer: A. Afanassiev, J. Cuoco

One of the most successful European choreographers of our time, Yuri Vmos, has won acclaim for his highly individual adaptations of such ballet classics as The Nutcracker, Romeo and Juliet, or Spartacus.

In his version of The Sleeping Beauty, he transformed, in close collaboration with the stage artist Michael Scott, the traditional fairy-tale subject into a spectacular ballet drama dealing with the happy life and tragic end of the Russian imperial family.

In the ballets scenes set at the court, he evokes the figure of Anna Anderson, who spent her whole life in the belief of being the Tsars daughter.

In Anna Anderson-Anastasias recollections, aristocratic scenes in the imperial palace metamorphose into images of an innocent childhood spent amid splendour, as well as into a reminiscence of the classical Russian ballet with all its virtuoso attributes.

The production promises a very special experience to look forward to by all lovers of strong story-telling, as well as by aficionados of top-class mastery of the art of ballet.

Performance Info

* Sun, 28th February 2010, 7.00 PM
* Tue, 9th March 2010, 7.00 PM
* Sun, 11th April 2010, 2.00 PM
* Sun, 25th April 2010, 2.00 PM
* Sun, 9th May 2010, 4.00 PM
* Sun, 26th September 2010, 7.00 PM
* Sun, 17th October 2010, 2.00 PM
* Sun, 17th October 2010, 7.00 PM
* Tue, 8th February 2011, 7.00 PM
* Sat, 5th March 2011, 2.00 PM
* Mon, 25th April 2011, 7.00 PM
* Sat, 28th May 2011, 2.00 PM
* Sat, 28th May 2011, 7.00 PM
* Sun, 19th June 2011, 7.00PM

Customer must exchange voucher at: Bohemia Ticket, Na Prikope 16, Prague 1.

With this exclusive packaged hotel deal you receive ticket(s) to "The Phantom of the Opera" at the Majestic Theatre and choose your duration at our selection of hotels.

The Night Belongs to Phantom...

Now celebrating over two decades as Broadway's Most Haunting Love Story.

Winner of seven 1988 Tony® Awards including Best Musical, Andrew Lloyd Webber's masterwork is more than the longest-running musical in Broadway history - it's an international phenomenon that unmasks emotions like no other show can, leaving audiences everywhere breathless.

You'll be entranced by the sumptuous score, the haunting romance and the timeless story of seduction and despair.

Running Time: 2 hours and 30 minutes, including one 15 minute intermission.

Audience: May be appropriate for children 4 and older. Children under 4 are not permitted in the theatre.

The story of Cinderella is one of the best-known fairytales, and Frederick Ashton’s full-length version for The Royal Ballet has all its familiar ingredients. A downtrodden young girl, a glass slipper and a handsome prince combine to make the perfect piece of story-telling, and with a fairy godmother around, anything can happen: pumpkins become coaches, rags turn to ball gowns and there’s bound to be a happy ending. Ashton’s ballet draws together a wealth of wonderfully drawn characters, portrayed against the evocative themes and colours of Prokofiev’s great orchestral score.
 
This is a mysterious and magical fantasy world, where the comedy of Cinderella’s pantomime step-sisters – unlucky in looks and love – provides the perfect foil for the developing romance of Cinderella and the Prince. Cinderella is a family event full of the magic of not just of the fairy godmother, but of The Royal Ballet too.
 

Three ballets by Kenneth MacMillan celebrate his unique talent and versatility. MacMillan’s vision has been vital in shaping The Royal Ballet’s style and repertory, and what better way to appreciate his art than with this rare chance to experience three contrasting works in a single performance. Abstract, dramatic, humorous – this programme gives a wonderfully varied introduction not just to MacMillan’s work but to the beauty and dramatic power of ballet itself. Concerto, to Shostakovich’s Second Piano Concerto, contrasts moments of exuberance and elegiac reflection. The Judas Tree places a single woman among 13 men to enact a harrowing event that is recognizably contemporary but with biblical overtones. Its specially commissioned score will be conducted by Music Director of The Royal Ballet Barry Wordsworth. Elite Syncopations completes the programme with a sparkling evocation of a dance hall that brings ragtime rhythms to the dance and a ragtime band to the stage.

Bill Bryden’s beautiful production of The Cunning Little Vixen brings charm, wit and a wonderful life-affirming message to The Royal Opera. Inspired by a cartoon of the exploits of the feisty little Vixen Sharp-Ears, the opera brings to life the world of the forest. Not only do we meet the people who live by it and pass through it, but also come across all the creatures who live there – caterpillars, badgers, dragonflys, frogs and, of course, the Vixen herself. From her youthful escapades in the chicken house to her courtship with a handsome fox, this is a wonderful tale of the richness of the cycle of life.
 
Charles Mackerras, the champion of Czech music and the great interpreter of Janácek, conducts a cast who combine great singing and acting to bring to life the engaging characters in this special world – a lovelorn schoolteacher, a tipsy priest, a poacher. And then there is the gamekeeper who observes the changing seasons in the forest and encounters our heroine on several occasions, each with different consequences. The evocative and rapturous music and the touching story make this a truly captivating opera for young and old.

Conductor: G. Tourniaire, F. Drs, O. Lenrd
Stage director: M. Otava
Set designer: J. Svoboda
Costume designer: J. Jelnek
Chorus master: T. Karlovi

Cast

Floria Tosca: A.-L. Bogza, M. Hundeling
Mario Cavaradossi, painter: I. Jan
Baron Scarpia, prefect: I. Gavrilov, R. Haan, J. Sulenko
Cesare Angelotti: O. K, L. Mlejnek
Parish clerk: M. Brger
Spoletta, police agent: L. Havlk, J. Hruka
Sciarrone, valet: O. K, R. Vocel
Shepherd: K. Duganov, E. Jarkovsk, . Knetov, D. Koklesov
Gaoler: L. Koverdynsk, R. Przn, F. Ryav

Love, jealousy, hate, death these are the attributes of many operas and so it is with this, the most famous, opera by Puccini. It is set against the background of political strife in Italy in 1800. Dramatically it is once more an opera, which enthrals by its dramatic suspense and scenes imbued with passionate commotion and despair. Puccinis music is matched to the drama.

The renewed set design of Josef Svoboda, created by him for the production in the Grand Opera on May 5, 1947, still commands respect both for its grandiosity and its purity of artistic expression.

Performed in Italian with Czech and English captions

Performance Info

* Thu, 4th March 2010, 7.00 PM
* Wed, 10th March 2010, 7.00 PM
* Fri, 2nd April 2010, 7.00 PM
* Sun, 18th April 2010, 4.00 PM
* Fri, 7th May 2010, 7.00 PM
* Wed, 26th May 2010, 7.00 PM
* Fri, 4th June 2010, 7.00 PM
* Thu, 2nd September 2010, 7.00 PM
* Fri, 1st October 2010, 7.00 PM
* Fri, 29th October 2010, 7.00 PM
* Fri, 17th December 2010, 7.00 PM
* Mon, 27th December 2010, 7.00 PM
* Sat, 19th February 2011, 7.00 PM
* Fri, 11th March 2011, 7.00 PM
* Sun, 27th March 2011, 7.00 PM
* Sat, 2nd April 2011, 7.00 PM
* Sun, 10th April 2011, 7.00 PM
* Thu, 12th May 2011, 7.00 PM
* Thur, 16th June 2011, 7pm

Customer must exchange voucher at: Bohemia Ticket, Na Prikope 16, Prague 1.

Music: P. Malásek
Conductor: P. Šnajdr, T. Koutník
Choreography: L. Vaculík
Stage director: L. Vaculík
Libreto: L. Vaculík
Set designer: M. Černý
Costume designer: L. Várossová
Assistant choreographer: K. Dedková-Franková, H. Vláčilová

Cast

Christina Daaé: Z. Hvízdalová, T. Martins, N. Márová, as a guest
Raoul de Chagny: O. Novotný, M. Gebauer
Phantom: J. Seitl, R. Hlinka, A. Katsapov, as a guest
Charlotta, Prima Ballerina: A. Ščekaleva, I. Povrazníková
Madame Sorelli, Ballet Master: I. Povrazníková, N. Danko, as a guest
Josef Bouquet, Stagehand: J. Kadlec, P. Jirsa
Charles Debienne, Manager: J. Němeček
Richard Poliny, Manager: M. Boček
Meg, the Dresser: J.-S. Vitoušová
Father of Christine Daaé: L. Bernklau
Bill Poster: J. Kadlec, P. Jirsa
Phantom´s Voice: Z. Fric

From dark corners of the Paris Opera a voice resounds that calls the name of the very young ballet dancer Christina Daaé and encourages this extraordinary talent. Hardly anybody knows that the mysterious voice is the voice of the Phantom, a disfigured genius roaming around the labyrinth of catacombs... The ballet ensemble comes with another delicacy, a romantic story on the theme of the novel Le Fantôme de l’Opéra by Gaston Leroux. The head of our production team is Libor Vaculík who set this exciting theme also known from a musical comedy version by Andrew Lloyd Webber into a specific ballet environment. The dance/acting roles of Raoul, Christine, the Phantom and a number of other heroes will challenge again the soloists and the entire ensemble. This attractive material set into music by Petr Malásek and choreographed by Libor Vaculík has everything necessary to reach both Czech and foreign audiences and to take its place alongside successful works from past years like The Lady of the Camellias and A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Running time: 2 hours 25 minutes

This IFB Arts Package is based on selection of opera performances in the State Opera in Prague. All the selected performances take place on Saturdays so you need just two nights to experience this most enjoyable weekend in Prague – at the heart of central European art and culture, the city of Havel, Janacek, Kafka, Dvorak, Smetana and Mozart.

The package is set up for two people sharing a twin or double room – the lenght of stay is set up for two nights. If you wish to go on your own please contact us for single room quotation. Also contact us if you decide to extend your stay. The tickets for your performance will be delivered to your hotel.

Our Package Price includes:

• First class ticket to the opera performance of your choice
• 2 nights accommodation with buffet breakfast in the 5 or 4 Star hotel of your choice
• Pre or Post Opera Snack in your hotel on Saturday
• Arrival airport transfer
• Guided city tour by coach

La Fille mal gardée (or The Wayward Daughter) is one of Frederick Ashton’s most charming ballets. Its combination of lighthearted story, beautiful solos and pas de deux and lively ensembles have made it a timeless classic of the Royal Ballet repertory and an audience favourite every time. Haystacks and chickens, ponies and storms, and a charming tale of young love in a picturesque rural scene – everything sparkles with a winning combination of uplifting and expressive dance, vibrant colour and lyrical music. This is a great introduction to ballet for newcomers of any age.
 
In the story, young Lise, the ‘wayward daughter’ of the title, is determined to marry Colas, the son of a farmer, for love. But her guardian aunt Widow Simone would rather she married the child-like Alain for money and status. The battle of wits and wills that follows is full of humour — and at every turn, Lise manages to stay one step ahead of her guardian. There are no prizes for guessing what the happy ending will be. Whether in the expressive power of the lovers’ pas de deux, the quirky characterizations of Widow Simone and Alain, or the shared joy of the rustic dances, this is a work to coax smiles and leave indelible memories

It’s La dolce vita with a twist in this sparkling production of Rossini’s opera of comic confusion – Il turco in Italia. Naples in the 1960s is the setting for a riotous and stylish staging by the ever-popular directors Moshe Leiser and Patrice Caurier, returning for its first revival by The Royal Opera since its acclaimed premiere in 2005. When a handsome Turkish prince arrives in pursuit of one of his harem he can have no idea of the unintended consequences in store when he falls for the charms of a bored housewife — whose husband not surprisingly objects. Add a smooth lady’s man and a poet who sees everything as the subject for his new play, then just watch as the cast get hopelessly knotted in intrigues, plots and doppelgangers.
 
Once again, the performers are stellar indeed — top Royal Opera favourites acclaimed in this difficult and delightful Italian repertory. Ildebrando d’Arcangelo as the prince and Aleksandra Kurzak as the errant wife lead a cast guaranteed to bring out the sparkle of one of Rossini’s most engaging scores. There are wonderful ensembles, a great quintet and witty duets that give every opportunity for brilliant singing. Under the baton of Maurizio Benini, with the precision of the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House and the versatility of the Royal Opera Chorus, this is a rare occasion to bring out the full thrill of Rossini in live performance.
 

Verdi's Aida returns to the Royal Opera stage in a new production with a world-class cast headed by Marcelo Alvarez as the warrior Radames and Micaela Carosi as the captured princess of the title. This is a society from long ago, ordered by ritual, obesessed with death, driven by war and power. How can the future love of prisoner and captor survive against such forces? The intensity and tragedy of the story inspired Verdi to some of his most haunting, powerful and famous music. From the seductive slave dances to the triumphal march, from the passion of 'Celeste Aida' to the hauntingly heart-rending finale, this is some of the most memorable music that often seems to suspend time itself make Aida one of the unique experiences of opera.
 
The new production is by internationally acclaimed director David McVicar, who has several of The Royal Opera's most popular productions to his name. There are striking designs to evoke a strange and distant culture, there is the characteristically intense focus of McVicar's production. And of course there is glorious music given full reign by the forces of the Royal Opera's new Aida a star event of the whole Season.

Modern Balett Abend

La clemenza di Tito (The Clemency of Titus), K. 621, is an opera seria composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with text after Metastasio. It was started after the bulk of The Magic Flute, the last opera that Mozart worked on, was already written (Mozart completed The Magic Flute after the Prague premiere of Tito).

Rosenkavalier, Der, an opera by R. Strauss with a libretto written for him by H. von Hofmannsthal, and published in 1911. It is the second and the most popular of the six works in which Hofmannsthal and Strauss collaborated, and was first performed at Dresden in January 1911. Its setting is Vienna in the second half of the 18th c.

The Marschallin, married straight from school to a great nobleman who spends his time hunting, has as her lover the 18-year-old Octavian, Count Rofrano, nicknamed Quinquin. While he is with her she is visited by a boorish country cousin, Baron Ochs von Lerchenau. Octavian disguises himself as a maid. Ochs has come to Vienna to marry a rich and pretty girl, Sophie, the daughter of a newly ennobled commoner, Edler von Faninal. Ochs asks the Marschallin's help in finding a suitable person to perform the indispensable ceremony of presenting to the betrothed girl a silver rose. She assures him that Count Rofrano will accept the duty. Ochs, who meanwhile takes a fancy to the supposed serving maid, is delighted.

Left alone, the Marschallin, who foresees the end of Octavian's love for her, sings a moving lament for passing youth and beauty. In the second act Octavian duly performs the ceremony of the rose, and he and Sophie von Faninal at once fall deeply in love. An altercation occurs with Ochs, whom Octavian wounds in an impromptu duel. Ochs, who is as lecherous as he is cowardly, receives a note of assignation from ‘Mariandel’, the name Octavian used when disguised as a maid. In the third act Ochs falls into a trap set for him by Octavian, who has arranged the rendezvous in an inn of dubious propriety. Octavian attends in disguise as Mariandel, the Baron is frightened out of his wits by opening trapdoors and grinning faces, and his immoral intentions revealed to the Marschallin and Faninal, whom Octavian has summoned. Octavian, casting off his disguise, receives Sophie, and the Marschallin sadly but gracefully accepts the loss of his love.

The O2 is set to host its first fully staged opera.

Carmen, the world's most popular opera, will take over The O2 in May 2010 for just three performances and follows on from highly successful and popular classical stagings of Carmina Burana, Andrea Bocelli and the world premiere of Ben Hur Live at the venue.

Directed by David Freeman, founder of The Opera Factory and whose previous credits include Madam Butterfly Tosca and Carmen at the Royal Albert Hall, his production of Bizet's masterpiece comes to The O2 on a grand and spectacular scale. From the very first note to the final tragic chords, this stunning in-the-round production vividly portrays the powerful story of lust, superstition and murder that passionately unravels with fatal consequences.

Carmen is presented by Raymond Gubbay and The O2 and will be performed by a superb cast of over 150 artists, including dancers, acrobats and fire-eaters. The wonderful set and fabulous costumes will bring to life the dusty atmosphere of the town square, the cool night air of the smugglers' mountain hideout and the colourful festivities outside of the bullring in Seville.

Sung in English, Bizet's unforgettable score contains some of opera's finest arias and best loved music. The rousing Song of the Toreador, the beguiling Seguidilla, the tantalising Habanera and the enchanting Flower Song - sensual music that perfectly captures the very essence of Spain. Accompanied by The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Gareth Hancock, this world class company of singers, musicians and artists will provide an unforgettable production of Bizet's Carmen, staged on an epic scale at The O2.

The principle roles will be shared by Cristina Nassif and Louise Poole (as Carmen) and John Hudson and Philip O'Brien (as Don Jose).

Opera della Luna’s brand new production of Gilbert and Sullivan's first success moves the story from its quaint Victorian setting to sleepy rural Britain in the 1970s.

John Wellington Wells, the celebrated dealer in 'magic and spells', spreads chaos and havoc in an unsuspecting country village when he places a powerful aphrodisiac in the village hall teapot. The resulting revelations are indeed 'marvelous illusion, a terrible surprise!'.

Opera della Luna have earned themselves a matchless reputation, now celebrating 15 years of acclaimed productions of Gilbert and Sullivan, Offenbach and Johann Strauss touring to theatres all over the UK. Their recent production of Die Fledermaus played to sell-out houses and gained rave reviews.

Fun, funky and full of frolics, don’t miss this fresh production of what is probably the most rarely performed of all Gilbert and Sullivan’s operettas.

WWOS (West Wickham Operatic Society) return to the Churchill following their critically acclaimed productions of The Producers and The Witches Of Eastwick, to present this most daring of all musicals!

Released in 1997, The Full Monty stormed the UK Box Office becoming the most successful British screen comedy ever. As a film, The Full Monty won the Evening Standard Award for Best Film.

This adaptation won the Evening Standard Award for Best Musical and received nominations for a staggering nine Tony Awards.

All the characters, laughter and tenderness of the film that the whole world fell in love with are brought vividly to life in this triumphant stage musical.

This amateur production is presented by arrangement with Josef Weinberg Ltd on behalf of Music Theatre International of New York.

Presented by Ravensbourne Light Operatic Society

There’s just no stopping the music!

Ravensbourne Light Operatic Society returns to the Churchill Theatre with this Broadway and West End smash hit. Footloose The Musical tells the story of city boy Ren who moves to small town America where dancing is banned.

The show is packed full of electrifying dancing and classic eighties hits including: Holding Out For A Hero, Almost Paradise, Let’s Hear It For The Boy and the title track Footloose.

Pulsating with energy this fast paced musical gets audiences on their feet.

This amateur production is presented by arrangement with Josef Weinberg Ltd on behalf of R&H Theatricals.

Der Troubadour (Il trovatore) an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Leone Emanuele Bardare and Salvadore Cammarano, based on the play El Trovador by Antonio García Gutiérrez.

Conductor and Soloist: Daniel Barenboim

“Tosca combines Puccini’s glorious musical inspiration with the melodramatic vitality of one of the great Hitchcock films,” says Music Director James Levine. “From the very first bar of the piece, the opera seizes you and keeps you on the edge of your seat until the last note.” Karita Mattila, who sings the title role for the first time at the Met, says, “There are so many fascinating qualities to Tosca. At first I thought, ‘How will it feel to kill somebody on stage?’ But Tosca is like an action movie, and the drama just happens.” Luc Bondy, acclaimed for his imaginative theater and opera productions, directs. Marcelo Álvarez and Juha Uusitalo open as Cavaradossi and Scarpia, with Jonas Kaufmann, Marcello Giordani, and Bryn Terfel stepping in for later performances.

A co-production of the Metropolitan Opera and Teatro alla Scala, Milan.

Composer: Giacomo Puccini
Librettist: Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica
Sung in Italian with Met Titles in English, German and Spanish

Karita Mattila as Tosca
Photo: Brigitte Lacombe/Metropolitan Opera

Artist William Kentridge defies genres with Shostakovich’s adaptation of Gogol’s story. “The opera is about the terrors of hierarchy,” Kentridge says. “There’s a mixture of anarchy and the absurd that interests me. I love in this opera the sense that anything is possible.” The new production is conducted by definitive Shostakovich interpreter Valery Gergiev. Acclaimed baritone Paulo Szot, who won a Tony Award® for South Pacific, makes his Met debut as the man who wakes up to discover that his nose has disappeared.

Composer: Dmitri Shostakovich
Librettist: Yevgeny Zamyatin, Georgy Ionin, Alexander Preys and the composer
Sung in Russian with Met Titles in English, German and Spanish

Karita Mattila as Tosca
Photo: Brigitte Lacombe/Metropolitan Opera

James Levine conducts Berg’s modernist masterpiece. An acclaimed interpreter of the title role, Marlis Petersen returns to the Met to play the scandalous femme fatale. Anne Sofie von Otter is Countess Geschwitz and James Morris is Dr. Schön.

Composer: Alban Berg
Libretto by the composer, adapted from works by Frank Wedekind
Sung in German with Met Titles in English, German and Spanish

Karita Mattila as Tosca
Photo: Brigitte Lacombe/Metropolitan Opera

Angela Gheorghiu recreates her famous portrayal of Verdi’s most engaging heroine. Franco Zeffirelli’s production features James Valenti as Alfredo and Thomas Hampson as Germont. Leonard Slatkin conducts.

Composer: Giuseppe Verdi
Librettist: Francesco Maria Piave
Sung in Italian with Met Titles in English, German and Spanish

Karita Mattila as Tosca
Photo: Brigitte Lacombe/Metropolitan Opera

Anna Netrebko stars in the most popular opera in the repertory. Piotr Beczala, who signaled his arrival as a top lyric tenor in last season’s Lucia di Lammermoor, sings his first Met Rodolfo in Franco Zeffirelli’s legendary production. Gerald Finley is Marcello, opposite Nicole Cabell and Ruth Ann Swenson alternating as Musetta.

Composer: Giocomo Puccini
Librettist: Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa
Sung in Italian with Met Titles in English, German and Spanish

Karita Mattila as Tosca
Photo: Brigitte Lacombe/Metropolitan Opera

Simon Keenlyside and Natalie Dessay bring their extraordinary acting and singing skills to two of Shakespeare’s unforgettable characters. When this production, directed by Patrice Caurier and Moshe Leiser, opened in London at Covent Garden, The Independent called Keenlyside’s Hamlet, "a revelation - thrilling throughout.” Dessay plays the volatile Ophelia, whose extended mad scene is among the greatest in opera. Louis Langrée conducts.

Composer: Ambroise Thomas
Librettist: Michel Carré and Jules Barbier
Sung in French with Met Titles in English, German and Spanish

Karita Mattila as Tosca
Photo: Brigitte Lacombe/Metropolitan Opera

Mozart’s opera comes to life in Julie Taymor’s transcendent production, with a superb ensemble cast, including Nathan Gunn as the bird-catcher Papageno. This mystical fairy tale is presented in its full-length German version.

Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Librettist: Emanuel Schikaneder
Sung in German with Met Titles in English, German and Spanish

Karita Mattila as Tosca
Photo: Brigitte Lacombe/Metropolitan Opera

Renowned Wagnerian Deborah Voigt sings the mystical Senta in one of the composer’s most engaging works, with Juha Uusitalo as the Dutchman.

Composer: Richard Wagner
Librettist: the composer
Sung in German with Met Titles in English, German and Spanish

Karita Mattila as Tosca
Photo: Brigitte Lacombe/Metropolitan Opera

"Carmen is about sex, violence, and racism—and its corollary: freedom,” says Olivier Award-winning director Richard Eyre. “It is one of the inalienably great works of art. It’s sexy, in every sense. And I think it should be shocking.” Angela Gheorghiu plays Carmen in her role debut. Roberto Alagna and Jonas Kaufmann share the role of the obsessed Don José, Barbara Frittoli is Micaëla, and Mariusz Kwiecien is the matador Escamillo. Olga Borodina reprises her own sultry Carmen in later performances. Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts.

Composer: Georges Bizet
Librettist: Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy
Sung in French with Met Titles in English, German and Spanish

Karita Mattila as Tosca
Photo: Brigitte Lacombe/Metropolitan Opera

Riccardo Muti, a champion of the Verdian tradition, makes his Met debut with one of the composer’s rousing early operas. This story of civilization’s encounter with barbarism is explored in a new production by director Pierre Audi. Some of the brightest lights in contemporary design, including Miuccia Prada and the architecture team of Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron (the 2008 Beijing Olympics “Bird’s Nest” stadium), have created the costumes and scenery. “Our approach is to stay very close to the descriptions supported by Verdi: destruction, rubble, lagoon, forest, darkness—all in a very naturalistic way,” explain Herzog and de Meuron. Ildar Abdrazakov sings the title role, joined by Violeta Urmana, Ramón Vargas, and Carlos Alvarez.

Composer: Giuseppe Verdi
Librettist: Temistocle Solera
Sung in Italian with Met Titles in English, German and Spanish

Karita Mattila as Tosca
Photo: Brigitte Lacombe/Metropolitan Opera

Renée Fleming stars as Rossini’s sorceress, opposite no fewer than six tenors. Mary Zimmerman returns to direct, bringing her fine-tuned theatricality to a work she describes as “a buried treasure, a box of jewels.” The fanciful story of the sorceress who enthralls men in her island prison of sensual delights, Zimmerman says, “has an epic, enchanted quality and a tremendous visual element.”

Composer: Gioachino Rossini
Librettist: Giovanni Schmidt
Sung in Italian with Met Titles in English, German and Spanish

Karita Mattila as Tosca
Photo: Brigitte Lacombe/Metropolitan Opera

The Met has assembled a cast of powerful voices to match Aida’s epic scale, which in this grand production uses every stage lift in the house. Violeta Urmana stars in the title role of the enslaved Ethiopian princess, with Dolora Zajick as her rival for the affections of Johan Botha’s Radamès. Conductor Daniele Gatti makes his long-awaited return.

Composer: Giuseppe Verdi
Librettist: Antonio Ghislanzoni
Sung in Italian with Met Titles in English, German and Spanish

Photo: Marty Sohl/Metropolitan Opera

The Adventures of Mr Broucek is one of Janácek’s most vibrantly original works. Rarely presented in the UK, this is an exciting new collaboration with Opera North. The production is a first for Scottish Opera who, with Welsh National Opera, championed the composer’s work in the 1970s and 80s with an acclaimed Janácek Cycle.
 
The beer-fuelled Mr Broucek’s adventures take him through space and time: first to the moon and then to the middle of the revolution in 15th-century Prague. By turns funny, surreal, tender and thrilling, the opera is full of wonderful portraits and parodies - of artists, poets, soldiers, and the ordinary people of Janácek’s homeland.
 
The music is just as varied as Broucek’s adventures, from the extra-terrestrial sounds of the moon music, to the gorgeous orchestral interlude which transforms the action from the moon to Prague. Bagpipes and an organ add an edge to the stirringly patriotic Hussite hymns and celebrations, sung by a 40 strong chorus.
 
John Fulljames directs a superb cast including English tenor John Graham Hall and Scottish contralto Frances McCafferty, making her Scottish Opera débuts, alongside celebrated Scottish baritone Donald Maxwell.

Scottish Opera
The Adventures of Mr Broucek
Leoš Janácek

Production supported by The Alexander Gibson Circle
Sung in English with English supertitles
A new co-production with Opera North

See Sydney - on and off the tourist track - on this entertaining 2-hour guided walk through the heart of Sydney's vibrant sightseeing district. On this tour, with a friendly Sydneysider as your guide, you will see:

- Sydney Harbour Bridge
- The Rocks
- Customs House
- Sydney Opera House
- Royal Botanic Gardens.... and more.

Meeting Point:
Please meet your guide outside the Australian Travel Specialists Booking Centre, Wharf 6, Circular Quay, Sydney, at least 5 minutes prior to the start of your tour. Your guide will be easy to recognise in a blue t-shirt.

Times:Daily @ 10am
Running Time: 2 Hours

Dates when tour does not run: 2nd April 5th April (inclusive), 26th April, 14th June, 4th October, 25-27th December (inclusive), 1st January 2011 & 26 January 2011.

La traviata is one of the most popular of all operas, loved for its drama, its excitement and its famous music. The social scandal, stormy love affair and doomed heroine of La Dame aux camélias inspired Verdi to music of matching passion and memorable melodies. Richard Eyre’s ever-popular production for The Royal Opera brings the elegant world of 19th-century Parisian society to life. There is the glamour of an extravagant lifestyle made especially vivid through Bob Crowley’s sumptuous designs – but there are also the swiftly revealed dangers at the tragic heart of the drama.
 
The claustrophobic conventions of society, painful deception and true self-sacrifice are even more powerful and poignant when set to Verdi’s music. Such powerful emotions so beautifully portrayed have earned La traviata its place as one of the greatest operas of all time. The wonderful musical resources of The Royal Opera – cast, conductor, chorus, orchestra – and this ever-popular production show why La traviata is also such great theatre.

No-one is safe in the Rome of 1800. Under Baron Scarpia corruption and suspicion hang over the city, virtue and humanity are cruelly stamped out.

The world of opera singer Floria Tosca is about to be turned upside down. She is suspicious of her lover Mario’s fidelity. Little does she realize that he is at the centre of a struggle that will lead to tragedy. Soon she herself will become the object of Scarpia’s insatiable lust and she will be forced to ask what she has done to deserve this.

Once decried as a 'shabby little shocker', Tosca has become one of the best-loved of all operas. The combination of its fast paced plot, high tension and the poignancy of the great arias Vissi d’arte and E lucevan le stelle ensure that Tosca never fails to enthrall. Michael Blakemore’s period set production Welsh National Opera of this pulsating thriller promises to set your emotions on a knife-edge.

Cast includes Alwyn Mellor as Floria Tosca, Geraint Dodd as Cavaradossi, Robert Hayward as Scarpia.

Sung in Italian with surtitles in English.

Co-production with the State Opera of South Australia.

Belmonte’s lover Constanze is being held captive by Pasha Selim. If Belmonte is going to rescue Constanze he will have to get past the Pasha’s steward Osmin first. This may not necessarily sound like the premise of a comedy but The Abduction from the Seraglio is one of Mozart’s wittiest and most delightful creations.

The joyous overture suggests a boisterous sense of fun, which is carried right through to the final curtain with stratospheric arias and blissful ensembles along the way. BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Rosenblatt Recital Song Prize winner Andrew Kennedy performs the role of Belmonte.

James Robinson’s stylish production for Welsh National Opera is irresistibly entertaining, setting the opera on the Orient Express of the 1920s en route from Paris to Istanbul.

Cast includes Andrew Kennedy as Belmonte, Lisette Oropesa as Constanze, Petros Magoulas as Osmin, Claire Ormshaw as Blonde and Wynne Evans as Pedrillo.

Sung in German with surtitles in English.

A co-production of Houston Grand Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Opera Colorado, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Minnesota Opera and Opera Pacific.

Turandot is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, to an Italian libretto by Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni, based on the play Turandot by Carlo Gozzi. It was left unfinished by Puccini at his death, and completed by Franco Alfano. The first performance, at the Teatro alla Scala, in Milan, on 25 April 1926, conducted by Arturo Toscanini, included only Puccini's music and not Alfano's additions. Later performances were of the completed score.

Turandot is a Persian word and name meaning "the daughter of Turan", Turan being the region of Central Asia which used to be a part of Persian Empire.

It is an oriental fairytale of disguised identities, riddles, ritual executions and of course powerful, triumphant love. Besides its great tenor aria Nessun dorma, the music ranges from the exotic and portentous as the moon rises at the start, through the grandeur and mysticism of Turandots riddles, to the tragic beauty of the servant girl Lis appeals to and final sacrifice for her beloved master, Prince Calaf.

Performance Info

Customers must exchange their voucher on the day of the performance.

Ticket exchange area will be announced at End of December.

Transfer Times

The 'Transfer to the Opera' has got fixed departure times. However, the exact times will be decided upon by March .

Last years departure times were Torri @ 5:30pm, Garda @ 5:45pm & Bardolino @ 5:55pm most likely they wont change but the final decision will not be made before March.

The legendary, unforgettable musical, The Phantom of the Opera traces the tragic love story of a beautiful opera singer and a young composer shamed by his physical appearance into a shadowy existence beneath the majestic Paris Opera House. A newly installed state of the art digital sound system now makes Andrew Lloyd Webber’s spine-tingling score sound better than ever.

The combination of opulent sets and costumes, and fabulous special effects creates a theatrical experience not to be missed. Now entering its 24th year in London’s West End.

“Remains the most exciting musical in London” - Daily Mail

Duration: [2hr 30m]

PLEASE NOTE: Due to the staging of Phantom of the Opera, all seats may have restricted view during parts of the performance. Pillar seats in the Stalls and Royal Circle and the side seats in the Grand Circle are particularly affected.

Conductor: P. najdr
Costume designer: J. Jelnek
Stage director: P. Kracik
Choreography: P. umbala
Set designer: P. aneck
II. conductor: T. Karlovi
Chorus master: T. Karlovi
Assistant director: O. Kyndlov, P. Jirsa
Assistant choreographer: J. Nmeek
Music: E. Klmn, F. Lehr, J. Strauss ml.

Evening entitled Vivat operetta! has been prepared by the ballet and opera company of State Opera Prague for those spectators who lack classical operetta in the Prague theatre world.

You can look forward to the best known melodies, arias, choirs and ballets by Franz Lehr, Emmerich Klmn and Johann Strauss Jr., performed by leading opera and ballet soloists.

Director Petr Krack has decided to stage the second and third act from The Land of Laughs operetta and the first act from Countess Marica.

The second half will take you to Prince Orlofskys Ball (the second act of Die Fledermaus), in which there will be famous guests performing popular scenes from the best known operas and classical ballet.

Performance Info

* Tue, 6th April 2010, 7.00 PM
* Thu, 29th April 2010, 7.00 PM
* Sun, 2nd May 2010, 7.00 PM
* Sun, 20th June 2010, 4.00 PM

Customer must exchange voucher at: Bohemia Ticket, Na Prikope 16, Prague 1.

Staging team

Conductor: G. Tourniaire, F. Drs, J. trunc
Stage director: K. Jernek
Set designer: O. imek
Costume designer: O. Filipi
Chorus master: T. Karlovi
Assistant director: O. Kyndlov

Cast

Madama Butterfly (Cio-Cio-San): J. Burgetov, Ch. Vasileva
Suzuki, her maid: V. Hajnov Fialov, G. Ibragimova, A. Kalivodov, J. Skorov
Kate Pinkerton: S. mugrov, J. Levicov
F.B. Pinkerton, navy officer: T. ern, I. Jan, L. Mastro
Sharpless, US consul in Nagasaki: M. Brta, V. Sibera
Goro, match-maker: L. Havlk, J. Hruka, J. Ondrek
Prince Yamadori: M. Matouek, J. Ondrek
Uncle Bonzo: O. Korotkov, F. Zahradnek
Yakuside: N. Nikolov, M. Svoboda
Imperial commissar: R. Vocel, R. Przn
Librarian: S. Lehmann, M. Voknek
Mother of Cio-Cio-San: K. Duganov, L. Hadaov, J. Zichov
Aunt: J. Holubov, L. Hilscherov
Cousin: S. Koczianov, D. Radosa

The opera is based on an American writers novel, written according to a true event. The composer found everything he needed in the story of Cio-Cio-Sans unhappy love a sentimental story, sharp plot contrasts, exotic setting, action and tenderness.

The spiritual background of the opera is the meeting of two cultures in the character of Pinkerton (as the cynical representative of the superior white race) and a young Japanese girl.

The music of Madam Butterfly shows great mastery in giving a true picture of the atmosphere and poetry of the orient, even though it is borne by Puccinis own harmonious devices.

Performed in Italian with Czech and English captions.

Performance Info

* Fri, 12th March 2010, 7.00 PM
* Sat, 24th April 2010, 7.00 PM
* Fri, 14th May 2010, 7.00 PM
* Wed, 9th June 2010, 7.00 PM
* Tue, 31st August 2010, 7.00 PM
* Tue, 19th October 2010, 7.00 PM
* Fri, 12th November 2010, 7.00PM
* Fri, 10th December 2010, 7.00PM
* Wed, 29th December 2010, 7.00PM
* Tue, 22nd February 2011, 7.00PM
* Fri, 4th March 2011, 7.00PM
* Thur, 31st March 2011, 7.00PM
* Fri, 20th May 2011, 7.00PM
* Wed, 15th June 2011, 7.00PM

Running Time: 2hrs 35mins with 1 intermission

Customer must exchange voucher at: Bohemia Ticket, Na Prikope 16, Prague 1.

An opera by Francesco Cavalli. The opera, consisting of a prologue and three acts, was first performed at Venice in the January of 1654, at the Teatro SS Giovanni e Paolo.

Il barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville) is an opera buffa in two acts by Gioachino Rossini with a libretto by Cesare Sterbini. The première (under the title Almaviva, or the Useless Precaution) took place on 20 February 1816 at the Teatro Argentina, Rome and though an infamous flop, The Barber of Seville has become a standard of comic opera repertory.

An opera in five acts by Composer Giuseppe Verdi.

Rodion Shchedrin composed Anna Karenina in 1972 and dedicated it to his wife, Maya Plisetskaya, who choreographed the first production of the ballet for the Moscow Bolshoi Theatre. Whatever visions of the producers, Anna Karenina is first of all, a work by Lev Tolstoy. The ballet deals solely with the main theme of Tolstoy's epic novel - the love question, Anna Karenina's existential dilemma.

She is emotionally torn between her husband, the civil servant Karenin, and her love, the charming Vronsky. With her husband she lives a proper and ethical life, a life where she enjoys the highest social regard, and a life - most importantly - with her dearest infant son. But it is also a life without any passion, a life where she is hardly more than a piece of furniture to her husband. Passion is the domain of Vronsky, but while her emotions may circumvent the social conventions - a rather daring proposition at the time - the question is whether her passionate love of Vronsky can circumvent her being a mother. Shchedrin's score is penetrating in a dramatic expression of feelings. For Tolstoy's characters do not only act out; they contemplate, question and reflect as much… The score which ideally taps into the dramatic atmosphere, renders brilliant musical characterizations and manifests emotional intensity has proved an excellent score and guide of inspiration for the creative team.

In 1975, the ballet was first seen in Lithuania. The Bolshoi's production was put on at the LNOBT stage by the same creative team including choreographers Maya Plisetskaya, Natalia Ryzhenko and Viktor Smirnov-Golovanov and designer Valery Levental. The cast was led by a Lithuanian conductor, Jonas Aleksa. One of the most innovative productions of the day, Anna Karenina fascinated the audiences with the dance of Maya Plisetskaya and Lithuanian ballet stars such like Nina Antonova and Svetlana Masaniova (Anna), Vytautas Kudzma and Raimundas Minderis (Vronsky), Voldemaras Chlebinskas and Jonas Katakinas (Karenin).

Anna Karenina returns to the LNOBT in a version created for the Royal Danish Ballet by a young choreographer Alexei Ratmansky and designer Mikael Melbye. The performers of the leading roles include Egle Spokaite, Miki Hamanaka, Nerijus Juska, Aurimas Paulauskas, Vytautas Kudzma and Evardas Smalakys.

Booking Info:

2009 Season - Times to be announced

With this exclusive packaged hotel deal you recieve ticket(s) to a "Arena Di Verona" event, and accommodation at the luxury hotel of your choice.

See inside the world's most recognisable sails. Experience this miracle of architecture and engineering. A work of art that came into existence against impossible odds - to become one of the busiest performing arts centres in the world. Working with new, rich audio-visual components, our guides will take you on an emotional journey, engrossing you in a story to rival any opera plot with its dramatic twists and turns.Visit at least one of our venues. Some 1,500 performances, from opera to circus, rock and cabaret, are staged each year to audiences of around 1.5 million. Tours last 1 hour.

Tour info

Tour Times: Tours run daily every 30 mins from 9am-5pm.
Running Time: 1 Hour

Please note: Please procced to Guided Tours desk located in the Box Office foyer for voucher redemption - All bags larger than A4 size must be cloaked.

The combination of opera performance, fine cuisine and the ambience of a World Heritage listed building has created a High Tea experience worthy of a standing ovation. Under the world's most famous sails, there is an elegant dining room boasting spectacular views of Sydney's skyline, sparkling harbour and the Royal Botanic Gardens. Celebrated Chef, Guillaume Brahimi, has created a sophisticated High Tea in quintessential Sydney style. You will be welcomed with a glass of fine Australian sparkling wine and presented with an assortment of beautiful teas, exquisite savouries, pastries and petit fours. The crescendo of this perfect Sydney afternoon is an intimate performance by an acclaimed opera singer that will leave you entranced. High Tea is held every Wednesday from 2-4pm.

Times: Every Wednesday @ 2pm-4pm

April: 7th &21st
May: 5th & 19th
June: 16th

Running Time: 2 Hours

Please procced to Guided Tours desk located in the Box Office foyer for voucher redemption - All bags larger than A4 size must be cloaked.

This intimate tour gives you an exclusive insight into the inner workings of the building, and gain access normally reserved for performers and crew. See the Concert Hall stage from the conductor's perspective. Sit in the orchestra's pit. Stand where legends such as Dame Joan Sutherland and Pavarotti have performed. Get inside the stars' dressing rooms. Includes a full breakfast in the Green Room.

Tour Info

Times: Daily from 7am
Running Time: 2 hours

Please procced to Stage Door for voucher redemption - All bags larger than A4 size must be cloaked.

Sylvia, originally Sylvia ou La Nymphe de Diane, is a full-length ballet in two or three acts, first choreographed by Louis Mérante to music by Léo Delibes in 1876. Sylvia is a typical classical ballet in many respects, yet it has many interesting features which make it unique. Sylvia is notable for its mythological Arcadian setting, creative choreographies, expansive sets and, above all, its remarkable score.

Elektra is a one-act opera by Richard Strauss, to a German-language libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal adapted from his drama of 1903—the first of many such collaborations between composer and librettist.

An opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi with libretto by Temistocle Solera and based on the biblical story and the play by Anicet-Bourgeois and Francis Cornu. It premiered on 9 March 1842 at La Scala in Milan.

The Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra is the oldest and most illustrious of Hungary's orchestras. It was founded in 1853 by Hungarian composer Ferenc Erkel, who led the orchestra until 1871. He was followed by Hans Richter (1871 - 1875), Sándor Erkel (1875 - 1900), István Kerner (1900 - 1918), and Ernst von Dohnányi (1919 - 1944). Since World War II, music directors have included Otto Klemperer, János Ferencsik, András Kórody, and Rico Saccani. Composers such as Liszt, Brahms, Goldmark, Mahler, Bartók, Kodály, and Dohnányi all wrote works for the orchestra. The members are chosen from among the best players at the Budapest Opera House. The orchestra performs in this opera house, where it offers one of the longest-running programs of subscription concerts in Europe (since 1853).

L’elisir d’amore (The Love Potion or The Elixir of Love) is an opera in two acts by Gaetano Donizetti, with libretto by Felice Romani. It was composed in 1832 and premiered on 12 May 1832 at the Teatro Canobbiana in Milan.

Onegin is a ballet in three acts choreographed by John Cranko to music by Tchaikovsky and from Alexander Pushkin’s narrative poem, Eugene Onegin. Onegin was premiered by Stuttgart Ballet in 1965.

Conductor: O. Lenrd
Stage director: O. Havelka
Set designer: M. ern
Costume designer: J. Zboilov
Choreography: J. Hanuov
II. conductor: J. trunc
Cooperation: Khnv dtsk sbor

Rodolfo: T. ern, J. Garca
Schaunard: J. Hjek, F. Zahradnek
Benoit: P. ervinka, B. Mark
Mimi: Ch. Vasileva, P. Vykopalov
Marcello: M. Brta, S. Sem
Colline: I. Hrachovec, J. Sulenko
Alcindoro: L. Havlk, D. Janota
Musetta: J. Sibera, M. Vyskvorkina
Parpignol: J. Hruka, J. Ondrek
Serant: T. Kyndl, F. Ryav

The final decade of the 19th century witnessed the emergence of new themes in the world of Italian opera, inspired by the realistic literary production of the period.

Having shed the limitations of Romantic idealization, Emile Zolas naturalistic writing aspired to portraying the world with all its dark sides and suffering, an approach which had its parallel in opera in Verismo, a movement characterized by emphasis on subjects dominated by passions, and plots climaxing more often than not with violent, tragic endings.

Ranking among the most brilliant manifestations of Verismo are Giacomo Puccinis Manon Lescaut, La boheme, Tosca, and Madama Butterfly.

The book by Paris artist and author Henry Murger, Scenes de la vie de boheme, first published in 1851, was exceptionally successful, and Puccini became immediately aware of its immense dramatic potential.

The moving story of love between the poet, Rodolfo, and Mimi, a tender young woman too delicate to be able to enjoy a long life, combined with a story of friendship of four young artists at Montmartre, was indeed an ideal theme for an opera. The libretto was supplied by the tandem of leading Verismo opera writers, Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, with whom the composer had first collaborated on Manon Lescaut, and whose services he was yet to seek, after La boheme, also for Tosca and Madama Butterfly.

La boheme was premiered at Turins Teatro Regio, on February 1, 1896, with Arturo Toscanini conducting. The works seeming lightness, standing in stark contrast to the then still dominant Wagnerian style, at first confused the audience and critics alike, and the first night passed to cool reception. Two months later, however, its presentation at Palermo was already a triumph.

In this opera in the same way as subsequently in Madama Butterfly or Turandot Puccini gave proof of his mastery at capturing local colour in music; Debussy reportedly said he didnt know of anyone who would have achieved a more fitting musical portrayal of Paris in those days than did Puccini.

The first production staged in what is today the home of the Prague State Opera took place on May 3, 1908 (at the then New German Theatre), since when it has received another seven new stagings. The coming production of La boheme will be directed by actor and singer Ondej Havelka who already has to his credit two successful productions: Martin Smolkas opera, Nagano, at the National Theatre in Prague (2004), and Smetanas The Bartered Bride, Puccinis Gianni Schicchi and Leoncavallos I pagliacci at the National Theatre in Brno (2006, 2008).

Performance Info

* Sun, 4th April 2010, 7.00 PM
* Fri, 16th April 2010, 7.00 PM
* Sat, 1st May 2010, 7.00 PM
* Fri, 28th May 2010, 7.00 PM
* Fri, 11th June 2010, 7.00 PM
* Wed, 8th September 2010, 7.00 PM
* Tue, 28th September 2010, 7.00 PM
* Fri, 8th October 2010, 7.00 PM
* Sat, 16th October 2010, 7.00 PM
* Sat, 30th October 2010, 7.00 PM
* Sat, 20th November 2010, 7.00 PM
* Sat, 4th December 2010, 7.00 PM
* Fri, 18th March 2011, 7.00 PM
* Fri, 1st April 2011, 7.00 PM
* Sat, 16th April 2011, 7.00 PM
* Sun, 24th April 2011, 7.00 PM
* Sat, 21st May 2011, 7.00 PM
* Thurs, 2nd June 2011, 7.00PM
* Sat, 18th June 2011, 7.00PM

Running Time: 2 hours 45 minutes with 1 intermission

Customer must exchange voucher at: Bohemia Ticket, Na Prikope 16, Prague 1.

La Cenerentola (Cinderella) is an opera (drama giocoso) in two acts by Gioachino Rossini, with libretto by Giacomo Ferretti, after Charles Perrault’s tale Cendrillon. It premiered on 25 January 1817 at the Teatro Valle in Rome.

La Cenerentola/Askungen
 
La Cenerentola, ossia La bontà in trionfo (Cinderella, or Goodness Triumphant) is an operatic dramma giocoso in two acts by Gioachino Rossini. The libretto was written by Jacopo Ferretti, based on the fairy tale Cinderella. The opera was first performed in Rome's Teatro Valle on 25 January 1817.
 
Rossini composed La Cenerentola when he was 25 years old, following the success of The Barber of Seville the year before. La Cenerentola, which he completed in a period of three weeks, is considered to have some of his finest writing for solo voice and ensembles. Rossini saved some time by reusing an overture from La gazzetta and part of an aria from The Barber of Seville and by enlisting a collaborator, Luca Agolini, who wrote the secco recitatives and three numbers (Alidoro's "Vasto teatro e il mondo", Clorida's "Sventurata!" and the chorus "Ah, della bella incognita.") The facsimile edition of the autograph has a different aria for Alidoro, "Fa silencio; odi un rumore"; this seems to have been added by an anonymous hand for a 1818 production. For a 1820 revival in Rome Rossini wrote a bravura replacement, "La del ciel nel l'arcanno profondo". The light, energetic overture has been in the standard repertoire since its premiere as La Cenerentola.
 

Staging team Conductor: F. Drs, R. Hein, M. Keprt
Stage director: K. Jernek
Set designer: Z. Kol
Costume designer: O. Filipi
Choreography: D. Wiesner
Chorus master: T. Karlovi
Assistant director: O. Kyndlov

Cast

Duke of Mantua: T. ern, M. Lehotsk, . Ludha, L. Mastro, V. Prolat, N. Vinjakov
Rigoletto, court jester: M. Cavalcanti, R. Haan, V. Chmelo, I. Kusnjer
Gilda, his daughter: H. Jonov, J. Sibera, S. Houda-aturov, A. Todorova, D. Vaktov, M. Vyskvorkina
Sparafucile: M. Brger, I. Hrachovec, L. Hynek-Krmer, L. Mlejnek
Maddalena, his sister: S. mugrov, G. Ibragimova, A. Kalivodov, J. Skorov
Giovanna, Gildas companion: E. Jarkovsk, L. Hilscherov, J. Makov
Count Monterone: O. Korotkov, J. Kruglov
Courtiers: Marullo: O. K
Courtiers: Borsa: L. Havlk, J. Hruka
Count Ceprano: M. Hork, I. Hrachovec, L. Hynek-Krmer, R. Vocel
Countess Ceprano: E. Jarkovsk, J. Makov
Page: P. Bichov, . Knetov, G. Peinov

Verdi was highly captivated by the possibility of bringing a hunchback on stage, a cripple with derision on his lips, tears in his eyes and anxiety in his soul.

A person, who knows well enough his doings are wrong, apprehending all the more the curse fallen on his head. Rigoletto is a tragedy of social injustice and inequality, which is evident both in the title character of the jester as well as in the explicit portrayal of the wanton lifestyle of the nobility.

The masterful opera works of G. Verdi, most characteristic by their drama and melody, still remain part of the core repertory of all of the worlds opera stages.

The 2007/08 season will bring a revival of this production of Leoncavallos La boheme, in a streamlined version involving a new music direction.

Performed in Italian with Czech and English captions.

Performance Info

* Wed, 28th April 2010, 7.00 PM
* Wed, 19th May 2010, 7.00 PM
* Tue, 8th June 2010, 7.00 PM
* Tue, 24th August 2010, 7.00 PM
* Tue, 12th October 2010, 7.00 PM
* Fri, 21st January 2011, 7pm
* Sat, 9th April 2011, 7.00PM
* Tue, 24th May 2011, 7.00PM

Running Time: 2hr 20 mins with 2 intermissions

Customer must exchange voucher at: Bohemia Ticket, Na Prikope 16, Prague 1.

A disfigured musical genius haunts the catacombs beneath the Paris Opera and exerts strange control over a lovely young soprano. Based on "Le Fantome de L'Opera" by Gaston Leroux. Score includes: "Music of the Night," "Angel of Music," "Think of Me" and the title song. Andrew Lloyd Webber's smash musicalization of the Gaston Leroux novel won the 1988 Tony Award for Best Musical.

Running Time: Two hours and 30 minutes with one 15-minute intermission

Performance Times:

Monday: 8pm

Tuesday: 7pm

Wednesday - Saturday: 8pm

Wednesday and Saturday: 2pm

Staging team

Musical arrangement: E. Dovico
Conductor: E. Dovico
Stage director: M. Otava
Set designer: J. Zavarsk
Costume designer: B. Kirste
II. Conductor: M. Keprt
Assistant director: L. Cukr, T. Hinterholzinger

Cast

Barbiere: V. Chmelo, V. Sibera
Almaviva: A. Briscein, J. Bezina, M. rejma
Bartolo: P. Kleka, J. Sulenko
Rosina: H. Jonov, S. Houda-aturov, L. Vernerov, P. Vykopalov
Basilio: I. Hrachovec, L. Mlejnek, A. Plachetka
Berta: S. mugrov, L. Hilscherov, J. Levicov
Fiorillo: M. Hork, O. K
Ofiziale: D. Janota, L. Koverdynsk
Ambrogio: J. Darebnk, J. Honc, M. Svoboda

Who would not know the most famous barber of all time: Figaro, who masterfully commands both his razor and his gorgeous shrewdness that helps Count Almavivo win over his beloved Rosina? Love, tricks and intrigues are the ingredients of Rossinis masterful comic opera.

The sparkling charms of his score, spectacular virtuoso parts performed by the main characters: playful Rosina with her bravura coloraturas and temperamental Figaro as well as the penetrative tempo that the story ticks away with, have ensured the Barber of Seville a permanent place on the global repertoire.

Today, hardly anybody would believe that its first night in Rome on February 20, 1816 turned into one of the biggest scandals in the history of opera! The opera exuberates with irresistible comic scenes; still, there also is a more serious note: for example in the aria about slander by Don Basilio, the music teacher, that has not lost its bitter validity to this very day.

However, the author of the story, the famous French dramatist Pierre Beaumarchais, wrote that he had in the first place intended to indulge in his merry temperament and to give back to theatre its original joyful mood.

Rossinis score immediately supported this intention, and also the new staging by the Prague State Opera has had this goal in mind.

Performed in Italian with Czech and English captions

Performance Info

* Thu, 8th April 2010, 7.00 PM
* Wed, 16th June 2010, 7.00 PM
* Wed, 13th October 2010, 7.00 PM
* Thu, 21st October 2010, 7.00 PM
* Thu, 2nd December 2010, 7.00 PM
* Wed, 23rd March 2011, 7.00PM
* Wed, 27th April 2011, 7.00PM
* Wed, 18th May 2011, 7.00PM

Running Time: 3hrs with 1 intermission

Customer must exchange voucher at: Bohemia Ticket, Na Prikope 16, Prague 1.

The work was made to order (commissioned by the Egyptian viceroy and opera lover Ismail Pasha) for the ceremonial opening of the Suez Canal (November 17, 1869), although Verdi only started writing it after its opening.

Verdi endowed the story of the Ethiopian princess Aida, imprisoned as a slave at the court of Egyptian pharaohs and living out her tragic amorous relationship to an Egyptian chieftain, with fervent music. He created a musical drama full of fairy-tale fantasy yet at the same time realistically convincing. Aida became one of the most renowned opera works ever.

Running time: 2 hours 45 minutes with 1 intermission Performed in Italian with Czech and English captions

With this exclusive packaged hotel deal you can choose from the range of "Phantom of the Opera" theatre tickets and choose your duration at our selection of London hotels.

Lloyd Webber's romantic musical is based on Gaston Leroux's gothic novel of life beneath the stage of the Paris Opera House. A mysterious masked man falls in love with Christine, a singer who inspires The Music of the Night.

Running Time: [2hr 30m]

PLEASE NOTE: Due to the staging of Phantom of the Opera, all seats may have restricted view during parts of the performance. Pillar seats in the Stalls and Royal Circle and the side seats in the Grand Circle are particularly affected.

One of the most visually spectacular opera stagings of recent decades, ENO's London premiere production of Philip Glass's Satyagraha broke all Company box-office records for contemporary opera when it was first seen in 2007. Instilled with breath-taking theatrical flair by Improbable's award-winning director-designer partnership of Phelim McDermott and Julian Crouch, it went on to enjoy equal success at the Metropolitan Opera, New York. A mesmerisingly hypnotic musical meditation upon Mahatma Gandhi's early years in South Africa, and his spiritual progress towards the concept of non-violent protest, Glass's operatic masterpiece now returns to the London Coliseum. Alan Oke repeats his compelling central performance as the young political activist taking the first tentative steps in his lifelong search for truth.
Performed in Sanskrit with English surtitles
Original production supported by The 20/20 Group
A collaboration with Improbable
A co-production with The Metropolitan Opera, New York

9 performances. Running time: 3hrs 15mins
M. K. Gandhi Alan Oke; Miss Schlesen Elena Xanthoudakis; Mrs Naidoo Janis Kelly; Kasturbai Stephanie Marshall; Mrs Alexander Anne Mason; Mr Kallenbach Ashley Holland; Prince Arjuna Robert Poulton; Lord Krishna/Parsi Rustomji James Gower
Director Phelim McDermott; Associate Director/Designer Julian Crouch; Revival Director David Kneuss; Costume Designer Kevin Pollard; Lighting Designer Paule Constable; Video Designers Leo Warner and Mark Grimmer for Fifty Nine Productions
Please note:
Sung in Sunskrit.
No English surtitles.

Welcome new year with music, smile and esprit of operetta and after the performance dance on the stage with wellknown swing orchestra and sing with the most beautiful evergreens.

A GALA EVENING at Prague States Opera starts on 31 December at 8.00pm

Gold Buffet Dinner includes:
A grand buffet with Specialities from Norway to Italy, France to Thailand - oysters, scallops, Parma ham, Norwegian Shrimps,beef fillet, Scottish smoked salmon, French duck liver pate, a selection of cheeses, fresh and exotic fruit platters and of course Full De luxe Bar with No Limits

The Prague State Opera resides in the building which on January 5, 1888 was opened as a Prague German stage. The author of idea - German Theater Association - charged the Vienna atelier of Fellner and Hellmer with a project. Also sharing in the design was the architect of the Vienna Municipal Theater, Karl Hasenauer,

With its spacious auditorium and neo-Rococo decoration, this theater building is among the most beautiful in Europe.

Performance Info

Times: 8pm

Customer must exchange voucher at: Bohemia Ticket, Na Prikope 16, Prague 1.

Carmen is an opera comique in four acts by Georges Bizet with libretto by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the story of the same title by Prosper Mérimée.

The opera premiered at the Opéra Comique of Paris on 3 March 1875, denounced by critics as "immoral" and "superficial".

An opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini with libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa and based on Victorien Sardou's drama, La Tosca. It premiered at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 14 January 1900.

A beautiful square in Seville with a cigarette factory, a guard house, and a bridge. Morales and the soldiers are on guard, very bored ("Sur la place, Chacun passe").
Micala appears seeking Jos, her fianc, but is accosted by the impudent soldiers who desire her company, causing her to run away. As Jos approaches with the new guard, he and the soldiers are imitated by the street-children ("Avec la garde montante").

The cigarette girls emerge from the factory, greeted by their men ("La cloche a sonn"). Carmen appears, and all the men ask her when she will love them ("Quand je vous aimerai?"). She replies that she loves the man that does not love her in the famous Habanera. ("L'amour est un oiseau rebelle"). When asked to choose a lover, she throws a flower in front of Jos ("Carmen! sur tes pas, nous nous pressons tous!"). Jos is temporarily transfixed until Micala brings him a letter and kiss from his mother ("Parle-moi de ma mre!").

Jos longingly thinks of his home. As soon as she leaves, screams are heard from the factory and the women run out, singing chaotically ("Au secours! Au secours!"). Don Jos and his superior, Zuniga find that Carmen has been fighting with another woman, and slashed her face with a knife.

Zuniga attempts to interrogate Carmen who impudently sings a folk song, ignoring him ("Tra la la"). Zuniga instructs Jos to arrest her, and escort her to the gaol. Carmen seduces Jos with a Seguidilla ("Prs des remparts de Sville"), and convinces Jos to let her escape. Jos is arrested for letting Carmen escape.

Performance Info

Customers must exchange their voucher on the day of the performance.

Ticket exchange area will be announced at End of December.

An opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, with libretto by Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica, based on David Belasco’s play Madame Butterfly, which in turn is based on a short story by John Luther Long.

The work was made to order (commissioned by the Egyptian viceroy and opera lover Ismail Pasha) for the ceremonial opening of the Suez Canal (November 17, 1869), although Verdi only started writing it after its opening.

Verdi endowed the story of the Ethiopian princess Aida, imprisoned as a slave at the court of Egyptian pharaohs and living out her tragic amorous relationship to an Egyptian chieftain, with fervent music. He created a musical drama full of fairy-tale fantasy yet at the same time realistically convincing. Aida became one of the most renowned opera works ever.

Performance Info

Customers must exchange their voucher on the day of the performance.

Ticket exchange area will be announced at End of December.

Magistic Cruises will redefine your harbour dining experience as you enjoy a seafood lunch buffet aboard this luxury restaurant afloat. Dine in contemporary, air conditioned surroundings, sip a cool drink from the bar and view the sights of Sydney Harbour such as the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the Opera House, Fort Denison, Luna Park and Sydney's million dollar waterfront mansions.

A popular choice for locals and visitors alike, this exquisite buffet serves an array of fresh local seafood, hot and cold dishes, salads, desserts, cheeses and fruit. Non seafood diners and vegetarians will be equally impressed.

At Magistic we value freshness and we are the only cruise operators on Sydney Harbour that insists all our menu's are freshly prepared onboard in our modern galleys.

So escape the ordinary and enjoy a lavish buffet lunch cruise on beautiful Sydney Harbour with Magistic Cruises!

MENU

- Fresh prawns with tomato mayonnaise
- Sydney rock oysters with green mango chutney
- Platter of cured meat with cherry & beetroot relish
- Steamed chicken hokkien style with ginger & soy
- Sirloin stroganoff with sour cream & chives
- Thai red curry
- Mediterranean vegetable frittata
- Potato, caulifower & broccoli with white wine cream sauce
- Steamed rice
- Create your own caesar salad
- Green bean & shaved egg salad with almonds
- Potato salad with light pesto mayonnaise
- Spinach & walnut salad with nashi pears & citrus
- Vermicelli & prawn salad with asian greens
- Tossed green salad
- Fresh selection of bread
- Deluxe cheese display with crackers
- Selection of desserts
- Fresh fruit

Indicative menu only, items subject to change without notice.

DRINKS MENU - Available for purchase on board

Beers
- Crown Lager
- Asahi
- Tooheys Extra Dry
- Cascade Light
- Corona

Spirits
- Bacardi, Brandy, Bourbon,
- Bundaberg Rum, Gin, Scotch, Vodka
- Premium Spirits
- Jack Daniels, Jim Beam,
- Ouzo, Southern Comfort, Tequila,
- Johnnie Walker Black Label Mini-bottle (50ml)

Liqueurs
- Baileys, Cointreau, Kahlua, Malibu,
- Midori, Sambucca, Tia Maria
- Breezers and Cruisers
- Barcardi & Lime or Vodka & Orange

Soft Drinks
- Cola, Diet Cola, Ginger Ale,
- Lemonde, Lemon Squash
- Juices
- Apple, Orange, Tomato, Pineapple,
- Red Grapefruit
- Mineral Water (Bottled)
- San Pellegrino Sparkling Italian Water 500ml
- Aqua Panna Still Italian Water 500ml

Rigoletto is paid to keep his master laughing, but the Duke’s lechery for the innocent Gilda turns Rigoletto from spiteful joker to desperate father. Verdi paints his characters’ transformations with a cascade of brilliant arias and ensembles, in a return of one of Opera Australia’s best-loved productions.

Opera Australia is thrilled to welcome back one of Britain's most distinguished baritones to make his Australian role debut. Alan Opie is a regular guest at New York's Metropolitan Opera, La Scala, Milan and the Royal Opera House. He now brings his celebrated interpretation of Rigoletto to the Sydney Opera House for the first time.

The award winning Opera Australia Chorus is ready to launch into Verdi's rousing choruses, Emma Matthews plays Gilda, and in the role of the dangerously sexy Duke of Mantua we introduce Australian tenor Paul O'Neill. As for the deadly assassin Sparafucile, the dark voiced David Parkin, winner of Operatunity Oz, steps back into the role as a fully fledged member of the Opera Australia ensemble.

Venue: Opera Theatre
Dates: 18 September – 4 November
Duration: two hours and forty-five minutes including two twenty-minute intervals.

The inimitable Anthony Warlow dons his cutlass for another voyage as Gilbert & Sullivan’s foot-stomping, wise-cracking, feel-good show sails back into town, complete with its crazy cartoons, swashbuckling heroes and dainty heroines, performed by the stars of Opera Australia.

Some pirates sail the Caribbean. Some search for buried treasure. Some do all kinds of terrible deeds, but not these ones. Prepare to meet the soppiest, silliest set of pirates that ever were, led by a Pirate King who loves to sing.

Gilbert and Sullivan's fifth collaboration has long been high on the list of all-time favourites, but no one could have predicted the runaway success of this production, directed by Stuart Maunder and designed by Roger Kirk.

If you didn't see Pirates the first time round, this is your chance to see a show the whole of Australia loved. If you did see it, you'll know to bring the family to enjoy favourites like 'Poor wand'ring one', 'A policeman's lot is not a happy one' and 'Hurrah for the Pirate King', performed with zest and style by the stars of Opera Australia.

Venue: Opera Theatre
Dates: 25 August – 6 November
Duration: two hours and ten minutes including one twenty minute interval.

Laurent Pelly’s fabulously entertaining production of La Fille du règiment was the hottest ticket in town when it was first staged early in 2007. The wonderful combination of great performance, stylish design and irreverently witty production are all ready for this first revival by The Royal Opera, and Bruno Campanella once more conducts Donizetti’s lively and memorable masterpiece to bring out all its undeniable lyrical charm. Many of the original cast return for their roles, so Natalie Dessay will once more be singing fabulous coloratura while ironing the regimental smalls — just one of a host of musical and stage moments from start to finish that has had the audience laughing out loud.
 
The story has all the elements of comic coincidence and timely discovery as our tomboy heroine is forced into more ladylike circles suitable to her aristocratic birth. But while a judicious society wedding may be the intention of some, this heroine is far too spirited to give in to any wishes but those of her own heart.This is not a revival to miss if you like great singing of virtuosic showpieces, with a star cast and every number beautifully honed to hit its target — sometimes touching, sometimes lyrical, but always a delight. And in this inspired production, it is a truly memorable night of sheer fun with The Royal Opera.

Running Time: 2 hours 45 minutes

Conductor: Bruno Campanella

Director: Laurent Pelly
Set designs: Chantal Thomas
Costume designs: Laurent Pelly
Lighting: Joël Adam
Choreography: Laura Scozzi

Casting
Marie: Natalie Dessay
Tonio: Juan Diego Flórez (11, 14 mat, 18, 20, 23, 25, 29 Jan, 1 Feb)
Colin Lee (27 January)
La Marquise de Berkenfeld: Felicity Palmer
Sulpice Pingot: Alessandro Corbelli
Hortensius: Donald Maxwell

Macbeth is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi, composed originally between 1846 and 1847, although was revised between 1864 and 1865. The original libretto was by Francesco Maria Piave (with additions by Andrea Maffei), after the tragedy of the same name by William Shakespeare and the revised libretto by Charles Nuittier Alexander Beaumont. It premiered at the Teatro della Pergola in Florence on 14 March 1847 and the revised version at the Théâtre-Lyrique in Paris on 21 April 1865.

Tosca is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, based on Victorien Sardou's drama, La Tosca.

The Most Excellent and Lamentable Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, commonly referred to as Romeo and Juliet, is a play by William Shakespeare concerning the fate of two young lovers who would do anything to be together. It is, perhaps, the most famous of his plays and undoubtedly the most famous love story in Western history.

Parsifal is an opera in three acts written and composed by Richard Wagner between 1865 and 1882. It premiered at the Festspielhaus in Bayreuth on 26 July 1882.

Don Giovanni (also known as The Rake Punished) is an opera in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with libretto by Lorenzo da Ponte, after Giovanni Bertati’s opera Don Giovanni Tenorio, o sia Il convitato di pietra. It was composed in 1787 and premiered on 29 October at The Estates Theatre in Prague, conducted by the composer himself.

Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (The Mastersingers of Nuremberg) is an opera in three acts, written and composed by Richard Wagner. It is one of the most popular operas in the repertory, and the longest still commonly performed today, usually taking around five hours. It was first performed at the Königliches Hof- und National-Theater, Munich, on June 21, 1868. The conductor at the premiere was Hans von Bülow.

The story takes place in Nuremberg during the middle of the 16th century. At the time, Nuremberg was an Imperial Free City, and one of the centers of the Renaissance in Northern Europe. The story revolves around the real-life guild of Meistersinger (Master Singers), an association of amateur poets and musicians, mostly from the middle class and often master craftsmen in their main professions.

The Meistersingers developed a craftsmanlike approach to music-making, with an intricate system of rules for composing and performing songs. The work draws much of its charm from its faithful depiction of the Nuremberg of the era and the traditions of the Meistersinger guild. One of the main characters, the cobbler-poet Hans Sachs, is based on an actual historical figure: Hans Sachs (1494 — 1576), the most famous of the historical Meistersingers. Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg occupies a unique place in Wagner's oeuvre.

It is the only comedy among his mature operas, and the only one centered on a historically well-defined time and place rather than a mythical or legendary setting. It is the only mature Wagner opera to be based on an entirely original story, devised by Wagner himself. It incorporates many of the operatic conventions that Wagner had railed against in his essays on the theory of opera: rhymed verse, arias, choruses, a ballet, and even a quintet (the celebrated Meistersinger Quintet).

"Even if you think you've seen The Phantom of the Opera before, believe me, you've never seen it like this." - Toronto Star

PHANTOM - The Las Vegas Spectacular is an all-new 95–minute production that includes every song from the original and reunites Andrew Lloyd Webber, Hal Prince and others from the show’s original creative team. This lavish production was named the “#1 show in Las Vegas” by the Las Vegas Review Journal and continues to thrill audiences night after night.

From the moment you enter the magnificent $40 million custom-built theatre, you are in the storied Paris Opera House and part of The Phantom's world and all its signature songs, lyrics, costumes, and more. With spectacular sets, new illusions and a breathtaking chandelier experience unlike anything you have ever seen, PHANTOM is a can't-miss experience that promises surprises that will astound new audiences and loyal PHANTOM fans alike, and it’s only at The Venetian. Get your tickets today!

"An only-in-Vegas thrill ride!" - USA Today

"There's no longer any reason to see this show anywhere else." - Chicago Tribune

In the inner courtyard of his place, the tetrarch Herod Antipas, ruler of Galilee and Peraea by the grace of the Roman Emperor, holds the prophet Jokanaan captive and sealed off from the world. As the head of an oppositional sect, Jokanaan poses a political danger to the tetrarch. The prophet attacks the dissolute life of the rulers. But Herod, secretly in fear of the prophet, is unwilling to have him put to death.

A banquet is held in the palace. Salome, daughter of Herod’s second wife Herodias from her first marriage, flees the celebrations. When she hears the prophet’s voice, she longs to see him. She wheedles the captain Narraboth into disobeying the tetrarch’s orders and fetching the prisoner out of the cistern in which he is imprisoned. She is fascinated by Jokanaan’s stance, which seems like the antithesis of the mode of life of her own surroundings. But she knows only one way to identify with the new: that of taking sexual possession. Jokanaan refuses her advances.

Searching for Salome, Herod arrives in the courtyard with Herodias and his entourage. He asks Salome to dance for him, swearing to give her whatever she wants. After the dance, Salome demands the head of Jokanaan. The tetrarch, aghast at the prospect of execution, offers her jewels and other treasures, but finally has to fulfill his oath and her desire. The executioner brings Salome Jokanaan’s head. Salome’s bloody revenge is followed by her realization that, with Jokanaan’s death, she has destroyed herself. Herod gives the order to kill Salome.

Performances Times

* 9th Oct 09 - 8pm
* 23rd Oct 09 - 8pm
* 10th Apr 10 - 6pm
* 17th Apr 10 - 8pm
* 23rd Apr 10 - 8pm

Conductor: E. Dovico, R. Hein, M. Keprt, F. Drs
Stage director: A. Bernard
Set designer: A. Camera
Costume designer: C. Ricotti
Choreography: G. Santucci
Lighting designer: P. Mes
Chorus master: T. Karlovi
Assistant director: O. Kyndlov

Cast

Violetta Valery: M. Vyskvorkina, M. Strauss Evrard, S. Prochzkov, A. Todorova, M. Fajtov
Flora Bervoix: S. mugrov, A. Miro, J. Levicov
Annina: E. Jarkovsk, D. Koklesov, J. Makov
Alfredo Germont: A. Briscein, T. ern, P. Do, L. Mastro, M. rejma
Giorgio Germont: M. Cavalcanti, V. Chmelo, M. Brta, S. Sem
Gaston: J. Moravec, L. Havlk, J. Hruka
Baron Douphol: R. Vocel, F. Zahradnek, O. K
Marquis dObigny: I. Hrachovec, M. Hork, L. Mlejnek
Doctor Grenvil: M. Brger, O. Korotkov, L. Hynek-Krmer

Verdis La traviata has figured on the repertoire of this opera house ever since its foundation, when the new company co-opted the production of Pragues German EstatesTheatre.

It then served chiefly as a vehicle for guest-appearances by illustrious international singers, including among others the legendary Australian soprano, Nellie Melby (April 18, 1900).

The first authentic new staging was mounted by the New German Theatre (todays Prague State Opera) on November 9, 1919, under the baton of Georg Szll, followed by a string of further productions, in 1930, 1934, 1945, 1959, 1979, and most recently, on October 7, 1982, which was directed by Ladislav tros, with sets designed by Vladimr Nvlt and costumes by Josef Jelnek. That production has since ranked alongside the Prague State Operas most successful titles, by the end of the 2005/2006 season reaching a total of 487 performances.

The new staging will be taken care of by an international creative team headed by the French director, Arnaud Bernard, whose projects in recent years have included productions of, among others, the operas, Romo et Juliette at Chicago, with Roberto Alagna and Angela Gheorghiu (1999); Lelisir damore at the Thtre du Capitole de Toulouse, with Marcelo Alvarez (2001); Lakm at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo; and Romo et Juliette in Tokyo (2003); Luisa Miller at the Nationale Reise Opera in the Netherlands; Romo et Juliette in Beijing; and Le Roi de Lahore in Venice (2004); and most recently, during the current season, La Boheme at the Arena of Verona.

The productions music direction was commissioned to the Italian conductor, Enrico Dovico, a permanent guest conductor of the Prague State Opera.

In La traviata, to the libretto from the novel by Alexandre Dumas the Younger, La Dame aux camlias, telling the story of Marie Duplessis, a noted courtesan and idol of the 1840s Parisian society, Verdi in fact created historys first major opera dealing with a contemporary social theme.

This was only one of the works several aspects that proved unpalatable for the audience at its premiere in Venice, in 1853: beyond that, they were similarly shocked by the principal part there being assigned to a courtesan, and that moreover she was portrayed as a heroine.

Consequently, the premiere ended by a fiasco. Soon thereafter, nonetheless, Verdis La traviata scored its first triumphs, and ever since then has remained a hugely loved repertoire staple.

Performed in Italian with Czech captions.

Performance Info

* Sat, 10th April 2010, 7.00 PM
* Sat, 17th April 2010, 7.00 PM
* Fri, 30th April 2010, 7.00 PM
* Thu, 6th May 2010, 7.00 PM
* Sat, 15th May 2010, 7.00 PM
* Sun, 30th May 2010, 7.00 PM
* Sat, 19th June 2010, 7.00 PM
* Fri, 20th August 2010, 7.00 PM
* Sun, 22nd August 2010, 7.00 PM
* Sat, 28th August 2010, 7.00 PM
* Fri, 3rd September 2010, 7.00 PM
* Fri, 10th September 2010, 7.00 PM
* Sat, 18th December 2010, 7.00 PM
* Tue, 28th December 2010, 7.00 PM
* Sat, 22nd January 2011, 7.00 PM
* Fri, 25th February 2011, 7.00 PM
* Tue, 15th March 2011, 7.00 PM
* Thu, 21st April 2011, 7.00 PM
* Fri, 29th April 2011, 7.00 PM
* Sat, 7th May 2011, 7.00 PM
* Fri, 17th June 2011, 7.00PM

Running Time: 2 hours 45 minutes with 2 intermissions

Customer must exchange voucher at: Bohemia Ticket, Na Prikope 16, Prague 1.

Staging team Conductor: M. Keprt
Stage director: K. Nmec
Set designer: U. Hstebeck, K. Kut
Costume designer: J. Jelnek
Choreography: O. anda
Chorus master: T. Karlovi

Cast

Abigail, slave: M. Mlkov, A. Todorova
Nabucco, king of Babylon: R. Haan, M. Brta
Ismael, nephew of Judaic king: I. Jan, R. Samek, N. Vinjakov, M. Vlek
Zachary, Jewish Supreme Pontiff: O. Korotkov, J. Kruglov, L. Hynek-Krmer
Fenena, Nabuccos daughter: A. Kalivodov, J. Levicov, J. Skorov, P. Vykopalov
High Priest of Baal: L. Hynek-Krmer, L. Mlejnek, R. Vocel
Abdallo, Babylonian chieftain: L. Havlk, J. Hruka
Anna, Zacharys sister: H. Jonov, D. Koklesov, D. Vaktov

Although Nabucco is only Verdis third opera, he has managed to create a highly suggestive work on the biblical topic.

He was first captivated by the beginning of psalm 136 in the libretto: Va, pensiero, sullali dorate (Fly, thought, upon gilded wings...), which inspired him to a spontaneous composition of a choir, whose fiery melody and rhythm made it into a song of liberation sung all over Italy.

He finished the whole opera within a few weeks after that. The passionate music of the piece about the liberation of Jews from Egyptian captivity fully corresponded to the mood of the populace, yearning for liberation from Austro-Hungarian power and the unification of Italy.

Performed in Italian with Czech and English captions

Performance Info

* Fri, 9th April 2010, 7.00 PM
* Wed, 5th May 2010, 7.00 PM
* Sat, 21st August 2010, 7.00 PM
* Thu, 26th August 2010, 7.00 PM
* Thu, 14th October 2010, 7.00 PM
* Sat, 13th November 2010, 7.00PM
* Sat, 11th December 2010. 7.00PM
* Sat, 12th March 2011, 7.00PM
* Tue, 26th April 2011, 7.00PM
* Sun, 22nd May 2011, 7.00PM
* Sat, 11th June 2011, 7.00PM

Running Time: 2hrs 15mins with 1 intermission

Customer must exchange voucher at: Bohemia Ticket, Na Prikope 16, Prague 1.