Renata Scotto

Plácido Domingo

Pablo Elvira

Renato Capecchi

Isola Jones

All the throbbing eroticism—and ultimate heartbreak—of Puccini’s youthful score is unleashed by James Levine and his top-flight cast. Plácido Domingo is Des Grieux, the handsome, headstrong young aristocrat who falls head over heels for the enticing, impetuous Manon Lescaut (Renata Scotto). Manon returns his love, but her obsession with luxury ruins them both. Gian Carlo Menotti’s opulent production, with sets and costumes by Desmond Heeley, superbly captures the colorful world of 18th century France.

While a roaring ball stirs up spirits inside, a boy and a girl meet on the sidelines – and fall in love at first sight. But because they belong to warring families, Romeo and Juliet's love may be immortal, but it is above all forbidden.  The chamber opera by the German-Baltic composer Boris Blacher, written in 1943, condenses Shakespeare’s famous tragedy to its essence: the fate of Romeo and Juliet. Scenic miniatures conjure a foggy world hostile to love. Characters occasionally materialise like ghostly apparitions, while a Brechtian chansonnier comments with humour and with harshness on the failure of the greatest love story of all.

Bill Morrison’s experimental short features decayed film reels from the lost, German silent film Pawns of Passion (1928).

Two noble women, bored of their lives, disguise themselves as country wenches and go to the market at Richmond Fair, where two young farmers fall in love with them.

German silent film operetta (Filmoperette)

a film opera; music by: Gaetano Donizetti (Philharmonic Orchestra of Rome) Directed by Giuseppe Zedda.

Richard Strauss's opera, from the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.

Live performance at the Metropolitan Opera in 2000.

Live performance from the Opéra National de Paris, 2003.