Opera/Classical Music

It's a familiar story: Act 1, boy meets girl, goes to jail for her. Act 2, boy is out of jail, girl rewards him with special favors. Act 3, girl is bored already, moving on. Act 4, boy kills girl for ruining his life. We've all been there.

In a mythical Japan, Ko-Ko, a cheap tailor, has been appointed Lord High Executioner and must find someone to execute before the arrival of the ruling Mikado. He lights upon Nanki-Poo, a strolling minstrel who loves the beautiful Yum-Yum. But Yum-Yum is also loved by Ko-Ko, and Nanki-Poo, seeing no hope for his love, considers suicide. Ko-Ko offers to solve both their problems by executing Nanki-Poo, and an agreement is reached whereby Ko-Ko will allow Nanki-Poo to marry Yum-Yum for one month, at the end of which Nanki-Poo will be executed, in time for the arrival of the Mikado. But what Ko-Ko doesn't know is that Nanki-Poo is the son of the Mikado and has run away to avoid a betrothal to an old harridan named Katisha. The arrival of the Mikado brings all the threads of the tale together.

An intimate look at the life and work of Greek-American opera singer Maria Callas, as told in her own words.

The spectacular mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli is joined by the ensemble Il Giardino Armonico in a program of baroque music from composer Antonio Vivaldi, "The Red Priest". The concert encompasses arias and instrumental pieces from the oratorio Juditha Triumphans and the operas L'Olimpiade, Tito Manlio, Ottone in Villa, La fida ninfa, Bajazet (Il Tamerlano) and a chilling, passionate performance from Farnace. The ensemble performs Concerto in C major for Flautino (affectionately known as the Penny Whistle), and Concerto in D major for Lute. The predominant portion of music was unknown and specially transcribed from Vivaldi's original manuscripts by musicologist Claudio Osele. The International Film Crew from RM Associates is directed by veteran opera director Brian Large and produced by classical music producer Colin Wilson. The sell-out musical event was presented at the superb art-deco Théatre des Champs-Eysées, Paris in September 2000.

Historian Lucy Worsley explores the history behind some of the world's greatest operas and how they reflected the cities in which they were written.

A very visual and profound dramatization of the various sections of Carmina Burana, a symphonic piece composed by Carl Orff about medieval poetry by an anonymous author.

The aristocratic Marschallin is increasingly aware of things: middle-age is approaching, her beauty is fading, and her young lover Octavian has fallen in love with someone younger and prettier than she. She knew this would happen one day.

Life, works and achievements of opera legend Luciano Pavarotti.

Intimate behind-the-scenes documentary about the handsome German tenor Jonas Kaufmann, one of the hottest properties in the opera world, and his triumphant return after illness.

Follows Janet Baker's final year in Opera as she performs with the ENO, ROH and Glyndebourne.

In the third opera of Wagner's Ring Cycle, a young man named Siegfried, raised by the dwarf Mime, finds the pieces of a magic sword and goes on a quest to experience fear for the first time, all part of a plan set forth by the god Wotan.

A philosopher demonstrates his theory by entrapping 2 sisters to abandon their recently departed soldier fiances for new men, really their fiances in disguise. Their maid assists in multiple roles, and by encouraging them to stray.

The life, success and troubles of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, as told by Antonio Salieri, the contemporaneous composer who was deeply jealous of Mozart's talent and claimed to have murdered him.

Escaping from a distasteful marriage, Nanki-Poo, the son of the Mikado, arrives in the town of Titipu - disguised as a musician. He has chosen Titipu because a beautiful girl, Yum-Yum, with whom he has fallen in love, lives in the town. A desire to marry Yum-Yum, however, is not enough. Nanki-Poo has to contend with her guardian, Ko-Ko, the Lord High Executioner, who has every intention of marrying Yum-Yum, himself. Problems are compounded when the Mikado, accompanied by Katisha, Nanki-Poo's jilted bride, also arrive in the hitherto peaceful town of Titipu.