Only one opera moved Tchaikovsky to tears while he was composing it: The Queen of Spades. The tragedy of Hermann, a man whose obsession with gambling leads him to lose all hope for happiness and love, inspired the composer to write his most moving and harrowing arias.
Rigoletto is a tragic and grotesque story that powerfully captures the fine line between good and evil. A masterpiece by Verdi, it is an opera without a hero, studded with memorable classics, from “La Donna è Mobile” to the love duet “È il Sol dell’Anima.”
While the elixir of love sold by the charlatan Dulcamara is an authentic fraud, Donizetti’s opera L’Elisir d’Amore is instead truly miraculous, comically funny and heart-wrenching at the same time, with the romantic tale of Nemorino and Adina told through delightful arias, duets and choruses.
With Le Nozze di Figaro, Mozart’s music perfectly captures all the nuances of how it feels to be in love, proving him to be just as much a fine connoisseur of the human mind as a true genius of musical theatre.
Scribe transformed Manon into a frivolous young woman, who sincerely falls in love with Des Grieux but has the misfortune to always find herself in the wrong place at the wrong time
The opera premiered at the Opéra-Comique in Paris in 1884, achieving overwhelmingly popular success, with the audience repeatedly calling out the singers and composer for encores and curtain calls
In Puccini’s hands, the story of Manon, an eighteenth-century femme fatale hopelessly in love with the student Des Grieux, but also with a life of luxury, becomes a compelling, fast-paced drama.
