Benjamin Britten: Billy Budd 2017 ( 8)

Verdi: Un Ballo in Maschera 2008

Passion, loyalty and political conspiracy are the three pillars of Un ballo in maschera (1859), the 'most operatic of all operas'. Set in 19th-century Boston, Mario Martone's atmospheric production for the Teatro Real brings out all the innate theatricality and drama of Verdi's work. World famous Argentinean tenor Marcelo Álvarez, in the role of Riccardo, leads a fabulous cast including Lithuanian soprano Violeta Urmana as his lover Amelia, and Elena Zaremba as the witch Ulrica. Jesús López Cobos conducts the Madrid Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in a performance that emphasises the lyricism and majesty of this wonderful work, in which grand opera and opera comique are woven into the Classical Italian Opera style.

The Little Barber of Lavapiés 2019

Zarzuela in three acts. Broadcast live from El Teatro de la Zarzuela on April 12, 2019.

The Beggar’s Opera 2008

The Beggar's Opera is one of the earliest examples of a Musical in the history of theater (from which Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill drew inspiration for the Threepenny Opera). A crowd of thieves and prostitutes, fences and swindlers, speaking various dialects with Peppe Servillo as the shady fence, Angela Baraldi (the wife), Marco Alemanno and opera singer Borja Quiza Martinez (Captain Uccello) directed by Lucio Dalla. New translation and dramaturgical version by Giuseppe Di Leva of John Gay's play transported from the slums of 18th-century London to the Bologna of today.