Opera in prologue and four acts. Running Time: 3 hours 3 minutes. Content Warning: Video contains nudity, rape/statutory rape, suicide, and liquefaction. This one is deceptive. Although the plot is outwardly a fairy tale, it is actually a grand opera set in pre-Christian Russia. As much as it is a Slavic pantheistic parable, it is […]

Opera in three acts. Running Time: 2 hours 35 minutes. Today would have been the 65th birthday of my mother. This is the first opera ever written by Tchaikovsky, one of my favourite composers. It suffers from serious musical and dramatic weaknesses, although the embryonic features of magnificent melody and orchestration (and instrumental effect) are […]

Opera in prologo e tre atti. Running Time: 1 hour 48 minutes. Sit back for a tale where literally all of the characters backstab and betray one another. The cast only consists of seven soloist roles (three relatively minor), but they practice three different religions and worship three distinct gods. The composer was only 33 […]

Opera en cinq actes et sept tableaux. Running Time: 2 hours 17 minutes. Special thanks to OperaScribe/MeyerbeerSmith for making this recording available on YouTube. The book that could not be written becomes the opera that could not be made! Salammbo is an historical novel by Gustave Flaubert (better known for Madame Bovary). It contains within […]

Opera en deux actes. Running Time: 1 hour 19 minutes. This is a bit different, a 20th century Massenet work set during the French Revolution with what I would call perfect vocal casting (or in fact, perfect casting in general): lots of men and a solitary mezzo-soprano! SETTING: Clagny and Paris, October 1792 and June […]