Ópera

Country bumpkin Nemorino is desperately in love with Adina, but she barely gives him the time of day. She seems to be smitten with the handsome braggart, Captain Belcore. Perhaps Dr. Dulcamara can spare a magic cure to save the day.

Elektra mourns for her father who was recently murdered because of her mother. Even though her sister tries to console her, she plans her revenge when her brother Orestes returns.

Gluck's first "reform" opera, meaning the music of the baroque era with its embellishments and improvisations is replaced with a simpler and more direct vocal style. This production is modernized and includes a host of celebrities in Hades.

Verona, eighteenth century, a choir speaks of the endless enmity between the Montague and Capulet families, and the love of their children, Romeo and Juliette.

Naive Manon is seduced by Chevalier Des Grieux and she runs away with him to avoid being sent to the convent. Gradually she learns to use her beauty to her advantage in the world of men. In opera, that usually spells bad news for the woman.

In the early 1900s, two operas by Richard Strauss (Salome and Elektra) were taking Europe by storm. The Italian composer Puccini is said to have looked at the scores and observed, "There is nothing here but algebra and mathematics; where is the music?" True or not, in any case, Puccini set out to show that he too could compose one-act operas, and in different styles. Hence, Il Trittico (The Tryptich), a set of three operas, each less than an hour long, each different from the other two. The first, Il Tabarro (The Cloak) is a moody, macabre story of a spurned husband determined to discover the man who has seduced his wife away from him, and this is the night he finally learns who that man is. The second opera, Suor Angelica (Sister Angelique) is a frank tear-jerker about a young woman forced into a convent by her aristocratic family after she has given birth to a child out of wedlock. For seven years she has waited for news about him, and on this day, her prayers will be answered. The last opera, Gianni Schicchi, is a cynical comedy of greedy relatives who begin fighting over their dead uncle's will even while the body is still lying on its death-bed. Gianni Schicchi arrives to help them sort out the mess, and he teaches them a much-needed lesson in humility, securing a dowry for his daughter at the same time.

Boris might have been a good Czar except for that thing he did years ago: he murdered the child who was the true heir to Russia's throne. Now nightmares, his conscience, the Council of Ministers and a brewing rebellion threaten his rule.

Based on the life of Mohandas K. Gandhi.

Julius Caesar's visit to Cleopatra in Egypt.

Missionary Athaniel converts the prostitute Thais to Christianity; he even leads her to enter a nunnery. The convent door slams shut: No Men Allowed. Oh no, cries Athaniel, I've fallen in love with her. Too bad, so sad. Meditate on that.

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.

Singer tries to save her artist-boyfriend from the consequences of his politics, with tragic results.

La Fanciulla del West is a sweeping romance set during the California Gold Rush. Minnie, who runs a saloon for a camp of rambunctious miners. Dick Johnson, the mysterious outlaw who wins Minnie's heart despite his unsavory past.

A prince/troubadour in Aquitaine longs for love. A pilgrim matches him with a princess in Tripoli. A death occurs.

Set in rat-pack Las Vegas. Duke is Sinatra; Rigoletto is Don Rickles. Rigoletto owns a condo; he holds the elevator for the courtiers. Later on, when he finds a stranger's corpse in his car-trunk, why doesn't he drive her to the hospital?

Oscar Wilde's scandalous play set to equally outrageous music by Richard Strauss. It caused riots when it opened but has become one of the most-often performed operas around the world.

Three acts, book-ended by a Prologue and Epilogue, tell the poet Hoffman's failed loves. The first was just a doll, the second a dying singer, and the third a lady of the evening. That's Hoffman, looking for love in all the wrong places.

Iphigenie, banished daughter of Klytemnaestra, is now high priestess to Diana. Two strangers from Greece wash up on shore; when Iphigenie recognizes one as her brother, Orestes, she is powerless to stop his execution. Cue the goddess Diana.

The oft-told tale of the scientist Faust, who sold his soul to the devil in exchange for an extra 24 years to live, is updated, apparently happening entirely in the confines of Faust's lab, which makes the Act 2 carnival hard to fathom.