Venera Gimadieva

Lucia loves Edgardo, the last heir of her family’s enemy clan. They are in danger, but Lucia refuses to betray her love. A ring falls to the floor, the nightmare begins – the nocturnal sky fills with lightning and thunder, madness and blood reign, there is a corpse, then another and yet another. Staatsoper Hamburg's Lucia di Lammermoor turns the city into a stage. Inspired by worldwide women's protests, director Amelie Niermeyer has filmed dancers in the city and invites them into the theatre via video. They rush to the aid of the main character Lucia, who - like the director - asserts herself as a woman in a man's world.

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‘A beautiful song – a shame that it shows such disrespect to the Mayor!’ This remark from the score of The Golden Cockerel highlights the delicious ambiguity of this work. Principally inspired by Washington Irving and Pushkin, Rimsky-Korsakov called on the talents of Vladimir Belsky, an author of other libretti of a fairy-tale, legendary nature and an expert on Russian folk literature. The composer, a genius at orchestration, has given us sparkling music, with oriental touches, that creates fully rounded characters. This is the perfect occasion for Alain Altinoglu to direct his first opera in his new role as Music Director of La Monnaie. After the success of his Don Quichotte and Cendrillon, Laurent Pelly returns to La Monnaie to stage this exuberant political satire, an adventure in unrestrained rhythm. More than a century has passed since its first performance, yet the opera has lost none of its boisterous sarcasm.

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Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London Live showing of Verdi's Traviata with subsequent re-screenings Violetta, a Parisian courtesan suffering from tuberculosis, is throwing a party to celebrate her recovery. A young nobleman, Alfredo, plans to attend, and has long been in love with Violetta. Before long, Violetta has fallen for him as well, but Alfredo's father disapproves of their relationship. He convinces Violetta to leave Alfredo for the sake of his family's image, not realising how ill she really is. Richard Eyre's production of 'La Traviata' immerses the audience in the indulgence of 19th Century Paris, a vivid setting for Verdi's famous score.

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Alfredo, a young man from the provinces, falls in love with Violetta, the stylish toast of Paris. But she’s not the marrying kind – at least not until now. However, their dreams are threatened by both a merciless society that condemns Violetta’s racy past and an equally merciless disease. Russian soprano Venera Gimadieva portrays the iconic role of Violetta, alongside American tenor Michael Fabiano as Alfredo. The visual beauty of Tom Cairns’s opulent production aptly echoes the irresistible allure of this beloved opera.

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