Pier Luigi Pizzi

"Apollonian appreciation of beauty leads to a sensous response and to the Dionysiac abyss in Britten's last opera. ... 'Aschenbach is destroyed physically by the plague, spiritually by an ifatuation for the boy Tadizio that is ultimately a betrayal of his lifelong devotion to an ordered beauty, free from the excesses of unbridled passion'"--Container.

Alfredo falls in love with the beautiful courtesan, Violetta Valery, who is dying from consumption.

When it comes to Mozartian perfection on the opera stage, one needn't always seek it in Milan, Vienna, Salzburg or New York! At the Sferisterio Opera Festival in the central Italian city of Macerata, a rapt audience was treated to a production of Don Giovanni. This magnificent reading of Mozart's timeless masterpiece sweeps the viewer into a libertine, eighteenth-century society dominated by sensuality and erotic impulses.

"Renato Bruson takes the role of the Venetian Doge, Francesco Foscari, in Verdi's dark, three-act tragedy based on a drama by Lord Byron set in 15th century Venice. Gianandrea Gavazzeni directs the 1988 La Scala production of a work that is hailed among the best of Verdi's early operas, and that led him to a career of operatic immortality."--Container.