Elizabeth Gale

Sir Peter Hall's remarkably faithful interpretation of Beethoven's opera at Glyndebourne. Elizabeth Söderström plays Leonore, with Elizabeth Gale as Marzelline and Curt Appelgren as Rocco.

Colonel Fairfax has been falsely accused of sorcery by a jealous relative who covets his estates and money. The Colonel is condemned to death for his 'crime' and waits in the Tower of London for his execution. Fate, however, steps in - in the form of Sergeant Meryll (who owes his life to Colonel Fairfax) and Elsie Maynard, a beautiful strolling singer who has just arrived at the Tower to entertain the people in the company of a strolling jester, Jack Point.

Since its debut in 1934 the Glyndebourne Festival has put a focus on Mozart operas and developed a great competence in staging them. Mozart s operas seem to be made for the small but fine opera house in Glyndebourne and it's not surprising that the 1977 Don Giovanni, one of Mozart's great masterpieces, was a huge success. This production is conducted by Bernard Haitink, who holds the opinion, that no other composer had more opera in his blood than Mozart. It has been proven, for example, that Mozart had no overture for Don Giovanni until the evening before the premiere in Prague and wrote it down in just one night. Like the premiere's success of the opera in Prague in 1787 the Glyndebourne's version staged by Peter Hall was praised by audience and critics alike: We witness a lively and wide-awake ensemble piece that has easily survived all these decades, and still manages to teach many directors the art of playing theatre.

Live performance of Mozart's opera buffa "Le nozze di Figaro" from the Glyndebourne Festival Opera in 1973, featuring Knut Skram, Ileana Cotrubas, Benjamin Luxon, Kiri Te Kanawa, and Frederica von Stade.

A heart-warming comedy about five kids trying to survive one of life's most challenging events: their grade school play.

Richard Strauss' Intermezzo is an autobiographical piece - a domestic comedy of marital strife, told in fourteen scenes. John Cox's stylish production is set in the 1920s and stars Felicity Lott as the volatile Christine Storch. The splended art nouveau settings by Martin Batters by evoke perfectly the luxurious lifestyle of Strauss' Vienna.

This is a finely tuned opera with music by the Italian composer, Claudio Monteverdi, libretto by G. E. Busenello, and the fine voices of contralto Maria Ewing, baritone Dennis Bailey, and several other sub-leads is not to be missed and will be fully enjoyed. No lead tenor here and none needed. No soprano here as a lead and none needed. One of the joys of my watching and listening outside the opera hall. The story line is strong and the tale well carried out.

Offenbach's popular comic opera poking fun at Greek mythology in english translation, staged for television by Christopher Renshaw.

Margaret Williams directs this 2001 production of adaptation of Benjamin Britten's television opera based on a short story by Henry James. Performers featured include Gerald Finley, Peter Savidge and Josephine Barstow. The conductor is Kent Nagano. As pertinent now as then, OWEN WINGRAVE was composed by Benjamin Britten at the height of the Vietnam War. The opera poses the question: Is pacifism an act of cowardice? Or rather a desire to escape from the spiral of war and create world peace? To what extent do we determine our own futures? Should we let past events inform the decisions we make? Britten’s characters grapple with timeless issues in this gripping psychodrama.

Made for TV movie version of the famous opera.

Mapp & Lucia is a British television comedy, based on E. F. Benson's novels, beginning with the eponymous 1931 entry for series 1, with Lucia's Progress and Trouble for Lucia for series 2. Mrs Emmeline Lucas (nicknamed Lucia) has just moved to the small English town of Tilling where she comes into conflict with the social ambitions of Miss Elizabeth Mapp. Until now, Miss Mapp has led (and controlled) the social life of Tilling, but that was before they met Lucia.