Philip Langridge

David McVicar's spellbinding production of LE NOZZE DI FIGARO is set in 1830s post-revolution France, where the inexorable unravelling of an old order has produced acute feelings of loss. In the relationship between Finley's suave, dashingly self-absorbed Count and Röschmann's passionately dignified Countess, which lies at the tragic heart of the opera, the sexy ease between a feisty Figaro (Erwin Schrott) and a sassy Susanna (Miah Persson) is starkly absent, the tenacious spark between Marcellina (Graciela Araya) and Bartolo (Jonathan Veira) suggesting what might be rekindled. The production is superbly complemented by the beauty of Paule Constable's lighting and Tanya McCallin's evocative sets. Antonio Pappano conducts (and accompanies the recitatives) with invigorating wit and emotional depth.

Live from Glyndebourne 1983

This deliciously dark take on the beloved Brothers Grimm fairy tale, appealing to audiences of all ages, was part of the Met’s popular English-language holiday series. Alice Coote and Christine Schäfer star as the famous siblings lost in the woods, who battle the ravenous Witch—a zany portrayal by tenor Philip Langridge—while the Met orchestra, under the baton of Vladimir Jurowski, glories in the rich, folk-inspired score.

The libretto is by Mussorgsky himself and takes the eponymous “romantic tragedy” by the celebrated Russian poet Alexander Pushkin as its starting point. Boris Godunov is Mussorgsky’s masterpiece and his only complete opera. It’s a vast sprawling tapestry of Russian life, which centres on the Russian people – represented in the opera by a large and powerful chorus – rather than on the title figure. The staging was produced at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona and is based on the original version of the score.

Mozart's La Clemenza Di Tito was originally commissioned to celebrate the coronation of the Emperor Leopold II as King of Bohemia in 1791. This rarely-seen masterpiece was Mozart's last opera. Nicholas Hytner's elegant staging for the Glyndebourne Festival Opera sheds new light on the compelling story of passion that overrides loyalty and integrity that is tested to the extreme.

The embittered widow, Kostelnicka, drowns her infant grandson to save her beloved stepdaughter Jenufa from the shame and hardship of raising an illegitimate child.

Impressed by Jean Cocteau’s rewrite of Antigone, Stravinsky asked the poet for an adaptation of Oedipus Rex. The resulting libretto brings together the key scenes of Sophocles’s tragedy translated by the Abbé Jean Daniélou into Latin—a language that, according the composer, “is not dead but engraved in stone, and so imposing that it is immune to any popularization”.

An opera by Benjamin Britten, on a libretto by E.M. Forster and Eric Crozier, adapted from the story by Herman Melville. Billy Budd is a young sailor aboard a British man-o'-war, persecuted by his master-at-arms, Claggart. Accused of mutiny, Budd accidently strikes Claggart dead, leaving Captain Vere with no choice but to hang him.

This staging of Harrison Birtwistle's opera The Minotaur features John Tomlinson, Johann Reuter, Christine Rice, and Andrew Watts in the main roles. Stephen Langridge directed the production for the stage, and Antonio Pappano conducted the orchestra.

1987 recording of Wozzeck by the Vienna State Opera with Claudio Abbado conducting. Based upon Georg Büchner's 1837 play, Alban Berg's Wozzeck details the harsh existence of the title character, a former soldier in the German army who has to struggle mightily to make a living, even as others around him prosper.

Benjamin Britten's opera as performed by the English National Opera, with Philip Langridge in the title role.

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