La fille mal gardée (English: The Wayward Daughter, literal translation: The Poorly Guarded Girl), in the production by Frederick Ashton for the Royal Ballet, which premiered on January 28, 1960. Since its inception Ashton's staging has become a celebrated classic of the ballet repertory.
Lise and Colas are in love and want to marry. However, the Widow Simone wants Lise to marry the dimwitted, but extremely rich, Alain, and has arranged (with Alain's father Thomas) for a marriage contract between Lise and Alain. The Widow Simone does her best to keep Lise and Colas apart, but is unsuccessful in her attempts to do so.
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Kenneth MacMillan's Royal Ballet production of Sergei Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet premiered at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden on 9 February 1965. Margot Fonteyn and Rudolph Nureyev danced the opening night. The impresario for the American tour, Sol Hurok, said that the ballet would only be included and profitable in the US if Fonteyn and Nureyev were given the title roles. Fonteyn and Nureyev brought new life to the characters, as did the set and costume designs by Nicholas Georgiadis; Fonteyn, considered to be near retirement, embarked upon a rejuvenated career with a partnership with Nureyev.
The first production of Romeo and Juliet was met with overwhelmingly positive critical and box office response. Fonteyn and Nureyev received 43 curtain calls, eventually needing the safety curtain to descend in order to encourage the audience to leave the theater.
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Turandot is Giacomo Puccini's last opera drama, inspired by Carlo Gozzi's 18th century theatrical fairy tale of the same name. It was first staged at La Scala, Milan, on 25th April 1926, conducted by Arturo Toscanini, who ended the performance after the death of Liù, which was the point Puccini had reached at his death 18 months earlier. An ending was composed by Franco Alfano in 1926 and is usually performed in productions, as it is here.
Franco Zeffirelli's production features lavish costumes and a colorful evocations of ancient Beijing.
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L'elisir d'amore (The Elixir of Love) is an opera buffa (comic melodrama) in two acts by the Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti. The premiere took place at the Teatro della Canobbiana, Milan, on 12th May 1832. Between 1838 and 1848, L'elisir d'amore was the most often performed opera in Italy and remains today one of the most performed of all Donizetti's operas.
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Lucia di Lammermoor is a dramma tragico (tragic opera) in three acts by Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti. Salvadore Cammarano wrote the Italian-language libretto loosely based upon Walter Scott's 1819 historical novel The Bride of Lammermoor.
The opera premiered on 26th September 1835 at the Teatro di San Carlo, London saw the opera on 5th April 1838 and for Paris, Donizetti revised the score for a French version which debuted on 6th August 1839 at the Théâtre de la Renaissance in Paris. It reached the United States with a production in New Orleans on 28th May 1841. It has since become a staple at the Met and has seen many performances there.
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Platée is an opera in a prologue and three acts by Jean-Philippe Rameau with a libretto by Adrien-Joseph Le Valois d'Orville. Rameau bought the rights to the libretto Platée ou Junon jalouse (Plataea, or Juno Jealous) by Jacques Autreau (1657–1745) and had d'Orville modify it. The ultimate source of the story is a myth related by the Greek writer Pausanias in his Guide to Greece.
The opera was first performed on 31st March 1745 at the Grande Écurie, Versailles. It was one of the most highly regarded of Rameau's operas during his lifetime, but after his death (12th September 1764) it was rarely performed until the Festival d'Aix en Provence of 1956. After that, it slowly regained popularity. Laurent Pelly directed this production in 1999 at the Palais Garnier in Paris.
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A cinematic version of Giuseppe Verdi's opera directed by Jean-Pierre Ponnelle. The scenes were filmed at various locations, including: the Teatro Farnese (Parma), the Teatro all'antica (Sabbioneta), the piazza in front of the Duomo di Cremona, the Castello di San Giorgio (palazzo ducale of Mantua) and the Palazzo del Te (Mantua).
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