Giacomo Puccini

The Aria -- Our desire to comply is entangled with our need to resist.

Aria -- Introspective journey of a nameless character, overwhelmed by sin that turns into a personal redemption, a self-inflicted punishment that allows him to take away from this reality his sins to rid the world and take them in the air.

Puccini’s musical thriller of lust, murder, and politics is one of the most dramatically riveting operas in the repertoire. Luc Bondy’s production, with sets by Richard Peduzzi and costumes by Academy Award-winning designer Milena Canonero, opened the Met’s 2009–10 season. Karita Mattila stars as the beautiful and dangerously impulsive singer Floria Tosca. Marcelo Álvarez is her lover, the painter Cavaradossi, a political enemy of the powerful chief of police, Scarpia (George Gagnidze), who wants Tosca for himself.

In the rapidly fading light of a Verona evening, the sound of the first menacing chords of Puccini's Tosca set the clock ticking for a sequence of dramatic events that begin at one specific time and place in history, Rome, on the morning of 17 June 1800 and end tragically at dawn the following day. The vast spaces of the arena call for big gestures, and producer and designer Hugo de Ana's opening imagery evokes a Rome of outsize sculpture - a sword, a vast hand holding a rosary with ominous metal links - that recalls the colossal statue of Emperor Constantine created to stand in the Roman forum in the fourth century.

When pretty Angela Crispini (Debra Winger) hires private detective Tom O'Toole (Nick Nolte) to clear a teenager of murder, the rumpled gumshoe dives into the case headfirst. But the more he learns about his client, the more he doubts her veracity -- and her sanity. Jack Warden, Judith Ivey and Frank Converse co-star in this riveting drama based on a stage play by the legendary Arthur Miller (who also penned the film script).

Much has happened in the last twenty years that has altered history forever-Glasnost, Ronald Reagan, Watergate, PacMan-but for some, like Far Out Man, life hasn't changed a bit.

Much has happened in the last twenty years that has altered history forever-Glasnost, Ronald Reagan, Watergate, PacMan-but for some, like Far Out Man, life hasn't changed a bit.

Giancarlo del Monaco's cinematic production of Puccini's popular masterpiece takes its place among the great interpretations of modern times. Jesus Lopez Cobos directs an outstanding cast, led by Inva Mula and Aquiles Machado, in a landmark recording filmed with High Definition cameras and true surround sound.