Movie Details

Verdi’s grandest and for many greatest opera was presented in an acclaimed new production by Nicholas Hytner, director of the National Theatre, to resonant designs by Bob Crowley. Semyon Bychkov, whose previous successes at Covent Garden include Elektra, Boris Godunov, The Queen of Spades and Lohengrin, returns to conduct an all-star cast, many of whom took part in this staging on its initial appearance.

New to the title role is one of today’s most admired tenors, Jonas Kaufmann, with Marina Poplavskaya as his stepmother Elizabeth of Valois, with whom he has fallen in love, and Ferruccio Furlanetto as his father, Philip II of Spain, who suspects the worst. Around this tragic central triangle, complicated by the intervention of Sonia Ganassi’s Princess Eboli, is the conflict between authoritarian religion, represented by John Tomlinson’s Grand Inquisitor, and Simon Keenlyside’s liberal Marquis of Posa. Spectacle and intimacy combine in an in-depth exploration of how the private and public lives of the powerful impact on the fate of nations.