Eric Cutler

Beethoven: Fidelio

Die Meistersinger Von Nürnberg

James Morris leads an all-star cast including Karita Mattila, Ben Heppner, Thomas Allen and René Pape, in this production of Wagner's comic opera, recorded live at New York's Metropolitan Opera in 2001. James Levine conducts.

Mozart: Idomeneo Teatro Real de Madrid

Mozart's "Idomeneo" is a work about love, hate, jealousy, war and destruction. It shows in a disturbing way the musical genius of the Salzburg composer. Each figure is characterized individually without losing sight of the musical whole. In a way, "Idomeneo" anticipates Wagnerian techniques in composition. The direction of this production at Madrid's Teatro Real was in the proven hands of Robert Carsen, who brings the work to the stage in a contemporary, modern and very disturbing way. Under the sovereign direction of Ivor Bolton, Eric Cutler, David Portillo, Anett Fritsch and Eleonora Buratto are among the singers.

Fidelio

Don Florestan is a personal enemy of the governor Don Pizarro and also a confidant of the minister Don Fernando. As Pizarro sees Florestan as a threat, he wants to eliminate him. He cannot bring himself to commit open murder, so he has him secretly imprisoned and hopes that he will soon die of his own accord. Florestan's wife Leonore suspects that Pizarro is behind her husband's disappearance. Disguised as a man, she sets off in search of Florestan and, under the name "Fidelio", takes up service as an assistant to the jailer Rocco - she suspects Florestan is in the prison he administers and hopes to free him.

Les Troyens

This grand opera, complete with ensembles and ballets, large choruses and orchestral set pieces, is given an appropriately grand treatment in this production by the renowned Catalan theater group "La Fura dels Baus" recorded at Valencia's Palau de les Arts. In the first part of the work, Padrissa plays with the present-day meaning of "Trojans" as computer viruses: his Trojan horse carries within it the infection that will cause system failures and, ultimately, destruction. In the second part, Carthage is presented as the mysterious seat of a future civilization, where human life is heading towards self-destruction through environmental disasters.

Les Contes d'Hoffmann (Théâtre Royal de La Monnaie)

Der fliegende Holländer

This is a performance of Wagner's three-act opera Der fliegende Holländer ("The flying Dutchman"), performed by Bayreuther Festpiele, directed by Dmitri Tcherniakov. The staging was notable for two other milestones, as Oksana Lyniv became the first woman to conduct at Richard Wagner’s legendary Festspielhaus since its opening in 1876, and the sensational Lithuanian soprano Asmik Grigorian made her house debut with a standout performance as the opera’s heroine, Senta. The exceptional cast also included John Lundgren (The Dutchman), Georg Zeppenfeld (Daland), Eric Cutler (Erik) and Marina Prudenskaya (Mary).

I Puritani

It's hard to imagine a video opera collection without this superbly sung MET production of Bellini's I Puritani. Not that it's perfect by any means, but its excellences--most especially Anna Netrebko's electrifying singing and acting of Elvira--banish carping about other aspects of this memorable night at the opera. Netrebko is fragile from the start, her facial expressions and hand movements immediately conveying the girl's vulnerability. She has a mad scene in each act; the first when she realizes her fiancé has disappeared with another woman, the third, in the final act, a brief relapse when her returned fiancé is taken by the army to be executed. But it's in the second act that the real fireworks occur, with a Mad Scene that rivals Donizetti's Lucia for bel canto primacy. Here, Elvira is first heard off-stage, after the chorus has informed us that she's deranged. She enters wearing her wedding gown and begins Qui la voce in a voice as frail as her psyche.

Les Contes d'Hoffmann (Teatro Real Madrid)

Opera fantastique in five acts (1881), new version by Sylvain Cambreling & Christoph Marthaler. With Eric Cutler and Anne Sofie Von Otter. Teatro Real, filmed on 05/2014

Berlioz: Les Troyens

Berlioz’s epic masterpiece retells the magnificent saga of the aftermath of the Trojan War and the exploits of Aeneas. Rising tenor Bryan Hymel, in his Met debut, stars as the hero charged by the gods with the founding of the city of Rome. Susan Graham is Dido, Queen of Carthage, who becomes Aeneas’s lover, and Deborah Voigt sings Cassandra, the Trojan princess whose warnings about the impending destruction of Troy go unheeded. Francesca Zambello’s atmospheric production, featuring choreography by Doug Varone, is led by Met Principal Conductor Fabio Luisi.