This superb 2006 production of the Los Angeles Opera's La Traviata stars Renée Fleming, who joins the ranks of the elite handful of sopranos whose vocal and acting talents make their portrayals memorable. Her Violetta Valéry is a vulnerable figure torn between self-indulgence and love, sacrificing personal happiness to become a victim of the social mores of mid-19th-century bourgeois France. Fleming's acting captures the complexity of the character and her vocalism is flawless. She negotiates the wild coloratura of Act One with aplomb, and is stunning in the lyric passages that pervade the opera, and touching in her scenes with her lover, Alfredo, and his father. Her singing is free of the mannerisms that have sometimes crept into her work and at the same time she brings countless personal touches to the role, phrasing and verbal emphases that shed fresh light on the character.

Enrico Castiglione directs this 2001 production of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's seminal two-act 1787 dramma giocoso Don Giovanni, an opera mounted at Teatro Argentina in Rome, with musical accompaniment by the Rome Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Michael Halaz. The production includes arias by Renato Bruson, Luca Canonici, Amarilli Nizza, Rossana Potenza, Stefano de Peppo and Alessandro Battiato, Anna Laura Longo; Stefano Cucci serves as choir master. Mozart culled the by-now-familiar story from the legend of Don Juan, the world's most gifted lover. Nathan Southern, Rovi

Director Werner Herzog, one of the most highly acclaimed German film makers, joins forces with the great Italian conductor Riccardo Chailly to effect a masterful rendition of this rarely-performed opera involving spectacular scenes of alternating light and dark, pageantry and intimacy. Staged and recorded at Teatro Comunale di Bologna in Bologna, Italy.

Live performance from La Scala in Milan. Nabucco was the first production of the theatre's 1986-87 season.