The vulnerable young woman at the heart of Janacek's breakthrough opera is a signature role for the English soprano Amanda Roocroft. Here, in Stéphane Braunschweig's clear but deeply affecting production, she is partnered by the Slovak tenor Miroslav Dvorsky, as the man through whom she finds redemption, love and hope. The complex figure of the Kostelnicka becomes both tormentor and tormented in this fearless interpretation by the great dramatic soprano Deborah Polaski.

This hilarious contemporary version of Francesco Cavalli's baroque opera Hercules in Love was commissioned on occasion of the marriage of Louis XIV, the Sun King, to Maria Theresa of Spain. The original production took two years to complete and was at the time the greatest show ever performed in Europe. Directed by David Alden, this surreal production is a triumph of commedia buffa resplendent with decorative and symbolic elements, and complemented by Constance Hoffman's exceptional costumes. Led by Ivor Bolton, a master of baroque music, the chorus of De Nederlandse Opera and Concerto Köln give a sublime performance. With Luca Pisaroni's (Ercole) singing being heroic and melodious in turn, and Veronica Cangemi as a splendid Iole, this is an outstanding production by the DNO.

800 litres of water, two sails, thirty pulleys, sixty hammocks: for the Bicentenary of the Teatro Real of Madrid, Deborah Warner coined a colossal production of Benjamin Britten's Billy Budd. A critically-acclaimed performance, praised for its depth and intelligence. Baritone Jacques Imbrailo delivers a stunning rendition of the young sailor's part, while British singers Toby Spence and Brindley Sherratt provide solid interpretations of Captain 'Starry' Vere and of John Claggart. In the pit, Ivor Bolton masterfully deploys, along with the Orchestra of the Teatro Real, all the energy and power of Britten's fifth opera. A now iconic production, co-produced by the Opera of Rome and the Royal Opera House.

The English harpsichordist and conductor, Ivor Bolton, was educated at Clare College and the Royal College of Music, followed by a year at the National Opera Studio which coincided with his appointment as conductor of the Schola Cantorum of Oxford.

To mark the 100th anniversary of the death of Camille Saint-Saens, the Basel Symphony Orchestra under its conductor Ivor Bolton had set itself the goal of giving the public an insight into the composer's well-known as well as lesser-known symphonic works.

The aria Ombra mai fu at the start of Act I of Handel's opera seria Serse (Xerxes) is likely to be its best-known asset. Serse was written in 1733-38, at the end of Handel's career as an opera composer: he concentrated on oratorio after 1741. It is a great achievement. Not least because it uses the music, and the marriage of words and music, to evoke in the audience pathos, sympathy, delight, and as much tempered ridicule as tempered tenderness.

Die Festspielpremiere von ALCINA im Prinzregententheater am 17. Juli 2005 wurde wie so viele andere Premieren von Barock-Opern zu einem Höhepunkt der Münchner Opernsaison. Wer erinnert sich nicht gerne an die "Poppea", den "Rinaldo" oder natürlich "Giulio Cesare". Mit Anja Harteros und Vesselina Kasarova hatten sich zwei Topstars der internationalen Opernszene in dieser Inszenierung eingefunden. Unter der bewährten Leitung von Ivor Bolton wurde das ganze Ensemble vom Publikum bei jeder Vorstellung mit Ovationen gefeiert, der Nachhall in der Presse war nicht minder euphorisch!

Giulio Cesare, Händels aufwändigste Oper aus dem Jahre 1724, markierte im März 1994 den Beginn der Münchner Händelrenaissance. Mit einer spektakulären Premiere sorgte Intendant Sir Peter Jonas international für Furore. Weit über 100 Aufführungen von 1994 bis 2006 spielten vor ausverkauftem Haus.

Für Opernproduktionen mit einer grandiosen szenischen Umsetzung ist das der Härtetest: Funktionieren sie auch ohne Optik? Teilt sich ihre Magie auch ohne die bilderwelt, den Erfindungsreichtum des Regisseurs und die Präsenz der Sänger mit?
Kein Problem im Falle des Münchner 'Ariodante'. Der CD-Mitschnitt, quasi der "Soundtrack" aus der Aufführungsserie im Januar 2000, ist ein Glücksfall fürs Händel-Repertoire. Zumal auch die Tontechniker die Live-Atmosphäre eingefangen und eine nahezu perfekte Balance zwischen Bühne und Graben hergestellt haben. …

Ivor Bolton has been principal conductor of the Basel Symphony Orchestra since the beginning of the 2016 / 17 season and has always had a special affinity with British music. The present album with rather unknown music by Benjamin Britten was therefore a very special concern for him from the beginning. The program consists of the early cycle Our Hunting Fathers (with the tenor Mark Padmore), the Quatre Chansons francaises (a stroke of genius by the only 14-year-old) and the suite from the unfortunately rarely performed opera Gloriana, which, by the way, was written for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.

Wagner’s rarely performed early comic opera, based on Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure, enjoys its Spanish debut in a new production by director Kasper Holten. The lively score boasts clear Italian, French and Weberian influences that pre-date the composer’s mature voice, yet the music continually delights with the unmistakable emergence of Wagner’s precocious genius. His adaptation of the Bard’s play reflects the rebellious mood of a Revolutionary Germany, vindicating sensual love and attacking the fanatical repression of sexuality by a puritanical and hypocritical authority. Ivor Bolton conducts a vibrant cast featuring English baritone and Cardiff Singer of the World Lieder Prize-winner Christopher Maltman, Turkish-Viennese tenor and BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist Ilker Arcayürek and Germany’s hottest Wagnerian leading lady, Manuela Uhl.

With his First Concerto, the young Brahms set his own course in the wake of Beethoven and Schumann and at the same time poured forth his personal emotions in this work of impressive dimensions. Russian soloist, Alexander Melnikov, has chosen an instrument contemporary with the premiere, a magnificent Blüthner piano from 1859, a perfect match for the Sinfonieorchester Basel under it's British conductor Ivor Bolton. In addition to Brahms's Tragic Overture, the program also includes the much rarer Overture to Éliza, an opera by Cherubini, a composer whom Brahms greatly admired.

For the album "The Secret Fauré", released in 2018, the Basel Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Principal Conductor Ivor Bolton received fantastic reviews: "The music of Fauré … unfolds its attraction only gradually and very subtly, with a gentle, addictive spell can make." (NDR Kultur) In his new album, the orchestra presents a number of other orchestral and concert works by the French composer, Gabriel Fauré. Most of the recordings are based on the new critical edition of Fauré's works published by Bärenreiter-Verlag, whose score has been edited according to the latest scientific criteria.

The plot couldn't be simpler: the Spanish nobleman Belmonte must free his fiancée Konstanze, her English maid Blonde and Belmonte's servant Pedrillo from the clutches of the Turkish Bassa, or Pasha, Selim. Belmonte must sneak into the pasha's seraglio and sneak back out again, all the while eluding and outsmarting Osmin, the overseer of the harem. With his Salzburg production of 2003, young Norwegian director Stefan Herheim raised a storm of controversy that continued to crackle in 2006, when the production was revised for the Mozart 22 cycle. The controversy was largely due to the fact that Herheim transposed the events to the inner world of the human psyche.

The 300th anniversary of Christoph Willibald Glucks birth in 2014 was celebrated at the Teatro Real in Madrid with a new production of Alceste (French version), staged by Krysztof Warlikowski and starring Angela Denoke as Alceste. Alceste is Glucks most programmatic example of his quest for purer expression and deeper meaning. All its elements show a conscious effort to recreate the tragic origins of opera: its staunch dramatic unity, austere musical form, use of the chorus as a fundamental part of the story and, above all, its anachronistic but devoted adaptation of Euripides' tragedy.