Thomson Smillie Audio Books & Videos

Carmen is a French opera by Georges Bizet. The libretto was written by Meilhac and Halévy, based on the novel by Prosper Mérimée.

Based on the simple yet deeply moving legendary tale of Orpheus, who loses his beloved wife to death but is able to restore her through the power of his music....

Monteverdi's Orfeo, first performed in 1607, generates a special excitement because it is the first unquestioned masterpiece of opera....

Aida is one of the most popular operas ever written, a sumptuous work which has moments of great drama, but which reminds us in the end that it's all about people--the greatest love affairs and the greatest affairs of state cliff themselves in simple humanity.

An introduction to Mozart's opera, which is suitable for music-lovers as well as the most intellectual listener.

La traviata, an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave, takes as its basis the novel La dame aux Camélias by Alexandre Dumas…

Dating from the last decade of the 19th century, Pelleas et Melisande points the way into the 20th century....

Tosca is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, based on Victorien Sardou's drama, La Tosca. First performance: Rome, 1900.

This audio book from the Naxos Opera Explained series is an excellent primer on Rossini's most famous opera, The Barber of Seville.

Die Zauberflöte (en: The Magic Flute) is an opera in two acts composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. This opera is in the form of a Singspiel, a popular form which included both singing and spoken dialogue. It premiered in Vienna on September 30, 1791.