The love story of young Countess Natasha Rostova and Count Pierre Bezukhov, is intertwined with the "Great Patriotic War" of 1812 against the invading Napoleon's Armies. People of Russia from all classes of society stand up united against the enemy. Both sides suffer tremendous losses during the war, and Russian society is left irrevocably changed.

War and Peace

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's dazzling opera by-line in seven tableaux. The epic journey of Sadko a sea-faring minstrel from Novgorod, his wife Libava and their encounters with Volkhova, a sea Princess and the court of her parents the Tsar and Tsarina of the Sea. Sadko traveling on his ship "Falcon" also meets visiting foreign merchants from India (a Hindu), Scandinavia (a Varangian) and Italy (a Venetian) singing of the magic of their own lands to try and lure him. In the seventh tableaux Sadko is reunited with his wife, thinking his journey a dream, until he sees his fleet of ships coming up the newly created river Volkhova and realizes his sea Princess has transformed herself into the river in order to create the gateway to the ocean for Novgorod. In conclusion Sadko leads the hymn of praise and everyone rejoices their good fortune.

Sadko

Taped live at the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg, Valery Gergiev conducts this landmark production of Giuseppe Verdi's operatic masterpiece. This opera premiered at the Mariinsky Theatre in 1862, and is performed here in its original St. Petersburg version using reconstructions of the magnificent painted scenery.

Verdi: La Forza del Destino

The Queen of Spades, Op. 68 (Russian: Пиковая дама, Pikovaya dama, French: Pique Dame) is an opera in 3 acts (7 scenes) by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky to a Russian libretto by the composer's brother Modest Tchaikovsky, based on a short story of the same name by Alexander Pushkin, but the plot was very changed. The premiere took place in 1890 in St. Petersburg (at the Mariinsky Theatre), Russia.