This is Opera

La Bohème

50 min

At the height of his career, Puccini wrote this song to life, friendship and love. To illustrate it, Gener travels to bohemian Paris and enters some of its most characteristic locales such as the century-old book shop Shakespeare & Co. and Au Lapin Agile Cabaret, along with visiting a rehearsal of La Bohème at the Paris Opera House.

Parsifal

50 min

"Parsifal" was Richard Wagner's last opera. Its story centers on the search for the Holy Grail, although it's actually a spiritual voyage into the protagonist. To learn more about the Holy Grail, Gener travels to three different locations: Montségur, Valencia, and Montserrat Monastery.

Pelléas et Mélisande

50 min

Beauty for beauty's sake. That is how Gener defines this opera by Debussy, an impressionist work with a simple argument, but one capable of giving rise to intense emotions in whoever succumbs to its magic. To talk about love, impressionism and Debussy himself, Gener visits two pivotal French cities: Rouen and Paris.

Bel Canto

50 min

Gener explains why Bel Canto awakens so many emotions and why it is a favorite for lovers of opera. Despite bel canto being born in Italy and all its composers being Italian, the viewer discovers why many of its operas are written in French and why so many of its authors moved to France to premiere them.

The Ring of Nibelung

50 min

Gener heads to Bayreuth, the hometown of Richard Wagner, the composer of the most ambitious operatic saga in all of musical history, "The Ring of the Nibelung". This tetralogy is made up of four operas: The Rhine Gold, The Valkyrie, Siegfried and Twilight of the Gods. Gener touches on all of them as he visits the Autostad automotive plant, walks the stage at the Bayreuther Festspielhaus (the theatre designed by Wagner himself), and converses with one of the most renowned experts on the composer.

Tosca

50 min

Rome, the eternal city, is the setting for this episode. It's also the city where the action in "Tosca" unfolds, a thriller with all the elements of a genre film. To unveil what these elements are, Gener seeks out the help of students from the Rome Film School.

La Traviata

50 min

To love and to be loved. This is the main theme in Verdi's "La Traviata", based on "The Lady of the Camellias" by the younger Alexandre Dumas and inspired by the famous courtesan Marie Duplessis. Paris will be the backdrop for this episode. Out on its streets, Gener interviews random people who tell him about their experiences with love and how it has transformed their lives. Guest appearance: Diana Damrau, Ludovic Tézier, Boris Izaguirre

Tristan and Isolde

50 min

Gener heads to Cadaques on the Costa Brava to talk about a great love story, of a love beyond death: what Tristan and Isolde felt for one another. Again, Gener interviews anonymous people who have experienced great love stories like the protagonists of this particular opera, and who act as a counterpoint to show that love is more powerful than death.

Don Giovanni

50 min

To bring to light one of the most famous seducers in history, Gener delves into the world of the night, to get to know the techniques for hooking up used by today's Don Juans.