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Studiocanal is unveiling a raft of French projects with high commercial potential, including Claude Zidi Jr.’s “Tenor,” the romantic comedy “The Tasting” and “Happy 50,” starring Lambert Wilson (“Benedetta”) and Frank Dubosc (“Rolling to You”).

“Tenor” (pictured) marks Zidi Jr.’s follow up to “Divorce Club” and boasts an eclectic cast, including César nominee Michèle Laroque, beatboxing world champion MB14, and opera singer Roberto Alagna. “Tenor” tells the uplifting journey of a talented young underdog who rises from suburban streets to the grand stage of the Paris Opéra. The movie is produced by Firstep, Raphael Benoliel’s Paris-based banner whose credits include “Emily in Paris,” “Magic in the Moonlight,” “Midnight in Paris,” and Darka Movies (“Gogo”). “Tenor” is available worldwide excluding Benelux, France and Poland. The company will release it in French cinemas on May 4.

​”The Tasting” is penned and directed by Ivan Calberac (“The Student and Mr Henri”) and...

If you haven’t yet seen the Met Opera performed from the luxury of a cushy Cineplex theatre seat, now’s your chance! The Met Summer Encores program brings the best of past years’ performances from the Met Opera Live in HD series back for a limited time only. In select Cineplex cinemas, you can revel in the pomp, pageantry, lush costuming, brilliant sets, and of course, the most talented operatic voices of our time in state-of-the-art theatre sound.

This summer’s lineup features:

Tosca - Puccini’s enduring favorite features acclaimed American soprano Patricia Racette and French tenor Roberto Alagna...

Enter here for your chance to win two passes to all of the 2016 performances in the Metro Detroit area that are part of the Metropolitan Opera’s award-winning Live in HD series of cinema presentations, including Les Pêcheurs de Perles (The Pearl Fishers), Turandot, Manon Lescaut, Madama Butterfly, Roberto Devereux, and Elektra.

Go behind the scenes with the Met’s stars! During intermission, interviews with cast, crew, and production teams give a revealing look at what goes into the staging of an opera. Celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Metropolitan Opera’s Peabody and Emmy Award-winning series The Met: Live in HD.

For your chance to receive two (2) complimentary passes to all of the performances listed below, just look for the “Enter the Contest” box further down on this page (we’ll ask what city you live in so we know what might be the closest theater to you).

But,...

In the wake of the terrible attacks in Paris, I found myself listening to a lot of French music and thinking about the Leonard Bernstein quote going around on Facebook: "This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before." This list came to seem like my natural response. A very small response, I know. This list is chronological and leaves off people I should probably include. The forty [note: now forty-one] composers listed below are merely a start.

Léonin Aka Leoninus (c.1135-c.1201)

The Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris in the 1100s was a major musical center, and Léonin (the first named composer from whom we have notated polyphonic music) was a crucial figure for defining the liturgical use of organum, the first polyphony. Earlier organum was fairly simple, involving parallel intervals and later contrary motion, but the mid-12th century brought...

Enter here for your chance to win passes to one of two select encore performances from the Metropolitan Opera’s award-winning Live in HD series of cinema presentations, including The Merry Widow and Aida.

For your chance to receive two (2) complimentary passes to see one of the two performances listed below, just look for the “Enter the Contest” box further down on this page. But, hurry because the contest ends at midnight on Sunday, July 19th! If you win, we’ll contact you with how you’ll receive the tickets nearest your location for one of the shows.

About The Events

Event: The Merry Widow

Date: Wednesday, July 22

Time: 7:00 p.m. (local time)

Special Fathom Features: The great Renée Fleming stars as the beguiling woman who captivates all of Paris in Lehár’s enchanting operetta, seen in a new hit staging by Broadway virtuoso director and choreographer Susan Stroman.

Lovers," says Roberto Alagna. "We will be like lovers." Er, yes, I giggle, and even I can hear that my voice is just a little bit too high. We are in Giovanni's, his favorite restaurant in Covent Garden, and after much slapping of shoulders and kissing and cries of "Roberto!" (the name of the manager) and "Robertino!" (Alagna's nickname), we have been shown to a table in what you might call Roberto Alagna corner. On the walls are photographs and posters of Alagna: youthfully golden, on the cover of Classic CDs, broodingly romantic in a poster for Tosca and, in photographs everywhere, gazing adoringly at his wife, Angela Gheorghiu. It's like a little shrine to opera's golden couple: the handsome tenor, hailed as the heir to Pavarotti, married to the Romanian femme fatale, opera's prima diva, and perhaps the most...

Two star tenors, Roberto Alagna and Jos? Cura, take on the challenge of singing the lead roles in both Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana and Leoncavallo's Pagliacci when the classic double-bill returns to the Met's repertory. At the season premiere on March 19, Alagna sings Turiddu in Cavalleria Rusticana for the first time on any stage and Canio in Pagliacci in his Met role debut. Waltraud Meier joins him in the Mascagni work as Santuzza, along with Charles Taylor as Alfio. Leoncavallo's opera also features Nuccia Focile as Nedda, Alberto Mastromarino in his Met debut as Tonio, and Christopher Maltman in his company role debut as Silvio.

Once again, the Metropolitan Opera is teaming up with local movie theaters to offer "The Met: Live In HD" to give fans a chance to catch Puccini's "La Rondine." The performance will be shown on January 10 at 1:00 pm (Et) in select theaters across the country.

Angela Gheorghiu and Roberto Alagna will deliver star studded performances in a ravishing romance about a kept woman who takes a chance on true love with a man who makes her question the cost of her wealthy existence.

Marco Armiliato will conduct the performance, while Nicolas Joel will direct. The running time for the show is 2 hours and 15 minutes, with 1 intermission scheduled.

Select theaters will offer an encore presentation of the performance on January 21. For more details, go to www.fathomevents.com to see theater locations and encore information.

Once again, the Metropolitan Opera is teaming up with local movie theaters to offer a "The Met: Live In HD" to give fans a chance to catch Puccini's "La Rondine." The performance will be shown on January 10 at 1:00 pm (Et) in select theaters across the country.

Angela Gheorghiu and Roberto Alagna will deliver star studded performances in a ravishing romance about a kept woman who takes a chance on true love with a man who makes her question the cost of her wealthy existence.

Marco Armiliato will conduct the performance, while Nicolas Joel will direct. The running time for the show is 2 hours and 15 minutes, with 1 intermission scheduled.

Select theaters will offer an encore presentation of the performance on January 21. For more details, go to www.fathomevents.com to see theater locations and encore information.

The Metropolitan Opera and In Demand Networks have inked a deal to bring all eight new performances from the Met's second season of "Metropolitan Opera: Live in High Definition" to on-demand subscribers in the U.S.

The Met's series of opera performances are transmitted worldwide into movie theaters, and each show will be available within 30 days of its theatrical release to on-demand subscribers in both standard and high-definition formats.

"With this agreement, we are creating the opera equivalent of a Hollywood movie rollout," Met GM Peter Gelb said. "I think opera fans will be thrilled to play our movie theater transmissions at home on their own schedules."

The on-air schedule kicks off with the Met's production of Gounod's "Romeo et Juliette" on Jan. 16. The production stars Anna Netrebko and Roberto Alagna and is conducted by Placido Domingo.

Other operas slated for release through In Demand Networks are Humperdinck's "Hansel and Gretel", Verdi's "Macbeth", Puccini's "Manon Lescaut" and "La Boheme", Wagner's "Tristan und Isolde", Britten's "Peter Grimes" and Donizetti's "La Fille du Regiment".

"The Metropolitan Opera made international headlines last season by bringing the magic of its performances to movie theaters worldwide," said In Demand Networks president and CEO Robert Jacobson.

Marie Antoinette filmmaker Sofia Coppola will stage her first opera in 2009, after reaching an agreement with France's Montpellier Opera House.. The Oscar-nominated Lost In Translation director's first foray into the operatic world will see her mastermind Puccini romantic tragedy Manon Lescaut during the venue's 2009-2010 season. Controversial tenor Robert Alagna has been lined up to star in the show - he stormed off stage during a performance of Verdi's Aida in Milan, Italy and refused to return.

Avatar Films

The rarefied, stylistic excesses of Italian opera and the more naturalistic aspects of film uneasily combine in Benoit Jacquot's cinematic treatment of Puccini's 1899 classic musical melodrama. Apparently unwilling to trust that contemporary audiences would understand that what was unfolding before them on the movie screen wasn't real, the director has injected self-consciousness into the proceedings at every turn. The results are far more alienating than involving.

It's a shame, really, because the opera contains some of Puccini's most beautiful music (which is saying something), and the two leads are played by the opera world's reigning couple, Angela Gheorghiu and Roberto Alagna. As the fiery Diva Tosca and her painter lover Mario, these two invest their performances with the requisite passion and gorgeous vocalizing. Ruggero Raimondi, as the villainous Baron Scarpia, matches them in intensity.

Unfortunately, the performers' efforts are undercut by Jacquot's tiresome approach to the material. The film contains three distinct modes: black-and-white footage of the singers recording the score in a studio; grainy shots of locations appropriate to the story; and studio-shot scenes featuring the performers in full costume, lip-syncing to their vocals. Jacquot intercuts among these three styles at will, effectively jarring us out of the story every time. Fortunately, the music sounds wonderful.

"Tosca" is playing an exclusive theatrical engagement at New York's Quad Cinemas, before expanding later in the summer.