Take life, drama, and comedy. Add stage and music. Voilà: you‘ve got opera! But once an opera has gone out into the world from the stages of Milan, Paris or Vienna, each work begins to develop a life of ist own. How do audiences of the 18th or the 21st century understand the work? How much of the composer‘s own biography has gone into his work? How does opera co-exist with the other arts of ist time? These and other topics form the core of ten half-hour documentaries, a one-of-a-kind tour of the most beautiful operas of all time. Evocative visuals, stylish re-enactments, statements from leading international singers, conductors and directors, excerpts from the most prominent productions of each opera – all of this is served up in a cool, modern aesthetic aimed at viewers who are not the traditional target audiences of opera.
The Most Beautiful Operas of All Time: Aida
Take life, drama, and comedy. Add stage and music. Voilà: you‘ve got opera! But once an opera has gone out into the world from the stages of Milan, Paris or Vienna, each work begins to develop a life of ist own. How do audiences of the 18th or the 21st century understand the work? How much of the composer‘s own biography has gone into his work? How does opera co-exist with the other arts of ist time? These and other topics form the core of ten half-hour documentaries, a one-of-a-kind tour of the most beautiful operas of all time. Evocative visuals, stylish re-enactments, statements from leading international singers, conductors and directors, excerpts from the most prominent productions of each opera – all of this is served up in a cool, modern aesthetic aimed at viewers who are not the traditional target audiences of opera.
Opera Gala Baden-Baden
Four of the greatest singers of our time combine their talents and their artistry in an evening of beloved operatic numbers – rarely has a concert deserved the title ‘Opera Summit’ as much as this one, recorded live at the Festspielhaus in Baden-Baden on 3 August 2007. Heading the quartet is soprano Anna Netrebko with her inimitable blend of glamour and simplicity, her enticing appearance and seductive singing, a musical powerhouse who tops the pop charts and sells out operas houses within hours. Hardly less dazzling than her Russian colleague is Latvian mezzo Elina Garanc?a, whose crystal-clear voice and charismatic stage presence never fail to enthrall her audiences. Replacing the indisposed Rolando Villazón is his fellow Mexican tenor Ramón Vargas, who began his career in Europe after winning the first prize in the Enrico Caruso Competition in Milan. French baritone Ludovic Tézier is a frequent guest at La Scala, the Opéra Bastille and the Met.
Classical Summit 2006 – Three Superstars in Berlin
In the tradition of the original ‘The Three Tenors,’ world-class singers Plácido Domingo, Anna Netrebko and Rolando Villazón joined forces to entertain a live audience of 20,000 spectators on location and millions more around the world on TV. They sing the most famous arias and duets from the world of opera, accompanied by the orchestra of the Deutsche Oper Berlin and its conductor Marco Armiliato.
Verdi, Overture to “La Forza Del Destino”
Un ballo in maschera
Ten years after stepping down as music director of the Bavarian State Opera, Zubin Mehta returned to Munich in March 2016 to celebrate his 80th birthday conducting Verdi’s masterpiece for the first time in a staged production. His cast features some of today’s finest Verdi singers: soprano Anja Harteros, singing Amelia for the first time and “filling every note with Verdian intensity”, tenor Piotr Beczala as a “visually and vocally dashing Riccardo” and George Petean as an “exemplary” Renato (Neue Musikzeitung). In director Johannes Erath’s musically super-sensitive new production, this historically-based tale of illicit love, conspiracy and betrayal unfolds in a surrealistic, shadowy setting transformed by lighting and projections. Special praise was showered by the enthusiastic critics on Maestro Mehta, who “creates concentrated musical connections (…) Musically the performance was a dream” (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung).
Verdi, La Forza del Destino
Ever since their magnificent and hugely successful performance in Wagner’s “Lohengrin” at the Bavarian State Opera, Anja Harteros and Jonas Kaufmann have come to be regarded as the world of opera’s perfect couple. In Giuseppe Verdi’s “La forza del destino”, the two returned and once again played two lovers desperately trying to be together but kept apart by the forces of destiny. Their performance at the Munich Opera Festival met with “explosive outbursts of applause for the new heights
reached in singing” (dpa).
Verdi, Il Trovatore
He was trained to be a stage designer in the Münchner Kammerspiele. He became famous for his video clips for Rammstein and Madonna. His directing of the films ‘North Face’ and ‘Young Goethe in Love’ took him to Hollywood level. As an opera director, Philipp Stölzl, now tackled his first Verdi: ‘Il trovatore’ with a cast of high-class singer including Anna Netrebko als Leonora and Plácido Domingo as Count Luna – both of them making their debut in these roles. Daniel Barenboim conducts the Staatskapelle Berlin.
La Scala and the Magic of Gold
Macbeth
With its relentless dramatic continuum, Macbeth, Verdi’s early masterpiece and his tenth opera (premiered in Florence on 14 March 1847) rescued the composer from a creative crisis. In Macbeth Verdi created a successful synthesis of music and drama on which he was to guide himself from now on. Director Claude d’Anna and conductor Riccardo Chailly chose the version which Verdi prepared for Paris and was premiered there on 21 April 1865. As to the apparitions and supernatural aspects of the work, d’Anna says that he always “tried to find theatrical rather than cinematic solutions. … Solutions had to result from the work’s own symbolic logic, not simply from technology.”