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.
Magic Moments of Music – Martha Argerich and Daniel Barenboim at Teatro Colón
In 2014, a memorable concert took place at the Teatro Colón: Martha Argerich and Daniel Barenboim as a piano duo on two pianos. Since their youth, the two have enjoyed an artistic friendship rich in magic moments of music. What happens when these very different personalities form a piano duo? The two superstars had already performed together almost everywhere in the world – but not in their hometown. Their first joint performance in Buenos Aires was a magic moment of music and a kind of folk festival in equal parts. During their stay in Buenos Aires, Argerich and Barenboim went in search of traces of the places where they met as children. And how does Daniel Barenboim himself remember the concert? He laughs: “It’s totally easy with Martha. It’s not like that with everyone. You can only fall in love with her.”
Magic Moments of Music – Leonard Bernstein and Krystian Zimerman interpret Brahms
It was a unique coming together in Vienna in 1984 when enigmatic pianist Krystian Zimerman and charismatic maestro Leonard Bernstein stepped onto the stage and in front of the cameras to perform Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 2. The result was indeed a magic moment of music and a landmark in the career of Krystian Zimerman. In this episode Zimerman gives a rare interview, and for the first time in a TV documentary, speaks in detail about the background to the concert recording and why the collaboration with Leonard Bernstein radically changed the course of his artistic life. Eminent colleagues including Hélène Grimaud and Igor Levit as well as close confidants of Leonard Bernstein such as the conductor Marin Alsop and his former assistant Charlie Harmon also tell us what makes this concert a great moment for them.
Magic Moments of Music – Grace Bumbry is Carmen
When Grace Bumbry performed Carmen under Karajan in 1966/67, she was the shooting star of the international opera scene. Her career almost seems like a fairy tale: Due to racial segregation, she could not begin her studies at the St. Louis Institute of Music in the USA, although she had already won a radio competition at the age of 17. Against this background, one has to see her later triumphs. She celebrated her breakthrough in Bayreuth, where Wieland Wagner brought her for his Tannhäuser and where the press praised her as the “black Venus” and the audience clapped her in front of the curtain 40 times. Many have had great careers. Grace Bumbry’s was more than that: it was significant – and Carmen was one of her finest moments.
Mythos Ot(h)ello
Ot(h)ello – the most famous black theatrical hero, a reflection of 4 centuries of racism on stage. What role did black people play in the world of Shakespeare and Verdi? What influence did the colonial period have on the genesis of the play and the opera? How did the ideas of “white people” about “black people” influence their interpretation? Jonas Kaufmann and Antonio Pappano, as well as the legendary football player Jimmy Hartwig, explore the “Mythos of Ot(h)ello”.
Magic Moments of Music – Jessye Norman and Kathleen Battle “Spirituals”
When Jessye Norman and Kathleen Battle took the stage of Carnegie Hall March 18, 1990 a breath of history wafted through America‘s most famous concert hall. It is a camera view of the audience that makes clear how long the road to this moment in music history was: there, the now very old African-American opera singer Marian Anderson, one of the great voices of her generation. In 1939, she had been barred from singing in Constitution Hall, because she was black. The twelve-year-old Jessye Norman had absorbed Anderson‘s biography, just like the music she performed that evening together with her great colleague and competitor Kathleen Battle: Spirituals. That evening in March 1990 was under enormous pressure of expectation and the tension crackled at all corners. For one thing: Would the two compete? Where did the competition lie? Divas who would actually manage to sing together and not against each other? But the two divas take Carnegie Hall by storm; critics and audiences alike pay homage to them: It is a musical feast of charisma, virtuosity, liveliness and show. Jessye Norman dominates the stage with her authentic timbre and an African colourful costume, Kathleen Battle still hits the finest high coloraturas.