The Grail – the cup which Jesus Christ used at the Last Supper, and which subsequently collected His blood as He bled on the Cross – is one of the most powerful symbols in the last two thousand years of Western culture.
Parsifal, Wagner’ three-act opera, is the most famous work to celebrate the Search for the Grail. First performed in 1882, and written especially for the composer’s revolutionary theatre in Bayreuth, Parsifal has towered above twentieth-century culture, in so far as it became a principal source of inspiration for Hitler.
Tony Palmer’s film centres round a performance of Parsifal, with the unmistakable Placido Domingo in the title role, and conducted by the distinguished Valery Gergiev. The striking documentary, narrated by Domingo himself, offers a description of the plot and explores theories about Parsifal’s origins and considerable sphere of influence.
The music was recorded at the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg and in the gardens of the Villa Rufolo in Ravello, Italy, which had been a principal source of inspiration for Wagner.
This powerful and controversial film provides an invaluable oppurtanity to explore Wagner and his most intense opera.
Sir André Previn’s success is phenomenal: from Berlin refugee to multi-Oscar-winning film score composer, from renowned jazz pianist to chief conductor of both the London Symphony and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestras. This film was made with him as his first opera, A Streetcar Named Desire, was being staged at the San Francisco Opera. It follows the production from first rehearsals through to opening night and Previn talks candidly about the experience, relating it to his international life and career.
No other piece of twentieth-century music has enjoyed such popular acclaim as Orff’s Carmina Burana. But, apart from this composition, his work – operas, ballets, cantatas – is largely ignored. Why? Tony Palmer’s search for the real Carl Orff (1895-1982) looks at the whole range of his music, his educational work and his difficult relationship with the Nazi Party. Interviews with the three wives who survived him and his only child are included. An extraordinary, dark story emerges – of betrayal, disappointment, lies and personal tragedy.
“A towering monument to our world and to the appalling mess we have made of it,” is
how director Tony Palmer describes Henryk Górecki’s phenomenally successful Symphony No. 3.
Taking his cue from Górecki’s remarks about the inspiration for this symphony, Palmer overlays a
performance by the London Sinfonietta and soprano Dawn Upshaw, conducted by David Zinman, with
harrowing footage of man’s crimes against his fellow man – from Auschwitz to Somalia, Iraq and
Sarajevo. The result is an intensely moving and disturbing film.
Tony Palmer’s film contains a startling kaleidoscope of images reflecting precisely what Berlioz (1803-69) had written in his music: war, destruction, death, sometimes blending seamlessly with great natural beauty, sometimes juxtaposed with erotica. The pictures are underscored by the composer’s powerful and evocative music – mainly from his life’s work, The Trojans. This opera’s failure to convince the musical establishment of its greatness caused Berlioz to die a broken man. The programme, which takes as its source the composer’s letters and memoirs, details his vain attempts to gain recognition for this epic work. Corin Redgrave portrays Berlioz. The soloists are Ludmilla Schemtschuk, Giorgio Lamberti, Agnes Habereder and Anne Sofie Von Otter, and the ensemble, chorus and orchestra of the Zürich Opera House are conducted by Ralf Weikert.
Hindemith’s symphonic suite, Mathis der Maler, forms the framework for Tony Palmer’s highly original film about the German composer, narrated by John Gielgud and Ronald Pickup. The music was inspired by the medieval painter Grünewald, who, like Hindemith (1895-1963), was an opponent of oppression in his day. Palmer uses tableaux vivants from Grünewald’s crowning achievement, the Isenheim altarpiece, archive film of Nazi Germany and readings from Bunyan’s A Pilgrim’s Progress, to make a powerful assault on the senses and the emotions.
Tony Palmer’s feature, scripted by Charles Wood, dramatises the story which hit the Italian headlines in 1908, when Puccini was fifty. Robert Stephens plays Puccini, Virginia McKenna his wife, Elvira, and Judith Howarth the servant girl who, wrongly accused by Elvira of having an affair with her husband, killed herself. The scandal devastated Puccini’s career and shattered his private life. Ten years later he wrote Turandot. Music and documentary film are skillfully combined with the drama to draw connections between this sublime masterpiece and Puccini’s experiences.
Tony Palmer’s feature on Handel’s life, scripted by John Osborne, is both extremely amusing and profoundly moving. It centres on the last week of his life, when, outraged by a poor performance of his Messiah in Tunbridge Wells, the decrepit composer took to his bed. Shot on location in Germany, England, Ireland and Italy, the film stars Trevor Howard and features Handel’s music as an integral part of the drama, performed by The English Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Sir Charles Mackerras.
