Cellists Luka Šulic from Slovenia and Stjepan Hauser from Croatia have been a great success all over the world. Their You Tube views, concert attendance in the largest arenas of the world and album sales have surged to record figures. They are known as top classical musicians with academic degrees and numerous awards from the most prominent international music competitions. Their cello concerts combine classical pieces with amazing pop, rock and film soundtrack covers, attracting enthusiasts from different music worlds. The documentary film takes the viewers below the surface and introduces them to the rich mental, emotional, conscious and subconscious creative world of the two artists – a world so unique, special and peculiar; it cannot be explained; only experienced. With all the fame and overly chaotic schedules, the two artists try to maintain the delicate balance between the glorious world of international success and the personal world of inner peace and solitude.
Regina Resnik: New York Original
The documentary “Regina Resnik: New York Original” traces the remarkable 70-year career of the Bronx-born international opera star, Tony-nominated actress, stage director, filmmaker, and Jewish cultural figure. The program features on-screen interviews with opera stars Martina Arroyo and Teresa Stratas; Broadway legends Harold Prince and Joel Grey; Maestros Richard Bonynge, Zubin Mehta and Craig Rutenberg; and Ms. Resnik’s brother, engineer Jack H. Resnick. Ms. Arroyo introduces the film onscreen. Renowned mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves is the narrator.
A New Chopin – Daniil Trifonov & Mikhail Pletnev
It is one of the most fascinating classical recordings of the year 2017: Daniil Trifonov’s interpretation of the Chopin piano concertos together with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra under the guidance of Mikhail Pletnev. Trifonov and Pletnev are both Russians, pianists and composers. For all these communalities, they are quite different personalities. Trifonov belongs to the crowd of highly talented and celebrated young pianists who has won numerous competitions and gives more than 100 concerts a year. In contrast, the Grammy-award-winner Pletnev is known for his intellectual grasp of musical language who might come across a little bit distant. It is a remarkable proof of trust for the young pianist, that Pletnev offers his re-orchestration of the two concertos for Trifonov’s solo recording. Chopin’s music is elegant and deeply personal, but the orchestrations of his concertos are considered makeshift, many assert. There have been several attempts to re-orchestrate them: Will the Pletnev-orchestration add a new dimension to the pieces? This collaboration is likely to be an artistic exploration at the highest stage and consequently, the music documentary „A New Chopin“ takes viewers on a rare tour of the artistic process.
La Maestra – Alondra de la Parra
37-year old Mexican conductor Alondra de la Parra just made history by being appointed the first female conductor and music director of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, one of Australia’s three largest Orchestras. In 2004 she became the first Mexican woman to conduct in New York and in 2014, she led the Orchestre de Paris. Clearly breaking barriers is standard fare for Alondra. As a guest conductor she has led more than 70 renowned orchestras worldwid. She has done multidisciplinary collaborations with various actors and filmmakers and keeps on working on educational programs. The documentary traces the multiple facets of Alondra’s life, accompanies her on her binational tours and gives insight into Alondra’s interesting family. Her latest appointment as the Queensland Symphony Orchestra’s Music Director (2017) marks a special point in the orchestra’s history, not only because they decided on a young woman but also because it is the first time they have ever appointed a music director. The film also captures Alondra in her home city New York, where she works on the N.Y. City based “Niños” program, one of Alondra’s numerous initiatives that express her desire to spread classical music to everyone.
Olga Peretyatko – My Love for Rossini
Olga Peretyatko – My Love for Rossini is dedicated to the famous Russian soprano and her admiration for the composer Gioachino Rossini. This documentary includes footage of Olga Peretyatko singing several of Rossini’s most famous arias in concert with the Orchestra del Teatro Comunale di Bologna conducted by Alberto Zedda. She reflects on her life, her experiences as a singer, and above all, her love for Rossini.
Plácido Domingo: My Greatest Roles
In this feature-length documentary Plácido Domingo describes his favourite roles in opera – and in so doing tells his own life story more fully and poignantly than ever before. The programme is full of clips of his performances, and seasoned with contributions from colleagues such as Kiri te Kanawa, Luciano Pavarotti, and Zubin Mehta. This film sums up Domingo’s whole career as a tenor; now that he sings baritone roles it is a comprehensive overview of the entire tenor oeuvre of the man described by BBC Music Magazine as ‘the greatest singer of all time’. Our guide is the great man himself, in interviews edited from eight hours of conversation in which Domingo reveals more about his life, his thoughts about singing, opera and the world, and what drives him to achieve yet more goals than he has ever done on television before. As he says, “If I rest, I rust”. Most of all this film celebrates some of the finest tenor performances ever filmed, with extensive extracts of what he has selected as his eleven finest roles.
Survival Artists
They live two lives. They work to survive, but music is their passion. At night they perform in sold out concert halls, and clean toilets the morning after. They tickle the ivories and sort out the trash in close succession. They interpret Beethoven just before repairing exhaust pipes. They are survival artists. A musician is asked: “Can you make a living?” The reply: “Some can, others cannot.” This story is about the others: Professional musicians who practise their art with great passion and skill, but still have to work on the side. Either just to make ends meet or to maintain a certain quality of life: As a garbage collector, an auto mechanic or doctor.
Gozo – One Island, Two Opera Houses
Grand opera in an unlikely setting. The small island of Gozo (right next to Malta) has 30,000 inhabitants and two opera houses. This means it has more opera per square mile than any other place in the world. The organization, the staging, and much of the singing are all done by amateurs. The only trouble is, there is no love lost between the two houses. There are two conductors, two choruses, two teams of stage workers and organizers and behind it all two rival clans whose sole ambition every year is to come out on top in the great operatic singing match. But there is one thing they do have to share: the orchestra. Malta only has one to its name. In the middle of the fray we find Maltese star tenor Joseph Calleja. As a teenager he earned his singing spurs in Gozo, and now he comes back to the island every year to act as a mediator. The film observes opera-crazy volunteers and amateur musicians engaging in the annual tussle for the best Verdi performance in the Mediterranean and international tenor Joseph Calleja doing his level best to keep things from getting out of hand. A film about no-holds-barred commitment, a passionate love of music, and how cut-throat rivalry can bring forth genuine art.
Currentzis – The Classical Rebel
While the whole world thinks that Europe ends at Perm, Greek conductor Teodor Currentzis starts a classical music revolution together with his orchestra MusicAeterna in the Ural foothills, a fast changing former industrial city now being one of the major cultural centres of Russia. The film accompanies a new opera recording of “Don Giovanni” in studio-like conditions, traces artistic processes and portrays the maverick super-star conductor. The film combines both high standards of journalism and a pleasantly intriguing approach to the world of classical music with fascinating artists, peeks behind the scenes and timelessly beautiful music.
Ayham Ahmad – The Pianist of Yarmouk
Surrounded by ruins in Syria’s capital Damascus, Ayham Ahmad sings accompanied by an out-of-tune piano about migration, hunger, and death. Threatened by Assad’s regime and ISIS, the Piano Man is silenced and must flee – to Germany. The documentary film The Pianist from Yarmouk tells the story of this Syrian refugee musician. After his arrival in Munich, we follow the life of a man who sang out against the suffering in his country until his instrument was destroyed. His fate stands for that of thousands – robbed of their hopes and dreams and forced to build a new existence.