Taking a closer look at Glyndebourne’s world-famous opera house set in the heart of the Sussex countryside, this film goes behind the scenes and meets the people who create its unique atmosphere and sense of occasion. The exciting 50th Anniversary season in 1984 was chosen to reflect some of the works which have been particularly significant in the history of the Festival. In this documentary there is film of rehearsals for new productions of Le nozze di Figaro and Così fan tutte, the two operas with which Glyndebourne opened in 1934. These are both directed by Sir Peter Hall. There is also film of Hall’s preparations for Monteverdi’s L’Incoronazione di Poppea and Benjamin Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. John Cox is seen working on Richard Strauss’s Arabella.
Symphony No. 4
Maestro Celibidache (1912-96) was one of the most uncompromising figures in the music world, demanding three times as much rehearsal time as other conductors and with an ardent dislike of making recordings because he feared they misrepresented his musical intentions. This concert from the Herkulessaal in Munich captures one of the rare occasions on which he consented to a recording being made. He conducts the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra.
Johann Sebastian Bach: The Cantor of St.Thomas’s
“Too operatic and too long!” – one opinion of Bach’s music, on his appointment to his last, longest and most famous post as Cantor of Leipzig’s Thomasschule. Brian Cox portrays Bach (1685-1750) in a film based on the records of his employers, the City Council – the story of his fight to defend position, status and, above all else, his music. Performances, in authentic style, are directed by Sir Roger Norrington.
The music content of the film includes excerpts from: The Art of Fugue, the St. Matthew Passion, Fugue in C Minor for Organ, Cantatas No. 131, 71 and 123, Passacaglia in C Minor for Organ, Sonata for Violin and Harpsichord in E Minor, Brandenburg Concerto No. 4, Invention for Harpsichord No. 5 in E Flat, Sonata No. 1, the St. John Passion, The Wedding Cantata, Mass in B Minor and The Musical Offering.
Olivier Messiaen
French composer Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992) is a key figure in the evolution of twentieth-century classical music. In this definitive profile, made when he was nearly eighty, Messiaen talks about his life, his music and the mainsprings of his work – a deep love of nature and a fervent Christian faith. He is seen improvising on the organ at the St. Trinité church in Paris, and the programme includes specially-recorded extracts from several of his major works.
Symphony No. 4 in G Major
Recorded live from the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, Haitink conducts the Concertgebouw Orchestra in a performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 in G major. Maria Ewing sings the soprano solo in the work’s finale.
Laurence Olivier
Made in 1982, this two-part film special records the only time Laurence Olivier (1907-89) talked openly for television about a life filled with incident and romance both on and off the stage and screen. His life-story is richly illustrated with film clips and archive material, and there are contributions from friends, including Peggy Ashcroft, Douglas Fairbanks Jnr., John Gielgud, Ralph Richardson, John Osborne, and his wife, the actress Joan Plowright.
Alexander Tauner
Art director Alexander Trauner talks about his distinguished career in a programme amply illustrated with library material. Having gained his early experience with the great designer Lazare Meerson, he worked with Marcel Carne on Drôle de drame, and it marked the beginning of a lengthy association with the director, encompassing Les Enfants du Paradis. In Hollywood he collaborated with Billy Wilder on several films, including Irma la douce, and in England he was no stranger to Pinewood.
Kurt Vonnegut
The American cult satirist achieved international fame with his novel, Slaughterhouse Five, based on his own experiences as a prisoner of war in Dresden during the Allied bombing of 1945. In this survey of his work, filmed on location in New York, Vonnegut explores his obsession with the betrayal of mankind by science and technology. He also gets under the skin of the characters he has created and enters into a dialogue with his fictional alter ego, Kilgore Trout.
Borges
Centred on an interview with the poet and writer, conducted as his home in Buenos Aires three years before his death in 1986, this profile gives a remarkable insight into the contradictions that surround this literary magician and master of paradox: a man who doubted all men’s certainties, even his own. The film is interwoven with dramatised extracts from his most memorable stories, including Death and the Compass and The Meeting, shot in location in South America.
Missa Sancta Caecilia
A legendary performance of Haydn’s Missa Sanctae Ceaciliae conducted by Rafael Kubelík live from the Basilika Ottobeuren. The work was without doubt one of the highlights of the wonderful Kubelík era. Under his guidance the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks also became one of the world’s foremost Haydn orchestras. When the orchestra discovered the baroque Basilica of Ottobeuren as the perfect venue for sacred music of the classic-romantic repertoire, their concerts enjoyed huge popularity, leaving a lasting impression on those who experienced them at first hand.