When Twyla Tharp’s The Catherine Wheel was premiered on Broadway, it was described by Arlene Croce of the New Yorker as “a major event in our theatre”, with “dancing of astonishing beauty and power”. It was then completely refashioned by Twyla Tharp herself specially for television, with computer-generated figures, shadow-play and reverse action – creating a video version that has met with overwhelming praise: “if ever a programme demanded to be viewed again and again with a video recorder, this is it.” FINANCIAL TIMES. Set to an original score by David Byrne, the lead singer/composer of Talking Heads, the dance grew out of Twyla Tharp’s fascination with Saint Catherine, the 4th-century martyr who was condemned to die on a spiked wheel.
Highlights from Arena di Verona
Some of the opera world’s greatest artists are featured in extracts from works by Verdi and Puccini, performed at Italy’s spectacular Arena di Verona. Extracts from Tosca, Otello, Il Trovatore, Turandot
The Glory of the Bolshoi
The Bolshoi Ballet’s first tours abroad in the mid-20th century revealed the classic Bolshoi style – a thrilling athleticism that never lost the essential beauty of the dance. This fascinating footage of many of the company’s greatest dancers draws on five years’ research in Russia’s film archives. Extracts from: Les Sylphides, Moment Musical, Moszkowski Waltz, Swan Lake, Ribbon Dance, Boston Waltz, The Nutcracker, Le Corsaire, Laurencia, Don Quixote, Spartacus, Shuraleh, Étude, The Fountain of Bakhchiserai, The Flames of Paris, Ravel Waltzes, Paganini, The Little Humpbacked Horse.
Christmas with Kiri Te Kanawa
Coventry Cathedral is the magnificent setting for this concert, designed to trace the history of the Christmas carols from the dark ages up to the present day.
La Sylphide
When Lis Jeppesen – the Sylphide of our time – in diaphanous white costume and with shining wings, dances for the Scottish farmer James, whom she has entranced with her love and beauty, we are witnessing the first scene of the most famous and enduring ballet by August Bournonville. Of all his surviving ballets it is the oldest and most widely performed. The Royal Danish Ballet rightly regards its interpretations of the Bournonville classics as being in the purest and most faithfully maintained tradition. Lis Jeppesen dances the lead role of La Sylphide, a role which demands lyrical interpretation as well as superb technique. Equal expressiveness and faultless dancing are required of James, here performed by Nikolaj Hübbe. Sorella Englund is the brilliant interpreter of the role of Madge, the witch and fortune-teller, whose rejection by James leads her to seek dreadful revenge on him, with tragic consequences.
Dancing for Dollars – The Bolshoi in Vegas & The Kirov in Petersburg
Thirty years ago the Bolshoi Ballet’s first trip to America was a political and artistic triumph and audiences queued for days to see these legends of ballet. Bolshoi in Vegas, a richly entertaining documentary, follows their disastrous 1996 tour in which they hoped to capitalise on this earlier success. Kirov in Petersburg traces the development of an institution which is both irremediably altered and condemned to trade on its past glories. As Communism gives way to Capitalism and artistic values give way to commercial considerations, the Kirov Ballet’s chief choreographer Oleg Vinogradov’s final year in office is set against allegations of bribery and corruption. Through the deeply personal recollections of workers, dancers and critics, specially-filmed backstage footage and previously unseen archive material, a unique portrait emerges of the Kirov’s changing fortunes in the context of its awesome heritage. “These two documentaries, for all their dance interest, are centrally about the plight and destiny of post-Soviet art, and are profoundly moving.” THE FINANCIAL TIMES – “The Bolshoi in Vegas'” won:1997 International EMMY Award for Best Arts Documentary, Special Commendation at the 1998 Grierson Memorial Trust Awards, Special Mention at the 1998 Golden Prague Awards
Solti conducts Mendelssohn & Shostakovich
Mendelssohn’s “Italian” Symphony begins with a burst of pure sunlight. Shostakovich’s Tenth opens under altogether darker skies. But both composers are burning to communicate, and for Sir Georg Solti – a conductor who never compromised on energy, integrity or pure, heartfelt commitment to the music he performed – that was enough. In this live recording from the Philharmonie am Gasteig in Munich he conducts one of his favourite orchestras: the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, renowned (then as now) for the lustre of its sound and its profound, instinctive understanding of the symphonic tradition. This is great music making at its most spontaneous – and masterful.
Solti conducts Shostakovich & Tchaikovsky
Two very different Russian symphonies, each with a powerful story to tell. Tchaikovsky’s “Pathétique” Symphony was his final masterpiece, an impassioned outpouring of melody and sorrow whose very name means “full of emotion”. Shostakovich’s Ninth might seem like its polar opposite: crisp, playful and bristling with pitch-black humour. But in Stalin’s Russia, those were dangerous qualities. Few conductors felt the tug of history like Sir Georg Solti, and few drove more directly for a piece’s heart. This recording with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, captured live at Munich’s Philharmonie am Gasteig, finds both conductor and orchestra at their uncompromising best.
Ingo Metzmacher conducts Hans Werner Henze’s Requiem
Few modern composers had a more meaningful relationship with both past and (very real) present than Hans Werner Henze – or a more acute ear for beauty. His Requiem of 1993 is simultaneously typical and utterly original: nine wordless concertos for trumpet, piano and a shimmering chamber orchestra, each charged (in Henze’s own words) “with the human fears and problems of our time, with illness and death, love and loneliness”. This film captures the world premiere performance in Frankfurt in February 1993, with Ueli Wiget on piano and the incomparable Håkan Hardenberger on trumpet – a landmark in postwar musical history.
Romeo and Juliette (realised as a film)
Shakespeare’s lovers never looked and sounded as good as in this romantic film adaptation of Charles Gounod’s beloved opera Roméo et Juliette, starring one of classical music’s most popular and successful couples, Roberto Alagna and Angela Gheorghiu. A spectacular medieval castle and its surrounding countryside provide the breathtaking setting for this timeless tale of warring families and star-crossed lovers. Conductor Anton Guadagno leads the Czech Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra through the opera’s beautiful arias and duets in this fresh interpretation of Gounod’s masterwork.