Lang Lang in Versailles

Lang Lang & Chopin have long been a winning combination – already celebrated worldwide for his Chopin interpretation, Lang Lang selects the four virtuosic and well known “Scherzi” to display his interpretative ability and renowned technical command, as well as the rarer performed Tchaikovsky “The Seasons”. Filmed at the legendary Hall of Mirrors (Galerie des Glaces) in the Palace of Versailles “Château de Versailles”.

Midori plays Bach in Köthen: The Partitas and Sonatas for Solo Violin

Midori’s recent interpretation of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas for violin solo has earned her many accolades by audiences and the media worldwide. In August 2016, Midori performed these pieces, known as one of the most challenging for any violinist, for an audio-visual recording at the Castle of Köthen (Schloss Köthen), where Bach served as Court Chapel Master between 1717 an 1723. There, the precise, light but nevertheless emphatic playing by Midori unfurled a unique world of sound that maybe Bach himself had imagined while composing these polyphonic masterpieces. PROGRAM: J.S. Bach: Partitas and Sonatas for Solo Violin BWV 1001 – 1006

International Jerusalem Chamber Music Festival

Every year in summer some of the best musicians worldwide meet in Israel for The Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festival founded by Elena Bashkirova. In 2016, the 19th Festival is dedicated to interrelated composers like Brahms/Schumann, Bartók/Kodály or Schubert/Beethoven and many more – played by artists like Sir András Schiff, Baiba Skride or Emmanuel Pahud.

I Capuleti e i Montecchi

A Romeo and Juliet opera without the poetic balcony scene and with a woman singing the role of Romeo: Vincenzo Bellini’s reworking of Shakespeare’s romantic tragedy is in many respects remarkable. Not least because the young composer presents in his opera “I Capuleti e i Montecchi” perhaps the most moving final scene of opera repertoire to date: Romeo and Juliet are both alive and conscious, allowing them to sing a duet before dying together. The Zurich Opera House has enlisted extraordinary and vivacious voices for the world’s most famous lovers: In the new Bellini production, American mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato – in a class of her own – performs the role of Romeo. At her side as Romeo’s beloved Giulietta is the young Ukrainian soprano Olga Kulchynska with an incredible acting and singing performance, making the audience hold ist breath during her subtle arias. Musical Director Fabio Luisi with the Philharmonia Zurich and Stage Director Christof Loy brought this poignant bel canto opera to stage in Zurich resulting in an utmost impressive TV experience.

Wozzeck

Berg’s “Wozzeck” is an indispensable work in the repertoire of any opera house. In Zurich, critics and audience celebrated director Andreas Homoki, General Music Director Fabio Luisi and baritone Christian Gerhaher for their intriguing interpretation of this masterpiece of operatic history. “It is an astonishing debut…: For the first time, Christian Gerhaher sings one of the most important operatic roles of the 20th century. That in itself is a great experience. But this evening is fantastic even beyond Gerhaher’s brilliant performance as a singer and actor thanks to the striking and truly exceptional interacting of music, scene, and singing. This Zurich ‘Wozzeck’ is phenomenal.” Süddeutsche Zeitung

Messa da Requiem – Verdi’s Requiem Choreographed by Christian Spuck

With the Messa da Requiem, Christian Spuck brought one of Verdi’s key works on performing stage in his first audiovisual recording since taking his position as Ballet Director at Opernhaus Zurich. In a large-scale co-production by the Ballet and Opera Zurich, Spuck ventured to portray a profound interpretation of Verdi’s funeral mass. He focuses on people who, in their vulnerability and helplessness, are in the search for comfort. Spuck is not at all concerned with a purely dance-like illustration of Verdi’s music, but instead in the contentual-scenic link of the dancers with the soloists and choristers. They act on stage together and take part in ritualized movements and sequences. With Fabio Luisi leading the Philharmonia Zurich, the Opera Choir, and the soloists Krassimira Stoyanova, Veronica Simeoni, Francesco Meli and Georg Zeppenfeld, there is a musical interpretation of some of the most acknowledged artists of our times.

Madama Butterfly

An acclaimed cinematic adaptation of Puccini’s popular opera about the tragic love affair between a naive geisha and the American naval officer who deserts her and their young child. Like the finest of film scores with its fluid beauty and succession of intensely romantic tunes, Madame Butterfly has a surprisingly cinematic feel. In 1995 director Frederic Mitterand exploited this quality of the story, exposing a young woman’s disillusionment against a backdrop of cultural chasms. Shot on location, with Tunisia doubling convincingly as a turn of the century Nagasaki, this Butterfly shines with fragile beauty. The house becomes a brilliantly used set; airy and full of the scent of flowers and at the same time a cage for the trapped woman. Archive footage of bygone Nagasaki is used skillfully to underline the distance between the 15-year-old bride and Pinkerton. Featuring Chinese soprano Ying Huang and American tenor Richard Troxell.

Arvo Pärt – Adam’s Passion

Adam’s Passion is the moving first collaboration between two “masters of slow motion who harmonize perfectly with each other” (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung). In the spectacular setting of a former submarine factory, American director and universal artist Robert Wilson creates a poetic visual world in which the mystical musical language of the Estonian composer Arvo Pärt can cast its meditative spell. Three of Pärt’s major works – Adam’s Lament, Tabula rasa, and Miserere, as well as Sequentia, a new work composed especially for this production – are brought together here using light, space, and movement to create a tightly-woven Gesamtkunstwerk in which the artistic visions of these two great artists mirror each other.

Claudio Abbado conducts Beethoven’s Music to Egmont and Mozart’s Requiem at Lucerne Festival

The opening of the Lucerne Festival 2012, Claudio Abbado and the Lucerne Festival Orchestra in the first part present a most powerful composition dedicated to Goethe’s hero Egmont, the Incidental Music to ‘Egmont’ by Beethoven. The second part of the program includes Mozart’s last composition, the Requiem in D Minor, which was left unfinished due to the early death of the composer.