This production of Wagner’s “Tristan und Isolde” was premiered at the 1981 Bayreuth Festival and recorded in its third year on the Bayreuth stage, in 1983. With the celebrated Wagner tenor René Kollo as Tristan and the American-born soprano Johanna Meier as Isolde, supported by Matti Salminen (King Marke), Hermann Becht (Kurwenal) and Hanna Schwarz (Brangäne), the production was an uncontested feast of vocal mastery. This was underscored by the “wondrous gold of the score” that “flowed from the orchestra pit in a luminous symphonic flow.” (Süddeutsche Zeitung) Responsible for the inspired and transparent musical direction is Daniel Barenboim, whose sensitive treatment of the orchestra provides the ideal counterpoint to the interpreters on the stage. In his interpretation of “Tristan und Isolde” – his one and only production for the Bayreuth Festival – the late Jean-Pierre Ponnelle refused to follow the fashionable trend of seeking to update a work at all costs. His interest lay chiefly in the psychological treatment of the action, whereby the sublimated love of Tristan and Isolde becomes a nocturne of emotional and psychological depth. His alteration of the end, in which the events of the third act are depicted as a dream sequence experienced by the dying Tristan, provoked considerable criticism in the first year, but was rendered more clearly understandable by Ponnelle in the following years. Ponnelle adapted his production for its audiovisual recording, ensuring that all the magical effects visible in the theater are as stunning and evocative on the screen.
La Bohème
This production of ‘La Bohème’ scored a trio of ‘firsts’: it was the first opera film to be produced by Unitel, the first music film conducted by Herbert von Karajan, and the first major film production by Franco Zeffirelli (Romeo and Juliet, Jesus of Nazareth). Produced in 1965, it was based on Zeffirelli’s acclaimed 1963 La Scala production and features Mirella Freni and Gianni Raimondi as the starcrossed lovers. Karajan conducts the chorus and orchestra of Milan’s La Scala. The production is still considered today one of the finest treatments of opera on film and a classic of opera performance in the 20th century..
Giulio Cesare in Egitto
Born in Halle an der Saale in 1685, George Frideric Handel became the court music director of Prince Elector Georg Ludwig in Hanover in 1710. When his master was crowned King George I of England, Handel moved to London and remained there until his death in 1759. Handel wrote more than 30 operas there and was an initiator of the Royal Academy of Music, founded in 1720, which pursued the goal of popularizing Italian opera in London. “Giulio Cesare in Egitto” is Handel’s fifth work for this institution and was given its first performance with resounding success in 1724 at the theater on the Haymarket. After Handel’s death, “Julius Caesar” fell into oblivion like his other operas, but was rediscovered in the 20th century through several successful and often unconventional stagings. Next to “Serse,” it is now considered as the most popular Handel opera of our time. For some, Peter Sellars is an enfant terrible of the opera; for others, the most imaginative of directors, who takes unconventional paths in his work. What distinguishes his stagings from the often belabored modernizations of other directors is that he brings out the timelessness and topicality of the works with convincing naturalness.
Così fan Tutte
Jean-Pierre Ponnelle (1932-1988) was one of the most eminent opera directors of the second half of the 20th century. His productions not only graced the repertoires of opera houses in Salzburg, Milan and New York, but also enhanced television programming with original, classical opera films produced exclusively by Unitel. Ponnelle always bestowed particular love and care on Mozart’s operas, whether popular works such as “Die Zauberflöte” and “Figaro,” or less known works such as “La clemenza di Tito,” “Idomeneo” and “Mitridate.” Ponnelle’s last film project was the Unitel production of “Così fan tutte” with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Nikolaus Harnoncourt, and featuring the internationally acclaimed singers Edita Gruberova, Teresa Stratas, Delores Ziegler, Ferruccio Furlanetto, Luis Lima and Paolo Montarsolo. “I prefer to produce ‘Così fan tutte’, a work of great artificiality, in a film studio, since I have a greater range of possibilities there than on stage: for me, the camera becomes another means of expression, which supplements the score.” (Jean-Pierre Ponnelle) “Così fan tutte” contains some of Mozart’s loveliest arias and the greatest number of ensembles in any of his operas. Although its libretto is often said to be frivolous, it is a foil for Mozart’s lucid and utterly non- Romantic view of the sexes.
Der Rosenkavalier
Though the librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthal originally described the project as “a comedy for music”, there is also great emotional depth in this stirring portrayal of the delights and torments of love. Enhancing Strauss’s lush, late-romantic music are Otto Schenk’s rich and witty staging and, above all, Carlos Kleiber’s sensitive conducting. Internationally acclaimed singers Felicity Lott, Kurt Moll, Anne Sofie von Otter and Barbara Bonney bring their superb vocal artistry into play to ensure an unforgettable musical experience.
Die Csárdásfürstin
Emmerich Kálman (1882-1953) ranks next to Franz Lehár as one of the leading representatives of the “Silver Era” of the operetta, which was stamped above all by the works of the Austro-Hungarian cultural sphere, and which followed the classical period of the Viennese operetta. Kálmán’s “Herbstmanöver”, premiered at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna in 1908, immediately confirmed the young composer’s talent for this genre. The roots of the phenomenal originality of his melodies lie in his love of Hungarian gypsy music and his natural affinity for the Viennese waltz tradition, which characterize such musically original, international successes as the operettas “The Czardas Princess” (1915) and “Countess Maritza” (1924). Kálmán emigrated to America in 1939 but returned to Europe after the War and died in Paris on 30 October 1953. Beginning in the 1920s, he increasingly incorporated elements of modern dance music into his stage works. Particularly worthy of mention among his other successful works are “Die Bajadere” (1921), “The Circus Princess” (1926) and “Das Veilchen vom Montmartre” (1930).
Madama Butterfly
Director Jean-Pierre Ponnelle (1932-1988) has been called “a weaver of magic, a curator of the sublime, a master choreographer, a footlose farceur” (The Wall Street Journal). One of the most imaginative director- designers of our times, Ponnelle was also the first significant opera director to have a large portion of his work preserved on film. In his chilling and poignant account of “Madama Butterfly”, he tried to use all the typical resources of film such as flashbacks, slow motion and “inner monologues”, where the singers do not move their lips to sing. Under the direction of Herbert von Karajan, the stellar cast includes Mirella Freni, Placido Domingo and Christa Ludwig.
Siegfried
It began with a scandal, became the object of heated discussions, turned into a sensational success and finally blossomed into a legendary, standard setting production: Pierre Boulez’ and Patrice Chéreau’s epoch-making “Ring” cycle in Bayreuth, the “Centennial Ring”. When the production was premiered in 1976, there were brawls in the venerable Festspielhaus, with the audience divided into one mob roaring in favor and one screaming against. The main reason for the protests was Chéreau, who set the work in the time in which it was written and focused on the all-too-human passions that motivate gods and men alike. The grimy industrial era with its robber barons and suffering masses supplied the ideological underpinnings of Chéreau’s concept. Musical conservatives felt betrayed and cheapened by this association. The tide began to turn in 1977. Certain features were altered and the production began to have a more homogeneous feel. Finally, in 1980, its last year, the Ring concluded with a 90-minute ovation and 110 curtain calls. By the time Philips released the complete recording of this production in 1992, its legendary status had already begun to take shape: “Patrice Chéreau and Pierre Boulez not only wrote a major new chapter in Wagner interpretation with their Ring, but also carried out a revolution that affected all of musical theater. Since then, no production of the Ring has been able to come near to the concept put forward by Chéreau and Boulez.” (FonoForum) Unitel’s production, the first complete recording on film of Wagner’s Ring, marked the beginning of Unitel’s exclusive association with the Bayreuth Festival.
Der Fliegende Holländer (The Flying Dutchman)
Tosca
Filmed in the authentic Roman locations specified in the score, this “Tosca” absolutely pulsates with tension and excitement. The first act was shot in the splendid Baroque church of Sant’Andrea della Valle. The second act was filmed in papal apartments in the Castel Sant’Angelo resembling those in the Palazzo Farnese, which is now the French Embassy and off- limits to film teams. The final act was filmed on the banks of the Tiber and on the ramparts of the ancient Castel Sant’Angelo. Raina Kabaivanska is a memorable Tosca, restless, jealously provocative and powerfully determined. With Plácido Domingo’s heroically passionate portrayal of Cavaradossi and Sherrill Milnes’ ruthless and eruptively sensual Scarpia, this “Tosca” is a winner.