Excitement after a spectacular open-air concert. At the 1990 Football World Cup, the three tenors, José Carreras, Plácido Domingo and Luciano Pavarotti met the first time together with the conductor Zubin Mehta for an extraordinary musical experience. Six thousand excited live viewers and one billion watching on television. The beginning of a new era of classical music. In the following years, the 3 Tenors held audiences around the world under their spell in over thirty performances. They helped to bring about an unexpected flourishing of classical music. The concert in the Caracalla Baths of Rome was the Birth of a Legend. The programme interweaves performance and background information, including previously unseen material.
The Bernstein Centennial Celebration at Tanglewood
The Bernstein Centennial Celebration at Tanglewood spotlights Bernstein’s wide-ranging talents as a composer, his many gifts as a great interpreter and champion of other composers, and his role as an inspirer of a new generation of musicians and music lovers across the country and around the globe. The gala concert features a kaleidoscopic array of artists from the worlds of classical music, film, and Broadway. The entire first half of the program is dedicated to selections from such brilliant Bernstein works as Candide, West Side Story, Mass, and Serenade. Music from the classical canon very dear to Bernstein’s heart-selections from Mahler’s Des Knaben Wunderhorn and music by Copland – plus a new work by John Williams, makes up a good portion of the program’s second half; the finale of Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony No. 2 brings the program to a dramatic close. 141 mins (including Bernstein at Tanglewood film + Video Greetings) /
127 mins (concert version only)
Requiem A
Requiem A – the ‘A’ in the title stands for ‘Beginning’ (German ‚Anfang’), ‘setting off’ (Aufbruch), ‘ash’ (Asche), and ‘breathing’ (atmen). Words that describe the mourning, reconciliation and new beginnings after a time of conflict. Composer Sven Helbig wrote his Requiem A in commemoration of the 80th anniversary of Dresden’s destruction and the end of the Second World War. However, war is not at the centre of his piece; he wants to thematise the subsequent reconciliation and forgiveness. Helbig, a self-taught composer of music for choir, orchestra, and chamber ensembles and a multi-instrumentalist, has collaborated with artists such as Snoop Dog, Rammstein, and the Pet Shop Boys. The performance of Requiem A features visuals by the Icelandic film artist Máni M. Sigfusson, underscoring the Staatskapelle Dresden, the Kreuzchor Dresden, soloist René Pape, and the live electronics of Sven Helbig himself.
The Glass Menagerie – A ballet by John Neumeier
Tennessee Williams established his reputation as a prominent American writer of the 20th century through his play The Glass Menagerie, a deeply personal family drama known as a “Memory Play.” Initially staged in Chicago in 1944, the work faced rejection in Hollywood before finding success on Broadway. In 2019, John Neumeier reinterpreted The Glass Menagerie for the Hamburg Ballet, incorporating elements from Williams’ life. The ballet featured music by American composers Charles Ives, Philip Glass, and Ned Rorem, along with snippets from Williams’ own plays. This adaptation marked 75 years since the play’s debut, showcasing the enduring influence of Williams’ work in different artistic forms. The themes of memory, family dynamics, and personal struggles in The Glass Menagerie continue to resonate with audiences worldwide, reflecting Williams’ lasting impact on the literary and performing arts scene.
Maria Callas at Paris Opera – The Concert 1958
Maria Callas made her debut in Paris in 1958. In front of the magnificent backdrop of the Paris Opera (now the Palais Garnier), she shone with arias from Norma by Vincenzo Bellini, Giuseppe Verdi’s The Troubadour and Gioachino Rossini’s The Babier of Seville. A spectacular performance in the city that became her home until her death in 1977. Her debut in front of the grandiose backdrop of the Paris Opera was a social event that drew crowds from all over Paris. Among the guests were numerous celebrities from politics, society and culture, including Charlie Chaplin and Brigitte Bardot. Maria Callas took to the stage in designer clothes and adorned with a million dollars’ worth of jewels. She began with “Casta diva” from Vincenzo Bellini’s “Norma”, followed by Leonora’s sad aria and the poignant “Miserere” from the fourth act of Giuseppe Verdi’s “The Troubadour”, before she lifted the mood with “Una voce poco fa” from Gioachino Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville”. Maria Callas took the Parisian audience by storm. At the time, nobody could have guessed that Paris would become her city of destiny, where she would settle and where she would die far too young in 1977 at the age of just 53.
Jonas Kaufmann: Christmas with Friends
For the third time, the star tenor invites viewers to „Christmas with Jonas Kaufmann“ on Christmas Eve on ZDF – this time to one of Germany‘s most traditional „Christmas regions,“ the Erzgebirge. The festively illuminated candle arches and revolving Christmas pyramids are world-famous examples of the traditional craftsmanship and carving art of this region. The magnificent St. Annenkirche church in Annaberg-Buchholz, richly decorated with works of art, is the setting for a concert with a prominent cast. In addition to top stars of classical music, artists from the pop genre spread a joyful and festive mood for the holiday with Christmas songs. In small detours, Jonas Kaufmann also lead the audience to other sights of the region, from a carving school to a historic hammer mill, from a lace-making workshop to the tunnels of a historic mine – and of course he also visits one of the major Christmas markets.
The Lucky Tenor – José Carreras turns 75 years
It was the existential turning point of a career that until then had known mainly triumphs: During a rehearsal, José Carreras learns that he has leukemia – an almost certain death sentence in 1987. He is transferred from Barcelona to a special clinic in Seattle. His only chance is a therapy that until then was considered impossible: stem cell transplantation. He survives the disease and feels a real commitment to others suffering from leukemia. Starting with the cancer and the subsequent healing as the frame story, the film tells the stages of a world career in an associative and emotional way, jumping back and forth. Tightly edited archive footage brings these chapters to life. Newly filmed material shows the most important scenes from Carreras’ life and career. In addition, interviews with prominent companions, contemporaries and experts as well as a central interview with the jubilarian himself reflect a dramatic biography without slipping into one-sided hero worship. Cross-genre greetings and birthday serenades from Pretty Yende to Diana Damrau and from Plácido Domingo to David Garrett demonstrate the high regard in which the artists’ colleagues hold his life’s musical achievements and document the enormous impact José Carreras continues to make.
Brian & Roger Eno Live at the Acropolis
Brian and Roger Eno have performed their first-ever live show together, taking place in August 2021 as part of the Athens Epidaurus Festival in Greece. The event see the brothers perform atmospheric musical landscapes from legendary productions that includes ambient records, television soundtracks and film scores, visualised images applied to the stones of the legendary Odeon of Herodes Atticus amphitheatre. It is also one of the very rare occasions that Brian Eno has ever performed live.
Tanglewood Festival 2021 – A.S. Mutter & John Williams
C Major is delighted to present the world premiere performance of John Williams’ Violin Concerto No.2 from the Tanglewood Festival. Williams himself conducts the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and the soloist is the work’s dedicatee, Anne-Sophie Mutter. The legendary composer and superstar violinist are old friends and have enjoyed worldwide success together in recent years. Providing an explosive opening to the concert is American composer-violinist Jessie Montgomery’s Starburst (2012) for string orchestra, full of fiery colours and energy and conducted by the BSO’s Music Director Andris Nelsons. He returns to the stage after the Violin Concerto for Copland’s Quiet City, a score that began life as incidental music for a play of the same name, but found fame as a standalone concert piece. With haunting solo parts for trumpet and English horn, this reflective work paints an atmospheric portrait of a city by night. The programme ends with the suite Stravinsky put together in 1919 from his ballet The Firebird, triumphantly premiered in Paris in 1910. PROGRAM Williams: Violin Concerto No. 2 & Across the Stars; Montgomery: Starburst; Copland: Quiet City; Stravinsky: Suite from The Firebird
Jonas Kaufmann – It’s Christmas
Jonas Kaufmann echoes his own Christmas memories and joys, celebrating the most festive time of the year with a unique selection of beloved songs and carols. The concert is shot at the Silent Night Chapel in Oberndorf near Salzburg, the original place where the Christmas carol Silent Night, by Joseph Mohr and Franz Xaver Gruber, was performed for the first time on December 24th 1818. In addition, festive location shots at the Christmas market in Salzburg. Including a rich selection of beloved worldwide favorites such as Adeste fidelis / O come and Silent Night, American holiday favorites like Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!, Winter Wonderland and White Christmas and traditional German Christmas songs as Ihr Kinderlein kommet and Kling, Glöckchen.