John Cranko, born in South Africa in 1927, moved to London as a teenager and quickly became a well-known choreographer after a short career as a dancer. In 1961, the artistic director of the Stuttgart Theatre persuaded him to take over the position of creative leader of the then little-known Stuttgart Ballet. Within a short time, Cranko succeeded in making the ensemble one of the most successful companies in the world. None of his works better exemplify Cranko’s artistry than Onegin. The piece, based on Pushkin’s verse novel Eugene Onegin and set to music by Tchaikovsky, premiered at the Stuttgart Ballet in 1965 and remains Cranko’s greatest success to this day and is still on the repertoire of many ballet companies. Cranko condenses Pushkin’s novel into a theatrically effective distillation by focusing the drama on five characters. At the same time, Cranko demonstrates that pas de deux are not only the dance highlights of a ballet, but should also be the driving force behind the plot. The Russian audience was very sceptical when Cranko announced that he would be performing his Onegin at a guest performance in Moscow in 1971. Cranko had ventured into two sacred works of Russian culture, Pushkin’s novel and Tchaikovsky’s opera. But the performance in Moscow became Cranko’s greatest triumph. He died shortly afterwards, in 1973.
The Free Spirit – Carl Maria von Weber
A tireless innovator: Carl Maria von Weber was defined by curiosity, musical expressiveness and an insatiable artistic energy. Soprano Regula Mühlemann, baritone Äneas Humm, composer Jörg Widmann, film composer Rachel Portman and others discuss an artist whose influence extends far beyond the famous Freischütz. Carl Maria von Weber saw the orchestra as a narrative force; he experimented boldly and opened up new musical horizons, the influence of which extends into the modern era and film music. At the same time, his life was marked by upheavals, shaped by illness, financial strain, tireless work and the search for his own artistic language beyond established traditions. “The Free Spirit – Carl Maria von Weber” takes us into the world of a composer who, until his untimely death at the age of 39, worked tirelessly to renew the sound of his time and to give music its own language of expression, thereby opening up a new way of listening for his audience.
Sonya Yoncheva & Vittorio Grigolo – Opera in Love
The setting of Shakespeare’s Romeo And Juliet – the most famous of all love stories – is Verona. Here, in the Arena di Verona, Plácido Domingo, Sonya Yoncheva and Vittorio Grigolo put on an evening of the most magnificent arias of love, with pieces from operas by Puccini, Verdi and Gounod. In historical costume, the singers also re-enact scenes from Romeo And Juliet. A concert evening of love, lust and turbulent passions, with some tempestuous weather included in the price of the ticket.
Magic Moments of Music – Martha Argerich and Daniel Barenboim at Teatro Colón
In 2014, a memorable concert took place at the Teatro Colón: Martha Argerich and Daniel Barenboim as a piano duo on two pianos. Since their youth, the two have enjoyed an artistic friendship rich in magic moments of music. What happens when these very different personalities form a piano duo? The two superstars had already performed together almost everywhere in the world – but not in their hometown. Their first joint performance in Buenos Aires was a magic moment of music and a kind of folk festival in equal parts. During their stay in Buenos Aires, Argerich and Barenboim went in search of traces of the places where they met as children. And how does Daniel Barenboim himself remember the concert? He laughs: “It’s totally easy with Martha. It’s not like that with everyone. You can only fall in love with her.”
Magic Moments of Music – Harnoncourt conducts Monteverdi
L’Orfeo by Claudio Monteverdi is one of the earliest operas. It tells the story of Orpheus and Eurydice, a young couple separated by fate and put to the test once again. In 1975, it was to be performed as faithfully as possible to the original, as it had been when it premiered more than 350 years earlier. First on stage in Zurich and later as a film production in Vienna. A radical vision by Austrian conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt, directed by star director Jean-Pierre Ponnelle. Harnoncourt brought back the historical sound experience. He meticulously sought out musicians who played period instruments and brought them together to form an ensemble. He succeeded in making the opera not only comprehensible but also captivating. Outstanding singers such as Anna-Lucia Richter, Rolando Villazón, Elsa Benoit, Äneas Humm and also Nikolaus Harnoncourt’s son Philipp comment on the legendary production from 50 years ago. The film is a testament to the artistry of the great musical innovator Harnoncourt.
Magic Moments of Music – Grace Bumbry is Carmen
When Grace Bumbry performed Carmen under Karajan in 1966/67, she was the shooting star of the international opera scene. Her career almost seems like a fairy tale: Due to racial segregation, she could not begin her studies at the St. Louis Institute of Music in the USA, although she had already won a radio competition at the age of 17. Against this background, one has to see her later triumphs. She celebrated her breakthrough in Bayreuth, where Wieland Wagner brought her for his Tannhäuser and where the press praised her as the “black Venus” and the audience clapped her in front of the curtain 40 times. Many have had great careers. Grace Bumbry’s was more than that: it was significant – and Carmen was one of her finest moments.
Magic Moments of Music – Franco Zeffirelli’s La Bohème
This magic moment with music by Giacomo Puccini and artworks by Zeffirelli opens a window into the tender and melancholically intimate story of Mimì in bohemian Paris.
After the great success of Zeffirelli’s production of La Bohème at La Scala in Milan, Herbert von Karajan and Zeffirelli were compelled to turn it into an opera film. The screen adaptation of Puccini’s masterpiece featured the choir and orchestra of the Milan Scala and among others, Mirella Freni, Gianni Raimondi and Rolando Panerai. The young Mirella Freni, who sang the role of Mimì for over 50 years, gained fame the world over, not least because of her natural and pure voice. South African soprano Pretty Yende, who was a student of Mirella Freni and later sang in Franco Zeffirelli’s production of La Bohème, recounts her experiences with her mentor. As a very young tenor, Franco-Italian singer Roberto Alagna sang alongside Mirella Freni in the Zeffirelli production and is grateful to count himself among the great tenors, alongside Pavarotti and Carreras – thanks in large part to this performance of La Bohème.
Magic Moments of Music – Rudolf Nureyev’s Swan Lake
An incredible 89 curtain calls is testament to the ballet history that was written at the Vienna State Opera on October 15, 1964. The event is a performance of Swan Lake choreographed by Russian dancer Rudolf Nureyev, who also took on the male lead role of the Prince. His partner is the British prima ballerina Margot Fonteyn. In his novel interpretation of Swan Lake, Nureyev revolutionises the role of the male dancer, seeking to be her equal counterpart. This great moment in music includes theexcerpts of the legendary ballet recording, while the documentary passages with Nureyev reveal and make tangible this exceptional and fascinating personality. In newly filmed conversations, dancers and companions Michael Birkmeyer and Gisela Cech, who danced alongside Nureyev at the premiere of Swan Lake, share some personal memories of the iconic figure, while new protagonists of today’s ballet world look back at Nureyev and his work from the perspective of our times.
In the Maze – Jörg Widmann
Clarinettist, conductor and composer Jörg Widmann is working on a composition. He has been commissioned to write a large-scale trumpet concerto (“Towards Paradise”) for the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The film accompanies Widmann on this journey, from the very first drafts of the piece to the premiere performance, taking the audience through diverse psychic and sonic realms. Music takes on a life of its own in the moment of writing, believes Jörg Widmann. It assumes its own form, becoming a living being that forges its own path. As such, it remains a fragment, because it is not what he, the writer, had intended. For Widmann, the image that best describes this progression is a maze. We follow Jörg Widmann into his maze, reaching for the thread that runs through his life and work. Together with him, we experience the ups and downs, the euphoric moments as well as the moments of crisis that are brought about by the process of writing.
Magic Moments of Music – Menuhin & Karajan play Mozart
Yehudi Menuhin is considered the prodigy of the past century. He was celebrated and adored as once W.A. Mozart, whose Violin Concerto No. 5 he interprets for this recording. After many years of performing and traveling, the outbreak of World War II marked a turning point for Menuhin. He plays in front of Allied troops, soldiers, and wounded. His concert in the liberated concentration camp Bergen-Belsen confronts him, the protected boy prodigy, with unimaginable horror. But Yehudi Menuhin does not despair. He decides to dedicate his life and his music to reconciliation and peace. As early as 1947, he returns to Berlin for a guest performance, the first Jewish musician to do so. Only a few years older, Herbert von Karajan takes a completely different path. His life is marked by the search for perfection and musical greatness. During the Nazi era, Herbert von Karajan builds his career in Germany and becomes one of the most influential and important conductors of the postwar period. This 1966 recording, masterfully staged by award-winning feature film director Henri-Georges Clouzot, proves that such contrasting biographies do not stand in the way of magical musical moments. International stars from the music scene such as Anne-Sophie Mutter, Daniel Hope, or Hillary Hahn, but also greats of cinematic art such as Sunnyi Melles and Bruno Monsaigeon, let themselves be enchanted by this valuable contemporary testimony, which documents the only collaboration of these musical legends. Together we experience how timeless beauty is realized in sound ideals and how music can still contribute to reconciliation today.