This is the first complete television production recorded at the annual Wagner Festival in Bayreuth. Director Götz Friedrich sees the minstrel Tannhäuser as a rugged artistic individualist, much as Wagner was himself, misunderstood by his contemporaries who seek to throttle his inalienable right of expression. He turns his back on a regulated, stifling society and retreats into the world of his own impossible dreams. Whereas other productions of “Tannhäuser” show the minstrel acutally biding time in the court of Venus, in Friedrich’s version Tannhäuser’s harp triggers an imaginary Venusberg, in which the strings become a tangled web of pure sensuality. Tannhäuser discovers that a completely anything-goes society is just as restrictive in the end, and he returns to the real world. But Tannhäuser can’t go home again. Once again he lashes out at his hypocritical associates, who condemn him. His only defender is the saintly Elisabeth, who in this production is played by the same soprano who sings Venus – two sides of the coin in the eternal feminine. She prays for her own death, so that thereby Tannhäuser’s soul leaves this restrictive world for a better one in which his genius is appreciated.
Beethoven, Symphony No.9 in D minor, op.125 “Choral”
The fall of the Berlin Wall on 9 November 1989 unleashed a wave of democratization in Central and Eastern Europe that radically transformed the world order. “I am experiencing a historical moment, incomparable with others in my long, long life,” commented Leonard Bernstein about the breakthrough of freedom in the Communist world. In a typically grandiose yet eloquent gesture, Bernstein spontaneously accepted an invitation to conduct two performances of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony to celebrate this freedom. Two concerts, held in each sction of the city that had been divided for 28 years: one in West Berlin’s Philharmonie on 23 December, the other in East Berlin on 25 December 1989. It was only fitting that East Germany’s new-found freedom should be celebrated with Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. The monumental work, perhaps the world’s most famous symphony, was inspired by Schiller’s poem “Ode to Joy,” a passionate paean to freedom. For his two concerts, Bernstein substituted the word “freedom” (Freiheit) for “joy” (Freude) to reflect his personal message. “I’m sure that Beethoven would have given us his blessing,” added Mr. Bernstein. Our recording was taped live in East Berlin on Christmas Day 1989. Adding to the symbolism of the event, Bernstein conducted an orchestra and chorus formed of musicians from the United States, Great Britain, France and the Soviet Union – the four victorious World War II allies who were still responsible for governing Berlin at the time. Joining the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Chorus were musicians from the London Symphony, the New York Philharmonic, the Orchestre de Paris, the Staatskapelle Dresden, the Orchestra of Leningrad’s Kirov Theater, as well as chorus members from the East-Berlin Radio Chorus and the Children’s Chorus of the Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra. Equally international were the illustrious vocalists in the final movement’s “Ode to Joy,” June Anderson, Sarah Walker, Klaus König and Jan-Hendrik Rootering.
Lohengrin
“Lohengrin” was premiered in Weimar in 1850 under the direction of Franz Liszt. The performance was a triumph for the composer, who, however, was unable to attend: he had been exiled for taking part in the 1848 uprisings in Dresden. The Bayreuth Festival production has many of the same haunted, obsessive qualities that mark such Werner Herzog films as “Aguirre, The Wrath of God” and “Fitzcarraldo”. The internationally acclaimed filmmaker’s heroes (often played by the late Klaus Kinski) are generally lonely, enigmatic men; in Lohengrin, Herzog found a truly congenial subject. With its probing images and lavish settings by Henning von Gierke, the production is not only intelligent, fascinating and coherent, but also simply gorgeous. The press unanimously hailed Paul Frey’s “limpid and tender voice” and Cheryl Studer’s “marvelous musicality and transparent timbre”.
La Bohème
One of the world’s most beloved operas, “La Bohème” is, along with Puccini’s “Tosca” and “Madama Butterfly”, one of the pillars of the Italian repertory. Premiered in Turin on 1 February 1896, it was dismissed as “a momentary error”. It wasn’t until its first performance in Palermo that year that the opera scored a definitive success. Film director Luigi Comencini (“La Storia”) transposed the story to the early 20th century and made a few minor changes in the storyline as well. Mimi, for instance, dies in her own room. Although the sound track features the voice of José Carreras as Rodolfo, his illness prevented him from playing the role in the film; he was substituted by Luca Canonici. As Mimi, Barbara Hendricks gives a splendid performance, which was unanimously praised in all reviews.
Giselle
The American Ballet Theater is one of the most renowned classical dance companies in the world. The company’s long history is strongly linked with Antony Tudor, George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins, three of the most distinguished choreographers of our century. With its strong contrast between the realistic peasants of the first act and the disembodied spirits of the second, “Giselle” can be considered as romantic ballet at its peak. Following the premiere of David Blair’s choreography of “Giselle” for the American Ballet Theater in 1969, the New York press acclaimed Carla Fracci and Erik Bruhn as one of the most convincingly harmonious partnerships at work on the ballet stage.
Verdi, Messa da Requiem
Originally performed at La Scala in 1967 to celebrate the tenth anniversary of Toscanini’s death, this production with the orchestra and chorus of the Teatro alla Scala was presented in Moscow, Montreal and New York, in addition to Milan. It was recorded on film in 1967, now with the young Luciano Pavarotti replacing Carlo Bergonzi. One of Karajan’s earliest film productions (and his first color film), it reflects his innovativeness especially through his choice of Henri-Georges Clouzot as director. Clouzot was the creator of classic “films noirs” such as “Quai des Orfèvres” and “Wages of Fear”.
La Traviata
Acclaimed film and stage director Franco Zeffirelli spared no costs to reproduce the opulent settings of Violetta Valéry’s happiness and downfall. The unparalleled musical quality of the production is guaranteed by some of the world’s foremost musicians: New York’s Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, conductor James Levine and singers Teresa Stratas and Placido Domingo. As Violetta, Teresa Stratas strikes the right balance between emotional grandeur and physical weakness. And with his meltingly lyrical voice and magnetic stage presence, Placido Domingo embodies Alfredo Germont with a rarely seen passion.
Elektra
In this production, history, psychoanalysis and modern-day apocalyptic visions are presented with compelling urgency through Friedrich’s staging and Böhm’s artistic mastery. “Elektra” becomes a contemporary myth of desperate, unrelenting humanity. “Seldom before, surely, have the often erotic ideas of Hofmannsthal’s libretto been so explicitly delineated or its tragic grandeur so movingly realised. […] Leonie Rysanek, in her first and possibly only Elektra, surmounted the score’s superhuman demands with an interpretive achievement that crowns her career of more than 30 years. […] As a whole, the film showed that opera on television can be a great experience…” (Daily Telegraph)
Ariadne auf Naxos
This Vienna State Opera production, featuring Gundula Janowitz, René Kollo, Trudeliese Schmidt and Walter Berry with the Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Karl Böhm, drew rave reviews. In particular, the young Edita Gruberova as Zerbinetta was heralded as the “event of the evening,” whose “exquisite phrasing, sublime timbre and brilliant coloratura fireworks served up with witty and charming nonchalance brought her endless and justified ovations. This was clearly her final leap to the top of the world’s best vocalists.” (Vienna’s popular daily “Kurier,” 22.11.76)
Götterdämmerung
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.