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.
Salzburg Festival 2021: Intolleranza 1960
Luigi Nono caused a riot at the premiere of his “scenic action” Intolleranza in 1961. The opulent work that collages singing, orchestra, film projections, dance and light has lost none of its actuality, neither in its form nor in its content: the odyssey of a nameless emigrant who is persecuted and tortured ends fatally in the floods of the river that separates him from his homeland. Jan Lauwers’ production in the impressive Felsenreitschule reflects his intense study of the meaning of political art. For Nono expert, conductor Ingo Metzmacher, Nono’s work and legacy are like a guideline that he still follows today. The performers and dancers of the NEEDCOMPANY, the BODHI PROJECT und SEAD – Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance create images of oppressive intensity in teeming tableaux. “The cast is superb, from Sean Panikkar’s eloquent, impassioned immigrant to Musa Ngqungwana’s harrowing torture victim.” Financial Times
The Unanswered Ives
The first film about the most famous “weekend composer”: Charles Ives. As a teenager, he composes dance melodies as well as church hymns, becoming the youngest organist of all Connecticut at age 14. As a natural talent in sports, he is appointed captain of the football team at the elite Yale University before the former music student becomes the most successful life insurer in the United States. Charles Ives (1874-1954) is perhaps the most famous “weekend composer” of musical history – and is regarded today as the first composer of the modern age in America. The Unanswered Ives is the first film about Charles Ives and a profound exploration of this extraordinary, multi-faceted personality. The documentary shed light on Ives’ life and work in all its facets and inconsistencies.
BACK HOME in Georgia – Khatia Buniatishvili and Zubin Mehta
They have known each for a long time and performed many concerts together: the pianist Khatia Buniatishvili and the conductor Zubin Mehta. Perhaps that is why they can be so open with each other during rehearsals of Robert Schumann’s Piano Concerto in A-Minor. Back Home with the two musicians and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in Georgia under special conditions. The rehearsals in Tbilisi, capital of Georgia, take place in the great music hall. The concert two hours drive away under the open skies of Tsinandali – a brand new concert place, built up to the very last minute.
Hope on the Road – Hollywood
World famous violinist Daniel Hope follows the westward journey made to Los Angeles by Jewish artists, many fleeing the Nazis following the outbreak of World War II. Its consequences are seen as seismic for the development of Hollywood, while also defining the musical language of cinema. Erich Korngold (The Adventures of Robin Hood), Franz Waxman (Sunset Boulevard), Miklos Rozsa (Ben Hur) amongst others, had travelled to the west coast of America with little choice – they were avoiding Jewish persecution – but they would go on to shape cinematic music as an art form. Hollywood of that time was newly invigorated by the birth of talking picture, and music moved from something used to distract audience from the silences of the movies, to becoming a key creative element that worked around dialogue. It began to be used to shape and charge emotion, the blueprint of this was created during this turbulent time. In addition to meeting composers of today influenced by the early emigre artists, it is also a chance for Daniel Hope to perform some of this music during his travels, which takes him to the house of writer Thomas Mann, the exile archives of the University of California and the old MGM soundstage where classics like Ben Hur and Gone with the Wind were recorded.
Hope on the Road – Ireland
Daniel Hope is on a very personal journey: At the wheel of an old Morris Traveller, the internationally acclaimed violinist explores Ireland, Irish music – and the history of his family. His first stop takes Daniel Hope to medieval Kilkenny, where he meets the „Queen of the Irish Harp,“ Siobhan Armstrong. She explains to him how the harp became a symbol of resistance to foreign domination. He continues on to ocean-washed Galway on the west coast, the capital of street music. This is the home of Seán Smyth, fiddler of the band Lunasa and master of Irish folk. And, of course, there‘s Dublin, where Daniel Hope premieres a piece by the long-forgotten Irish composer Ina Boyle with the National Symphony Orchestra. The emotional highlight of the trip is the violinist‘s visit to Waterford. Here, together with his father, the writer Christopher Hope, he sets out to find the last address of his great-grandfather Danny McKenna: „Without this Danny, I might never have discovered the violin for myself. Because it was only because of him that we were entitled to an Irish passport when my father had to leave South Africa because of his opposition to the apartheid regime. And it was only because of that Irish passport that we were able to settle in London, where my mother found a job with Yehudi Menuhin, the violinist of the century.“ Daniel Hope‘s journey through Ireland thus also becomes a journey to his own roots.
Rachlin conducts Tchaikovsky
Pianist Denis Matsuev and his good friend, the violinist Julian Rachlin, perform in the venerable Moscow Conservatory. On this occasion, the artists dare to try something new: instead of his violin, Julian Rachlin reaches for the conductor’s baton to conduct a piece which he, with his violin, would neve approach. Together and for the first time, they give an interpretation of a work put to paper by Tchaikovsky in the Moscow of 1874: his Piano Concerto No. 1 as well as the Symphony No. 5.
Julian Rachlin & Denis Matsuev in Moscow
Pianist Denis Matsuev and his good friend, the violinist Julian Rachlin, perform in the venerable Moscow Conservatory. On this occasion, the artists dare to try something new: instead of his violin, Julian Rachlin reaches for the conductor’s baton to conduct a piece which he, with his violin, would neve approach. Together and for the first time, they give an interpretation of a work put to paper by Pyotr Tchaikovsky in the Moscow of 1874: his Piano Concerto No. 1. The film accompanies the rehearsals and concert which, together with the youthful and vibrant energy of the Russian National Youth Symphony Orchestra, turns out to be very special indeed.