At the age of 27 Peter Sellars was hailed as a wunderkind of the U.S. theater and was already the general manager of the American National Theater in Washington’s Kennedy Center. In his productions, Sellars brings out the timelessness and topicality of the works with such naturalness that he arouses interest around the world and stimulates lively discussions as to whether he is brilliantly modernizing the works or brutally maiming them. Besides “Don Giovanni,” Sellars has also staged “Le nozze di Figaro” and “Cosi fan tutte” and moved their stories to present-day New York, whereby, however, he invented a new world for each opera. Thus “Don Giovanni” plays in Spanish Harlem, “Figaro” in the noble Trump Tower on Park Avenue, “Così fan tutte” in Despina’s dilapidated coffee shop. The Da Ponte trilogy is for Sellars, who studied at Harvard, the nonplus ultra of opera literature. With his Mozart productions, Sellars first caused a ruckus in the New York cultural scene, when he presented his work to the public between 1986 and 1988 at the University theater festival Pepsico Summerfare. Then his da Ponte operas went on a European tour and were finally recorded for television in Vienna. Since then Sellars numbers among the most sought-after, unorthodox directors on the international opera scene. But in spite of his gags and witty ideas, Sellars is not out to provoke; instead, he takes the action of the opera literally, transposing it with dramatic sharpness and intelligence. His productions prove that even a 200-year-old opera does not have to be cut off from present-day life.
The Tallis Scholars
Peter Phillips’s passion for the unaccompanied sacred choral music of the Renaissance period informed his mission to transform a talented amateur singing group into the polished, professional Tallis Scholars. This film shows off their accomplishments in performances of works by Cornyshe, Taverner, Tallis, Byrd, Desprès and Obrecht, among others. It charts Phillips’s personal odyssey and travels with him to Bruges, centre of the richly-coloured music of the fifteenth-century Low Countries.
Salman Rushdie
This exclusive interview with writer Salman Rushdie was the first television broadcast he made after going into hiding following the Ayatollah Khomeini’s death threat in the wake of the Satanic Verses controversy. It coincided with the publication of his novel Haroun and the Sea of Stories, written for his young son. He talks frankly about his experiences and about his life and work, which is illustrated with readings and dramatisations.
Spike Lee
Martin Scorsese Directs
From the violent realism of Taxi Driver to the poignant romance of Alice Doesn’t Live Here Any More and the burning controversy of The Last Temptation of Christ, Scorsese’s uniquely versatile vision has made him one of cinema’s most acclaimed directors. The life and career of this pre-eminent American film-maker are explored in this documentary, which includes an in-depth interview, exclusive footage of him working on Good Fellas and a wealth of clips.
John Cage – I Have Nothing To Say And I Am saying It
John Cage (1912-92) emerged from the post-war American avant-garde to become one of the most controversial and influential of contemporary composers. This programme was made with him two years before he died. He introduces his philosophy that all sounds, even silence, can be used as the source for music and discusses his arrival at the use of chance operations in composing. His collaboration with artist Robert Rauschenberg and choreographer Merce Cunningham is explored, and other contributors include Yoko Ono and Laurie Anderson, who have both drawn inspiration from him.
Stella Adler
Marlon Brando, Robert de Niro, Warren Beatty and Candice Bergen are among the noted performers who studied with Stella Adler, the charismatic and influential American acting teacher who died in 1992, three years after this evocative portrait was made. Combining an interview with archive stills and film footage, recollections of colleagues and students, and sequences of her at work with actors, the programme shows that the terms ‘style’, ‘scope’, ‘size’, ‘power’ – key words she used in class – aptly describe Adler herself.
Kiri Te Kanawa
Producer and TV director Nigel Wattis directed the film biography of incomparable soprano Kiri Te Kanawa. Melvyn Bragg, as narrator, leads us through the singer’s life, and talks to her about her life and career, while other artist personalities such as George Solti, Dame Joan Sutherland, Richard Bonynge, Jeffrey Tate, Stephen Barlow and John Hopkins add their personal impressions. This portrait, dedicated to Kiri Te Kanawa’s teacher of many years, Vera Rozas, was filmed in 1991, and accompanies the soprano through a whole year. It follows her on trips to New Zealand and the San Francisco Opera, where she was preparing her role in Strauss’ Capriccio. The film includes recordings of her in excerpts from arias by Handel, Mozart, Charpentier, Puccini and Cilèa, as well as in the final scene of Capriccio, and in songs by Richard Strauss.
La grande messe des morts (Requiem)
The magnificent cathedral of Regensburg is a perfect setting for this recording of Colin Davis conducting the Bayerischer Rundfunk Symphony Chorus and Orchestra in a splendid, moving performance of Berlioz’s monumental work, with tenor Keith Lewis as soloist. The performance is completed by the pealing of the cathedral bells. Regensburg Cathedral provides a superb setting for this live recording of Berlioz’s resounding Requiem, written in 1837 for the dead of Napoleon’s catastrophic wars. Sir Colin Davis conducts the Bavarian Radio Symphony Chorus and Orchestra in a magnificent and moving performance of this work, with soloist Keith Lewis (tenor).
Iannis Xenakis – Something Rich and Strange
The life story of Xenakis (1922-2001) is that of a genius who triumphed over adversity to become, not only a leading composer, but also an architect of renown. His music is rooted in a sub-soil of mathematics, architecture, science and the drama of his personal history. Filmed on the Greek island where he grew up and in his Paris studio, Xenakis is seen talking about his life and his music, which, not only speaks for itself in specially-recorded performances, but is linked to the other sources of his creativity by an inventive use of images.