Few modern conductors knew how to get to the soul of Mozart like the late Nikolaus Harnoncourt – the Viennese period-performance specialist who was equally at ease with historic instruments and the world’s greatest orchestras. In 1996 he conducted the forces of the Zurich Opera House and an excellent ensemble cast in Jurgen Flimm’s production of Le nozze di Figaro – which moved the action between different eras and locations to try and find the eternal truths at the heart of this greatest of all comic operas. The results are just as revealing – and as beautiful – as you’d expect.
Don Carlos
Set in 16th-century France and Spain, Don Carlos tells of the political and amorous rivalry between King Philip II and his son, Don Carlos, over Elisabeth de Valois. Boasting an international cast in one of Verdi’s most popular operas, Luc Bondy’s moving production is the original French version restored to five acts.
La belle Hélène
A superficial view may regard Offenbach’s lightweight masterpiece, La belle Hélène, as „merely“ an opera buffa. But closer scrutiny of this charming, imaginative firework of intrigue makes one thing clear: the story of the Greek queen who started off the Trojan war is, in this version, a humorous and satirical caricature of the vulgar, decadent Parisian upper classes of Offenbach’s own day. Who better suited to produce a modern rendering of this work than the now highly acclaimed Nikolaus Harnoncourt, who also ensured the work’s historical accuracy? Employing a small string section, shining, colourful brass and richly varied percussion, the opera still strikes one as exceptionally modern. This impression is also enhanced by the designers of the production, recorded in 1997 at the Zurich Opera House: no less a figure than the fashion designer Jean–Charles de Castelbajac was responsible for the humorously expansive costumes; and the highly subtle stage–set was the work of Paolo Pivas.
Wozzeck
Libretto by Alban Berg after the Play by Georg Büchne. r
Berg was conscripted during the 1914-18 war and acquired from his experiences the compassion and loathing to write his first, terrifyingly great opera, about a soldier tormented and mocked by his superiors until he loses his reason, cutting the throat of his mistress, and drowning himself. A devious world destroys Wozzeck’s sense of identity and turns him into a murderer.
This brutalisation is made palpable in Peter Mussbach’s highly-stylised production which, in ist expressionistic artificiality, heightens the emotional intensity of this searing work. In his hands Wozzeck becomes an agonising lament over lost innocence. Mussbach is a master of visual and dramatic effect and the impact of his staging is enhanced by the framing opportunities afforded by video recording under studio conditions. Surfaces are steeply raked and blaze in primary colours; perspectives are flattened and distorted; space is confined; decoration has been stripped away; character is manifested through costumes, masks, make-up, movement; the particular stands for the collective.
Dale Duesing, as Wozzeck, is a charismatic central figure, an agile performer, restless and tormented. The role of Marie is taken by Kristine Ciesinski, a consummate singer and actress of Berg’s work. Mussbach’s Hauptmann is reminiscent of Alfred Jarry’s Ubu Roi, and his Doctor brings to mind a frock-coated Frankenstein. These monsters of inhumanity are incisively portrayed by Dieter Bundschuh and Frode Olsen. A powerful tenor, Ronald Hamilton sings the role of the grotesquely overblown Drum Major. Conductor Sylvain Cambreling’s reading of the score is characterised by ist structural clarity.
Salman Rushdie
Rushdie’s novel The Moor’s Last Sigh culminates in the search for a portrait that has been painted over. His starting point for the book was his interest in a real lost portrait – one of his mother, painted some fifty years ago. Unfolding a tale as fabulous as Rushdie’s fiction, this programme travels to India in search of this painting. Meanwhile, in London, the author talks about The Moor’s Last Sigh and the extraordinary conditions in which it was written. As he speaks, he himself is being painted by Bhupen Khakar, one of his favourite Indian artists.
Mozart, Symphony No.33 in B flat major, K. 319
To watch Carlos Kleiber conduct is to be reminded that the basic channel of communication between conductor and players is above all the body. This emerges with mesmerizing vividness in this concert, recorded live in the Herkulessaal of the Munich Residenz on 21 October 1996.
Beethoven, Coriolan Overture, op.62
To watch Carlos Kleiber conduct is to be reminded that the basic channel of communication between conductor and players is above all the body. This emerges with mesmerizing vividness in this concert, recorded live in the Herkulessaal of the Munich Residenz on 21 October 1996.
Brahms, Symphony No.4 in E minor, op.98
To watch Carlos Kleiber conduct is to be reminded that the basic channel of communication between conductor and players is above all the body. This emerges with mesmerizing vividness in this concert, recorded live in the Herkulessaal of the Munich Residenz on 21 October 1996.
Così fan Tutte
“Così fan tutte” contains some of Mozart’s loveliest arias and the greatest number of ensembles in any of his operas. Although its libretto is often said to be frivolous, it is a foil for Mozart’s lucid and utterly non-Romantic view of the sexes. Director Roberto de Simone captures both the comedic and tragic core of the work from within and makes its depth palpable. Since the beginning of the 1990s, conductor Riccardo Muti has been increasingly making a name for himself as a Mozart specialist.
Baaba Maal
A world star of African music, Baaba Maal is a glamorous, ground-breaking musician, a showman, singer, dancer and story-teller. He brings an ancient music to a global audience in a new form: a fusion of West African classical music with Western contemporary rhythms and instruments. This film travels with Maal to his home town in Senegal to discover the influences and inspirations that have shaped his music. It is alive with his powerful, haunting vocals and mesmeric rhythms.