When Anna Netrebko sings one of the most beautiful sacred works of the 18th century, Giovanni Battista Pergolesi’s “Stabat mater”, many music lovers will see this as the highlight of the “Pergolesi year”. Her appearance together with contralto Marianna Pizzolato and with Bertrand de Billy at the head of the Sächsische Staatskapelle in Dresden’s exuberantly Baroque Frauenkirche radiates “nothing less than bewitching depth and beauty” (Morgenpost). In addition to the Pergolesi, the concert features an excerpt from Joseph Haydn’s “Sieben letzte Worte des Erlösers am Kreuze” as well as Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Erbarme Dich”.
Acción! The Story of La Fura dels Baus
From city streets to the world’s great stages, from underground to establishment – this is the story of a theater collective without parallel in the world today, La Fura dels Baus. The film starts with one of their most widely seen productions – the gigantic opening ceremony of the Shanghai Expo 2010 – and relates the story of this visionary ensemble that is now setting new standards in opera production worldwide. Elements such as flying actors, human sculptures, socio-political critique and esotericism have helped create the “brand” La Fura dels Baus in the over 30 years of their existence.
The Chopin Piano Concertos
The 200th anniversary of the birth of Frédéric Chopin stimulated a new appreciation of the Polish composer’s works. One of the truly great homages paid to Chopin was the concert presented on this recording and featuring the two Chopin piano concertos performed by Daniel Barenboim and the Staatskapelle Berlin under Andris Nelsons at the Ruhr Piano Festival in Essen. “Storms of applause for a dream couple: Daniel Barenboim and Andris Nelsons won over the audience [ ] with their rousing Chopin interpretations”, raved the press.
Rolando Villazon – ¡Viva México!
A lively documentary and road movie with Rolando Villazón. His very personal homage to Mexico and to the beautiful Mexican songs like ‘Bésame mucho’, ‘Cucurrucucú paloma’, ’Noche de ronda’ and ‘Solamente una vez’. The programme also includes a medley of ‘Cielito lindo’ and ‘México lindo y querido’ as well as other internationally familiar standards.
Gala Concert from the Semperoper Highlights from ‘The Merry Widow‘
This gala evening in the beautiful Semperoper devoted to operetta melodies with classic superstars Renée Fleming and Christopher Maltman under the baton of Christian Thielemann was a tremendous success and, as Deutsche Grammophon put it, started ‘a new tradition’. Thielemann, heading the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden and an ensemble of distinguished soloists and choral singers, presents the most beautiful highlights from Franz Lehár’s ‘The Merry Widow’ and succeeds in giving the famous and universally beloved melodies a perceptive new reading while still creating first-class entertainment. A short entr’acte performed in the foyer by members of the theater’s ballet ensemble allows the viewer a glimpse into the luxurious interior of the Semperoper. The New Year’s Eve gala concert ends with an homage to Dresden: the waltz ‘An der Elbe’, the last waltz written by Johann Strauss.
Sting – Live in Berlin
Sting – pop hero, constantly evolving singer-songwriter and living legend – now presents a concert of his most celebrated songs in lush symphonic arrangements. Under the title ‘Symphonicities’, Sting brings together brand-new orchestrations of his greatest hits, including those of POLICE, which he performed in a tour of nearly 70 cities in North America and Europe with the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra conducted by Steven Mercurio. Sting’s Berlin concert was recorded at the stunning O2 World.
Making of “Rusalka”
Andris Nelsons: From the new World
“Andris Nelsons and the BR-Symphonieorchester are a sensation”, raved the press. It isn’t often that a young conductor excites audiences and stirs up critics to the extent that Andris Nelsons does. As can be seen in this concert “From the New World”, he communicates his passion with a vocabulary of gestures that sweep the audience off their feet. The concert with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks is devoted to the “New World”. The main work of the evening is Antonín Dvorák’s Ninth Symphony, “From the New World”. The first half features compositions of the 20th and 21st-century by American composers Charles Ives and John Adams, along with a work by Igor Stravinsky, who spent several decades in the U.S.
Festive Advent Concert at the Frauenkirche Dresden 2010
Italian tenor Vittorio Grigolo, hailed as “opera hero of the year” (Sächsische Zeitung), and Carolina Ullrich are the stars of this festive Advent concert from the Frauenkirche in Dresden. Conductor Bertrand de Billy heads this particularly lavish program with the Staatskapelle Dresden in the famous Baroque Frauenkirche. Together with the Chor der Sächsischen Staatsoper and the Kammerchor der Frauenkirche, and in a setting of resplendent beauty, they perform inspiring and festive works.
Victims & Seducers – The Fate of the Castrati
An expert in the virtuoso and often unjustly forgotten coloratura music of the Baroque era, the great mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli showcased the repertoire of the castrato singers in her successful CD/DVD “Sacrificium – The Art of the Castrati”. She is the face of the present documentary, in which she takes us into the intriguing world of the castrati, and lends her voice to the great Farinelli in performances of rediscovered bravura works. The film features dramatic re-enactments that alternate with information on medical, historical and sociological aspects of the castrato phenomenon.