Renaud Capuçon - Un violon sans frontières

Adam's Passion

Adam’s Passion is the moving first collaboration between two “masters of slow motion who harmonize perfectly with each other” (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung). In the spectacular setting of a former submarine factory, American director and universal artist Robert Wilson creates a poetic visual world in which the mystical musical language of the Estonian composer Arvo Pärt can cast its meditative spell. Three of Pärt’s major works – Adam’s Lament, Tabula rasa, and Miserere, as well as Sequentia, a new work composed especially for this production – are brought together here using light, space, and movement to create a tightly-woven Gesamtkunstwerk in which the artistic visions of these two great artists mirror each other.

Gustav Mahler - Autopsie d'un génie

Andy Sommer's documentary tells the story of Austrian conductor and composer Gustav Mahler and tries to realistically recreate his life during the period when he commanded the Vienna Opera.

Le Carnaval des animaux

Every night, a father tells his son a bedtime story. As if by challenge, the child always chooses the same book, with scores, orchestra photos and images of animals. It’s about Camille Saint-Saëns’ “Carnival of the Animals”. Under the impetus of the gentle complicity of father and son, this somewhat austere book is transformed, comes to life and makes music: the carnival animals come to life...

Roberto Alagna à Versailles - Un siècle d'opéra français - 2009

Roberto Alagna - Ma vie est un opéra

Parsifal

Wagner’s mystic masterpiece Parsifal at the Staatsoper Berlin, staged by Dmitri Tcherniakov and conducted by Daniel Barenboim. Wagner’s last opera, Parsifal is a medieval epic story marked by Christian, Buddhist and esoteric references. It is about redemption and renewal, but this new production by Russian director Dmitri Tcherniakov adds a jarring note : revenge. This “Festival Play for the Consecration of the Stage” is similar to a Medieval epic, a blend of metaphysical dreams and esoteric battles with constant spiritual references. This new production is directed by Dmitri Tcherniakov, conducted by Daniel Barenboim and sung by an international cast of excellent singers: Andreas Schager, Anja Kampe, Wolfgang Koch, René Pape, Tomas Tómasson and Matthias Hölle.

La Bayadere

The purity of classical dance meets the opulant exoticism of the Maharajas' India in this 150-year-old ballet, glorified by Nacho Duato for the Mikhailovsky Ballet.

Iphigenie en Aulide / Iphigénie en Tauride @ Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 2024

A decade before the French Revolution, in a country riven with bitter polemics, Gluck throws the history of opera into confusion by raising it to an unheard-of peak of tragic intensity. Experiencing his two Iphigenias in a single evening goes beyond the norms of operatic life: it is to enter the very heart of the curse on the family of King Atreus of Mycenae, to follow a logical destiny through a cycle of endless violence. How does the victim of Aulis become the murderess of Tauris? That is the burning question that Dmitri Tcherniakov must adress, plunging the spectator into the midst of a household haunted by the dead and setting in train an implacable process of dehumanization, with parallels to our world today. Conducting Le Concert d’Astrée, Emmanuelle Haïm drives this dual tragedy to the summit of its expressive power, leaving humanity to be translated through arias of the utmost poignancy.

Prokofiev: War and Peace

Sergei S. Prokofiev's monumental setting of Leo N. Tolstoy's epic novel, War and Peace. The composer and his wife Mira compressed the plot, set during Napoleon's Russian campaign, into a powerful sequence of scenes in which the love story between Natasha Rostova and Andrei Bolkonsky and the description of the Russian army's fight against the French invasion alternate in rich contrast, and at the same time are closely interwoven. All is related by the music in its fullness of splendid themes and touchingly quiet moments. Prokofiev's musical-dramatic masterpiece combines social drama and historical chronicle in its 13 scenes to form an exuberant panorama. In this production by Dmitri Tcherniakov, the opera is performed in in Munich for the first time ever.

Dutch National Opera: The Maid of Orleans

In a court trial, Joan of Arc is charged with high treason ... Dmitri Cherniakov presents a modern reinterpretation of Tchaikovsky’s least frequently performed opera, set entirely in a courtroom, with soprano Elena Stikhina in the title role.

Peer Gynt

A dramatic, energetic adaptation of Heinz Spoerli's ballet based on Grieg's Peer Gynt by the Zurich ballet. Marijn Rademaker is excellent as the title character, clearly telegraphing the emotional range required. Each of the characters and the dramatic scenes are supported by the orchestral passages and songs provided by Grieg; some spoken word passages extracted from the Ibsen play.

The Sleeping Beauty

When she is finally released from an evil spell by the kiss of a young prince, the Sleeping Beauty awakes and is – inspite of a hundred years of sleep – as beautiful as a young woman. The love of the prince is simply stronger than the curse that rests on the haunted princess. The artistic director of the Staatsballett Berlin, Nacho Duato, has brought new life to this beloved classic, which itself is over a hundred years old and for which Tchaikovsky has composed the unforgettable music. The ballet Sleeping Beauty follows in its plot the French version by Charles Perrault: At her baptism Princess Aurora is cursed by the evil fairy Carabosse. On her 16th birthday the curse becomes reality. Aurora pricks herself on a spindle and falls into a hundred-year-long sleep. Finally, Prince Desiré finds the way to Aurora’s bed and kisses the princess awake. The inevitable end: a fairytale wedding.

Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique & Harold en Italie

Anne-Sophie Mutter: The Mozart Violin Concertos

The complete Violin Concertos performed by Anne-Sophie Mutter with Camerata Salzburg recorded live in Salzburg in December 2005. Concerto for Violin and Orchestra No. 1 Concerto for Violin and Orchestra No. 2 Concerto for Violin and Orchestra No. 3 Concerto for Violin and Orchestra No. 4 Concerto for Violin and Orchestra No. 5, "Turkish" Sinfonia concertante

Martha Argerich & Maria João Pires Play Mozart Victoria Hall - Geneva

Star pianists Martha Argerich and Maria João Pires join British conductor Daniel Harding and the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande in Geneva's Victoria Hall to perform two major works by Mozart and Mahler. Programme: W. A Mozart: Concerto for Two Pianos in E flat major Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 1 in D major

Tchaikovsky: Symphonies Nos. 4, 5 & 6 - Gergiev

Valery Gergiev is widely recognised as the greatest modern interpreter of Tchaikovsky’s music and the Mariinsky holds a peerless reputation in the repertoire. Together they deliver definitive interpretations of Tchaikovsky’s most popular symphonies. These acclaimed performances were filmed at Salle Pleyel in Paris during January 2010, directed by Andy Sommer. The themes of fate and death pervade Tchaikovsky’s final symphonies. The composition of the Fourth Symphony coincided with the breakdown of Tchaikovsky’s marriage and a failed suicide attempt, yet he considered it to be his greatest. In contrast he believed his Fifth to be flawed and uninviting, yet today this heartfelt work is widely regarded as one of his finest. The subject of fate is further instilled in the Sixth Symphony, premiered shortly before Tchaikovsky’s death. It was posthumously entitled ‘Pathétique’ by his brother and is a deeply melancholic work, full of dynamic extremes and an inherent sense of finality.