Herbert Blomstedt appears with the Gewandhaus Orchestra for the last time as the Gewandhaus Music Director in this recording. After seven successful years in Leipzig, the maestro performs a work in the Thomas Church that is especially dear to him…

Celebrate a double premier at the Leipzig Opera on November 2005. Riccardo Chailly directs Verdi’s “Un Ballo in Maschera” for the first time in his function as General Music Director of the Leipzig Opera. “Un Ballo in Maschera” is as exciting as a…

Since its founding over 500 years ago the Wiener Sängerknaben, a.k.a. Vienna Boys' Choir, has been a fixed attraction in musical life. A number of important musicians have been connected with the famous choir. Joseph Haydn, and Franz Schubert for…

Bizet’s Carmen is reputed to be the most famous opera in the world. Maestro Daniel Barenboim presents his musical view on this classic opera. Marina Domashenko's rich mezzo-soprano voice makes her ideal for the title role in Carmen. After the…

The composer of Hansel and Gretel, Engelbert Humperdinck, was born in Germany in 1854. In the 1890s, his sister, Adelheid Wette, had written a libretto based on the Grimm fairy tale, and asked her brother to set it to music as a Christmas…

João Gilberto is winner of two Grammy awards and nominee for six, he is one of the most important figures in Brazilian music and the grandmaster of bossa nova. His first and only approved live video was taped in November 2006 at the age of 75 in…

This exciting open-air staging of Nabucco was one of the classical highlights in summer 2007. The vast production of the Verdi masterpiece at St. Margarethen took place amidst the intoxicating scenery of a rustically romantic Roman quarry, which…

Welcome to Mahagonny, where sin is “in” and love is always on sale. This Old West boomtown rises from the desert to become a razzle-dazzle mecca for lust, liberty, and the pursuit of pleasure. Cash is king, poverty is punishable by death, and…

Franz Lehár’s “Die Lustige Witwe” is reputed to be one of the most famous operettes in the world. Under the direction of the French Jerome Savary's the “Merry Widow” sparkles. At the first staging of this production at the Opera-Comique in Paris…

St Margarethen Festival 2008