A dim light picks out the outlines of the hall. Suddenly a massive shadow appears and moves swiftly over to the keyboard, the only brightly lit surface to stand out from the large coffin-like box in the centre of the stage. There follows the vaguest…

Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau’s Master Class at the Hochschule der Künste in Berlin. Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau is one of the most famous lieder singers of his generation. He is greatly admired for his interpretive insight, note-perfect control of the tonal…

Famous music filmmaker Bruno Monsaingeon devoted a whole cycle of concert films to David Oistrakhs musical legacy. He collected recordings from all over the world with him as a soloist with an orchestra and as a chamber musician. The concerts were…

Giacomo Puccini honours his own code by bringing all those elements together in a single work, Il trittico, which is made up of three one-act operas. Finding the right librettos was not easy, but one month after the end of the First World War, his…

When painter Gustav Klimt coated his famous paintings with gold leaf, Richard Strauss musically reveled in the opulence that was so typical of Vienna at the time. No fewer than five powerful Wagnerian voices are needed for his "Die Frau ohne Schatten…

The Italian composer Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924) died before he could complete his final opera Turandot. Fortunately, his lesser-known colleague Franco Alfano managed to use the maestro's notes to complete the opera in time for its April 26, 1926…

The poet E. T. A. Hoffmann as the protagonist of his own fantastic tales: In his encounter with three women - Olympia, Antonia, and Giulietta - he searches in vain for love and for himself. Will he draw the strength for art from his failure in life…

Bieitos interpretation of Wagner‘s Lohengrin deals with love, hate, jealousy and hope, but above all with man‘s imperative need to believe in something. To visualise these two contrasting worlds, Bieito creates two settings on stage: the world of…

This opera film is based on Jan Schmidt-Garre‘s highly acclaimed stage production of Beethoven‘s Fidelio. The producers carefully filmed and edited several performances. By using additional footage of Jacquelyn Wagner as Leonore the stage production…

The French Baroque opera Hippolyte et Aricie carries its audience away into a realm of wonders with magnificent dance and choir scenes and the greatest possible multitude of musical forms. Philippe Rameau, a French contemporary of Bach and Handel…