00:00
Donizetti – L’elisir d’amore
With Rolando Villazón directing and playing the title role, the world rushed for tickets to the Baden-Baden 2012 Pentecost-holiday opera. Following his directorial debut in 2011 (Werther, Lyon) the Mexican tenor went a step further, staging Gaetano Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore and directing himself in the role of Nemorino. The film tells the story of this “story within a story” and reveals the creative process of staging the comic opera in two acts at the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden in April and May 2012. We follow Rolando Villazón in rehearsals with singers and actors, and in his exchanges with young conductor Pablo Heras-Casado on the way to a highly personal performance.
02:17
Waldbühne 1999 - A Romantic Opera Night
This concert at the Waldbühne in Berlin celebrates the legacy of Wagner and his most famous successor, Richard Strauss. This concert features the Berliner Philharmoniker, soloist Ben Heppner, and is directed by James Levine, Metropolitan Opera's music director for nearly 40 years. Strauss's works on the evening program include Don Juan, op. 20; Cäcilie and Heimliche Aufforderung, Op. 27; Zueignung, Op. 10; Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streich; and the Waltz / Di Rigori Armato by Der Rosenkavalier. Wagner's works on the program include the prelude In fernem Land from Lohengrin; the prelude Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde; the prelude Walther's Preislied from Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg; and the Ride of the Valkyries from Die Wälkure. True to tradition, the Berliner Philharmoniker closes this Waldbühne concert with Paul Lincke's Berliner Luft.