00:00
Puccini - Madama Butterfly
Puccini portrayed brilliantly the fragility of a geisha in love who naively believed the dashing North American marine officer also loved her. The musical score evokes agreeably harmonized traditional Japanese melodies. Despite the fiasco of the debut of Madama Butterfly in Milan, the composer stood fast in his determination to make a success of what he considered his most sincere and expressive work. The passing of time has proved him right. Mario Gas places the story in a 1930s film studio. He narrates this moving drama from three simultaneous perspectives: the opera itself, the film being made of the opera, and its projection in black and white on a large screen. The work is performed at the Teatro Real Madrid in 2017, with conductor Marco Armiliato, the orchestra and chorus of the Teatro Real Madrid and star soloists: Enkelejda Shkosa, Jorge de León, Angel Odena, Francisco Vas, Tomeu Bibilioni and Fernando Radó.
02:32
Waldbühne 1996 - Italian Night
Designed by the German architect Werner March, Berlin's Waldbühne is an amphitheater that seats over 22,000 people. It was built between 1934 and 1936 for the Summer Olympics of 1936. Since WWII, the Waldbühne has been used for a variety of events, including boxing matches, film screenings, and classical and rock concerts. Annually, the Berlin Philharmonic performs a stunning open concert. In this broadcast of the 1996 edition, Claudio Abbado conducts the orchestra and invites bass-baritone Bryn Terfel, tenor Sergei Larin, and soprano Angela Gheorghiu to sing Verdi arias. This program also features Giuseppe Verdi's Overture Nabucco, duet Et lui (from Don Carlos), Fire chorus Fuoco di gioia, Jago's Credo, Gia nella notte (from Otello), Triumphal March, and chorus Gloria all' Egitto from Aida. You can also discover Vincenzo Bellini's Eccomi from I Capuleti e i Montecchi.
04:20
Pierre Boulez - A life for music
The French musician and composer Pierre Boulez (1925-2016) is considered one of the most influential figures in twentieth-century music. In the documentary 'Pierre Boulez – A life of music' (2017), Reiner E. Moritz creates a personal portrait of the young and impatient artist who once impetuously suggested to blow up the opera houses in order to do away with stuffy traditions, yet later moved on to conduct the "Ring of the Century" in the very heart of traditional opera, Bayreuth, and became a prized guest conductor with the world´s greatest orchestras. The documentary includes fragments from the composer's rich oeuvre, and features rare photographs from the Boulez-Chevalier archive. The documentary is at its most personal when the maestro's family and friends reflect on his life. Boulez's younger brother Roger shares invaluable information about Pierre's early years, and the renowned pianist Daniel Barenboim opens up about his friend’s music and compositions.
05:18
Prokofiev - Violin Concerto No. 2, Op. 63
Iván Fischer conducts the Budapest Festival Orchestra in a concert recorded at the Béla Bartók National Concert Hall in Budapest, Hungary in 2015. The concert opens with Sergei Prokofiev's Overture on Hebrew Themes, Op. 34. After this, Thomas Zehetmair stars as solo violinist in Prokofiev Violin Concerto No. 2, Op. 63. The second part of the concert is features music by Igor Stravinsky. On the program is music composed for the ballet 'Jeu de cartes' (1937) and the Firebird Suite, No. 2 (1919). 'Jeu de cartes' is one of Stravinsky's neo-classical works and consists of three parts ('deals'). The Firebird Suite, No. 2 is based on the music from the ballet of the same name, which was written for Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes and premiered in Paris in 1910.
05:47
CMIM Voice 2022 – Semi-final: Vladyslav Buialskyi
Bass-baritone Vladyslav Buialskyi (Ukraine, 1997) performs ‘Aprite un po’ quegli occhi’ from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s opera Le nozze di Figaro; ‘Vous qui faites l’endormie’ from Charles Gounod’s opera Faust; and ‘Come dal ciel precipita’ from Giuseppe Verdi’s opera Macbeth, during the semi-finals of the Aria division of the Concours musical international de Montréal 2022 (CMIM). He is accompanied by the Montreal Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Jacques Lacombe. This performance was recorded at the Montreal Symphony House.