Giuseppe Verdi

Directed by Gernot Friedel

English commentary with English, French and German subtitles

Herbert von Karajan (1908-1989), one of the twentieth century’s most fascinating and complex geniuses, dominated the post-war classical music world like a colossus. He won unprecedented musical power and public acclaim; received far more adulation, sold far more records and made far more money than any other classical musician of his era. He also had many detractors -those alienated by his superstar status; those who found the purity and beauty of his music-making cold and superficial; those repelled by his headstrong ambition and endlessly demanding pursuit of his artistic ideals; and those for whom he was forever tainted by the shadow of the Third Reich.

Yet his musical playboy image was at odds with the private man who was, in reality, a shy, often solitary figure, possessed of great directness, simplicity and wit, who craved inner quiet and concentration, and was deeply loyal to his closest associates. He loved the peace and quiet of lakes and mountains as much as he did his private aeroplane and his fast cars. Charismatic and enigmatic, Karajan was also the construct that was ‘Karajan’. This film reveals the phenomenon of the man and his music. And it is Karajan himself, in archive interviews, who talks of events in his life and relates them to his work as a conductor.

Herbert von Karajan’s life, both on and off the podium, is charted. From the influential experiences of his childhood and student days; through his emergence as a young conductor with a reputation for being brilliant but difficult; to his years at the forefkont of classical music; and his last decade when, despite failing health, and beset by acrimonious musical politics, he continued to push himself to the limits of his creative and physical powers.

The documentary also touches on the controversial issue of Karajan’s membership of the Nazi Party; his rivalry with FurtwSingler; his fitful association with Walter Legge of EM1 and with the Philharmonia orchestra, founded by Legge in 1945; his fascination with science, technology, art and architecture in relation to music and his conducting style and rapport with his musicians. All are brought into focus and illustrated with a wealth of archive material.

And throughout the film there is Karajan’s music, drawn from the many sound and audiovisual recordings he made during the course of his extraordinary career. Extracts fiom works by Beethoven, Mozart, Wagner, J.S. Bach, Puccini, Johann Strauss II, Mahler, Verdi, Richard Strauss and Schoenberg testify to the vast range of the classical repertoire he mastered and summon up the sublime beauty of his music- making.

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Note: This Blu-ray Disc (BD) is not compatible with standard DVD players

Set Design by William Orlandi

Lighting by Jürgen Hoffmann

Rigoletto tells the story of the crippled court jester Rigoletto and his adored daughter Gilda, whom he desperately tries to protect from the advances of the pleasure-loving Duke of Mantua. While Gilda naïvely gives credence to the Duke’s amorous advances, he is concerned only with constantly changing erotic relationships, of which he boasts in his famous aria Questa o quella. Rigoletto fails. A terrible curse uttered against him by Count Monterone, whom he had once ridiculed before the entire court, comes true: at the end he holds his beloved daughter dead in his arms.

“It has long been a truism that Nello Santi is an exceptionally gifted conductor of Verdi, but it is always a pleasure to observe to what extent he in is control of every second of a musical evening – with his charisma, his calm gestures, his eyes and his physical presence. The emotional energy of the evening is concentrated in Santi’s person; he stands for nothing less than incontestable aplomb, and for music-making that, thanks to his sense of timing and style, is above reproach. This is the way, and no other, that this Verdi opera must sound.” (Tages-Anzeiger)