DVD Videos

World Premiere Recording.

Ballet-Opera in five scenes by Heinz von Cramer.

On the surface it is a comic version of the “Hauptmann von Köpenick” story in which it is not the petty thief Wilhelm Voigt who carries off the prank but a respected member of society, the clerk Wilhelm Fadenkreutz.

He is not a factory owner like Diederich Heßling, but definitely has many of the characteristics of the hero of „Der Untertan”. Boris Blacher and Heinz von Cramer Cramer quickly realised that such a devastating critique of Germany’s past would not be easy to stage, and they toned down the satirical text before presenting it to the intendant of the Städtische Oper, Heinz Tietjen.

Blacher also shortened the caricature of the German national anthem played on the tuba at the start of the piece to make it less recognisable. The authors cast about for a long time for a title for their work that would not confl ict with Carl Zuckmayer’s „Der Hauptmann von Köpenick”. After considering “Herrliche Zeiten” (Happy Times), they fi nally hit on the idea of combining the local and the fantastical by calling the work “Preußisches Märchen” (A Prussian Fairytale). The premiere on 23 September 1952 in the Theater des Westens, where the Deutsche Oper Berlin ensemble appeared under the title of “Städtische Oper” between 1945 and 1961, was acclaimed by audiences and critics alike.

Sound Format: PCM Stereo

Picture Format: 4:3

DVD Format: DVD 9, NTSC

Subtitle Languages: DE (Original Language), GB, FR, ES, IT

Running Time: 103 mins

FSK: 0

World Premiere Recording

The 2010 Jesi production is conscious of the complexity of Flaminio for all its seeming simplicity and cleverly exploits the suggestive milieu of the Teatro Valeria Moriconi, in particular its shape and relatively small scale. Without any attempt at realism, (the main action takes place “in a villa on the outskirts of the city of Naples, complete with hunting lodge, etc.”, but just a handful of props to symbolise the bucolic atmosphere), the production concentrates on establishing a kind of meta-theatrical relationship to this repertoire work which sets out to highlight the interweaving and overlayering of truth and fiction, passion and irony, tragedy and comedy. The orchestra sits behind a broad wooden platform and suspended netting decorated with leaves; every so often scenes about the characters’ private lives open up on various levels (these serve to expand the audience perspective both horizontally and vertically), as if the plot were following the inner development of these living characters. The theatrical narrative unravels – through a brilliant succession of dramatic and light-hearted moments – to its predictable happy ending.

The result takes us a step closer towards finally rediscovering such masterpieces of the Neapolitan school of the 18th century: in addition to being highly serious, ingenious and fabulous entertainment in its own right, Il Flaminio is substantive proof of the key role Naples played in developing the genre for European audiences.

Sound Format: PCM Stereo, DD 5.1 (DVD)

Format: 2 x DVD 9, NTSC, 50 GB (Double Layer)

Subtitle Languages: IT (Original Language), GB, DE, FR, ES, JP, Korean

Running Time: 183 mins

FSK: 0

Arthaus presents Rossini’s popular comic opera, La Cenerentola, in a staging from the opera house in Naples. The operatic re-telling of this much loved fairy-tale centres on Cinderella’s honesty and integrity, and on her willingness to forgive others, and to encourage those around her to be equally tolerant.

Paul Curran’s production presented to rapturous acclaim in Genoa in May 2006, finds a rather unusual setting for this moral tale. He sets the story in the year 1912, in his own words, “because I wanted to draw attention to social conflicts, and this was a period when class differences were very real”. The 20th century setting works well as the social differences become immediately palpable for modern audiences, lending the main theme of forgiveness and reconciliation even more prominence. However, the comic side of the opera does not go missing and the clown-like choreographies for the duets, trios etc. dramatises the absurdities of the “bad” characters’ behaviour.

Making his operatic début in Genoa with this production, conductor Renato Palumbo used Alberto Zedda’s critical edition of Rossini’s work. He was praised in the Italian press for his “rapid, clearly-defined interpretation of the score”, “rhythmically precise and fluidly lyrical at the same time”.

A cast of established singers is led by Sonia Ganassi, who as developed a reputation as a leading exponent of Rossini’s self-possessed mezzo heroines. La Repubblica found her singing “mature and authoritative, with some quite wonderful moments”, while the singing of Sicilian tenor Antonino Siragusa was described as “limpid and technically fl awless”.

Sound Format: PCM Stereo, DD 5.1, DTS 5.1

Picture Format: 16:9

DVD Format: 1 x DVD 5 + DVD 9, NTSC

Subtitle Languages: IT (Original Language), GB, DE, FR, ES

Running Time: 169 mins

FSK: 0

Set Design by PETER J. DAVISON

In his 2003 production for the Maggio Musicale in Florence, director Jonathan Miller invested the complex relationships between the characters with countless tiny erotic charges and even obvious sexual symbols. The artistic director of the renowned Maggio Musicale festival Zubin Mehta brings out not only the tension and drive of the music but also its harmonic richness.

The singers all belong to the international opera scene and not only provide excellent vocal quality but also strong acting skills, which help to tell the gripping story with its many disguises, mix-ups and discoveries: Russian soprano Eteri Gvazava – internationally recognised since her sensational Traviata à Paris fi lming partnering José Cura - is wonderful to watch and to hear in the role of the sad but contriving Countess Almaviva. Patrizia Ciofi , the Italian belcanto star is Susanna with all her intriguing acting skills and her pointed vocal intensity. Lucio Gallo who plays the evil character in this plot is one of the foremost Italian baritones. The title role is sung by Giorgio Surian, a bass-baritone who started off on the Italian opera scene, but has since made a steady career on international opera stages.

Sound Format: PCM Stereo, DD 5.1, DTS 5.1

Picture Format: 16:9

DVD Format: 2 x DVD 9, NTSC

Subtitle Languages: IT (Original Language), GB, DE, FR, ES

Running Time: 181 mins

FSK: 0

A Film by Wolf Seesemann

The first documentary about the Russian composer Rodion Shchedrin!

Featuring Martha Argerich, Valery Gergiev, Mariss Jansons, Lorin Maazel, Mikhail Pletnev, Maya Plisetskaya and many more …

+ DVD with a Concert from the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory 2007 with works by him.

Russian National Orchestra

Conducted by Mikhail Pletnev

David Geringas, Cello

Dialogues with Shostakovich – Symphonic etudes for orchestra

Parabola concertante – per violoncello solo, orchestra d’archi e timpani

Anna Karenina – Romantic music for symphony orchestra

Two Tangos by Albéniz – For orchestra

Bonus Feature: Extensive Interview with Rodion Shchedrin (66 minutes)

Sound Format: PCM Stereo

Picture Format: 16:9

DVD Format: 2 x DVD 9, NTSC

Audio Languages: RUS, DE, GB (Documentary), RUS (Bonus)

Subtitle Languages: RUS (Original Language), GB, DE, FR

Running Time: 65 mins (Documentary), 87 mins (Concert), 66 mins (Bonus)

FSK: 0

Set Design by Rolf Glittenberg

A staging of Claude Debussy’s only completed opera, Pelléas et Mélisande, recorded live at the Zurich Opera House. The opera’s premiere in Paris in 1902 brought the new century to the stage. It came quietly, introducing a new female figure that provided the visual artists of l’art nouveau with a fascinating alternative to such femmes fatales as Oscar Wilde’s Lulu and Frank Wedekind’s Salome.

Debussy (1862-1918) adapted a dreamlike libretto by the Belgian playwright and poet, Maurice Maeterlinck (1862-1949) and in the music retained the symbolic quality of the mysterious, almost static fairytale. Conductor Franz Welser-Möst and director Sven-Eric Bechtolf have become one of the leading partnerships in contemporary music theatre. The characters are impressively enacted by Rodney Gilfrey and Isabel Rey in the title roles.

Occasionally placed in wheelchairs that hint at emotional as well as physical inadequacies and frequently doubled by puppets, Debussy’s protagonists are kept at a distance in their subconscious dream world. Franz Welser-Möst conducts a performance that is clear, well structured, unsentimental and attuned to the alertness and pioneering spirit of a score that even today has lost none of its radiance. The designer Rolf Glittenberg set the work in a remote operatic universe that is both greyish white and ice cold.

Sound Format: PCM Stereo, DD 5.0, DTS 5.0, dts-HD Master Audio 7.1

Picture Format: 16:9

Format: DVD 5 + DVD 9, NTSC

Subtitle Languages: FR (Original Language), GB, DE, IT, ES

Running Time: 161 mins

FSK: 0

Region Code: 0

Worldwide available, excluding Japan

World Premiere Recording

“What a pleasure to listen to Demetrio e Polibio”, wrote major Italian daily La Stampa after the premiere of Rossini‘s very first opera at the 2010 Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, attributing it „an undeniable fascination“. The work was given its first performance in Rome in 1812. It is still unclear whether Rossini was 14 or 18 when he wrote it; what is beyond doubt, however, is the anticipation of great things to come.

The libretto is a far-fetched tale of feuding kings, mistaken identities, disguises and cruel fates typical of the late 18th-century opera seria. Young stage director Davide Livermore, heading a production of the Accademia di Belle Arti di Urbino, turns the libretto into a ghost story, setting the action behind the stage of an opera house, when everyone has left and all that remains are the spirits of an opera that yearns for the breath of life – much like the practically forgotten Demetrio e Polibio itself.

With the help of little flames that flare up from the singers‘ palms and other "phantasmagorical" tricks, Livermore creates an enchanting atmosphere that is given a perfect musical rendering by conductor Corrado Rovaris (Music Director of the Opera Company of Philadelphia) and the Orchestra Sinfonica Rossini. Each giving outstanding performances are the four stand-out soloists Maria José Moreno, Victoria Zaytseva, Yijie Shi and Mirco Palazzi, „stars … of the highest international order“ (Süddeutsche Zeitung). Once again, the Rossini Opera Festival fulfills its dual goal of performing unknown Rossini works in new, critical editions, and of fostering young singers on their path towards the world‘s great stages.

SPECIAL FEATURE: Making Of Demetrio e Polibio

Sound Format: PCM Stereo, DD 5.1

Picture Format: 16:9

Format: DVD 9, NTSC

Subtitle Languages: IT (Original Language), GB, DE, FR, ES, JP, Korean

Running Time: 115 mins + 15 mins (bonus)

FSK: 0

Region Code: 0

Worldwide available

Franz Schubert’s song cycle Winterreise was written late in his life. It is regarded both as a highlight of the genre and as the touchstone by which lieder singers are judged. To succeed in interpreting Winterreise is the artistic equivalent of a patent of nobility for a singer. The song cycle certainly became one of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau’s calling cards and it is probably this work that made the baritone an international household name. In this recording made for the Sender Freies Berlin in January 1979, we see two of the leading musicians of their day in the prime of their lives and at the very peak of their art and experience appearing together in the service of Schubert’s Winterreise. Both the experienced Schubert lieder singer and the Austrian pianist Alfred Brendel, known throughout the world for his authoritative interpretations of Schubert’s piano music – had performed Winterreise together frequently between 1975 and 1989.

In 1991, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau finally agreed to perform Schubert’s Die Schöne Müllerin at the Feldkirch Schubertiade - he had not sung the song-cycle in public for twenty years. The great baritone belonged to the innermost circle of artists who give this unique, Austrian festival of chamber music its distinctive character. He had performed Schubert there on many occasions, but never Die Schöne Müllerin. The pianist András Schiff was another long-standing member of the inner circle, but this was the artists’ first collaboration in Feldkirch – and so Austrian Television (ORF) recorded the concert.

BONUS: The Rehearsal & Fischer-Dieskau in conversation

Sound Format: PCM Stereo

Picture Format: 4:3

DVD Format: DVD 5 & DVD 9 / NTSC

Subtitle Languages: DE (Original Language), GB, FR, IT, ES

Running Time: 135 mins (performance) + 76 mins (bonus)

FSK: 0

»KÖRPER TRILOGY« A THREE-PIECE CHOREOGRAPHIC CYCLE

In 1999 Sasha Waltz started working on her three-piece choreographic cycle about the human body. In »Körper«, following up this extraordinary research, she investigates the anatomy and the physical appearance of the human being, relating her dancers‘ bodies to architecture, science, and history. »S« searches for the origin of life, of Eros, and of sensibility. »noBody« asks about the metaphysical existence of humanity.

PART III »noBody«

»noBody« questions the metaphysical existence of humanity. It addresses the absence of the body, and confronts us with feelings that our own realization of being mortal awakes in us. Without a body, what makes us human? In »noBody« the choreographer, accompanied by 25 dancers, faces the challenge of rendering the non-physical visible by using the physical body itself. »noBody« is co-produced by the Festival d’Avignon. In July 2002, the piece was performed eight times at Cour d’Honneur, Pope Palace. Its unique historical setting, together with the Mendelsohnian architecture of the Schaubühne, was a huge influence during the development of this production.

SPECIAL FEATURES: Behind the Scenes, Interviews, Trailer

Sound Format: PCM Stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1

Picture Format: 16:9

DVD Format: DVD 9, NTSC

Languages (Bonus): DE, GB, FR, ES, JP

Running Time: 85 mins + 8 mins (bonus)

FSK: 12

A rare appearance at the 1996 Germeringer Jazztage by legendary flamenco guitarist Paco de Lucia and his sextet. Some may question the inclusion of flamenco guitar within a jazz festival. However the similarities between flamenco and blues have been well documented: both are the outlet for a poor, disenfranchised minority, with a primitive strength, boundless capabilities for improvisation and a requirement for breathtaking virtuosity - all qualities shown by Paco de Lucia in this performance.

However he has additionally long been experimenting with jazz forms (evident even from his inclusion of bass, drums, and saxophone in his sextet), while still retaining the essence of the flamenco tradition. As he himself says, „What I have tried to do is have a hand holding onto tradition and the other scratching, digging in other places trying to find new things I can bring into flamenco“.

Sound Format: PCM Stereo, DD 5.1, DTS 5.1

Picture Format: 16:9

DVD Format: DVD 9, NTSC

Running Time: 81 mins

FSK: 0