DVD Videos

Stage Design by RICHARD PEDUZZI

Since Peter Zadek arrived from theatre world to produce his first opera, Mozart’s „Le nozze di Figaro“ („The marriage of Figaro“) in Stuttgart in 1983, he has been in demand as an opera director too – with good reason, as this DVD video makes clear.

Zadek’s production of the opera, which combines Brecht’s text with Kurt Weill’s music, was recorded at the 1998 Salzburg festival. The opera was one of the greatest successes of its day when it originally opened in 1931, and ran for over fifty performances. Its songs, most of all „O moon of Alabama“, are still great hits today. In the 1998 Salzburg production they were interpreted by a top–notch ensemble of singers under the direction of Dennis Russell Davies: the title roles were sung by such renowned artists as Catherine Malfitano, Gwyneth Jones and Jerry Hadley.

Sound Format: PCM Stereo

Picture Format: 16:9

DVD Format: DVD 9, NTSC

Subtitle Languages: GB, FR, NL

Running Time: 160 mins

FSK: 0

Stage direction Alex Ollé, Carlus Padrissa – La Fura dels Baus

Scenography Alfons Flores, Costumes Lluc Castells, Lighting Urs Schönebaum

High Definition recording : Teatro Real - Madrid: 09/2010

Bel Air present the hard-hitting new production of Kurt Weill’s Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny by Catalan collective, La Fura dels Baus, from the Teatro Real de Madrid. Composed in the 1930s by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht, this is a mordant satire on capitalism in a society in which the ultimate crime is not having money. In 20 scenes the authors tell the story of a city lost in the middle of a desert and run by three thugs; in Mahagonny food, sex, gambling and violence rule supreme.

The production, by Alex Ollé and Carlus Padrissa of La Fura dels Baus, combines enormous inventiveness, joy and energy with awe-inspiring ferocity.

Perfect casting brings together a group of singers – Measha Brueggergosman, Michael König, Jane Henschel and Willard White – who are also marvellous actors. The Teatro Real Orchestra and Chorus are directed by young Spanish conductor Pablo Heras-Casado, who received the “El Ojo Crítico” prize in 2010, awarded annually to Spain’s most outstanding artists.

La Fura was founded in 1979 as a Catalan street theatre group. Key features of the ‘Furan’ language were already apparent: interaction with the audience, the use of unusual spaces and the adaptation of the show to the characteristics of each space. Their work for the opening ceremonies of the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, Mediterráneo, mar olímpico brought La Fura dels Baus to an audience of billions throughout the world. Their first foray into opera was with La Atlántida, with frequent collaborator Jaume Plensa, and has developed as far as Wagner’s Ring Cycle and Boris Godunov, a daring reflection on the problem of terrorism, its limits and the manipulation it generates.

Stunning images and more information on www.lafura.com

16/9, NTSC, PCM Stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1

Total timing : 138 minutes

Subtitles : Fr, Eng, Ger, Spa

Co-Production Volksoper Wien – Phoenix Music Media

Anyone accustomed to the style of the Weill-Brecht “Songspiele” is in for a surprise with this DVD production from the Viennese Volksoper. The plot alone, in which an unscrupulous arms dealer pulls a fast one on an imaginary Southern states island, where the cow belonging to the young farmer Juan is pawned in exchange for a machine gun, roused the audience to enthusiastic applause. There is of course a happy end – all with imaginative, humorous and lively music by Kurt Weill, in the best tradition of operetta!

Kurt Weill started to compose the work after his exile from Germany in 1933 with Robert Vambery, former chief dramatist of the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm in Berlin. Both in search of a new identity, they began to collaborate on a new, original work. Unsatisfied with the original version, Weill continued to work on it until his death in 1950. When Weill died, the work was still lying in the drawer, unedited and unfinished.

Phoenix Edition is pleased to present the world première recording of the revised version of the opera by Robert Vambery. The performance received great reviews, not only praising the colourful, comical and highly resourceful production, but also for the work itself, which clearly confirmed the quality criteria mentioned by the composer; an operetta which should be funny with a social and political background, completely in the spirit of Jacques Offenbach.

Lotte Lenya and Gisela May were the two most prominent interpreters of Brecht and Weill in the last century. Here, from 1958, is Lenya performing five of Kurt Weill’s songs from The Threepenny Opera, Happy End, Mahagonny and the Berlin Requiem. Gisela May performs Brecht songs with music by Weill, Heymann, and Dessau (1972). As a bonus, Martha Schlamme performs two songs of Weill, joined by Will Holt in one number. Approx. 80 minutes, black & white, color.