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“And, 'twixt the shadows and frights of nocturnal splendors, My beloved will secretly be hiding. Say what you will, say what you may.” The sound of a distant whistle and theorbo calls a sleeping singer through the empty streets of Stuttgart in a midnight journey to the opera house. ‘dei notturni splendori’ is an experimental opera film made for the Staatsoper Stuttgart in the early months of the Coronavirus pandemic lockdown. Anderson Matthew captures the singer Helene Schneiderman through a midnight dream with a hand-cranked kino camera in an ecstatic 35mm photo roman, in search for her own performance of the Tarquinio Merula madrigal Folle é ben chi se crede from 1638.

A gay artist flees the repressive laws and war in Russia to go to Berlin, leaving his boyfriend behind. Meanwhile, life in Berlin turns out to be less inclusive he had expected.

Berlin Live presents some of the world’s most talented musicians, as they perform in front of an intimate audience at an exotic club in Berlin. Featuring concerts from contemporary to classic, each show offers a diverse mix of music to audiences all over the world.

A documentary on young musicians from around the world who have connected to the city of Berlin.

In 1994, five children of Jamaican reggae singer Denroy Morgan launched the group Morgan Heritage. Their irresistible charisma and hard-hitting talent won them an international following and two Grammy Awards.

The Bayreuth Festival 2023 will open with the premiere of Wagner's "Parsifal". Jay Scheib is directing, and Pablo Heras-Casado is the musical director.

In Extremo in Concert

Festivalhalle Moers, Moers, Germany

Sleeping Beauty was premiered in St. Petersburg with Tchaikovsky’s immortal music in 1890. In his version for the Ballett Zurich, Christian Spuck revives the classic in his own artistic style. With a great deal of humor, he addresses the complex process of growing up, relating themes such as generational conflicts with one’s parents, the difficulties of becoming a mature adult, and, last but not least, love and sexuality. Whenever possible, he frees the characters from their traditional role cliches. Petipa’s original version becomes a model that Christian Spuck occasionally cites yet repeatedly questions and counteracts with irony and occasionally irritating moments.

At the Salzburg Festival 2021, the musicAeterna Orchestra conducted by Teodor Currentzis performed the last symphonies of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – No. 40 K. 550 and No. 41 K. 551 Jupiter. The two pinnacles of Mozart’s symphonic heritage are interconnected: the classic wrote symphonies No. 39–41 in one short period of just a few fruitful weeks in 1788. In the concert the two symphonies – the two sides of Mozart’s unfathomable genius – are joined by works that are close to them both in spirit and the time of creation: the orchestral Masonic Funeral Music in C minor, the recitative and aria of Donna Anna from the finale of the opera Don Giovanni and the chorus from the spiritual cantata Davide penitente created in 1785.

A student at St. Petersburg Smolny Institute wants to follow in her mother's footsteps in opera but her fiance,an imperious count, objects.Another student whose boyfriend is a grand duke accuses her of stealing jewelry.

This first film by choreographer Pina Bausch reflects her method of working as developed with the Wuppertal Theatre of Dance during the 1973/74 season. The film does not tell a story, but is made up of various scenes put together as a collage with scenes set in different locations. The futility of human activity and the search for love make up the film's central theme set against the strains of a Silician funeral march. Filmed on location in Wuppertal, Germany, between October 1987 and April 1989.

Kent Nagano superbly masters the challenges presented by this score, shapes the dynamics with subtle intensity, and casts the score in a mellow glow. As Marfa, the spurned lover of Ivan Khovansky‘s son Andrei, Doris Soffel unfolds such a rich palette of sonorities, from the pathos of the lower ranges to shaded discant heights, that “one is tempted to speak of a Russian mezzo”. The final chorus, which Mussorgsky did not compose, is played in the orchestrally transparent version of Igor Stravinsky – the third great Russian composer who contributed to making “Khovanshchina“ a timeless, gripping stage work. With his stripped-down sets and historicising costumes, director Dmitri Tcherniakov, one of the new voices of contemporary Russian theatre, builds a bridge to the political present. A lesson in history and music!

In 1979, krautrock group Embryo toured Iran, Afghanistan and India by bus, while performing with local musicians and documenting their trip.

Three young prodigies and their families exploring the popular and competitive world of piano playing in China.

The Semperoper caused a sensation in November 2007 when it visited Japan for the first time in twenty-six years. The demand for tickets and the audience's enthusiasm were unprecedented, not least because the company was staging a piece that is performed more authentically in Dresden than anywhere else in the world: Richard Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier, which received its first performance in Dresden in 1911. Leading the ensemble was the radiant-voiced and profoundly thoughtful Marschallin of Anne Schwanewilms.

Second of four "musical arabesks".

During the day, Hinnerk, Georg, Paul and Manuel work as parcel carriers for a delivery service. In the evenings, the buddies like to get together and talk about everything that's on their minds. Then Hinnerk learns that their boss's little daughter is going to have to undergo an extremely expensive operation.

Conductors Andris Nelsons, Klaus Mäkelä, Riccardo Chailly, and Petr Popelka will take turns conducting the four movements of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9. This concert event celebrates the bicentennial of the premiere of Beethoven's masterpiece.

ZDF.neo kultur record of In Extremo gig live at Wacken Open Air 2012

Glyndebourne's celebrated production of Nikolaus Lehnhoff's Tristan und Isolde is a supremely intelligent achievement; gravely beautiful, haunting and meditative, it is deeply reflective rather than visceral, fortified by Roland Aeschlimann's stunningly effective set, a womb-like space through which the protagonists move like gods. Conductor Jiří Bělohlávek mirrors Lehnhoff's approach in his sophisticated plumbing of the score's depths, with every shift in texture carefully laid bare by an inspired London Philharmonic Orchestra. Nina Stemme's Isolde and Robert Gambill's Tristan, both gloriously lyrical, are matched by superb performances from René Pape as the betrayed and vulnerable King Marke and Bo Skovhus as Kurwenal, deeply touching in his helpless devotion to Tristan. This High Definition recording of a production of uncommon intimacy reveals the opera's music and drama in a new light.

This is the amazing story of how a group of reclusive Rhineland experimentalists became one of the most influential pop groups of all time - a celebration of the band featuring exclusive live tracks filmed at their Tate Modern shows in London (Feb 2013), interwoven with expert analysis, archive footage of the group, newsreel of the era and newly-shot cinematic evocations of their obsessions. With contributions from Derrick May, Holger Czukay, Francois Kevorkian, Neville Brody, Paul Morley, Peter Boettcher, Caroline Wood and more.

"Die tote Stadt" is a psychologically layered drama with Hitchcock-like features, about Paul who, after the loss of his beloved Marie, slowly but surely becomes entangled in a dream world of obsessions and delusions. This impressive opera is a passionate as well as a surrealistic plea for mourning. "He who cannot live with death has no life."

Lehar's The Land of Smiles touches the heart as it provides unforgetable melodies from start to finish. There are no weak links in the cast. Too often, we think of operetta as musical fluff, tired cliches, and obligatory dance scenes when things start slowing down. Not so in this classic operetta. We feel the pain of loss suffered by the two main characters, who make their roles natural and believable. There is more to this work than "Yours Is My Heart Alone." There is dramatic consistency and people you find yourself caring about as much as the music, the costumes, and the colorful sets.

A showgirl aspiring to greater things endeavours to sort out her financial and romantic problems.

A director tries to get his porno musical off the ground.

A couple and their hallucinatory journey to the dark side of passion. Renata is driven by a longing for the consummate sexual encounter. Since her youth she has had a vision of an ecstatic conjugation with a shining angel. Ruprecht falls for Renata and follows her unreservedly on her obsessive quest to fulfil this fantasy. The couple cross the boundaries of perception, leaving behind all traces of morality or reason, until their willingness to devote body and soul completely to one another threatens to pull their previous existence apart.

Accompanied by Ensemble Resonanz, Afro-American singer Akua Naru delivers her energetic and poetic flow on stage at the Mojo Club in Hamburg.

Los Angeles based singer-songwriter Dylan Chambers performs at the Leverkusener Jazztage festival in Germany and brings all his charm and emotion to the stage.

At the Real Alcazar in Seville, pianist Javier Perianes brings together eight sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti and pieces from Isaac Albéniz's suite ‘Iberia’ in a concert filled with Andalusian sounds.

The Parisian restaurant "At the Oyster King's" is looking for a new waitress, whose job would be to crack open oysters with a newfangled oyster cracker (how exciting!). But who would have thought that this newfound invention would lead to so much turmoil (they're French, aren't they?)?! Through a mix-up, Lilli Dupont gets the job. But Lilli is no waitress, but rather a talented singer, waiting in vain for an engagement. She takes the job and soon every male visitor is laying at her feet. So that Lilli doesn't constantly have to fight off all the horny men, the cashier Aristide spreads the rumor that Lilli is actually the daughter of the millionaire van Muhlen, to whom the "Oyster King" belongs (daughter of a millionaire?!? Oh yes, of course: that will dissuade potential suitors!).

A GIRL YOU DON'T FORGET can be thought of as a backstage musical that treats the whole world as backstage. Melodies seem to be buzzing through the air, available to anyone in the right state of mind. Willi Forst always is, and he is also an actor who can transform any space into a stage. Fritz Kortner, one of the defining personalities of the German theatre scene of the 1920s, makes the most of his star’s talent in an intricately constructed romantic comedy that believes in the truth of artifice. Forst plays Paul Hartwig, a wannabe actor who is reduced to selling books in the cold streets of Berlin. While pursuing his big break, he meets Lisa Brandes (Dolly Haas), another victim of the global financial crisis who has just learned a new trick: cheating horny old men out of their money by selling promises she does not intend to keep. Dedicated theatre man Paul decides to win her over by putting on an act, but a misplaced slap leads to unintended consequences. - Lukas Foerster

Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright responds to the coronavirus crisis with an intimate live concert. Without an audience and specially arranged for a small string section, Wainwright performs his new album "Unfollow the Rules" for the TV cameras only. Recorded in the ballroom of the Paramour Mansion, a historic residence in Los Angeles, the musician shows that good songs work even under difficult circumstances.

The young girls Kate and Echo live in their own land of make believe. When one of them stumbles across the real world, their friendship faces a serious challenge.

The prestigious Gran Teatre del Liceu from Barcelona presents Mozart's beloved opera in an elegant, dramatic twist with a sparkling cast of world-class stars, led by coloratura soprano Diana Damrau as Constance and rising star Olga Peretyatko as Blonda. Director Christophe Loy has created a thought-provoking and surprisingly original script in which both Constance and Blonda feel respect, admiration and even deep love for their captors. As a result of this tantalizing, torturous approach, traditional norms and concepts of good and evil were turned upside down.

This DVD contains a filmed rehearsal of Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention at the legendary Beat Club in Bremen, Germany, on 6th October 1968. The music is largely one long improvisatory continuous performance rather than a run-through of their greatest hits, but is punctuated by Zappa directing the band to play the opening themes of some of his more well-known pieces.

Rudolf Nelson and the Weintraub Syncoptators lead thru a short musical revue, featuring eccentric dancers, singers, and a small chorus-line.