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What Swiss director Stefan Schweitert did for accordion music and for yodeling (Accordion Tribe, Cinequest, 2005; Echoes of Home, Cinequest 2008) he now does for traditional Balkan music. This wonderful film is also a love story – and a door into a world of musical wonders.

Latvian mezzo-soprano Elīna Garanča is one of the greatest voices of our time. Accompanied by the CHAARTS ensemble, she performs the most beautiful arias from Bizet's Carmen, including the famous Habanera, in a unique arrangement for chamber ensemble.

A devil is at work in the Ukrainian village of Sorochintsy, terrifying residents and travellers alike. Among them a farmer whose daughter is not allowed to marry her lover because her quarrelsome stepmother is against it.

An actress from the big city encourages the proprietor of a resort inn in the Austrian Tyrol to try his luck on the stage in Berlin.

Arvo Pärt has succeeded in using musical means to plant the spirituality of Eastern Europe in Western musical consciousness and make modern classical music accessible to a wide audience. He turned 90 on 11 September 2025.

Beethoven's opera Fidelio, conducted by Karl Böhm, featuring Gwyneth Jones as Leonore and James King as Florestan

When world-famous conductor Eduard Sporck accepts the job to create an Israeli-Palestinian youth orchestra, he is quickly drawn into a tempest of sheer unsolvable problems.

The vagrant Fliederbusch and his wife Berta are imprisoned in a small town's courthouse. They attempt to escape and find themselves in the courtroom. Fiederbusch dons the official robes of an assessor, receives a report from Prince Adolar, who appears with a suburban woman, about a stolen piece of jewelry, and locks the nobleman up...

In the summer of 2022, Germany's biggest star, Helene Fischer, returned to the big concert stages with a gigantic show like no other. Held on the open-air grounds of the Munich Trade Fair Center, Rausch (Live aus München) is a spectacular show full of musical and visual highlights. It includes all of Helene's biggest hits as well as amazing new songs from the Rausch album.

This vivid film of Wagner's romatic opera succeeds in conveying what has famously been called "the wind that blows out at you whenever you open the score", including Daland's boat anchoring against the Sandwike cliffs, the red-sailed phantom ship, and the ghost crew rising from the dead. "Scenes that recall classic horror films... Brilliantly successful" (Nürnberger Nachrichten), "Captures the works' essence" (Süddeutsche Zeitung). With a superb cast; conducted by Wagner authority Wolfgang Sawallisch.

A musical film based on biographical facts about Clara Wieck's love for composer Robert Schumann (1810-1856), her marriage against her will, Schumann's triumph, and his tragic end due to mental illness. The film is beautiful and entertaining, full of noble spirit and beautiful words about art and love, which only conflict in a theoretical context; not least thanks to its solid cast, this film is quite serious and far from kitsch. Completed in 1944, during World War II, the film was rejected by the Nazi leadership, but was eventually released and enjoyed success with an audience already weary of war.

Based on Oscar Wildes story The Birthday of the Infanta, Zemlinskys single-act opera Der Zwerg is the tragic tale of a dwarf who is presented at court, falls in love with the beautiful Donna Clara, but is ultimately forced to see himself as others see him and to die of a broken heart. Preceded by Schoenbergs Accompaniment to a Cinematographic Scene, Op. 34, Zemlinskys Romantic score is full of psychological intrigue. Is Der Zwerg a critique of societys superficiality? Is it the composers self-portrait in his doomed affair with Alma Schindler? Director Tobias Kratzers stunning, transparent production creates a space in which each character is thrown into sharp relief in this fine, noble and melancholy work.

Director helmut Dietls and Patric Susskinds illustrate a legendary story of two lovers who cant keep themselves away from death.

With their “musical comedy” in the spirit of Mozart, Richard Strauss and his brilliant librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthal created the most popular of all their works and one of the most frequently performed operas of all time. Disguised as a refined comedy, light as a feather and extremely entertaining, “Der Rosenkavalier” tackles universal themes such as love, sexuality, marital fidelity, and the changes that human relationships undergo over time. All set to music of the most sumptuous kind. With its prestigious cast under the inspired direction of Harry Kupfer, the 2014 Salzburg Festival production of *Der Rosenkavalier* was one of the most internationally acclaimed interpretations of the work since the start of the new millennium.

Evil teenager assassins Rike & Tom want to kill and film the execution of the rock star Daniel Küblböck [or Lana Kaiser to be correct], who is spiritually supported by his dead grandfather Johnny, with the support of the mysterious Baltazar! Will our well-intentioned wizard succeed to survive this Christmas related mess and learn to forgive the others while beign kidnapped and almost executed, even if that means stickin' his finger in cakes, rollin' in tha snow like a cat or having psychedelic music dreams? (and singin' some bangers in the meanwhile!)

Sounds Like Art invites musicians to play in the midst of works of art in a European museum. In this edition, British pop group Bastille present their new album & at the Turner Contemporary Museum in Margate on the English coast. Lead singer Dan Smith says he is particularly interested in the art of Anya Gallaccio and Antony Gormley.

Rihanna's rise to global pop icon seems like a fairytale and makes her the most important representative of her home country Barbados. The film tells Rihanna's career from the perspective of her home island and traces her dual role as a billionaire entrepreneur and national heroine.

Richie Bravo, once upon a time a successful pop star, chases after his faded fame in wintry Rimini. Trapped between permanent intoxication and concerts for busloads of tourists, his world starts to collapse when his adult daughter breaks into his life.

In 1812, during the French period, large parts of Germany are occupied by the troops of Napoleon. Several paramilitary Freikorps units battle the French forces, among them the Black Brunswickers led by the 'Black Duke' Frederick William of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel. After the War of the Fifth Coalition, the Black Hussars are pursued by Napoleon throughout the country, but frequently take refuge with the noble-minded German people.

Fierrabras of 1823 is the last of Franz Schubert’s stage works. Rarely performed to this day, this heroic-romantic opera has now been staged for the first time ever at the Salzburg Festival by famous director Peter Stein. Based on an old French 12th-century epic, the plot depicts the military conflict between Christians and Moors at the time of Charlemagne – as a backdrop to stories of love and friendship that prove to be stronger than war and hatred of otherness. The strong cast includes the “marvellously expressive miracle Dorothea Röschmann” (Die Zeit) and “Michael Schade, who exudes his exceptional tenor in Fierrabras’s heroic arias” (Der neue Merker). Under the energetic baton of lngo Metzmacher, the Vienna Philharmonic unfold “the melos, the poetry, the sweetness and the dramatic force of Schubert’s highly refined and atmospheric sound worlds” (Kleine Zeitung) in highly romantic fashion.

A clean-cut synth artist in Germany hopes to turn his career around with the help of a washed-up, erratic, publicity-crazed American manager.

In a favela in Rio de Janeiro, Demétria waits for her daughter on the last day of Carnival. But a brutal police raid seals the fate of the two women. Set to Brazilian rhythms, this short musical addresses racism and other social conflicts.

The Berliner Philharmoniker dedicate their New Year's Eve concert to famous lovers from the repertoire, embodied with intensity by French tenor Benjamin Bernheim. On the program: Don José (Carmen by Georges Bizet), Lenski (Eugene Onegin by Tchaikovsky), Werther (in the opera of the same name by Jules Massenet) and Romeo (Charles Gounod's Roméo et Juliette). Conducted by Kirill Petrenko, works by Gabriel Fauré, Emmanuel Chabrier, and George Gershwin round out this festive program.

Works, legend and murders of Carlo Gesualdo, a notorious Italian composer and murderer from 16th century.

Svankmajer's music video for Hugh Cornwell's "Another Kind of Love."

Composed in 1824, Beethoven's "Symphony No. 9" will celebrate its bicentennial in 2024. With its famous finale based on Schiller's poem "An die Freude" (Ode to Joy), this colossal work is now one of the symbols of European unity. How was this symphony created? And how has it survived two centuries of history?

The time from 1895 to 1945, the Berlin of Zille and Otto Reutter, Claire Waldoff, the imperial parades and marches under the Brandenburg Gate; the two world wars, the lavish premieres in the Apollo Theatre and small, intimate rounds in the country.

Combining a concert film with a making-of documentary, this presentation provides a dramatization of Franz Schubert's famed song cycle along with a unique look at the collaborative process in bringing the production to the screen. Tenor Ian Bostridge vocalizes the part of the wanderer from Wilhelm Müller's poems (on which the cycle is based), with Julius Drake accompanying him on piano and David Alden directing.

One of the popular Weimar-era musical comedies not released in the US until after the Nazi takeover, this one has a Cinderella-type plot.

Freddy can hardly believe his good fortune: His uncle has left him some land in the Rocky Mountains, and, together with orphan Stefan, he's taking off for Canada. However, the great inheritance turns out to be a decrepit, old log cabin in the middle of nowhere. Nevertheless, an unusual number of people seem to be way too interested in the rundown ranch.

Handel (1685-1759) is the first "pop titan" in history. His hits such as the "Hallelujah", the "Sarabande" or the coronation chorus "Zadok the priest", which was reworked as the Champions League anthem, are well-known catchy tunes. He was also successful as an entrepreneur.

This low-budget drama details the unlikely friendship between a smart-aleck seventeen-year-old punk and a thirty-year-old rock 'n roll musician in search of songwriting inspiration. Angel heads out to the streets of Berlin in his drag-racer to revitalize his flagging creativity. He is desperately trying for a new song that refuses to surface. He meets scrappy Johnny on the streets and saves him from everyone he tends to alienate: cops, motorcycle gangs, and passers-by. Johnny has his guitar with him and is the first to break Angel's deadlock. A tune he plucks out is just the beginning that Angel was looking for. The rest of the song lies out there somewhere and the two head into Berlin's night spots to find it.

A nostalgic story about life in and around a classic Vienna coffee house. The film is set in Imperial Vienna at the beginning of the twentieth century.

At the Leverkusen Jazz Festival, Alma Naidu performs on the piano- her favourite instrument- accompanied by a string quartet.

To mark the 90th birthday of Estonian composer Arvo Pärt, a special concert featuring three of his iconic works, recorded in Görlitz, Germany.

"Die Zauberflöte" opens with Prince Tamino being rescued from a serpent by Ladies in the employ of the Queen of the Night. Papageno the bird-catcher arrives and claims he killed the serpent, but the outraged Ladies padlock Papageno's mouth for his lie. They also show Tamino a portrait of Princess Pamina, the Queen's kidnapped daughter, and he immediately falls in love. Protected by a golden flute, he sets off with the bird-catcher Papageno to rescue Pamina from the clutches of the sorcerer Sarastro and a madcap adventure involving magicians, wild animals and very Masonic-like trials. Triumphing over all adversity, the lovers unite, as the forces of light banish the darkness and Papageno even finds a true love of his own.

Rock am Ring is a rock music festival that takes place every year in Germany at the Nürburgring. It is the second largest music festival in Germany and one of the largest in Europe.

Founded in 2012 by Laurence Equilbey, the Insula Orchestra performs on period instruments and experiments with new concert formats. In summer 2018, the French conductor and her ensemble will present a little-known work by Mozart at the Parisian cultural center La Seine Musicale: the incidental music to "Thamos, King in Egypt". In 1773, the author Tobias Philipp Freiherr von Gebler asked his fellow Freemason Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to compose incidental music for his heroic drama "Thamos, King of Egypt". The boy wonder composed two choruses and five interludes for the play, which took up the Egyptian theme popular in the 18th century.

Ship's doctor Dr. Schumacher dreams of a sanatorium where one can truly escape from all one's obligations.

A musician is offered a job in Vienna as stage director, but his disagreements with the aristocratic opera manager end in abrupt firing in spite of a mutual attraction. He's quickly engaged by another theatre and becomes famous for his lavish stage productions and fine acting, which begins their golden age with Suppé and Strauss.

Ageing misfit Sir Morosus lives alone in an old-style apartment in Charlottenburg in Berlin. He is wealthy, but also lonely and a bit grumpy. Then his nephew Henry moves in with him and his life takes a turn for the better. Director Jan Philipp Gloger homes in on two of the most pressing problems of the day: loneliness and the housing shortage. The Staatskapelle Berlin is conducted by Christian Thielemann.

Princess Christine is impelled to be married, and expected to perform at the next Schönbrunn festival. But she takes a break and goes to Vienna instead, where she finds herself sharing a carriage with a young stranger.

Maurice Ravel: Le Tombeau de Couperin W.A. Mozart: Piano Concerto No.20 Bela Bartók: Concerto for Orchestra Claude Debussy: Fêtes

“Nureyev” is the award-winning production by Yuri Possokhov and Kirill Serebrennikov, which was controversial even at its 2017 premiere at the Bolshoi Theatre yet went on to become a huge hit with audiences. In 2023, it was removed from the repertoire for political reasons. The Staatsballett Berlin is presenting the production for the first time outside of Russia.

Live recordings by Kowalski - Der Arbeiter, Ultradeterminanten, Stahlmaschinen and Eine Peinsame Zeit. The band Kowalski, produced an unusual, industrial and aggressive sound in the early 80's, which once was described by themselves as "the rape of electronics". Produced by the legendary Conny Plank (1940-1987). Their first and last album, "Schlagende Wetter" (Virgin Records) is unique.