Newsletter N January -March January 2015 o 35

DMiTRi SHOSTAKOViCH PoorhouseINTERNATIONAL commemorating the 40th anniversary ofhisdeath the40thanniversary commemorating LiVE BAYREUTH A MANOFMANYFACES

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MUSiC All Symphonies & Concerts with Valery Gergiev conducting DMiTRY SHOSTAKOViCH the Mariinsky Orchestra Piano Concerto No.1 with Daniil Trifonov, Piano A MAN OF MANY FACES & Timur Martynov, Trumpet 27’ Dmitry Shostakovich is arguably one of No.1 from 1941, which is intercut with a Piano Concerto No. 2 with Denis Matsuev 25’ the great composers of the 20th Century. performance by Daniil Trifonow and Timur Violin Concerto No. 1 with Vadim Repin 42’ In commemorating the 40th anniversary of Martynov with Valery Gergiev and the Violin Concerto No. 2 with Alena Baeva 33’ his death in 2015 we take the opportunity Mariinsky Orchestra of today. Cello Concerto No. 1 with Gautier Capuçon 36’ to revisit his life and works. Never before Our documentary focuses on two major Cello Concerto No. 2 with Mario Brunello 44’ has any filmmaker had the chance to draw events which shattered the composer's life and on the complete cycle of the composer's the question of how creative freedom can be 15 symphonies and all of his six Concertos, exercised under the terror regime of a dictator branded Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Khachaturian, brilliantly performed by Valery Gergiev, the like Stalin. Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, composed Shebalin, Myaskovsky and Popov as Formalists Mariinsky Orchestra and hand-picked soloists. in 1936, had been hailed as a true new and Cosmopolitans.This transformed the Never before has there been an interview Soviet opera and received highly acclaimed composer overnight Into a virtual enemy of partner such as Valery Gergiev who knows the performances all across the Soviet Union the people. works of Shostakovich inside out. and abroad (clip DNO with Mariss Jansons Shostakovich lost most of his privileges and We have rare footage of the composer conducting). began to compose for the drawer. From this talking about his work and performing Two years later, on January 28th, 1938, darkest period of his life dates the Concerto his Concerto for Piano, Trumpet and Strings an article appeared in the Pravda under the for Violin and Orchestra No. 1, 1947/48, only heading “Muddle Instead of Music” apparently premiered after Stalin’s death in 1955 (clip inspired by Stalin himself. Overnight the world- Vadim Repin and the Mariinsky Orchestra famous composer, who already succeeded under Valery Gergiev). The conductor Rudolf internationally with his First Symphony in 1925, Barshai recalls the official mood with respect had been more or less outlawed. Contrary to Shostakovich (clip from Rudolf Barshai, The to what one could expect, the composer’s Note). creative juices flowed all the more producing Symphony No. 10 was only begun after his 4th Symphony in 1936, which had to be Stalin had died on March 5th 1953. The second withdrawn shortly before the final rehearsal. movement is a musical portrait of Stalin with We have unique footage of Shostakovich a quote from Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov talking about just and unjust criticism. His (clip Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky response was the highly successful 5th Orchestra, news reel footage). The third Symphony in 1937. movement massively uses for the first time the During WW2 and the siege of Leningrad, composer’s monogram D-S-C-H – “that is my Shostakovich completed his 7th and 8th initials” – from the German notation where Es Symphony both of which have war and human (S) is E flat and H is B." suffering as their main subjects. Valery Gergiev The Khrushchev thaw brought new comments on both works and Shostakovich mischief onto the composer. Nikita Khrushchev talks about patriotism in his music. wanted him appointed President of the On February 10th, 1948 Andrey Zhdanov ‘Russian Federation Union of Composers’, issued his notorious “Historic Decree” which but in order for him to take up the post he

Newsletter No35 January - March 2015 3 would have to become a member of the party,telmondis which the composer until now had cleverly avoided. Rudolf Barshai tells the moving story how Shostakovich naively went into hiding at his sister's place in Leningrad (clip from Rudolf Barshai, The Note). A visit to Dresden made him aware of the destruction of the city and prompted him to compose his 8th String Quartet in a matter of weeks, pouring out his personal suffering and that of all victims of Fascism. Dedicated by the composer to himself this is probably the most personal musical diary in existence. Shostakovich himself tells the story of its creation (clips with the Borodin Quartet, intercut with Newsreel footage from Dresden after the bombing). Undeterred by party pressure in 1962, Shostakovich launched into the composition of what was to become his 13th Symphony with a setting of Evgeny Yevtushenko's Baby Yar. The original verses start with: I see myself a Jew of ancient days, Wandering in ancient Egypt's distant lands, Upon the cross my life ebbs out in sands, My flesh still shows its legacy of nails.” This was quite daring at the time and the première was by no means a foregone conclusion. Failing health obliged the composer to stay in hospitals and resorts gradually losing the command of his right hand. His 14th Symphony is therefore in his own words “my protest against death”. And in the 9th song a setting of To Delwig he sighs “what comfort is there for talent amongst villains and fools?” (clip Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Orchestra). Maxim, the composer's son, explains how his father uses his music to depict evil and good, heroes and victims. His last symphony, the 15th, is the work of an ailing Shostakovich looking back over his life with an inkling of hope for better times to come. Valery Gergiev tells the story. Our documentary ends with the Funeral March from the 15th String Quartet, created a year before the composer's death. It is a death- dominated piece and one of the composer´s last three works (clip Borodin Quartet intercut with Rudolf Barshai, The Note). Barshai sums up the life from of Shostakowich as follows: “Stalin was a major political figure of the Shostakovich period”.

directed by Reiner E. Moritz produced by Telmondis running time 56’ Shot in HD

January - March 2015 Newsletter No35 4 prelight films iN THE TRACKS... Poorhouse International is score for Head against the Wall. When Sam Spiegel asked Jarre to work on Lawrence of proud to present a series of Arabia his international career took off. Jarre six documentaries on leading collaborated on four films with David Lean and won an Oscar for three Lawrence of Arabia, film composers produced by Dr. Zhivago and Passage to India. Another Prelight Films with in-depth outstanding success was his collaboration with interviews, location shooting and Volker Schlöndorff on The Tin Drum. Other major titles include Topaz (Hitchcock), The Last plenty of film clips to make the Tycoon (Elia Kazan), The Damned (Visconti), point. Who would believe that Mad Max (George Miller), Dead Poets Society (Peter Weir) and Jacob’s Ladder (Adrian Lyne). so many of the world's block Percussion and the use of ethnic instruments busters have been composed are his trademarks. Clips and interviews with Omar Sharif, Jean Rochefort, Jean-Pierre by French talent? How come Mocky, Peter Weir, David Lean, Jonathan that composing sound tracks for Allen, George Miller, Adrian Lyne and Volker for The English Patient which won Yared Schlöndorff give valuable insights in the way films of the Hollywood industry both an Oscar and a Grammy. Other well- Jarre’s mind works. Volker Schlöndorff: “To me is largely in the hands of the known scores include Camille Claudel (Bruno Maurice is the composer incarnate. He embodies French and not the British who Nuytten), The Lover (Jean-Jacques Annaud), all that a film composer should be. There’s Beyond Therapy (Robert Altman), The Talented emotion, intelligence, discretion.” are renowned for their Musicals? Mr. Ripley (Anthony Minghella), Breaking and Maurice Jarre died in Los Angeles in 2009. Maybe the love for the cinema, Entering (Anthony Minghella), Bon Voyage Running Time 77' (Jean-Paul Rappeneau) and Azur and Asmar the seventh art, and a profound (Michel Ocelot). Film clips, a masterclass about knowledge of Jazz predestinates the music of The Lover, recording sessions, Yared in concert and interviews with Anthony French composers such as Minghella, John Bell, Jean-Hugues Anglade, Georges Delerue, Lalo Schifrin, Rick Smith, Karl Hyde, Jean-Jacques Annaud, Carolyne Carlson, Jean-Paul Rappeneau Maurice Jarre, Gabriel Yared, and Michel Ocelot round off a profile of a Bruno Coulais and Alexandre composer of whom Minghella says: “The music is like an actor in the film and Gabriel's skill is Desplat, who are portrayed In that he can act, he is more like Meryl Streep, the Tracks of… every time he acts in a film, he finds a new personality, you don't recognize him”. Gabriel Yared Running Time 52' Lebanese born Gabriel Yared made music from an early age on but first studied Maurice Jarre Georges Delerue law. In Paris he became a pupil of Henri “Maurice’s unique ability is that simplicity of Georges Delerue says “In cinema the Dutilleux. In the early 70s he spent time in gesture that just matches emotion, what he is composer is really the collaborator who can bring Brazil and was greatly influenced by its music. trying to achieve with the images on the screen.” more emotion to the film”. Having worked He himself talks about “Ravelitis” and the (Jonathan Allen) with virtually the complete “nouvelle vague”, Bartók String Quartets as further influences, Maurice Jarre came to music fairly late Delerue settled in Los Angeles where he died followed by three particular pieces of classical as a teenager. He studied percussion and in 1992 having just recorded the music for music, which are reflected in his sounds and composition at the Paris conservatory and Rich in Love, his fifth collaboration with Bruce colours: Transfigured Night by Schoenberg, Ondes Martenot with the inventor of this Beresford. Delerue studied composition with Metamorphoses by Strauss and the beginning precursor to the electronic keyboard, Joseph Darius Milhaud who pushed him towards of Mahler's Tenth. It was Jean-Luc Goddard Martenot. The famous French actor Jean Vilar composing stage and film music. We owe who commissioned Yared's first film score commissioned Jarre’s first stage music for the Delerue the film scores ofDay For Night for Every Man for Himself in 1980. Yared also legendary Prince of Homburg production at (Truffaut), Shoot the Piano Player (Truffaut), King worked with Jacques Dutronc, Françoise the TNP, where Jarre worked for twelve years. of Hearts (de Brocca), Jules & Jim (Truffaut)and Hardy, Charles Aznavour and Mireille Mathieu, Georges Franju asked him to compose his first Contempt (Godard), to name but a few titles created ballet scores for Carolyne Carlson, film music for a documentary entitledHôtel from earlier works. The famous Camille theme Roland Petit and Wayne McGregor. His score des Invalides followed by a full-fledged film from Contempt was later revived by Scorcese for Betty Blue (Jean-Jacques Beineix) convinced in Casino. After he had composed music for Anthony Minghella to commission the music Ken Russel's Women in Love Russel even made

Newsletter No35 January - March 2015 5 prelightWinner came to international fame films with theme music for television series such as The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Mannix and Mission Impossible. His film scores includeCincinnati Kid (Norman Jewison), Cool Hand Luke (Stuart Rosenberg), Bullitt (Peter Yates), Dirty Harry (Don Siegel), The Beguiled (Don Siegel), Enter the Dragon (Robert Clouse), The Four Musketeers (Richard Lester) Amityville Horror (Stuart Rosenberg). Clips and interviews with Kyle Eastwood, Jon Burlingame, Bertrand Tavanier, John Boorman, Stéphane Lerouge, Brett Ratner and Alexandre Desplat Lalo's son Ryan round off a profile of the most Alexandre Desplat began to play the piano versatile of all film composers. at the age of five and is also proficient on Running Time 53' trumpet and flute. He studied with Claude Ballif, Iannis Xenakis and Jack Hayes. His love for the cinema made him turn to film scores Bruno Coulais and he composed music for his first feature Bruno Coulais composed his first film score in 1986 entitled Le souffleur (Franck Le at the age of 17 and received his first serious a documentary about Delerue entitled Don’t Witta). During the recording he met violinist commission in 1977 by Francois Reichenbach Shoot the Composer. A little Romance (George Dominique Lemonnier who became his for his México mágico. Three times winner Roy Hill) won him an Oscar. Salvador and favourite soloist, art director and wife. His of a César for best film music Bruno Coulais Platoon were titles he worked on with Oliver international break-through came in 2003 with became quite well known in France for his Stone while Dien Bhien Phu was a collaboration The Girl with a Pearl Earring (Peter Webber). collaboration on miniseries for television with Pierre Schoendoerffer. Bruce Beresford Other well- known film scores include such as Le Comte de Monte Christo or Balzac. recalls: “George never stopped. I mean, you go to Twilight: The Temptation (Chris Weitz), Harry A turning point in his career was the work his house, he'd been working in the morning, he'd Potter films I and 2 (David Yates), The Queen with Claude Nuridsany and Marie Péreanou been working late a night, he'd been working (Stephen Frears), Ghostwriter (Roman Polanski), on the documentary Microcosm in 1996. He all weekend. And then, when he stopped writing The King's Speech (Tom Hooper), Venus in has since composed music for quite a few full film scores, he'd been writing string quartets Fur (Roman Polanski), The Monuments Men length documentaries, using voices, in particular and symphonies. He really lived for music.” Film (George Clooney), Fantastic Mr. Fox and The children's voices, and world music, including clips and interviews with Bertrand Blier, Oliver Grand Hotel Budapest (both Wes Anderson). Himalaya (Eric Valli), The Field of Enchantment Stone, Budd Carr, Jean-Luc Godard, Agnès Desplat recently finished scores forUnbroken Varda, Jean-Claude Brialy, Bruce Beresford, Fritz (Angeline Jolie), The Imitation Game (Morten Lang and Pierre Schoendoerffer round off the Tyldam) and Godzilla (Gareth Edwards). His profile of a true passion for music. Concerto for Flute and Orchestra has been Running Time 72' performed and he composed Trois Etudes for Piano for Lang Lang. Desplat also conducts Lalo Schifrin his music with the LSO, RPO and Munich Born into a musical family in Buenos Aires Symphony Orchestra and gives Masterclasses Lalo Schifrin had his first piano lessons from at La Sorbonne and The Royal College of Enrique Barenboim, the father of conductor Music. We see him at work in recording Daniel Barenboim. A scholarship brought him sessions with George Clooney, Jacques to the Paris Conservatory where he studied Audiard, Roman Polanski and Peter Webber. composition and conducting while playing Jazz Film clips and Interviews with Jacques Audiard, at various clubs during the night. Impressed Laura Engel (his agent), Wes Anderson, by Dizzy Gillespie's Big Band he composed (Claude Nuridsany and Marie Péreanou), Florent-Emilio Siri, Grant Heslov, Stephen Gillespiana for the American trumpet player. Winged Migration (Jacques Perrin and Jacques Frears, Roman Polanski and Gilles Bourdos In the early fifties Gillespie asked Schifrin to Cluzaud), Oceans (Jacques Perrin) and Calm round off a profile of a musician who is equally become his arranger and pianist with the at Sea (Volker Schlöndorff). Les Choristes at home in the recording studio and in the Dizzy Gillespie Quintet. The five time Grammy (Christophe Barratier) was his international concert hall. breakthrough in 2004 and earned him an Running Time 53' Oscar nomination. His latest work includes The Secret of Kells (Tomm Moore), Three Hearts directed by Pascale Cuenot (Benoît Jacquot) and Diary of a Chambermaid produced by Prelight Films (Benoît Jacquot). Film clips and interviews with Benoît Jacquot, Alain Chabat, Laurent Petit Girard, Jacques Perrin, Jacques Cluzaud, François Sarano, Volker Schlöndorff, James Huth and Christophe Barratier round off this profile of the most introvert of composers. Running Time 53'

George Clooney at Abbey Road studio

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… so did she pull it off? Yes and no. An audience stuffed with the German BAYREUTH establishment, from Angela Merkel down, booed and cheered in almost equal proportions: I guess the booers just about won out. LiVE The Telegraph As long as Wolfgang Wagner stage director at Bayreuth to the community deals with tradition and those who break with it and just how much innovation was at the helm of the Bayreuth highly controversial Tannhäuser and deviation from the norm it can tolerate Festival there was no live by Sebastian Baumgartner. - as well as to examine what value society broadcast. Rehearsal schedules Wagner was a revolutionary but places, and should place, on art. were particularly tight at an his Bayreuth public is not. No Die Walküre enterprise that after all showed wonder that new productions Thieleman's radiant account of Die Walküre has become legendary as has the audio recording four or five productions in a are usually boohed and become of the entire Tankred Dorst Ring. This is the short span of time. Furthermore icons at the end of their run. only audio-visual document of Tankred Dorst's Ring production. Two new singers joined the the auditorium of the We all remember the more cast: Johan Botha as Siegmund and Edith Festspielhaus is rather steeply than one hour of curtain calls Haller. Whereas Chéreau was interested in the period when the Ring was written and in raked to give you a good view after the last performance of the destruction of nature and the burgeoning from each seat and would cause The Chéreau Ring which five industrialization of the 19th century, Tankred quite a seat loss when cameras years earlier, at its première, was Dorst relies on myth to make his point. He maintains that the gods are still among us were brought in. Legendary considered a disaster. today, only we cannot see them. We ourselves productions like The Chéreau are the cyclists, newspaper readers, caretakers Die Meistersinger and tourists who occasionally people the stage, Ring were therefore produced in On the surface this opera tells a (humorous) blind to higher powers and any metaphysical a dark theater after the season. tale about artistically inclined craftsmen. dimension. Goldsmith Veit Pogner promises his daughter With the arrival of Katharina Eva’s hand in marriage to the winner of a song Wagner at the controls and a contest. Three men are potentially eligible: a slightly peculiar town clerk by the name of more refined technology live Beckmesser, the young aristocrat and “new recordings are now possible, boy in town” Walther von Stolzing, and the and Poorhouse International is aging Hans Sachs, who is both a cobbler and a respected master in the art of poetry. proud to be distributing most But upon closer inspection, what is at first of them from the Meistersinger, glance a harmless farce in a middle-class setting emerges as a profound social analysis: which was Katharina's debut as Wagner uses his protagonists to show how a

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DiE MEiSTERSiNGER Musical Director Sebastian Weigle Stage Director Katharina Wagner Orchestra and Chorus of Bayreuther Festspiele main cast Martin Snell, Franz Hawlata, Artur Korn, Charles Reid, Reiner Zaun, Klaus Florian Vogt, Michaela Kaune, Carola Guber TV Director Andreas Morell Produced by Bayreuther Festspiele Der Fliegende Holländer splendour and a roar of boos when the director, 285' Shot in HD with 5.1 Surround Sound Jan Philipp Gloger's 2012 staging was making his Bayreuth debut at the age of 69, took controversial but got a lot of attention because his bow. Wagner was a revolutionary, unlike his DiE WALKÜRE of the Nikitin scandal and his replacement often unimaginative fans. (…) Reinhard von der Musical Director Christian Thielemann by Samuel Youn. One year later, when this Thannen's designs look crisp and spectacular. Stage Director Tankred Dorst recording was made, it was greeted with Rich with visual reference, from Petipa's Swan Orchestra and Chorus of Bayreuther Lake and spooky Max Ernst to Saatchi-favoured huge acclaim. Gloger translated the tale of Festspiele the Dutchman whose travails can only be contemporaries such as Katharina Fritsch (the main cast Johan Bota, Kwangchul Youn, rats) and Maurizio Cattalan (the horse), this redeemed through the unconditional love of Albert Dohmen, Edith Haller, is highly political theatre. It makes a brilliant a woman (Senta) to a future time where part Linda Watson, Mihoko Fujimura contrast with the opulently imaginative Parsifal human/part cyborgs grind out an existence in TV Director Michael Meyer which was new here in 2008 and is also being a world completely subservient to business Produced by Bayreuther Festspiele and commerce. In the modern fan-making staged this year. (…) The young Latvian, Andris 285' Shot in HD with 5.1 Surround Sound factory which replaces the world of Senta and Nelsons, turning heads in the UK as music her fellow seamstresses, we see a final tableau director of the Birmingham's CBSO, made a in which the Dutchman’s and Senta’s heavenly persuasive conducting debut, drawing shimmering DER FLiEGENDE HOLLÄNDER union is 'commemorated' by the factory orchestral playing, expertly co-ordinating stage Musical Director Christian Thielemann workers now producing souvenir statuettes of and pit and observing broad but never dragging Stage Director Jan Philipp Gloger the couple. The production is complemented tempi.” Orchestra and Chorus of Bayreuther by the distinguished conducting of Christian The Guardian Festspiele Thielemann , arguable the greatest Wagnerian main cast Franz Josef Selig, Ricarda Merbeth, conductor of today. Tomislav Mužek, Christa Mayer, Benjamin Bruns, Samuel Youn “The musical performance on Thursday was TV Director Michael Beyer superb. The conductor Christian Thielemann, the Produced by Bayreuther Festspiele & NHK festival’s de facto music director, drew pulsing, 140' Shot in HD with 5.1 Surround Sound dynamic and transparent playing from the Bayreuth Festival Orchestra. He clearly made careful decisions about when a burst of fleet LOHENGRiN notes in the strings should be executed with Musical Director Andris Nelsons maximum clarity and when a surging passage Stage Director Hans Neuenfels should be milked for drama. Yet the result was Orchestra and Chorus of Bayreuther music-making of overwhelming naturalness.” Festspiele NY Times main cast Georg Zeppenfeld, Klaus Florian “Samuel Youn fell to his knees at the end, Vogt, Annette Dasch, Jukka Rasilainen, Petra gratefully accepting thunderous applause for a Lang, Samuel Youn powerfully sung performance.” TV Director Michael Beyer The Telegraph Tannhäuser Produced by Bayreuther Festspiele Sebastian Baumgartner's staging does not 209' Shot in HD with 5.1 Surround Sound Lohengrin deconstruct Wagners opera but tries to Hans Neuenfel’s striking new production illustrate Wagner's thought about the subject of Wagner’s fairytale opera highlights the matter. Venus, a dethroned goddess, is chasing TANNHÄUSER experimental nature of this medieval story of life spending eros and lives in the cellars of Musical Director Axel Kober doomed love and sorcery. As controversial the Wartburg, in other words amongst us. Stage Director Sebastian Baumgarten as it is stimulating, this production was the Venusberg and Wartburg become two sides of Orchestra and Chorus of Bayreuther talk of the 2011 Festival, and showcases a the same coin, become interdependent. Rome Festspiele new generation of Wagnerian singing talent is present on the sides of the imaginative main cast Kwangchul Youn, Torsten Kerl, Joep van Lieshout installation. The spectator is including Annette Dasch and tenor Klaus- Markus Eiche, Lothar Odinius, confronted with taking sides between heaven Florian Vogt. Thomas Jesatko and hell. No compromise possible. You are TV Director Michael Beyer to choose between the Dionysian and the “Hans Neuenfels' alarming but laser-etched new Produced by Bayreuther Festspiele & NHK production opened the 99th Bayreuth festival Apollonian, a choice Wagner himself has 170' Shot in HD with 5.1 Surround Sound last Sunday amid mayoral pomp, red-carpet pondered many a time.

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DiE ZAUBERFLÖTE After being thoroughly disillusioned with the most demanding arias in opera. So if we're the commissioning powers of his time Mozart to treat what she says seriously, the question turned to the popular theatre of the Marinellis becomes how do we physically show her growing and Schikaneders who produced opera powerlessness? I thought the wheelchair would as an entertainment. In collaboration with to that. By the end of the opera, she can hardly Schikaneder he created the most German of move.” his operas which had everything to seduce Let yourself be surprised by an extremely an audience: it was magical, street-wise, well - cast multimedia staging of one of the spectacular, farcical and contained a spiritual repertoire's most popular operas designed message for those who were willing to not to entertain and make you think at the same merely see but also hear. Die Zauberflöte time. was highly regarded by Goethe, who held Simon McBurney's Magic Flute was Schikaneder's talent in high esteem and co-commissioned by DNO, Aix-en-Provence compared the opera to his own Faust in its and the ENO. combination of spectacle for the masses and a more profound message for the spiritual aware. Here was a Bildungsoper which DiE ZAUBERFLÖTE demonstrated how to gain wisdom and photos © Claerchen & Matthias Baus WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART strengthen the powers of reason through be that you aren't in the Garden of Eden any Musical Director Marc Albrecht initiation. Stage director Simon McBurney more, you are in a modern world where you Stage Director Simon McBurney sums it up as follows: “The Magic Flute, I think, don't pull fruit from the trees or immediately Nederlands Philharmonic Orchestra is fundamentally asking what is it to change receive the object of your sexual desire, but Chorus of the Nederlandse Opera people's consciousness. What makes it evolve? have to suffer, struggle and use your wits and cast This was an important question when this was rationality to get what you want. And even Sarrastro Brindley Sherrat first performed two years after the French then there is no guarantee of success. Yet the Tamino Maximilian Schmitt Revolution - and now. When we performed this struggle is our predicament, what makes us Königin der Nacht Iride Martínez in Amsterdam we got a big laugh when Sarastro human rather than animal. This is the vision Pamina Chen Reiss says we're in a crisis. We were in 1791 and we that fires McBurney. He says:“The opera is Papageno Thomas Oliemans are now”. politically, philosophically and musically profound, Papagena Regula Mühlemann On stage, Papageno is wondering aloud and sexual”. why he can't just get the girl without having And why is the Queen of the Night in a TV Director Misjel Vermeiren to go through all this fuss: trials by fire and wheelchair? “There are lots of paradoxes in Produced by DNO & NTR water, plus lewd propositions from scantily clad Mozart”, says McBurney. “She says she's losing 165' Shot in HD with 5.1 Surround Sound regal lickspittles. The opera's answer seems to her power. But then she goes on to sing one of

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Mark Arends as Wilbye, Christian McKay as Kirbye Mark Arends as Wilbye, Ania Swoinski as Ann

Directed by Tony Britten Produced by Capriol Films SEX, LOVE & MUSiC Running Time 75' in High Definition DRAW ON SWEET NiGHT with 5.1 Surround Sound Following their recent success with the life as the fuel for his genius, his relationships a composer colleague and friend of Wilbye's docudrama Benjamin Britten - Peace & Conflict, interwoven with the through written score is played by Christian McKay, known from sold in more than ten countries, Capriol containing twenty of Wilbye's best madrigals Rush, The Theory of Everything and ChickLit. His Film now address in dramatic form the life performed in studio and as part of the action wife Ann is played by Ania Sowinski, who has and loves of the Elizabethan composer John by I Fagiolini. appeared in Luther and Creditors. Sir Thomas Wilbye in collaboration with the internationally The name I Fagiolini has been misspelt Kytson is played by Nicky Henson from renowned vocal group I Fagiolini under their and mispronounced throughout the world. Downton Abbey, Syriana and Vera Drake. Lady director Robert Hollingworth. Grounded in classics of Renaissance and Arabella Stuart is played by Milanka Brooks Wilbye is generally considered to be the twentieth-century vocal repertoire, the from Little Crackers, My Family and The Intern. finest madrigalist of the Elizabethan era - his group is renowned for its innovative staged work particularly informed by the Italian productions of vocal music from the school. He wrote little other than the two Renaissance to the present day. I Fagiolini books of madrigals for three, four, five and six has staged Handel with masks, Purcell with part voices, and his reputation rests on the puppets, madrigal comedies with more brilliance of these compositions. masks and , notably The Full Monteverdi, a We know that Wilbye spent the majority dramatized account of the composer's fourth of his working life as house musician to Sir book of madrigals, the film of which has sold Robert and Lady Kytson at Hengrave Hall worldwide. Recent successes include the world in Suffolk, England, and that he moved to première recording of Striggio's Mass for forty Colchester in Essex for the last ten years of voices on Decca and an unlikely collaboration Mark Arends as Wilbye, Sophia Di Martino as Lady Mary his life, in the service of the Kytsons' daughter, with the Australian contemporary circus Lady Mary Darcy. We have some invaluable company Circa, which resulted in the hugely evidence about his working life and the successful How Like an Angel. importance that music played to the great Because Draw on Sweet Night takes houses of Elizabethan England. the form of an Elizabethan musical, it was What we don't know is why he stopped important that the tracks Tony Britten filmed creating in 1609, why he moved in with Mary to were as exciting as possible for the sake of after the death of Lady Kytson, why Lady the film and to attract acting talent of the first Kytson elevated him to the station of wealthy degree. Amazingly it did. John Wilbye is played farmer and, crucially, how all of this fed into by Mark Arends who has appeared in Pride the creation of some of the most gloriously and Prejudice and guests with the RSC and The sensual love poetry and music of the age. Almeida & Headlong Theatre. Lady Elizabeth What better way to make Wilbye's Kytson is played by Doon Mackichan, known wonderful music accessible than to dramatize form Plebs and Toast of London. Lady Mary the life of the composer? Tony Britten has is played by Sophia Di Martino, a regular in written a script which imagines Wilbye's love Mount Pleasant and Southcliffe. George Kirbye, Sophia Di Martino as Lady Mary

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To celebrate the 40th anniversary of Walls Lin Hwai-min has further refined the use which prepares the paddy for another planting RiCECloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan its of videos and back-projections. Videographer and the beginning of a new life cycle. A lone founder and choreographer Lin Hwai-min Chang Hao-jun worked for years following woman standing center stage, prepared for yet has created a new ballet entitled Rice. We the seasons in Taitung County's Chibshang another season. all know that rice is staple food in Asia but township to take pictures of rice paddies Honouring Lin Hwai-min with a Lifetime very few people understand how much work during changing seasons. He and Ethan Wang's Achievement Award in 2009, the jury of the goes into producing the famous hand full of projection design create the most astonishing International Movimentos Dance Prize in grains on which one allegedly can survive. The backdrops for the dances to unfold. But Lin Wolfsburg, Germany, said: “Lin is a foremost ballet is divided into sections which are called Hwai-min does not only have country life innovator of dance, who ranks with artists of Soil, Pollen, Sunlight, Grain, Fire and Water, and in mind. There is also a clear message in the the century such as William Forsythe, George reflect the changing seasons with their ever section entitled Fire. Rice paddies are burnt Balanchine and Birgit Cullberg.” repeated life cycles. Not surprisingly we see after the harvest. But the blackened fields The music ranges from traditional folk song predominantly ensemble work and grounded and spots of fire which fill the screen, also to Ishii Maki, Bellini, Saint-Saens and Strauss. dancers. Only rarely appear solos with the remind us of the continuing destruction of the exception of a most glorious coupling in Pollen Sumatran rainforest and the fighting men of Directed by Chang Chao-tang II where the bodies of the two dancers, Tsai the greed and violence which comes with the Produced by Jingo Records Ming-yuan and Huang Fei-hua, keep in touch desire to ruthlessly exploit nature. Running Time 72' Shot in HD all the way through. After Water Stains on Rice ends with a sequence entitled Water,

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DANiiL TRiFONOV A TRANSCENDENTAL RECiTAL Bach/Liszt Fantasy & fugue in G Trifonov has a 'take no prisoner' approach Directed by Pierre-Martin Juban minor BWV 542 to piano playing. He is uncompromising Produced by LGM Beethoven Sonata No.32 in C and no other performer conveys such an intense sense of emotional investment, of Running Time 110' Shot in HD minor Op.111 total immersion in music, when he plays. You can literally read the music he is performing Liszt 12 Transcendental studies through his physical expressions. His face will “It was in the Liszt that he came Debussy : Reflets dans l’eau be illuminated by a prayer like candour when into his own – a titanic performance, playing the second movement of Beethoven projected with a confidence and relish We are lucky to enjoy such outstanding Op.111, but he will also turn wild and ferocious talents as Lang Lang and Trifonov during our when playing the darker and more virtuosic that masked the music´s ferocious life time. Trifonov started composing at the Liszt studies. technical challenges beneath a mastery age of 5 and played concerts in public at the Trifonov’s complete abandon to music of its tempestuous surges and swings age of 8. A thorough musical education at doesn’t mean that he is oblivious of of mood and without a whiff of the Genessin Institute in Moscow and the the technical constraints or possibilities exaggeration.” Cleveland Institute of Music prevented him offered by a video recording. His tolerance The Financial Times from becoming merely a wunderkind. His and understanding of camera work was debut at Carnegie Hall in 2009 already showed remarkable and he was never bothered by more than a promise. He literally burst onto the possible intrusion of the filming process. “He has everything and more. What the international scene in 2011 taking Third His involvement during the general rehearsal he does with his hands is technically Prize in the Chopin Competition, the Grand translated into the greatest attention to the incredible. It´s also his touch, he has Prix at the Tchaikovsky Competition and First sound recording (microphone positions, pre- tenderness and also the demonic Prize at the Rubinstein Competition, all in the mixing) while leaving us totally free to choose same year. No wonder that veteran filmmaker lighting options and camera positions. element. I never heard anything like Christoph Nupen launched into a profile of Our attention during the filming was that.” the young talent early on. In 2014 Trinfonov focused on capturing the powerful struggle Martha Agerich won the Echo Klassik for his Carnegie Recital of this young man faced with titanic pianistic in 2013 as best young talent. Poorhouse is and musical challenges: for this we chose to “A pianist for the rest of our lives…” extremely proud to distribute Trifonov's latest isolate the piano inside a circle of light, creating Norman Lebrecht recital recorded by Pierre-Martin Juban who a boxing ring atmosphere where piano and sums up his experience as follows: pianist could interact at a distance from the Poorhouse International also has access to the Few pianists have dared to play the audience which listened in silence. In the most Gergiev recording of the Concerto for Piano, complete set of Liszt’s Transcendental studies virtuosic pieces, the voyeuristic aspect of close- Trumpet and Strings with Daniil Trifonov as in concert. None, to my knowledge, has up filming offers a unique understanding of breathtaking pianist. coupled them with another towering work of how Trifonov masters all possible difficulties. the piano repertoire : Beethoven’s last sonata. The physical and mental challenges of this two-hour long program justified its audio-visual recording.

January - March 2015 Newsletter No35 12 Queen of Spades, Liceu

TCHAiKOVSKY CELEBRATiON Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was born in Eugene Onegin Variations on a Rococo Theme St. Petersburg in 1840. The musical world will recorded at the DNO with Mariss Jansons Yuri Temirkanov and St. Petersburg undoubtedly celebrate his 175th anniversary conducting and Stefan Herheim as stage Philharmonic, soloist Alisa Weilerstein. this year. His music forms part of the staple director Running time 19' repertoire in opera houses and concert Running time 151' halls. With his command of Western musical accompanied by a documentary entitled Suite no. 3 for orchestra techniques due to studying with Nikolay Happiness so close, Running Time 56' Andrey Boreyko and Orchestre de Paris. Zaremba and Anton Rubinstein he was often Running time 45’ criticized by his Russian contemporaries, in The Queen of Spades particular by the so-called “Mighty Handful”, recorded at the Gran Teatro del Liceu with The complete works for String Quartet mostly self-taught composers with national Michael Boder conducting and Gilbert Deflo by the Borodin Quartet: aspirations who accused Tchaikovsky of as stage director String Quartet No. 1 30’ having sold out to Western taste and not Running time 179' String Quartet No. 2 38’ being Russian at all. Today we know better String Quartet No. 3 40’ and understand Tchaikovsky's music as firmly The San Francisco Ballet Nutcracker Quartet Movement:15’ grounded in Russian folklore and a typically re-choreographed by Helgi Tomasson featuring Russian sensitivity which manifested itself in Damian Smith, Elizabeth Powel, We gladly provide you with links or screeners. particular in what he called the “lyrical idea”. Davit Karapetyan, David Arce and Poorhouse International is proud to have Yuan Yuan Tan. built up quite a catalogue of the composer's Running time 90' works over the years including: The Complete Tchaikovsky Cycle with all six symphonies performed by Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Orchestra, accompanied by a documentary entitled Tchaikovsky on the Road Running time 52'

Kazuki Yamada and Orchestre de Paris with the 6th Symphony Pathétique. Running time. 49'

Piano Concerto no.1 Paavo Järvi and Orchestre de Paris, soloist Yefim Bronfman. Running time 34'

Piano Concerto no. 2 Paavo Järvi and Orchestre de Paris, soloist Denis Matsuev. Running time 43' Bo Skovhus in Eugene Onegin, DNO © Forster HPIZ The Nutcracker, SFB © Erik Tomasson

Newsletter No35 January - March 2015 13 backstageLohengrin conducted by Christian Thielemann lives and the suffering of his people. No. 10 and stage producer Hans Neuenfels has in portrays latent violence and is often thought the meantime already become iconic. Also to picture Stalin in its second movement. available for television is the Simon McBurney No. 11 and 12 are particularly patriotic and Magic Flute, which is shared between the also carry a very clear message: revolution DNO, Aix-en-Provence and ENO. should lead to freedom. No. 13 embraces the Arthaus Musik fight against Jew-baiting while No. 14 is in the continues to release composer´s words his “protest against death”. ART21 which is the At the same time it is a model of subterfuge

Auschwitz-Birkenau © Yuri Dojc Yuri Auschwitz-Birkenau © only visual arts series against censorship, an art already practiced in LAST FOLiO AT THE UN on Public Television the Russia of Pushkin. Symphony No. 15 finally in the US and gives looks back over a musical life with quotes from When the exhibition of Yuri Dojc’s Last Folio an insight into the Rossini and Wagner but also his own work. photos opened on January 28th at the UN in contemporary art When commemorating the 40th New York, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon scene, its trends and anniversary of the composer's death in had this to say: artistic personalities. August of this year, it would be befitting to “In 2013, I had an unforgettable visit to the program the documentary side by side with Auschwitz-Birkenau German Nazi concentration as much performance material as possible and extermination camp in Poland. I wanted to iN HONOUR OF DMiTRY to give the whole picture of arguably one see for myself the epicentre of the systematic SHOSTAKOViCH I met Shostakovich in 1973 at a of the great composers of the last century. murder that targeted millions of Jews and composers' resort near Leningrad to discuss a Our collaboration with Telmondis on the so many others. We must never forget what documentary on him which the BBC wanted Shostakovich Project does make this possible, happened there, and we must be ever vigilant for to co-produce with me. Neither the Music and and fortunately some broadcasters have the signs of genocide and atrocities today. I hope Arts Department under Mike Wooller nor I already begun to program the entire cycle. the images in this exhibition reach a wide global had succeeded to bring Gosteleradio into the Needless to say that the 6 concertos are also audience and inspire people everywhere to help deal. In fact, even at that time, Shostakovich available with superb soloists including Daniil the United Nations build a world of peace, justice was not considered an important enough Trifonov and Denis Matsuev, both winners of and human dignity for all.” subject for a co-production. We eventually the Tchaikovsky Competition, and that your PEACE & CONFLiCT were only able to make the documentary, audiences will thoroughly enjoy them. because the Novosti Press Agency helped to Reiner Moritz Alex Lawther, who gave a wonderful overcome the Soviet red tape. By hindsight performance as Benjamin Britten in Tony we were lucky to make our film at all, to Britten's docudrama Peace & Conflictis READY FOR DELiVERY get Rostropovich to collaborate and get Los Angeles Film Noir 52’ currently co starring the composer to talk about subject matter My Name is Orson Welles 52’ in The Imitation important to him and to us. I came across Dmitry Shostakovich - A Man of Many Faces 56’ Game, the hugely Daniil Trifoniv Recital 110’ plenty of moving images with Shostakovich but successful biopic The Huelgas Ensemble - A Christmas Tale very few interviews. about Alan Turing, Paavo Järvo, Orchestre de Paris, Yefim Bronfman: While preparing for the documentary the Bletchley code A Russian Night entitled Dmitry Shostakovich - A Man of Many breaker. Alex plays Die Zauberflöte 165’ Faces I realized once again how unlike most (Turings) Benedict Don Carlo 185’ other composers, who rather work in abstract Cumberbatch's terms, Shostakovich drew his inspiration younger self and has AVANT-PREMiERE SCREENiNGS from the world surrounding him. Yes, he did Alex Lawther as the young Benjamin Britten as the young Alex Lawther © Andrew Midgley had fantastic reviews. BERLiN 2015 invent tunes, he was inspired by folklore and The Poorhouse International Showreel OUT ON DVD Jewish songs, but more than anything else is scheduled for the morning of Thursday, he depended on the world around him, February 12th, 2015. Slot 4, app. 10.50am Under a deal with the Bayreuth Festival current affairs, politics and WW2. Take for Contact Reiner Moritz and Heike Connolly Opus Arte releases two new live recordings IMZ Zone and/or Grand Hotel Esplanade, Tel. example Symphonies No. 2 and 3. They serve from the Festspielhaus for which Poorhouse +49 (0)30 254 780 or mobile Heike Connolly a purpose and carry a very clear message. Internationally handles television rights. The +44 7720 060102. No. 4 is prophetic in depicting the upcoming Flying Dutchman Showreel: Draw on Sweet Night; The Forgotten political purges and the Nazi atrocities. No. 7 brings together Guitar; Cursive III; The Magic Flute; A Rose for and 8 reflect the composer's experiences in a superb cast Antonio Soler; Water Stains on Walls; Don Carlo; a Leningrad under siege, the loss of so many L’Allegro, Il Pensoroso ed Il Moderato; Alain under the baton Danielou - Welcome to the Labyrinth; Dmitry of Christian Shostakovich - Am Man of Many Faces Thielemann, one of Here is a link to the Poorhouse International the world's most 2015 Avant Premiere Showreel: renowned Wagner https://vimeo.com/118039583 conductors and the highly controversial 58 Broadwick Street London W1F 7AL telephone: +44 (0)20 7436 8663 email [email protected] January - March 2015 Newsletter No35