Newsletter N Newsletter April - September - April New Balletby RolandPetit. vous Rendez- Le 2011 o 24 Poorhouse INTERNATIONAL LEGRAND A celebration atSallePleyel inParis withsinger Donna LEON JACQUES Alison Moyet andguitarist Sylvain Luc. Professor David Bellosleadsus through Tati’s life andcareer. TATi Michel

Jacques Tati biographer

2sit up straight films

JACQUES TATi

There are very few cinema directors that can excite adoration as much as Jacques Tati does. One needs only to turn on the Cartoon Network’s top show ‘The PowerPuff Girls’ This documentary offers a look at where Jacques to find daily homages to Tati came from and what he tried to achieve with cinema. Sequences on the art of Mime are included Tati. as well as a visit to a Los Angeles Foley studio to In theatres around the world The Illusionist, a reconstruct the sound used in one of Tati’s most film which stars an animated Jacques Tati is winning famous scenes. adulation and Oscar nominations. Pop singers such Jacques Tati biographer Professor David Bellos as Frank Black of The Pixies sing praise of Tati’s leads us through Tati’s life and career complimented unique oeuvre. Cutting-edge film-maker Mike Mills by Tati’s personal assistant Marie-France Sielger. Film (Thumbsucker and Beginners) hails Tati as a major experts such as Stephane Goudet and Martine influence on his work. Jacques Tati, although dead for Beugnet give insight into Tati’s films and life. Macha almost 30 years now is in many ways alive as ever. Makeïeff, one of the key promotors of Tati’s films and This new documentary film explores Jacques head of Tati’s archive in Paris discusses why Tati’s work Tati’s life and work, from his origins as a Parisian is now so very interesting to the younger generation. Mime artist to his revolutionary 70mm extravaganza Always pushing the envelope artistically, although This documentary premiered at the UK-French PlayTime. The film explores Tati’s impact on artists hugely successful Tati’s films lack all the ingredients of Film Festival in Edinburgh, it was also a special working today. Animator and director Sylvain Chomet traditional commercial movies. There are no stories as selection for The Telluride Film Festival in 2010. (The Triplets of Belleville, The Illusionist) chats (and such, his camera seldom moves or zooms, there are sketches) Tati while explaining why Jacques Tati’s films no central protagonists, they are filled with strange directed by Michael House are more like theatre than cinema. Superstar Japanese real-life sounds and noises, all very Avant-Garde. Yet produced by Sit Up Straight Films Mime Artists, Gamarjobat discuss Tati’s amazing ability still they found a huge global audience. to celebrate the little things of life. Artists from many While at the height of his success Tati decided to running time: 60’ Shot on HD media are recognizing Jacques Tati as one of the giants bet it all on a film that would change cinema forever. of 20th century cinema and art. PlayTime which has been called the ‘most beautiful Jacques Tati, like many seminal artists of the movie ever made’ was Europe’s most expensive film 20th century had artistic roots in the Avant-Garde. production to date, a city-sized film-lot was built Brought up amongst artists and paintings, from his near Paris, 70mm cameras brought in and 6 years infancy Jacques Tati was immersed in the visual arts. were spent creating Jacques Tati’s masterpiece. When His family ran one of Paris’ most successful picture- it came out it was such a commercial disaster that framing business’ during the most exciting period of Jacques Tati was left penniless. His career was virtually Parisian Art history, the 1920s and 30s. As he grew finished. In the years that followed he made two older his interests moved into performance when he more films, Trafic and Parade yet never regained his began to work as a mime on the Parisian music-hall standing in cinema. It has taken almost 30 years for stage. His subtle and immensely entertaining stage Tati’s genius to be fully appreciated. Major museum career evolved into cinema beginning with some exhibitions in France and Finland have recently short-comedy films in the early 1930s. In 1947 he got opened, all of his films have been restored and his big chance to act, direct and write his first feature- screened the world over. Scholars from America and legnth film -Jour de fête and since then cinema Europe have written extensively about Tati’s life and has never been the same. Les Vacances de M. Hulot films, today Tati’s genius is beyond dispute. (Mr. Hulot’s Holiday), Mon Oncle (My Uncle), lifted Jacques Tati’s career to the very pinnacle of success. PoorhouseinternationalNewsletter No24 wichita films 3

Between Paranoia HOLLYWOOD & Sci-Fi

Extra-terrestrials, the end of this new threat that was abstract, uncontainable, and fiction film is thus capable of targeting, revealing, even terrifying, that left no place for courage or heroes, exorcising our worst fears. And it’s not about to the world, nuclear war, visions of and that could come “out of the blue”. All eyes were change. doom, giant tsunamis, devastating glued to the sky, awaiting the apocalypse. These films serve as a kind of diversion to meteorites, destruction of the These new circumstances left Americans feeling express the controversial ideas of the day, whether utterly vulnerable and this unleashed ancestral and liberal or conservative. Often under the guise of a earth, a sudden Ice Age, invaders biblical fears; it was a period that marked a great simple adventure story, with or without a futuristic of every sort: For over 50 years, change in the mentality of Americans and how they setting, apocalyptic or not, there is always a profound the American movie industry has perceived the world. The fear and instability within underlying meaning and message. And this hasn’t changed in 50 years. This is still the case, even with specialized in disaster films, in pre Roland Emmerich’s blockbusters. or post-apocalypse science fiction, In Spielberg’s The War of the Worlds, for example, in the visionary or futuristic genres the army and the scientists fail miserably in their attempts to stop the Martian advance. The film makes in which political and biblical the case for a personal moral code that is more allusions collide in entertaining by effective than an inefficient centralized bureaucracy. playing on fear. This is underlined by the religious themes that run through the entire film and also the merciless Ever since The Forbidden Planet, continuing with condemnation of all those who panic and give way The Invasion of the Body Snatchers, War of the Worlds to the invaders. Finally, it’s the God-fearing Americans 1, Soylent Green or The Thing, and more recently that save mankind. Independence Day, Deep Impact, 2012, or I Am Legend, The Invasion of the Body Snatchers, by Don Siegel this genre is specifically American, like the Western is certainly one of the most important science or the Film Noir. By deploying powerful metaphors, American collective unconsciousness would be fiction films of its time. It was an open criticism these films feed off and sustain the fantasies and fears reflected in the science fiction films of the time, which on McCarthyism and loss of identity in modern of American society: the communist threat and the often seem naïve and ridiculous at first glance. American society. It shows how the individual terror of a nuclear apocalypse through the 50’s and Science fiction would nevertheless be the only becomes lost in a world of technology, in a 60’s, the menace of genetic and scientific manipulation genre to treat these matters seriously and address bureaucratic and conformist society. The film can in the 70’s, the threat of terrorism and ecological metaphysical questions, because under the guise of be read on several levels: it can be seen as focusing disaster in the 90’s and into 2000, and many more. robots, mad scientists, of a forbidden planet, of giant on the threat of communism or as condemning After the war, and particularly after the bombing ants and monstrous creatures from outer space, conformism when a sterile suburban community’s of Hiroshima, there was a shift in American mentality these films are actually exploring the subject of God. vigilance reaches obsessive proportions. When and self-confidence. Suddenly, Americans realized they No other film genre, whether Western, Film Noir Kaufman decided to do his re-make in the 70’s, the could be annihilated by some extraordinary force or Comedy, has ever touched on matters of religion communist menace was long gone. However, fear dropping out of the sky. The enemy was no longer like the sci-fi film. And even if handled naïvely or of the unknown is a constant. Kaufman chose a new an army of soldiers or enemy tanks that men could awkwardly, with monsters and flying saucers, it was scientific threat, the dangers posed by progress in the defeat in a fair fight. Americans were panicked by a way of addressing the questions of metaphysics, of genetic field. religion, of God, of Humanity, and doing so during a The first version of The Day the Earth Stood Still by period in Protestant American society when these Robert Wise (1951) is essentially a film that counters tremendously important issues were being neglected. the folly of US policy during the Cold War. The anti- And yet, all of these religious references are nuclear message is delivered to Washington by a kind universal and are understood in every country, emissary from outer space, escorted by a gigantic whether atheist or not. It is as if a single message was metallic robot (something between a prototype for being sent out to touch people of all cultures and Terminator and the “Tin Man” in The Wizard of Oz). religions. Joseph Campbell, American philosopher The film is a precursor of Spielberg’s Close Encounters who has been a major influence on (among others) of the Third Kind and ET. And although the nature George Lucas and George Miller (hardly by chance) of peril changes, becoming ecological in the 2008 has described this phenomenon as the “power of version, the structure of the film and the manner in myth”, or how a story or a legend belonging to one which the message is conveyed are identical. And we particular culture possesses a universality that makes could continue to apply these examples right down it accessible to every other culture. the line to all the re-makes of the great sci-fi classics: The sources of fear change through the decades, The Thing, The War of the Worlds, I Am Legend … as the re-make of cult films like The Invasion of the Interviews with Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, Body Snatchers, I Am Legend, The War of the Worlds, The Roland Emmerich, George Lucas, Vivian Sobchack Thing, The Day the Earth Stood Still well demonstrate: and others round off Clara and Julia Kuperberg’s film The threat evolves according to our fears and takes which demonstrates their point of view with plenty on different forms; becomes a terrorist threat in of clips. Body Snatchers, after originally being communist, then genetic in Kaufman’s version, or ecological in The Day directed by Clara & Julia Kuperberg the Earth Stood Still, or even bacteriological in the produced by Wichita Films remake of The Thing, but the power of the message and its intrinsic goal is always the same. The science- running time: 52’ 16:9 DigiBeta PoorhouseApril - September 2011 international 4 telmondis Photos © A Deniau Photos ©

Le Rendez-vous LE RENDEZ-VOUS Based on a poem by Jacques Prévert Roland Petit can look back on a brilliant career as dancer, Choreographer Roland Petit choreographer and theatre Music Joseph Kosma director. He entered the ballet Musical Director Yannis Pouspourikas school of Paris at the Front Curtain Pablo Picasso age of ten and later became a Set Design Brassai member of the ballet company Orchestra of Opéra before he founded Les Ballets National de Paris des Champs-Elysées with Boris cast Kochno. For this company he created Le Nicolas Le Riche Rendez-vous and Le jeune homme et la mort among Isabelle Ciaravola others. In 1948 he founded his own company Le Corps de Ballet of Opéra Ballet de Paris for which he created Les demoiselles National de Paris de la nuit and succeeded in signing Margot Fonteyn. Carmen and La Croqueuse des diamants followed. Running time: 27' For his wife Zizi Jeanmaire he created the legendary Revue des Ballets de Paris which showed his flair for the theatre and his showmanship. No wonder that Hollywood called, and Roland Petit very successfully choreographed Daddy Longlegs (Fred Astaire and Lesley Caron), Hans Christian Andersen (Danny Kaye) and Anything goes (Bing Crosby). He later returned to film a couple of times and created the memorable Black Tights. From 1970 to 1975 he owned and operated the Casino de Paris and became director of the Ballet de Marseilles. He has worked with most of the great dancers of the 20th century and created works such as Les Forain (1945), Carmen (1949), Le Loup (1953), Notre-Dame de Paris (1965), Les Intermittences du Cœur - Proust remembered (1974) and Camera obscura (1994). In 1993 he also published his autobiography entitled ‘I danced on the waves’. In recent years Roland Petit has concentrated on reviving some of his greatest successes for - in particular - the ballet of the Paris opera, including Le jeune homme et la mort, Carmen, Les Arlésiennes, Les Intermittences du Cœur - Proust remembered and in 2010 Le Rendez-vous, all of which are distributed by Poorhouse International.

directed by Vincent Bataillon produced by Telmondis running time: 27’ Recorded in HD PoorhouseinternationalNewsletter No24 legendary performances5

Based on Rudyard Kipling’s MOWGLi Jungle Book Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Book has been a favourite with MOWGLi

children and grown-ups alike Choreographer for a long time and provided Katalia Kasatkina one of the great box office hits and Vladimir Vasilyov for the cinema. Composer & Conductor Alexander Prior How could this complex story be turned into a stage production, let alone a ballet with no dialogue Moscow Kolobov or the technology a stage cannot afford. Alex Prior at the age of thirteen composed a stunning post- New Opera Theatre modern score for large orchestra and chorus to a The Moscow Classical Ballet most clever scenario reducing the well known plot to its essentials. There is the jungle and there are all the animals who take part in Mowgli’s story of a boy Mowgli getting lost in the jungle and being brought up by a Nikolay Chevychelov family of wolves until his real mother finds him by Running time including introduction chance. And there is of course all the suspense of the vicious tiger who tries to get his prey. by Angela Lansbury and interview with All of this can be seen on the large stage of the Alexander Prior : ca. 90’ Kremlin where Alex Prior, now fifteen years old controls a performance of the Moscow Classical Ballet from the pit conducting his own composition. This is family entertainment at its best and the young Russian dancer Nikolay Chevychelov interpreting Mowgli the adult is a pure revelation. No wonder that world famous ex Bolshoi dancers Katalia Kasatkina and Vladimir Vasilyov took on the choreography for this successful new full length ballet.

directed by Clemente d’Alessio produced by Legendary Performances running time: ca. 90’ Recorded in HD with 5.1 Sound

PoorhouseApril - September 2011 international 6 lgm

Michel Legrand Legrand plays Film Music Son of the conductor JAZZ “Big Mike”, as Jean Cocteau nicknamed Michel Raymond Legrand, Michel Legrand, discovered Jazz very early on. By special arrangement he was admitted to the composition Legrand, was accepted class of the formidable Nadia Boulanger at the age of 10 and made friends with his fellow student into the composition class Quincy Jones. And when he heard the big band of of Nadia Boulanger and won first prize at the Paris Conservatoire in Harmony, Piano, Fugue and Counterpoint. He became music director and accompanist of Maurice Chevalier and published his first album I love Paris in 1954. It sold more than 8 million copies in the United States alone. Nadia Boulanger marked him for live and he owes her his feeling for melody. “Nadia”, he recalls, “always said: never mind, what you are putting below or above the melody, it’s the melody Dizzie Gilespie in 1948, his whole idea of music was that matters in the end”. shattered. In 1958 he published his first album Le Since 1955 Michel Legrand has composed music Grand Jazz and subsequently jammed with many of for films and worked with Orson Welles, Marcel the greatest names in Jazz: At Shelly’s Manne-Hole with Carné, Clint Eastwood, Norman Jewison, Louis Malle, Ray Brown and Shelly Manne, Communications with Andrzej Wajda, Richard Lester and Claude Lelouch. Stan Getz, Michel Legrand and Friends with Randy His films which have won him three Oscars for best Brecker, Le Jazz Grand with Gerry Mulligan, After the music, include Les Parapluies de Cherbourg, The Thomas Rain with Phil Woods and Zoot Sims. Crown Affair, Les Trois Mousquetaires, Les Demoiselles Many great Jazz men play cover versions of his de Rochefort and Yentl. Cover versions of his most music which by now have become standards such as popular songs have been performed by Frank Sinatra, Watch what happens, I will wait for you, The Windmills Tony Bennett, Louis Armstrong, Liza Minnelli and of your Mind, The Summer knows, to name but a few. many others. Legrand Jazz was a celebration organised at Salle In 2005 Universal Jazz published a box set under Pleyel in Paris to which Michel Legrand invited the the title The Cinema of Michel Legrand. “Good film singer Alison Moyet and the guitarist Sylvain Luc. music”, says Michel Legrand, “is the one you don’t He is backed by the London Big Band Orchestra, a hear”. For this Gala Michel Legrand has invited the formation as good as any American band. You will singers Mario Pelchat, Maurane, Liane Folly, Patrick discover their fabulous soloists, in numbers such Fiori and Hélène Segara. He conducts the Orchestre as Fast Food, Little Boy Lost, Stop, c’est du Bop, Dingo national d’Ile-de-France mostly from the keyboard. Lament and many more. directed by François Goetghebeur directed by François Goetghebeur produced by LGM running time: 107’ produced by LGM running time: 97’ Recorded in HD Recorded in HD PoorhouseinternationalNewsletter No24 lgm 7

CONCERTS FOR TELEVISION During the last year the The Concertgebouw Orchestra has Conductor, regularly returns to Amsterdam with several times been voted best Symphony Orchestra. interesting programmes. For this concert he chose new LGM has become one It was founded in 1888. With Willem Mengelberg, the Violin Concerto by Brahms with Frank Peter the second Principal Conductor, it appointed a world Zimmermann as soloist and Dmitri Shostakovich’s of the foremost suppliers of renowned musician who particularly furthered the 15th Symphony. This work can be considered the performance programmes Music of Gustav Mahler. He headed the orchestra for composer’s symphonic testament. Shostakovich in an an unprecedented 50 years. Later chief conductors interview pointed out that the symphony had no in France, and PHI is proud include Bernard Haitink (1959 - 1988) and Ricardo particular programme, and that although it was full to distribute many of them. Chailly (1988 - 2004). The present Principal of quotations from other composer’s works (Rossini, Conductor is Mariss Jansons, of whom PHI distributes Wagner, Glinka, Mahler), he did not know why he JAZZ For Mip we have selected the legendary Lady recording. used them. Sparse orchestration goes along with an three concerts which will Nikolaus Harnoncourt is best known enormous percussion section. But at the end of this as founder of the swansong there is a note of hope as glockenspiel, provide a fresh view on known Concentus Musicus celesta and triangle fill in the triad of A major. masterpieces. Christoph and authentic music- making which has Eschenbach plays the two largely contributed to a revolution Mozart concertos in A while and the re-thinking Nikolaus Harnoncourt and of performance practices for baroque and classical music. He has been guest-conducting the Bernard Haitink conduct the Concertgebouw Orchestra since 1977. Má Vlast Concertgebouw Orchestra. has been another successful appearance of his in Amsterdam. As part of the Farewell concert after a long Bedrich Smetana is according to Grove “the first tenure with the Orchestre de Paris, Christoph major nationalist composer of Bohemia”. The cycle of Eschenbach plays the Mozart concertos K414 and six symphonic poems Má Vlast (My Fatherland) was K488, conducting from the keyboard. This is a gripping premiered in its entirety in 1882 and is intimately performance by Eschenbach, the once world famous connected with his opera Libuse. The best known pianist, of the two Mozart works written in the same piece is number 2 (Vltava or Die Moldau). The six key, beautifully filmed at Salle Pleyel in Paris. symphonic poems are 1. Vysehrad (The High Castle) describes the place directed by Thomas Grimm where according to legend, the city of Prague was founded. produced by LGM 2. Vltava depicts the river from its beginnings until it running time: Brahms 39’ reaches Prague. Shostakovich 48’ Recorded in HD 3. Sárka is the story of a female warrior deceived by a man who takes bitter revenge. 4. From Bohemia’s Fields and Groves paints the landscape and its people through music. 5. Tábor was the Hussite stronghold until Jean Huss was betrayed during he Hussite wars. Its main theme is the early 15th century, Hussite chorale, Those who are God’s warriors. 6. Blaník is the name of the mountain in which according to legend a huge army led by St. Wenceslas lies asleep until the country desperately needs it. Bernard Haitink, long time Principal

directed by Thomas Grimm produced by LGM running time: 92’ Recorded in HD directed by François Goetghebeur produced by LGM running time: 52’ Recorded in HD PoorhouseApril - September 2011 international 8 ntr Photos © Monika Rittershaus LES VÊPRES SiCiLiENNES After the disastrous accept Le Duc d’Alba, a text originally conceived for Donizetti who had left the composition unfinished LES VÊPRES SiCiLiENNES première of ‘La Traviata’ when falling into madness. After many troubles with the opera house which Verdi called “la grande Opera by at the Fenice in Venice on boutique”, including the temporary disappearance of the megastar La Cruvelli who was to sing the part of Musical Director Paolo Carignani March 6th 1853, Giuseppe Hélène, this opera was given its successful première Stage Director Christof Loy on June 18th 1855 to coincide with the Universal Verdi returned to Paris Exhibition. Set Design Johannes Leiacker Verdi had set out to write a grand opera in the Costume Design Ursula Renzenbrink where he settled for nearly style of Meyerbeer’s popular pieces and succeeded two years working on the in tackling a large scale construction combined with Nederlands Philharmonisch Orkest a new mastery of massed choral and instrumental Koor van der Nederlandse Opera composition of ‘Les Vêpres forces. It is quite revealing what Scribe writes to his co-author Charles Duveyrier on December 3rd 1853: cast siciliennes’. “He wants a big grand work in five acts of dimensions as broad as Les Huguenots or Le Prophète. Moreover, Hélène Barbara Haveman Here he had met the first Abigaille of his Nabucco I have promised and signed that all this would be Ninetta Lívia Ághová again, Giuseppina Strepponi, who came to live with finished within this month of December 1853, so that Henri Burkhard Fritz him and would later become his wife. Paris bore the Maestro can immediately set to work”. a lot of fascination for artists and the Paris opera It is this original French version including a ballet Guy de Montford was considered to be the number one house in the which the DNO and stage director Christof Loy Alejandro Marco-Buhrmester world. It had an ensemble of well-paid singers and a chose for a highly acclaimed production of this lesser Jean Procida Balint Szabo large and regular chorus and orchestra, it also offered known Verdi opera. rehearsal periods and production budgets unheard Thibault Hubert Francis of in Italy. And furthermore, a successful opera was directed by Misjel Vermeiren Danieli Fabrice Farina assured of many performances. Therefore Verdi had accepted a contract to write a five-act grand produced by NTR running time: 180’ Running Time: 180’ opera. He had stipulated however that Meyerbeer’s Recorded in High Definition regular collaborator, Eugène Scribe, was to provide the libretto. After Scribe had tried in vain to interest Verdi in two projects Meyerbeer had turned down, he succeeded in persuading the composer to

PoorhouseinternationalNewsletter No24 ntr 9 Photos © A. T. Schaefer T. A. Photos © LES VÊPRES SiCiLiENNES THE FLYiNG DUTCHMAN

An episode from Heinrich Heine’s Aus den sketched Senta’s ballad in the second act, composing Memoiren des Herrn Schnabelewopski and an both the text and the melody; in this piece I This is Wagner without ifs and buts experience of a rough sea passage to London with a unwittingly planted the thematic seed of all the music stopover in the Norwegian fjord of Sandwike forms in the opera: it was the poetically condensed image … Catherine Naglestad’s Senta is a the basis for the opera that established Richard of the whole drama, as it was in my mind’s eye; and sensation in her intelligent acting Wagner’s reputation worldwide. The opera’s focal when I had to find a title for the finished work I was point is Senta’s ballad about the legendary Flying strongly tempted to call it a ‘dramatic ballad’. When and the art of vocal colouring. Dutchman, a sea captain condemned to sail the sea in I came eventually to the composition the thematic Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung perpetuity. Senta’s unswerving love could release him image I had already perceived quite involuntarily from the curse. For the first time Wagner introduces spread out over the entire drama in a complete, a philosophical idea as a fundamental aspect of unbroken web; all that was left for me to do was to From the pit the sounds emerge his work: the concept of redemption that would allow the various thematic germs contained in the continue to occupy him throughout his life. Senta ballad to develop to the full, each in its own direction, nearly Mediterranean, dramatically yearns for earthly happiness, while her seaman longs and all the principal features of the text were arrayed Die Welt for salvation in order to die: this is the irreconcilable before me in specific thematic shapes of their own focused but never too noisy. conflict of two worlds, that of the genius and that of making.” the ordinary man, in this case linked to the typical Although this seems to be exaggerated it is Romantic contrast between the mortal world and evident that separate arias, duets, ensembles and Catherine Naglestad does not lose the realm of the spirits. choruses have been drawn together into musico- the power of her voice for the tragic In order to make the plot understandable to a dramatic scenes and the earlier number opera 21st century audience, Martin Kušej comes up with a abandoned in favour of a new music theatre. end and impressively overcomes very surprising ending. DNO put together a world-class cast under directed by Joost Honselaar the permanent turbulence of the the direction of Hartmut Haenchen, its past chief produced by NTR running time: 145’ Süddeutsche Zeitung conductor. Catherine Naglestad already featured orchestra. prominently as Vitellia in our recording of La Recorded in HD with 5.1 Sound Clemenza di Tito from the Paris opera. Juha Uusitalo, a protégé of Matti Salminen, has become synonymous with the part of the Dutchman in which he is appearing all over the world. THE FLYiNG DUTCHMAN Wagner himself viewed this opera as an important Opera by Richard Wagner stepping stone on his way to musical drama and the beginning of his career as a poet. About the inner Stage Director Martin Kušej workings of the opera he says in ‘Eine Mitteilung an Conductor Hartmut Haenchen meine Freunde’ from 1851: “I remember that, before I proceeded to write Der fliegende Holländer, I first Sets Martin Zehetgruber Costumes Heide Kastler Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra

cast Daland Robert Lloyd Senta Catherine Naglestad Erik Marco Jentzsch Mary Marina Prudenskaya Dalands Steuermann Oliver Ringelhahn The Dutchman Juha Uusitalo

Running Time: 145’ PoorhouseApril - September 2011 international london10 symphony orchestra Photos © Matt Stuart THE MAN AND HiS MUSiC

the world over as one of the foremost interpreters Sir Colin Davis can of the music of Berlioz. We all remember his Tippet/ Berlioz Festival in 1982, his Sibelius cycles, his most look back on a most recent pre-occupation with Nielsen and his many legendary recordings. extraordinary career My documentary will try to reveal the man behind the musician, a human being who after decades of music making, has achieved a serenity and Zen-like as conductor and approach which shows in everything he undertakes, teacher. The Financial whether it is teaching or conducting a piece for the hundredth time. In his own words: “When everyone MiSSA in the orchestra feels responsible for the piece of Times dubbed him music, that’s when life begins”. And with the LSO Colin Davis has found the perfect instrument for SOLEMNiS “the reluctant King making music his way. Ludwig van Beethoven originally intended to We will attend a Masterclass at St. Luke’s compose his Missa Solemnis for the enthronement of English music where Colin Davis will generously spend time of his friend and pupil Archduke Rudolf as Cardinal- with promising young conductors, cover rehearsals Archbishop of Olomouc on March 9th 1820. He making”. and two major choral works being performed: began composition in 1819 but only finished the Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis at the 2011 Proms and complex work in 1823 while at the same time Britten’s War Requiem at the Barbican. Clips from To begin with, Colin Davis studied clarinet at the working on his 9th Symphony. Many believe Missa earlier performances such as Tippett’s Child of our Royal College of Music in London but was not eligible Solemnis to be the greatest of his works, and Time, Handel’s Messiah, Haydn’s Creation and some for the conducting class at the college because he Beethoven himself wrote to his publisher, Schott in opera excerpts will demonstrate how the conductor could not play the piano. His ambition to conduct Mainz, on March 10th 1824: “As difficult as it is for me has achieved a unique way of musik-making. was further disrupted by compulsory military service. to speak about myself, I do believe this Missa to be Conversations with Colin Davis and interviews with For a time he even played the clarinet in the band my most important composition”. the artists close to him will complete the picture of the Household Cavalry. First success as conductor Beethoven, always short of money, offered a of a singular personality who lives what he believes: came with the Chelsea Opera Group in Don Giovanni. manuscript version to the courts of Europe on a “Two demons – power and money – are running the His breakthrough happened when he stood in for subscription basis for 50 ducats. Seven patrons took show, and they’ve gone mad. They’re just false values. an ailing Otto Klemperer in a performance of Don up the offer, amongst them Prince Galitzin who also Those are the two things you really have to tackle if Giovanni at the Royal Festival Hall in 1959 and in organised the world premiere at the Philharmonic you want to be a human being. You’ve got to come to Magic Flute at Glyndebourne when he replaced Society of St. Petersburg on April 7th 1824. “From grips with not wanting power over other people and Thomas Beecham. Chief conductor of the BBC the heart – may it in turn go to the heart” is what not working for money …”. Symphony Orchestra and music director of the Royal the composer wrote above the Kyrie, and indeed Opera House came next. From 1983 to 1993 Davis the Missa is a very personal statement of faith and was chief conductor of the Bavarian Radio Symphony directed by Reiner E. Mortitz a passionate appeal for peace – dona nobis pacem. Orchestra and from 1995 to 2006 Principal produced by The London Symphony Beethoven wanted to arouse religious feelings in the Conductor of the LSO, making him the longest musicians and listeners alike which should endure. serving of all the LSO’s Principal Conductors. Orchestra running time: 52’ shot in And, as Nikolaus Harnoncourt says, achieves this with Winner of many Grammy Awards and twice High Definition “the magic of the work”. As “a prayer for peace inside winner of the Classical Brits, Colin Davis is recognised and outside”, the Missa transcends any particular church and service and consequently was hardly understood by his contemporaries. The composer himself only heard Kyrie, Credo and Agnus Dei during a performance at the Kärtnertor-Theater in Vienna when on May 7th 1824 his 9th Symphony was premiered. The performance to be recorded will take place on September 4th 2011 at the Proms and is also available live. Colin Davis conducts the LSO Chorus and Orchestra. The Solists are Carmen Giannattasio, Sarah Connolly, Paul Groves and Matthew Rose. directed by TBA produced by BBC for the London Symphony Orchestra running time: 85’ shot in HD with 5.1 Surround Sound PoorhouseinternationalNewsletter No24 seelmannfilm & moving angel11 Photos © Ralf Pleger THE ADVENTURES DAUNER of DONNA LEON FOREVER This profile of the German Jazz Fusion pianist by Donna Leon has lived in Venice for more than 25 police, Vice-questore Patta, serves as the vain and Jean-Christophe Blavier has Wolfgang Dauner tell years and made herself a name as an outstanding self-serving buffo, while Sergente Vianello and the all- his live story and visit the places which have been writer of crime fiction. She has invented the knowing and well-connected Signorina Elettra, Patta’s important for his development and career. Wolfgang intelligent and capable police commissioner Guido secretary, assist Brunetti on the ground and through Dauner grew up with a foster-mother and enjoyed Brunetti who confronts crime in and around his research. piano lessons from an aunt at a very early age. He home town of Venice. Each case is an opportunity 20 novels have appeared in the meantime, and loves to tell the story how he – condemned to rest for the author to reveal another aspect of the seamy the 9th, Friends in High Places, has won her the between 1:00 and 3:00 pm – was lying awake waiting underside of society, and another aspect of Venetian Crime Critics’ Association Silver Dagger in 2000. Her for his aunt’s pupils to get stuck after the first four life. The fact that Brunetti can only go so far in greatest love however is George Frideric Handel, and bars of the Sonatina by Kuhlau op. 20 no. 1. One day attacking the endemic corruption of the system leaves she underwrites Alan Curtis’ Complesso barocco the five year old mustered all his courage, showed him deeply cynical, although it does not prevent him which is aiming at recording all of Handel’s . up in the room where the lessons took place, went from trying again and again. Brunetti finds solace in We learn a lot about Venice, her love for Handel and to the piano and played the bit where every pupil of the company of his wife, Paola, a hereditary contessa her latest non-fiction work In Search of Animals in his aunt had failed. Wolfgang Dauner realised early on born to one of Venice’s oldest families, as well as Handel’s Operas in a truly compelling profile. that escape from a family live in poverty and climbing their growing children, Raffi and Chiara. Paola teaches the social ladder would be possible for him through English literature in the public system and, despite directed by Ralf Pleger music. The Wunderkind got a scholarship for a formal her background, is very much to the left, still fuelled musical education and turned into one of the giants by the spirit of 1968. The domestic warmth of the produced by Seelmannfilm GmbH of Jazz often compared to keyboard players like Bill Brunetti family contrasts with corruption and cruelty running time: 45’ 16:9 DigiBeta Evans, Herbie Hancock and Oscar Peterson. Today that Brunetti encounters at work. Venice’s head of he is best known for his work with the United Jazz and Rock Ensemble. He is also completely at ease when playing Ravel or Gershwin or composing for a large symphony orchestra. Blavier’s documentary will show Dauner playing solo and with friends but also cover the premiere of a work commissioned for Jazz Ensemble and Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Dennis Russell Davies. We also meet Dauner’s muse and partner, the designer Randi Bubat, and get a revealing glimpse at his private life. Dauner is considered to be one of the rare geniuses of improvisation and thereby gets as close to the essence of Jazz as anybody can. directed by Jean-Christophe Blavier produced by Moving Angel running time: 52’ HD Photos © Hugo Jehle PoorhouseApril - September 2011 international 12 backstage Jerome Robbins Celebration: Triade Photo © Sébastien Mathé OUT ON DVD KiCKiNG THE NOTES Der Fliegende Holländer is another hit from Dutch THE TORADZE WAY National Opera. The DVD release by Opus Arte Kicking the Notes the Toradze Way has in the underlines the company´s committment to the meantime been picked up by 40 PBS stations reports productions of the DNO.Poorhouse International producer WNIT. is very happy to add this early Wagner opera to its ever growing Wagner repertoire, in particular as the staging by Martin Kusej transports the piece into our time. With Siddharta Angelin Preljocaj has created one of the rare full length ballets. We are convinced it will in due course enter the general repertoire. This recording of the world première at Palais Garnier in Paris is now also available on DVD, released by Arthaus-Musik.

Oscar winning movie Black Swan was choreographed by Benjamin Millepied of whom PHI distributes the ballet Triade as part of the Jerome Robbins celebration.

NEW PROGRAMMES NOW AVAiLABLE FOR DELiVERY TCHAiKOVSKY ON THE ROAD English version – 52’ ZAHiA ZiOUANi SYMPHONiES FOR THE SUBURBS version – 52’ ALL MAHLER SYMPHONIES WITH CHRISTOPH ESCHENBACH AND ORCHESTRE DE PARIS: POORHOUSE SYMPHONY NO.1‘The Titan’ iNTERNATiONAL Recorded in HD TV 53’ AT MiPDOC & MIPTV SYMPHONY NO.2 97’ 2011 During MIPDOC and MIP TV Dr. Reiner Moritz will SYMPHONY NO.3 be at the Media Stand H4.35 Recorded in HD TV - 110’ tel: +33 (0)4 9299 8596, or at the apartment: SYMPHONY NO.4 Le Centre Croisette, 55 La Croisette, 06400 Cannes, 65’ tel. +33 (0)4 9306 0962 SYMPHONY NO.5 QUiCK HiTS 80’ Quick Hits visited Hélène Grimaud in Upstate New SYMPHONY NO.6 ‘The Tragic’ York to film her wolf resort. The Pianist also plays 90’ some Liszt from her new album. SYMPHONY NO.7 Recorded in HD TV – 90’ SYMPHONY NO.8 ‘The Symphony of a Thousand’ Recorded in HD TV 17-18 Margaret Street 90’ London W1W 8RP SYMPHONY NO.9 telephone/fax: +44 (0)20 7436 8663 77’ email [email protected] PoorhouseinternationalNewsletter No24