Newsletter N Newsletter January - March - January Filomusica .”n9 sc& rry p> ' c>)t&" /0l1 !=t89 ,! Ot tl9 :;6< C%rJ234 5 d6 t6&7v 89 /0l1 … *+,-.“At Ot (') WiTH OTELLO 2007 o 11

JOSÉ CURA Poorhouse INTERNATIONAL 2007 ?@A NEWr (> r& 5 Op F6,!C'D 9 rn ndB /;>% Gl TRiSTAN r” r” ' “Srb $%nd!"#& ly iSOLDE UND Sunday Times

2 3 c2+ì ('= ,%E9Mozart always worked& best among artists he ,r-st'= %nG -3Hld9 knew well and respected. The cast assembled for Così fan tutte was familiar to him and Da Ponte; furthermore, Adriana Gabrielli, who played Fiordiligi, had recently become Da Ponte’s mistress. “I-s J*s t89 K2+< K>v!ng Francesco Bussani, as Don Alfonso, was seen as something of an adversary, for he had risen in the Viennese theatrical hierarchy to become Director 'nG L&nMr',!ng Tr-st'= I of Spectacle, and Da Ponte did not trust him an inch. It is perhaps no coincidence that he created the magnificent role of Fiordiligi for his lover, and h'v9 8e'rG 'nG 3N&= 'nG >n9 devised an ending whereby his enemy would have to assume shameful responsibility for the chaos that had unfolded. : 5 h'nOf%D : !nO-+P%t'Qly Essentially, Così fan tutte is an ensemble - there are fewer individual arias than in either Figaro or - and in all combinations 'nG s',-sfy!ngly gre'< >p&r5 of voices Mozart achieves phenomenal effect. In addition to the monumental finales to both acts, there are giggly duets for the women, combinations &v&)!ngs != Ky 0!f9” of hilarity and competitiveness for the men, gentle Michael Kennedy, The Sunday Telegraph garden serenades and devastating cruelty, too, in the men’s final utterance of Così fan tutte (all women are like that). The opera’s penultimate scene, the duet between Ferrando and Fiordiligi, begins as an aria of steadfast resolve, then moves through surprise, passionate protestation and the most tender

directed for television by Francesca Kemp produced by Glyndebourne Festival Opera & Opus Arte in association with BBC running time: 190’ in high definition with 5.1 surround sound

supplication, ending in jubilation. Nowhere in opera is there a finer or more human musical depiction of such a transformation. The quality of the arias is just as vertiginous, with one extraordinary individual aria coming about three-quarters of the way through. Like the Countess’s “Dove sono” in Figaro, Fiordiligi’s “Per pietà” is a pivotal accompanied recitative and aria, COSì as she tries to resist the advances of Ferrando. Da Ponte’s text here overflows with guilt and remorse, FAN and a frail attempt to hope that her constancy might TUTTE drive away her hateful desires. But where in Figaro the Countess’s references to constancy turned “T1 8e'r t8-s "%+-. c>)vReG Poorhouse International her around, giving her hope and optimism, here '< l*+< $!tS +ucS !"meOiacy is proud to have been COSì FAN TUTTE Fiordiligi’s attempt at resolve only leads her back Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart into “vergogna e orror” (shame and horror). Da 'nG cl'7!ty, t1 8e'r T@-c6 Ponte and Mozart have recognised and exploited TRiSTAN entrusted with the world (1756 - 1791) the unbearable poignancy of Fiordiligi’s solitary 'nG >rc86,r5 U1 l>ng&r wide television distribution confrontation with a seemingly cruel world, devoid UND Conductor Ivan Fischer of moral or spiritual guidance. The Enlightenment, it b'E0!ng (>r +%Pr&macy V%< seems, has failed her. iSOLDE for the Glyndebourne Director Nicholas Hytner Here is the crux of Così fan tutte. For Mozart K/ldeG != L&rfeW acc>rG != Richard Wagner made his debut in Glyndebourne Designer Vivki Mortimer directed for television by Thomas Festival Opera’s 2006 ‘Così and Da Ponte, the rigorous disciplines of the Age of '= &)v!r>)m&)< th'< ac,u'0ly in 2003 with Nikolaus Lehnhoff’s staging of Tristan fan tutte’ and the 2007 Lighting Designer Paule Constable Reason were, however important, inadequate. At the und Isolde. It is well known that John Christie, the Grimm produced by Opus Arte end of the opera, Don Alfonso makes his “pupils” in X&J'rYs +%btlMy, J*s UZ [%+< founder of the Glyndebourne Festival Opera, had & Glyndebourne Festival Opera his School for Lovers recite his philosophy: “Happy ‘Tristan and Isolde’. Orchestra of the Age of Enlightnment a keen interest in Wagner’s music and was toying is he who takes the right side of everything, and 5 t87!0D V%< 5 X&v/l',i>=” with the idea of creating a mini Bayreuth in Sussex. running time: 247’ in high definition The Glyndebourne Chorus through all tribulations lets Reason guide him.” But The Independent Così fan tutte, as David Cairns rightly points out, Fortunately his practical wife Audrey Mildmay and with 5.1 surround sound there is no doubt, from Mozart’s brittle, almost has implications far beyond the School for Lovers and circumstances persuaded him to create a House for manic setting of these words, that he, too, had lost the All Women do it of its titles. It speaks existentially Ferrando Topi Lehtipuu Mozart instead and partly, thanks to Glyndebourne, all faith in them. Così fan tutte began to be recognized as the subtle 'C'!l'Ql9 '%,%"= 2007 of the randomness of life, the fickleness of affection, Guglielmo Luca Pisaroni TRiSTAN UND iSOLDE the brevity of happiness. Here is what conductor Jane Glover Richard Wagner and disturbing masterpiece we now believe it to be. Don Alfonso Nicolas Rivenq Jane Glover had to say in The Guardian for the (1813 - 1883) But with the completion of the new opera building, opening of the 2006 season: Fiordiligi Miah Persson the modernised stage and the enlarged auditorium the question of performing a Wagner opera came To celebrate the 250th anniversary of Mozart’s Dorabella Anke Vondung birth, a new production of Mozart’s Così fan Conductor Jirí Belohlávek up again. Glyndebourne wisely chose Tristan which is Despina Ainhoa Garmendia tutte, subtitled The School for Lovers, opened the Stage Director Nikolaus Lehnhoff ideally suited for the house and Lehnhoff assembled a cast which surpassed even Bayreuth standards. 2006 Glyndebourne Festival Opera season. This masterpiece includes some of Mozart’s most Press quotes on this page refer to the 2003 run: Running Time: 190 Minutes Orchestra of the Age of Enlightnment exquisite music, and Così’s now established The Glyndebourne Chorus popularity, following comparative neglect in the “S!"#ly $%nd&rb'r” 19th century, is partly due to Glyndebourne’s Sunday Times championing of the work since the opening of the The brilliant Hungarian conductor, Ivan Fischer, Isolde Nina Stemme Festival in 1934. made his Glyndebourne debut with an international Tristan In Così, disguise is used to explore the difference cast that includes some of today’s most exciting Robert Gambill The entire cast, conductor included with the between reality and appearance as four young young Mozartian singers. King Marke René Pape exception only of René Pape was new to the work. Glyndebourne took an artistic risk that paid off lovers discover the nature of true love. The action, Originally entitled La Scuola degli Amanti (The Kurwenal Bo Skovhus which unfolds in a single day, allows the acute School for Lovers), the opera has a distinct suggestion brilliantly and immediately begged the question of a Dorabella observation of human nature, and the pure beauty of lessons being taught to a fickle society. Although Anke Vondung revival. 2007 will now see the return of this glorious of Mozart’s score perfectly illuminates the range of other couple-swapping plots had been seen in Brangäne Katherina Karneus Tristan to be recorded by Glyndebourne Festival emotions explored in the work. (Casti’s La Grotta di Trofonio, or Shakespeare’s Opera and Opus Arte. After the success of Parsifal Nicholas Hytner, director of the National A Midsummer Night’s Dream), their exchanges had and Lohengrin at Baden-Baden this Tristan is the third Running Time: 247 Minutes Theatre, has returned to direct his first opera in been achieved through supernatural devices. Here Wagner opera Lehnhoff has reinterpreted for an the UK for over 10 years. His other operatic work there was no such forgiving licence; any change of audience of today. includes La Clemenza di Tito for Glyndebourne and heart would be seen as the entire responsibility of and Xerxes for English National the people concerned. Opera. Poorhouse!)t&rn',i>Newslettern 'DNo11 PoorhouseJanuary - March 2007 !)t&rn',i>n'D ,r-st'= %nG -3Hld93 “I-s J*s t89 K2+< K>v!ng 'nG L&nMr',!ng Tr-st'= I h'v9 8e'rG 'nG 3N&= 'nG >n9 : 5 h'nOf%D : !nO-+P%t'Qly 'nG s',-sfy!ngly gre'< >p&r5 &v&)!ngs != Ky 0!f9” Michael Kennedy, The Sunday Telegraph

“T1 8e'r t8-s "%+-. c>)vReG '< l*+< $!tS +ucS !"meOiacy 'nG cl'7!ty, t1 8e'r T@-c6 TRiSTAN 'nG >rc86,r5 U1 l>ng&r b'E0!ng (>r +%Pr&macy V%< UND K/ldeG != L&rfeW acc>rG != iSOLDE Richard Wagner made his debut in Glyndebourne directed for television by Thomas '= &)v!r>)m&)< th'< ac,u'0ly in 2003 with Nikolaus Lehnhoff’s staging of Tristan und Isolde. It is well known that John Christie, the Grimm produced by Opus Arte X&J'rYs +%btlMy, J*s UZ [%+< founder of the Glyndebourne Festival Opera, had & Glyndebourne Festival Opera a keen interest in Wagner’s music and was toying 5 t87!0D V%< 5 X&v/l',i>=” with the idea of creating a mini Bayreuth in Sussex. running time: 247’ in high definition The Independent Fortunately his practical wife Audrey Mildmay and with 5.1 surround sound circumstances persuaded him to create a House for Mozart instead and partly, thanks to Glyndebourne, 'C'!l'Ql9 '%,%"= 2007 TRiSTAN UND iSOLDE Così fan tutte began to be recognized as the subtle Richard Wagner and disturbing masterpiece we now believe it to be. (1813 - 1883) But with the completion of the new opera building, the modernised stage and the enlarged auditorium the question of performing a Wagner opera came Conductor Jirí Belohlávek up again. Glyndebourne wisely chose Tristan which is Stage Director Nikolaus Lehnhoff ideally suited for the house and Lehnhoff assembled a cast which surpassed even Bayreuth standards. Press quotes on this page refer to the 2003 run: Orchestra of the Age of Enlightnment The Glyndebourne Chorus “S!"#ly $%nd&rb'r” Sunday Times Isolde Nina Stemme Tristan Robert Gambill The entire cast, conductor included with the King Marke René Pape exception only of René Pape was new to the work. Glyndebourne took an artistic risk that paid off Kurwenal Bo Skovhus brilliantly and immediately begged the question of a Dorabella Anke Vondung revival. 2007 will now see the return of this glorious Brangäne Katherina Karneus Tristan to be recorded by Glyndebourne Festival Opera and Opus Arte. After the success of Parsifal and Lohengrin at Baden-Baden this Tristan is the third Running Time: 247 Minutes Wagner opera Lehnhoff has reinterpreted for an audience of today.

PoorhouseJanuary - March 2007 !)t&rn',i>n'D 4>p&r5 ?@A >P%s 'rt9 PHI is very happy to distribute for television the latest Opus Arte productions ‘La Bohème’, ‘Viaggio a Reims’, ‘Otello’, ‘Luisa Fernanda’ and ‘Jazz at Quartier Latin’, all shot in HD and available now.

LUiSA FERNANDA Placido Domingo, José Bros, Mariola Cantanero and Nancy Herrera are the stellar cast of this entertaining music theatre piece by Federico Moreno Torroba, conducted by Jesús López Cobos. Zarzuela is a genuine Spanish form of music theatre, characterized by the alternation of singing and dancing with spoken dialogue. Obviously it owes to the Italian Opera buffa and has had its up OTELLO and downs with the Spanish audience like Opera OTELLO buffa in the rest of Europe. At the height of its Giuseppe Verdi directed for television by Robin Lough success it was decorated with popular songs and (1813 - 1901) produced by Opus Arte & Gran popular dances which were either inserted into the interludes or straight into the action. There were Teatro del Liceu in association Musical Director Antoni Ros Marbà successful works of this genre which run more with TVE running time: 140’ in high than 300 nights en suite, and at some stage Stage Director Willy Decker definition with 5.1 surround sound counted 11 theatres entirely devoted to this form of popular entertainment. Symphony Orchestra and Chorus Zarzuela has had a great comeback at the Verdi’s own creative life seemed to have of Gran Teatro del Liceu beginning of the 19th century and again with the ended in 1874 with the Requiem. He did not feel introduction of television. Today one of the greatest like composing any more, tended his estates at exponents of this art form is Plácido Domingo. Sant’Agata and explained his decision in a letter to Otello José Cura Plácido Domingo stars as the generous Vidal Clarina Mattei, dated 1878, as follows: Desdemona Krassimira Stoyanova Hernando, willing to give up the woman he adores to assure her happiness. Director Emilio Sagi Jago “Why >= e'rtS \h>%lG I $7!t9 "%+-.? Lado Ataneli captures the authentic spirit of this simple and Wh'< h'v9 I t1 g'!= ?@A !%lG ;9 yet sophisticated masterwork of popular Spanish tHlG '0D >v&r ag'!= th'< I d>=’< ]n>^ h>^ Running Time: 140 Minutes musical theater, charmingly sentimental and filled with lively tunes, in which a tangled love triangle t1 $7!t9, th'< I h'v9 ;_@m9 5 (H0l>w&r : leads to an unexpectedly heart-tugging conclusion. Wagn&r. A `n9 3>r< : gl>ry! Aa&r 5 c'rN&r Plácido Domingo, ‘spiritus rector’ of this project, : '0m2+< 40 be'rs t1 &nG *s '= !"!t't>r!” feels comfortable with this minimalist production But his publisher, Giulio Ricordi, used the which captures the essence of the Madrid of 1868 occasion of a charity performance of the Requiem “J234 C%r5 h*s t89 T2c'D cHl>r, where the story is set. Domingo feels particularly in 1879, conducted by Verdi, to bring the composer c>w&r, 'nG L'r,-c%l'rly, t89 at ease with this score, as he is a lover of zarzuela and the librettist, poet, critic and composer Arrigo in general and of Luisa Fernanda in particular. This Boito together on the subject of Shakespeare’s Or'm',-. t&"p&r'm&)< th'< t89 work is very close to his heart since his mother Othello. After working with the librettist on the sang the title role on countless occasions. This is revision of Piave’s libretto for Simon Boccanegra cHl2d'D V&rOe ch'ract&r Xef%!r6... also the case for Emilio Sagi, whose grandfather, the Verdi caught fire, and in February 1892 his Otello I9 Arg&),!ne'= t&n>r gMs 31 great Spanish baritone Emilio Sagi Barba, appeared was given its first performance at La Scala in . in Luisa Fernanda in its opening night in 1932 with Boito had clearly inspired the old composer and "ucS !)t1 8-s \g!=, !)t1 8-s great success. has to be considered superior to Verdi’s previous Luisa Fernanda was composed in 1932 and poets. The opera clearly divides into numbers but t>r,%reG hichHlojy, th'< 89 `00s rises far above the average Zarzuela. The Grove within each number free declamation and formal t89 sc&n9 'nG kN&hs t89 Or'm',-. dictionary uses the word ‘distinguished’ to describe patterning are reconciled more skilfully than ever the output of Federico Torroba. Emilio Sagi’s elegant before. t&)+i>= %k t1 t89 ag>)ez!ng &nG. production for Washington Opera, Los Angeles Willy Decker’s production, first seen in Opera and the , with Jesùs López Cobos and , goes straight to the essence of the C%r5 -s Ot/0l1. I< -s *s +!"#l9 *s as Musical Director and Plácido Domingo in the work. It is extremely rigid. The only prop is a large th'<.” main role, arrived in Madrid in July 2006, carrying white cross. Otello is a dark skinned Arab and great expectations after a huge success in both Desdemona a pale skinned Venetian of high birth. American Theatres. Otello identifies with Venice in the beginning and “H9 -s UZ t89 >)ly ,7!%"#S. By 8-s successfully combats the Turks. But when Jago plants +id9, t89 B%lg'7i'= 3>Pr'n1 Krl!"!r5 the seeds of jealousy his heart and his relationship Stm'n>C5 c'p,!C't6 $!tS 8&r 3&)s',i>n'D directed for television by Angel Luís with the cross turn sour and he ends up breaking it. The cast of this Liceu production has a perfect D6d&m>n5. S89 h*s t89 K2+< ;e'%,!f%D Ramírez produced by Opus Arte & protagonist with José Cura, and El Pais titled “Cura lyr-c'D T@-c9, $!tS &n>unS TH0%m9 'nG Teatro Real Madrid in association is Otello”. t*+t9f%D o8r*+!ng, 'nG \89 ,r')+"!ts with TVE and ARTE G.E.I.E. U',%r'0ly t89 +wNMnp 'nG `r"np : running time: ca.90’ in high 8&r ch'ract&r.” definition with 5.1 surround sound EL PAIS, February 2006

Poorhouse!)t&rn',i>Newslettern 'DNo11 4>p&r5 ?@A >P%s 'rt9 >p&r5 ?@A >P%s 'rt59 PHI is very happy to distribute LUiSA FERNANDA for television the latest Opus Arte Lyric Comedy in Three Acts Federico Moreno Torroba productions ‘La Bohème’, ‘Viaggio a (1891 - 1982) Reims’, ‘Otello’, ‘Luisa Fernanda’ and From Teatro Real, Madrid ‘Jazz at Quartier Latin’, all shot in HD Libretto Federico Romero & and available now. Guillermo Fernández Shaw Stage Director Emilio Sagi Musical Director Jesús López Cobos

Chorus & Orchestra of Teatro Real (Madrid Symphony Orchestra & Chorus)

Luisa Fernanda Nancy Herrera Duchess Carolina Mariola Cantarero Javier Moreno José Bros Vidal Hernando Plácido Domingo Mariana Raquel Pierotti Anibal Javier Ferrer LUiSA Rosita Sabina Puértolas Don Florito Fernández FERNANDA José Antonio Ferrer Placido Domingo, José Bros, Mariola Cantanero Don Luis Nogales Frederico Gallar and Nancy Herrera are the stellar cast of this Bizco Porras David Rubiera entertaining music theatre piece by Federico Moreno Torroba, conducted by Jesús López Cobos. Running Time: approx 90 Minutes Zarzuela is a genuine Spanish form of music theatre, characterized by the alternation of singing and dancing with spoken dialogue. Obviously it owes to the Italian Opera buffa and has had its up OTELLO and downs with the Spanish audience like Opera LA BOHEME OTELLO buffa in the rest of Europe. At the height of its Giuseppe Verdi LA BOHEME blows out her candle herself in order to move directed for television by Robin Lough success it was decorated with popular songs and Giacomo Puccini directed for television by Robin Lough things along. (1813 - 1901) produced by Opus Arte & Gran popular dances which were either inserted into the (1858 - 1924) produced by Opus Arte & Teatro Despite all the grandeur and money that’s been interludes or straight into the action. There were Real Madrid running time: 116’ lavished on it, what comes across as the star is the Teatro del Liceu in association successful works of this genre which run more opera itself. I tend to listen to La Bohéme these days Musical Director Antoni Ros Marbà From Teatro Real, Madrid with TVE running time: 140’ in high than 300 nights en suite, and at some stage Madrid in high definition with 5.1 just to hear particular singers – Bergonzi and Tebaldi Stage Director Willy Decker definition with 5.1 surround sound counted 11 theatres entirely devoted to this form Stage Director Giancarlo del Monaco surround sound or Björling and de los Angeles – but here I just sat of popular entertainment. Musical Director Jesús López Cobos back and enjoyed the whole thing. The time flies by Zarzuela has had a great comeback at the Symphony Orchestra and Chorus Giancarlo del Monaco’s one million euro while you’re watching it and it pushes all the right Verdi’s own creative life seemed to have of Gran Teatro del Liceu beginning of the 19th century and again with the cinematic production of Puccini’s popular buttons. I’ll admit to having a lump in the throat at ended in 1874 with the Requiem. He did not feel introduction of television. Today one of the greatest Chorus & Orchestra of Teatro Real masterpiece takes its place among the great the end. like composing any more, tended his estates at exponents of this art form is Plácido Domingo. (Madrid Symphony Orchestra & Chorus) interpretations of modern times. Jesús López Simon Thomas Sant’Agata and explained his decision in a letter to Otello José Cura Plácido Domingo stars as the generous Vidal Cobos directs an outstanding cast, led by Inva Hernando, willing to give up the woman he adores Clarina Mattei, dated 1878, as follows: Desdemona Krassimira Stoyanova Mimi Inva Mula Mula and Aquiles Machado as Mimi and Rodolfo, in to assure her happiness. Director Emilio Sagi Jago Lado Ataneli a landmark recording filmed with high definition “Why >= e'rtS \h>%lG I $7!t9 "%+-.? captures the authentic spirit of this simple and Musetta Laura Giordano cameras and in true surround sound. ‘En>rm>%s, c'p,!C',!ng, Wh'< h'v9 I t1 g'!= ?@A !%lG ;9 yet sophisticated masterwork of popular Spanish Rodolfo Aquiles Machado Giancarlo del Monaco’s production and 'w6@m9… 5 c@"#lM9 \h>^…’ musical theater, charmingly sentimental and filled tHlG '0D >v&r ag'!= th'< I d>=’< ]n>^ h>^ Running Time: 140 Minutes Marcello Fabio Maria Capitanucci conductor Jesús López Cobos’ vibrant musical El Mundo t1 $7!t9, th'< I h'v9 ;_@m9 5 (H0l>w&r : with lively tunes, in which a tangled love triangle performance make it seem as though you are seeing leads to an unexpectedly heart-tugging conclusion. Schaunard David Menéndez and hearing the work for the first time. Wagn&r. A `n9 3>r< : gl>ry! Aa&r 5 c'rN&r Plácido Domingo, ‘spiritus rector’ of this project, Colline Felipe Bou The staging is about as lavish as you can get. Del …X&m'rk'Ql9 'nG 3H0iG 3M feels comfortable with this minimalist production ‘ : '0m2+< 40 be'rs t1 &nG *s '= !"!t't>r!” Parpignol Gonzalo Fernández de Terán Monaco talks in the DVD booklet notes of Puccini But his publisher, Giulio Ricordi, used the which captures the essence of the Madrid of 1868 “as cinematographer” and this is the principle d6ig)!ng by M-cha/D Scq, “J234 C%r5 h*s t89 T2c'D cHl>r, where the story is set. Domingo feels particularly Benoît Juan Tomás Martinéz occasion of a charity performance of the Requiem underlying the production. It’s fast-moving and on 'r0-c'Ql9 >)ly t1 5 +tag9 +ucS in 1879, conducted by Verdi, to bring the composer c>w&r, 'nG L'r,-c%l'rly, t89 at ease with this score, as he is a lover of zarzuela Alcindoro Alfredo Mariotti a grand scale, with a remarkable coup de theatre and the librettist, poet, critic and composer Arrigo in general and of Luisa Fernanda in particular. This at the end of Act 1. I thought it was a camera trick *s t89 Te',r1 Re'D’s. I9 3>Pr'n1 work is very close to his heart since his mother but the notes say they did it on stage. Act 1 segues Boito together on the subject of Shakespeare’s Or'm',-. t&"p&r'm&)< th'< t89 Running Time: 116 Minutes Othello. After working with the librettist on the sang the title role on countless occasions. This is straight into Act 2 – from one set into a completely I)C5 M%l5 +uccNedeG != \h>w!ng cHl2d'D V&rOe ch'ract&r Xef%!r6... also the case for Emilio Sagi, whose grandfather, the revision of Piave’s libretto for Simon Boccanegra different one, the change having occurred during s 8&r t'l&)< $!tS 5 $id9 T2c'D Verdi caught fire, and in February 1892 his Otello I9 Arg&),!ne'= t&n>r gMs 31 great Spanish baritone Emilio Sagi Barba, appeared Rodolfo and Mimi’s duet O soave fanciulla. There is was given its first performance at La Scala in Milan. in Luisa Fernanda in its opening night in 1932 with a similar cinematic moment at the very end which, Xeg-st&r; V7!00i')< 'nG 3H0iG. Boito had clearly inspired the old composer and "ucS !)t1 8-s \g!=, !)t1 8-s great success. while not being quite so astonishing, lets us see has to be considered superior to Verdi’s previous Luisa Fernanda was composed in 1932 and Rodolfo spilling out into the streets in his grief. H&r O!0ig&nc9 J*s *s +%p&rb *s t>r,%reG hichHlojy, th'< 89 `00s rises far above the average Zarzuela. The Grove poets. The opera clearly divides into numbers but ‘I9 MaO7iG Sy"#h>ny There’s an enormous amount of detail t89 X6%0<, accl'!meG (>r t89 within each number free declamation and formal t89 sc&n9 'nG kN&hs t89 Or'm',-. dictionary uses the word ‘distinguished’ to describe throughout the opera, with vast sets and an patterning are reconciled more skilfully than ever the output of Federico Torroba. Emilio Sagi’s elegant Orc86,r5 olaBex incredible number of props. The street scene of 'uOi&nc9. … F'Vi1 C't!t')ucce before. t&)+i>= %k t1 t89 ag>)ez!ng &nG. production for Washington Opera, Los Angeles Act 2 allows del Monaco full scope. Here are Willy Decker’s production, first seen in Brussels Opera and the Teatro Real, with Jesùs López Cobos jugglers, tightrope walkers and even a commedia Vr>un8< t1 t89 Rm'D Ie',r9 5 C%r5 -s Ot/0l1. I< -s *s +!"#l9 *s as Musical Director and Plácido Domingo in the X&m'rk'Qly… 'nG t89 and Geneva, goes straight to the essence of the dell’arte troupe, although I found the beating up of T2c'0ly 'nG ohB+-c'0ly c>w&rf%D work. It is extremely rigid. The only prop is a large th'<.” main role, arrived in Madrid in July 2006, carrying c*+<, != !ts tZ'0!ty, a chauffeur and stealing his car a bit over the top. white cross. Otello is a dark skinned Arab and great expectations after a huge success in both They even manage a big set change within the very M'rc/l1. D/D M>nac1 adYs Desdemona a pale skinned Venetian of high birth. American Theatres. brief second act with an extraordinary scene inside Otello identifies with Venice in the beginning and “H9 -s UZ t89 >)ly ,7!%"#S. By 8-s \h>weG 5 gre'< l&v/D. the Café Momus. 0!El9 dM'!0s th'< 'r9 T&ry u/0D successfully combats the Turks. But when Jago plants +id9, t89 B%lg'7i'= 3>Pr'n1 Krl!"!r5 Big sets and extras don’t make up for poor Ke*+%reG, v-cS g!v9 5 Kod&r= the seeds of jealousy his heart and his relationship directed for television by Angel Luís Aq%!l6 Machad1 performances but that’s not a problem here. The Stm'n>C5 c'p,!C't6 $!tS 8&r 3&)s',i>n'D cast, most of whom I hadn’t heard before, are with the cross turn sour and he ends up breaking it. Ramírez produced by Opus Arte & t>ucS t1 t89 wroOuc,i>= v-cS The cast of this Liceu production has a perfect D6d&m>n5. S89 h*s t89 K2+< ;e'%,!f%D g!v6 8-s 8e'r< t1 t89 excellent. Aquiles Machado as Rodolfo looks like a protagonist with José Cura, and El Pais titled “Cura lyr-c'D T@-c9, $!tS &n>unS TH0%m9 'nG Teatro Real Madrid in association cross between a young Pavarotti and Jussi Björling. t89 'uOi&nc9 'rr_i't6.’ is Otello”. t*+t9f%D o8r*+!ng, 'nG \89 ,r')+"!ts with TVE and ARTE G.E.I.E. ch'ract&r…’ If he hasn’t quite got the beauty of voice of either Filomusica El Pais of them, it is a full-bodied and powerful instrument. U',%r'0ly t89 +wNMnp 'nG `r"np : running time: ca.90’ in high Inva Mula as Mimi has a beautiful tone and a great 8&r ch'ract&r.” definition with 5.1 surround sound presence. This isn’t a simpering Mimi but one who EL PAIS, February 2006 knows what she’s doing. In the first act, she even

Poorhouse!)t&rn',i>Newslettern 'DNo11 PoorhouseJanuary - March 2007 !)t&rn',i>n'D K>6 r9 ?@A >P%s 'rt9 "%+-. ?@A lgA7

ENSEMBLE VIAGGIO VIAGGIO A REIMS, A ossia l’albergo del giglio d’oro iNTERCONTEMPORAiN REIMS, ossia directed for television by Michel (1792 - 1868) AT l’albergo del giglio Follin produced by LGM for Arte d’oro running time: 43’ in high definition Musical Director Valery Gergiev with 5.1 surround sound above: & bottom left: Ensemble Contemporain directed for television by Vincent Stage Director Alain Maratrat below from top: Pierre Boulez Susanna Mälkki © Aymeric Warmé-Janville Bataillon produced by Théâtre Sets Pierre Alain Bertola Teatro Real de Madrid Susanna Mälkki © Tanja Ahola musical de Paris - Châtalet, Costumes Mireille Dessingy 30 In 1976 Pierre Boulez founded the Ensemble Based at the Cité de la Musique in Paris since 1995, Francois Roussillon et Associes in Light Pascal Mérat JAZZ AT THE Intercontemporain with the help of the French the Ensemble performs and records in France, association with France 2 & France ministry of culture. The Ensemble is made up of tours abroad and participates in major festivals 3 with the participation of TFI The Orchestra of the Mariinski Theatre 31 soloists who share a passion for contemporary worldwide. of Saint-Petersburg QUARTiER music. They are employed on permanent contracts To celebrate its 30th anniversary the Ensemble running time: 130’ in high definition which makes it possible that they devote themselves is giving a concert on the 17th of March 2007 with with 5.1 surround sound entirely to the performance and creation of its founder Pierre Boulez and its present music Corinna Irma Guigolachvili LATiN Paquito contemporary work. At the same time they are director Susanna Mälkki conducting. They are joined Marchesa Melibea Anna Kiknadze training young musicians in the music of our time. by the other great living composer and conductor d’Rivera & Chano Under the artistic direction of the Finn Susanna Peter Eötvös who will interpret his colleague’s Contessa di Folleville Larissa Youdina “F!n'0ly 5 ,7u9 ,re'< Mälkki the Ensemble works in close collaboration music. Madama Cortese Anastasia Belyaeva Domínguez with composers who want to explore instrumental The programme for the Arte special will Cavalier Belfiore Dimitri Voropaev techniques and develop projects that interweave comprise Schönberg’s Lied der Waldtaube (12’), (>r t89 &nG : t89 music, dance, theatre, film, video and visual arts. conducted by Pierre Boulez, two pieces by Boulez, Conte de Libenskof Daniil Shtoda recorded for television by Robin New works are commissioned on a regular basis Dérive (6’) and Mémorial (5’), both conducted by be'r, 3@mM8!ng P'r-s Lord Sidney Edouard Tsanga Lough produced by Opus Arte in thus enriching the ensemble’s repertoire and the Peter Eötvös, and Ligeti’s Kammerkonzert (17’), Don Profondo Nikolai Kamensky association with Universal Music music of our time. Musical education, concerts for conducted by Susanna Mälkki. Barone de Trombonok running time: 95’ in high definition children, creative workshops for students, training There will also be Messiaen’s Couleurs de la LeJ* Figaros J'!,!ng (>r” programmes for future performers, conductors Cité Celeste (16’), conducted by Pierre Boulez, and Vladislav Ouspensky with 5.1 surround sound and composers form a large part of their work. interview material with all three conductors. Gioachino Rossini settled in Paris in 1824 and Don Alvaro Alerei Safiouline became director of the Théâtre-Italien. For the Don Prudenzio Alerei Tanovitsky Over the magnificent sets of the Quartier Latin coronation of Charles X he composed Il Viaggio a Don Luigino Andrei Iliouchnikov in Giancarlo del Monaco’s Bohème, the Real ran a Reims, his last Italian opera, which was performed jazz cycle featuring some of the world’s greatest in the presence of the King for the first time on Maddalena Elena Sommer artists. Opus Arte was there to record a fantastic June 19th 1825. Three more sold out performances tête a tête of two stars of different Latin sounds followed before the composer withdrew the Running Time: 130 Minutes and styles: the veteran Cuban saxophonist Paquito piece without further explanation. Parts of the d’Rivera and the creator of the ‘New Flamenco music were re-used for the Comte Ory in 1828. Sound’, Spanish pianist Chano Domínguez. An adaptation of Il Viaggio appeared under the title Soon to be released worldwide on CD and DVD Andremo a Parigi? depicting the revolutionary days in This production at the Châtelet was the first by Universal Music. the capitol in February 1848 and in 1854 Un Viaggio in Paris since 1825, a coproduction with the a Vienna was produced to celebrate the wedding Mariinski Theatre in St. Petersburg. The witty of Emperor Franz Josef with the Duchess Elisabeth stage production is by Alain Maratrat, a long time of Bavaria. Thereafter the opera disappeared actor with Peter Brook. The brilliant cast was “W'rA, c>w&rf%D, Kag-. … t8-s completely for more than a century before it was recruited from the Mariinski Academy for Young &nc>%)t&r $!0D X&m'!= (>r&v&r successfully revived by and Luca Singers, directed by Larissa Gergieva, a renowned Ronconi at the Rossini Festival in . This was accompanist and teacher, her brother Valery $7!E&= != t89 8-st>ry : L',!= the beginning of a new life for this charming opera Gergiev conducting the Mariinski Theatre Orchestra J5yy …” which does however cause severe casting problems on stage. El Mundo for most opera houses. Luigi Balocchi’s libretto after Corinne ou l’Italie by Madame de Staël unites representatives from France, Germany, , , Poland, England, “T1 say t8&r9 J*s c8&"-stry Greece and Russia on stage who, besides entertaining each other, have one message for us: ;MwN&= t8&A -s UZ &n>unS t1 Peace in Europe. This opera playing on the cultural diversity in Europe is as relevant to us as it was to a z#l'!= v'< u9 zp&7i&nceG Parisian audience after the Napoleonic wars. t8-s &v&)!ng … th'){ G|G t89 c>nc&r< h*s ;N&= X_>rdeG …” El Pais Poorhouse!)t&rn',i>Newslettern 'DNo11 PoorhouseJanuary - March 2007 !)t&rn',i>n'D "%+-. ?@A lgA7

ENSEMBLE iNTERCONTEMPORAiN AT directed for television by Michel Follin produced by LGM for Arte running time: 43’ in high definition above: & bottom left: Ensemble Contemporain with 5.1 surround sound below from top: Pierre Boulez Susanna Mälkki © Aymeric Warmé-Janville 30 Susanna Mälkki © Tanja Ahola In 1976 Pierre Boulez founded the Ensemble Based at the Cité de la Musique in Paris since 1995, Intercontemporain with the help of the French the Ensemble performs and records in France, ministry of culture. The Ensemble is made up of tours abroad and participates in major festivals 31 soloists who share a passion for contemporary worldwide. music. They are employed on permanent contracts To celebrate its 30th anniversary the Ensemble which makes it possible that they devote themselves is giving a concert on the 17th of March 2007 with entirely to the performance and creation of its founder Pierre Boulez and its present music contemporary work. At the same time they are director Susanna Mälkki conducting. They are joined training young musicians in the music of our time. by the other great living composer and conductor Under the artistic direction of the Finn Susanna Peter Eötvös who will interpret his colleague’s Mälkki the Ensemble works in close collaboration music. with composers who want to explore instrumental The programme for the Arte special will techniques and develop projects that interweave comprise Schönberg’s Lied der Waldtaube (12’), music, dance, theatre, film, video and visual arts. conducted by Pierre Boulez, two pieces by Boulez, New works are commissioned on a regular basis Dérive (6’) and Mémorial (5’), both conducted by thus enriching the ensemble’s repertoire and the Peter Eötvös, and Ligeti’s Kammerkonzert (17’), music of our time. Musical education, concerts for conducted by Susanna Mälkki. children, creative workshops for students, training There will also be Messiaen’s Couleurs de la programmes for future performers, conductors Cité Celeste (16’), conducted by Pierre Boulez, and and composers form a large part of their work. interview material with all three conductors.

PoorhouseJanuary - March 2007 !)t&rn',i>n'D d8>%Ql9 V!0D ?@A lgA €'= gogS & K>nM9 sight. The director offers us another look to help us try to participate in the dazzling, incredible density of this period, and also to understand Van Gogh’s research and style, and comprehend his work in all its complexity. An exceptional source that will help us penetrate into Vincent’s daily life is his correspondence with the people close to him (his mother, his sister Wil, Jo, Gauguin), and his brother Theo in particular. In his letters Van Gogh writes about his art in specific, precise and often poetic terms. He shares his efforts, his different experiments, his questions about painting, his doubts and his solitude. He seems to be trying to eliminate the gap between pictures and reality in this way, through an ongoing description. The letters, their eloquence and wealth of factual details relating to the artist’s work and daily life, directed for television by Thomas Grimm make up the film’s framework. They enable us to produced by LGM & Opéra National immerse ourselves profoundly in the painter’s work and the context in which it was accomplished. We de Paris in association with France 3 work with the original text, mingling different voices running time: each 30’ in high definition ViNCENT VAN GOGH: that are easy to identify: Vincent himself, also Theo, with 5.1 surround sound Wil, their mother, Gauguin ... like an abundance of Derniers Jours à Auvers letters reaching out to each other through time and space. In all the works that have been consecrated to Van flowering, a sudden acceleration in the artist’s life The fabric of the film’s construction is the Gogh, his life has often predominated over his art. as he approaches the peak of his art. Does he know intricately woven text: an original ‘composition’, Ever since his death, Van Gogh’s personality has it? He’s been searching for his path for years. The written like a work of fiction based on extracts THE DiARY OF ONE WHO DiSAPPEARED fascinated people: on one hand the prices of his people around him encourage him in his artistic from the letters, contemporary accounts of the paintings have soared to undreamed-of heights, on direction: primarily his brother Theo who supports period, along with present-day commentaries and the other hand his life intrigues us with its poverty him financially, but also Docteur Gachet and a few studies of the artist’s work. Critics, auctioneers, & and excesses, his extraordinary relationship with his close friends and relatives like his sister-in-law editors, historians, philosophers, psychoanalysts, The running of these BLUEBEARD’S brother Theo, and his strangely intentional death at Johanna Bonger (aka Jo), or Gauguin. Although scholars specializing in Van Gogh’s correspondence o0% sare a gift to schedulers. the age of 37 ... they’re worried about him, they can’t help being and international experts all contribute their Reiner E. Moritz will produce Selective research has come up with 76 books, fascinated by the painter’s work and achievements analysis, intermixing their points of view. three feature films, and eight television films, all and they try to understand the direction he is The narration is spoken by Jo (voice-over CASTLE THE DIARY OF ONE introductory documentaries focused on his life rather than his work ... these taking. uniquely). Her position as Vincent’s sister-in-law WHO DISAPPEARED to make up 90’ slots each. approaches have usually pigeonholed the artist as Van Gogh tries to pierce the secret of light (she was married to his brother Theo) makes her by Leoš Janácek After Hugue Gall’s Alternatively the DIARY could the popular and misunderstood hero, a role that and atmosphere, driving himself further and an interesting witness, close to Vincent yet distant Janácek’s song cycle for tenor, alto, three female supplants the remarkable nature of his pictorial further in his research. He wants to explore all the at the same time. In fact Theo only survived his success with ‘L’Heure voices and piano, first performed in his hometown also be broadcast with Dennis approach, or at any rate dissociates the two. pictorial experiments and tries to understand the brother by a few months and after his death it of Brno in 1921, has had an odd genesis. In May Marks’ documentary in which Ian Peter Knapp wants to retrace the painter’s Impressionists, the Divisionists and the Pointillists. was Jo who worked to ensure Vincent’s reputation Espagnole’ and ‘Gianni 1916 a collection of anonymous poems appeared in Bostridge goes on a search for the creative journey from his arrival in Auvers-sur-Oise He applies his paint to the canvas straight from the posthumously, battling both for her own survival Schicchi’ Gerard Mortier the popular Brno newspaper Lidové noviny telling the on the 20th May to his death on the 29th July 1890. tube. He paints at night. He works incredibly fast. and the recognition of his talent. The film will unfold story of a young farm boy who became infatuated truth behind the diary. During this brief period Van Gogh produces He paints like a man in a frenzy. The director Peter in chronological order, from painting to painting, has come up with another with a Gypsy girl and left his family for them. They over 80 paintings and 65 drawings – 10% of his Knapp has chosen to see this exploit as an artistic covering the last 70 days of Van Gogh’s life. exciting double bill for the were published as Z pera samoukova (From the Pen life’s work – including major works like the Portrait achievement, not a fit of madness. In his view, no of a Self-Taught Man), but since have been proved to For this Paris Opera production, the Palais of Docteur Gachet, the most expensive picture matter how dramatic the choice may be to die at 2006/2007 season at Palais be by Ozef Kalda (1871 - 1921). Kalda was a Czech Garnier will be the Castle, and sometimes the in the world. Step by step, the film follows this 37, Vincent Van Gogh seems to have found what he directed for television by Peter railway official with a penchant for writing fiction. action would take place in other parts of the opera extraordinary adventure in which the painter’s was looking for and carried it out. Knapp produced by Camera Lucida Garnier. The underlying His first short story mocking his colleagues on the house, (for example on the main staircase at the artistic achievement has often been occulted in the Peter Knapp will plunge us into the world of Productions running time: 52’ in high and unifying motive this railways got him into considerable trouble with his very beginning, on the roof, in the basement, etc.). eyes of the public by his tragic end. an artist who strived to see the invisible and to employers, so he was posted to a small rural station Video projections will allow the audience to follow The Auvers period can be perceived as a final interpret to the ultimate degree what lies beyond definition time is the ‘Power of Love’, in punishment where his love for writing increased. the singers. The seven doors will be illustrated by There he completed his most enduring novel The seven curtains made from seven different materials. Lads and then undertook this bizarre collection of and nobody would be the French republic at the end of World War 1 and poems, even providing the above column to throw the search for a venue acceptable to the painter in better suited to stage these readers off the scent. Janácek was an avid reader of order to expose these works in the right way. We Lidové noviny – the newspaper was also the source two mini operas than La THE DIARY OF ONE also witness the renovation of the Orangerie and of the original cartoons for The Cunning Little Vixen the re-installation of Monet’s masterworks just as Fura dels Baus. Best known – and in 1917, the year after their publication, WHO DISAPPEARED Leoš Janácek the painter had wanted them to be seen when he Janácek began to write his song-cycle (though he finally decided on this place. for their performance at never himself named it as such). (1854 - 1928) the opening ceremony of For this Paris production the conductor Gustav sololists Hannah Esther (soprano) Kuhn has made a special orchestration of the piano Michael King (tenor) “Sudd&)ly I haG t89 X&v/l',i>= : h>^ Kag-c'D the Olympics score for an orchestra of the same size as the one Ky c>nG -s. I t2H{ %k Ky L'l}9. S!nc9 th'< ,!m9 I needed for Bluebeard’s Castle. Running Time: 30’ and the movie ‘The h'v9 sc'rc/ly haG 'ny Z8&r Kod/D.” Perfume’ La Fura dels BLUEBEARD’S CASTLE BLUEBEARD’S Baus is a theatre collective “I9 KZ!f’s p&),i'D -s t89 "!~>r : J't&r by Béla Bartók CASTLE v239 *+peW -s c>)+t')tly ;&!nj KoO!fieG by t89 Béla Bartók’s opera, written in 1911 – a youthful Béla Bartók LES NYMPHEAS who’s language is strong, work of immense promise and assurance – is ch'ng!ng \ky X9fleWeG != !<, 'nG v-cS !"Vu6 !< (1881 - 1945) In 1893 Claude Monet bought some additional Impressionist Movement, decided to devote himself physical, passionate, perhaps the one Debussy did not write. It was land in Giverny to lay out a garden with pond. He entirely to an implausible dream. A dream which had $!tS 0!f9 'nG K>v&m&)<.” Bartók’s singular foray into the genre: on hearing sololists Beatrice Uria-Monzon even got into trouble with the local peasants when been on his mind for over twenty years. Finally, in restless and has a hard it, one would certainly wish he had left us a more Willard White he diverted a branch of the river to secure the 1914, as World War I was about to erupt, he chose beat about it. In the words fulfilling legacy. Bluebeard’s Castle is an exercise in Running Time: 30’ water supply. Over the next few years he created to launch his own battle, that of the Water Lilies “I69 l'nYsc'p6 : J't&r 'nG X9fleWi>)s h'v9 symbolist drama; and Bartók’s score aptly serves something as he says, for the pleasure of the eye project. ;_@m9 Ky H;3pi>=. IR 'r9 ('r ;R>nG Ky HlG of one of its members, La its purpose – it is here that we may experience and to have motifs to be painted. His many paintings of water lilies and the K'= c>w&rs 'nG d6t!t9 &v&ryt8!ng I J')< t1 the composer at his most sensual, as he strives Orchestre del’Opéra national de Paris The Films d’ici programme Les Nympheas by progress towards the famous panels which now are Fura is a socio-political bar-after-bar at creating atmosphere to Béla Balázs’ +uccNeG != c>)vR!ng v'< I (N/D. I d6,rm 3@m9 Conductor Gustav Kuhn Jean-Paul Fargier concentrates on the painter’s exhibited again at the museum of the Orangerie superb text; pointing the way to the Bartók of The work in these surroundings, the heroic struggle is well documented. Sasha Guitry filmed ‘Ceux de ... I +t'r< >v&r ag'!= ... AnG I h>p9 3@mM8!ng $!0D phenomenon. The viewers Stage Direction La Fura dels Baus Miraculous Mandarin (1919) – even the much later against old age, the loss of friends, the horrors of chez nous’ with a sequence showing Monet at work `n'0ly c@m9 ?@A 31 K'ny 9ff>rts.” will certainly be in for Concerto for Orchestra – and yet wholly different. the first world war, progressive blindness and the in Giverny. Newsreel footage, letters, photographs exciting visuals and strong Here the composer’s sole preoccupation with continuous quest for yet another view point, yet and interviews with Monet experts chart the textures and timbral effects far outweigh his later another painterly solution to the light effects and progression towards the completion of the great directed by Jean-Paul Fargier emotions as these two experiments; a world apart from the more angular the colours of the changing seasons. cycle of water lilies which consists of 22 paintings and idiomatic Bartók we are more familiar with. In 1901 Monet enlarged his garden paradise covering nearly 500 square meters of canvas. produced by Les Films d’ici in works by Janácek and Here, listeners will be able to recall sporadic only to see it heavily destroyed by the floods in We witness the painter’s self doubts when work co-operation with Le Musée de influences of Debussy – whom Bartók greatly 1910. The reconstruction was a mammoth task does not progress as it should, we learn about the l’Orangerie running time: 52’ in high Bártok unfold. admired – especially in the orchestral writing; and and occupied the painter for quite some time. At friendship between Monet and President Georges glimpses of Richard Strauss in the work’s operatic the age of 74, Claude Monet, the patriarch of the Clemenceau, the spontaneous gift of the cycle to definition treatment. Poorhouse!)t&rn',i>Newslettern 'DNo11 PoorhouseJanuary - March 2007 !)t&rn',i>n'D €'= gogS & K>nM9 sight. The director offers us another look to help us try to participate in the dazzling, incredible density of this period, and also to understand Van Gogh’s research and style, and comprehend his work in all its complexity. An exceptional source that will help us penetrate into Vincent’s daily life is his correspondence with the people close to him (his mother, his sister Wil, Jo, Gauguin), and his brother Theo in particular. In his letters Van Gogh writes about his art in specific, precise and often poetic terms. He shares his efforts, his different experiments, his questions about painting, his doubts and his solitude. He seems to be trying to eliminate the gap between pictures and reality in this way, through an ongoing description. The letters, their eloquence and wealth of factual details relating to the artist’s work and daily life, make up the film’s framework. They enable us to immerse ourselves profoundly in the painter’s work and the context in which it was accomplished. We work with the original text, mingling different voices ViNCENT VAN GOGH: that are easy to identify: Vincent himself, also Theo, Wil, their mother, Gauguin ... like an abundance of Derniers Jours à Auvers letters reaching out to each other through time and space. In all the works that have been consecrated to Van flowering, a sudden acceleration in the artist’s life The fabric of the film’s construction is the Gogh, his life has often predominated over his art. as he approaches the peak of his art. Does he know intricately woven text: an original ‘composition’, Ever since his death, Van Gogh’s personality has it? He’s been searching for his path for years. The written like a work of fiction based on extracts fascinated people: on one hand the prices of his people around him encourage him in his artistic from the letters, contemporary accounts of the paintings have soared to undreamed-of heights, on direction: primarily his brother Theo who supports period, along with present-day commentaries and the other hand his life intrigues us with its poverty him financially, but also Docteur Gachet and a few studies of the artist’s work. Critics, auctioneers, and excesses, his extraordinary relationship with his close friends and relatives like his sister-in-law editors, historians, philosophers, psychoanalysts, brother Theo, and his strangely intentional death at Johanna Bonger (aka Jo), or Gauguin. Although scholars specializing in Van Gogh’s correspondence the age of 37 ... they’re worried about him, they can’t help being and international experts all contribute their Selective research has come up with 76 books, fascinated by the painter’s work and achievements analysis, intermixing their points of view. three feature films, and eight television films, all and they try to understand the direction he is The narration is spoken by Jo (voice-over focused on his life rather than his work ... these taking. uniquely). Her position as Vincent’s sister-in-law approaches have usually pigeonholed the artist as Van Gogh tries to pierce the secret of light (she was married to his brother Theo) makes her the popular and misunderstood hero, a role that and atmosphere, driving himself further and an interesting witness, close to Vincent yet distant supplants the remarkable nature of his pictorial further in his research. He wants to explore all the at the same time. In fact Theo only survived his approach, or at any rate dissociates the two. pictorial experiments and tries to understand the brother by a few months and after his death it Peter Knapp wants to retrace the painter’s Impressionists, the Divisionists and the Pointillists. was Jo who worked to ensure Vincent’s reputation creative journey from his arrival in Auvers-sur-Oise He applies his paint to the canvas straight from the posthumously, battling both for her own survival on the 20th May to his death on the 29th July 1890. tube. He paints at night. He works incredibly fast. and the recognition of his talent. The film will unfold During this brief period Van Gogh produces He paints like a man in a frenzy. The director Peter in chronological order, from painting to painting, over 80 paintings and 65 drawings – 10% of his Knapp has chosen to see this exploit as an artistic covering the last 70 days of Van Gogh’s life. life’s work – including major works like the Portrait achievement, not a fit of madness. In his view, no of Docteur Gachet, the most expensive picture matter how dramatic the choice may be to die at in the world. Step by step, the film follows this 37, Vincent Van Gogh seems to have found what he directed for television by Peter extraordinary adventure in which the painter’s was looking for and carried it out. Knapp produced by Camera Lucida artistic achievement has often been occulted in the Peter Knapp will plunge us into the world of Productions running time: 52’ in high eyes of the public by his tragic end. an artist who strived to see the invisible and to The Auvers period can be perceived as a final interpret to the ultimate degree what lies beyond definition

the French republic at the end of World War 1 and the search for a venue acceptable to the painter in order to expose these works in the right way. We also witness the renovation of the Orangerie and the re-installation of Monet’s masterworks just as the painter had wanted them to be seen when he finally decided on this place.

“Sudd&)ly I haG t89 X&v/l',i>= : h>^ Kag-c'D Ky c>nG -s. I t2H{ %k Ky L'l}9. S!nc9 th'< ,!m9 I h'v9 sc'rc/ly haG 'ny Z8&r Kod/D.”

“I9 KZ!f’s p&),i'D -s t89 "!~>r : J't&r LES NYMPHEAS v239 *+peW -s c>)+t')tly ;&!nj KoO!fieG by t89 In 1893 Claude Monet bought some additional Impressionist Movement, decided to devote himself ch'ng!ng \ky X9fleWeG != !<, 'nG v-cS !"Vu6 !< land in Giverny to lay out a garden with pond. He entirely to an implausible dream. A dream which had $!tS 0!f9 'nG K>v&m&)<.” even got into trouble with the local peasants when been on his mind for over twenty years. Finally, in he diverted a branch of the river to secure the 1914, as World War I was about to erupt, he chose water supply. Over the next few years he created to launch his own battle, that of the Water Lilies “I69 l'nYsc'p6 : J't&r 'nG X9fleWi>)s h'v9 something as he says, for the pleasure of the eye project. ;_@m9 Ky H;3pi>=. IR 'r9 ('r ;R>nG Ky HlG and to have motifs to be painted. His many paintings of water lilies and the K'= c>w&rs 'nG d6t!t9 &v&ryt8!ng I J')< t1 The Films d’ici programme Les Nympheas by progress towards the famous panels which now are Jean-Paul Fargier concentrates on the painter’s exhibited again at the museum of the Orangerie +uccNeG != c>)vR!ng v'< I (N/D. I d6,rm 3@m9 work in these surroundings, the heroic struggle is well documented. Sasha Guitry filmed ‘Ceux de ... I +t'r< >v&r ag'!= ... AnG I h>p9 3@mM8!ng $!0D against old age, the loss of friends, the horrors of chez nous’ with a sequence showing Monet at work `n'0ly c@m9 ?@A 31 K'ny 9ff>rts.” the first world war, progressive blindness and the in Giverny. Newsreel footage, letters, photographs continuous quest for yet another view point, yet and interviews with Monet experts chart the another painterly solution to the light effects and progression towards the completion of the great directed by Jean-Paul Fargier the colours of the changing seasons. cycle of water lilies which consists of 22 paintings In 1901 Monet enlarged his garden paradise covering nearly 500 square meters of canvas. produced by Les Films d’ici in only to see it heavily destroyed by the floods in We witness the painter’s self doubts when work co-operation with Le Musée de 1910. The reconstruction was a mammoth task does not progress as it should, we learn about the l’Orangerie running time: 52’ in high and occupied the painter for quite some time. At friendship between Monet and President Georges the age of 74, Claude Monet, the patriarch of the Clemenceau, the spontaneous gift of the cycle to definition

PoorhouseJanuary - March 2007 !)t&rn',i>n'D d10&))-s K'rgs’ Oi'ry

THE DiARY OF ONE WHO DiSAPPEARED Zdenka had written an unflattering set of memoirs The story has haunted me directed & produced by Dennis of the composer, but they were left incomplete on for almost 30 years. It is Marks running time: 59’ 16:9 the eve of the Second World War. Various attempts DigiBeta were made to reconstruct them, but again, the a tale of forbidden love Communist authorities were not eager to publish. We owe it to the tireless Janacek scholar John Tyrrell that this material has finally been made and multiple deceptions, I have always wanted to make a film about this available in English. However, mysteries persist. My most intoxicating of 20th-century composers. In of obsession, inspiration friends in Brno introduced me to the composer the early 1990s, after the collapse of Communist Milos Stedron and the archivist Svatava Pribanova, Czechoslovakia, a wealth of new material began to and betrayal. It concerns a both of whom had unpublished information come to light. What the film needed was a detective to disclose. One fascinating detail was a letter great artist, an attractive to piece together the fragmentary story of Janacek’s written in 1927, which Stedron saw 25 years ago, Indian summer. suggesting intimacy between Janacek and Kamila. woman and a mystery that Five years ago, I realised I had something better But the letter has disappeared. Was this another - a singing detective. I had known the tenor Ian has puzzled scholars for instance of protective Socialist embarrassment Bostridge since he had exchanged the academic life on the great composer’s behalf? When I was in for the career of a singer. We had worked together three generations. Brno for the anniversary of Janacek’s birth, there at English National Opera, and when I returned to were some scholars who believed that Zdenka’s television, I asked him if he wanted to participate memoirs should never have been published, and In 1917, the Czech composer Leos Janacek in my detective story. Not only was he intrigued who resented outsiders meddling with the personal met and fell in love with a young Jewess, Kamila by the project; he was in the middle of learning the secrets of their greatest 20th-century composer. Stosslova. He was 63, she was 25. He was locked in Diary. However, his vertiginous career meant that it When we met Kamila’s son Otto, he gave us a very a loveless marriage, she was the contented mother was three years before we were able to collaborate. different, far from complimentary picture of Janacek of two young sons. After decades of neglect, he had But he did have something to bring to the table. and his mother’s feelings for him. He also corrected at last become something of a celebrity. She was He had come across a scholar from Janacek’s home a familiar myth about the reasons for Janacek’s final the wife of an antiques dealer, living quietly in a town of Brno called Alena Nemcova, who had illness. However, he was not a witness to a further backwater of rural Moravia. unearthed the solution to the first of the mysteries. mystery - the deathbed change Janacek made to his The narrative is as old as time: the infatuation She had found out who the writer of the verses was will, bequeathing a substantial slice of his royalties of a man in late middle-age for a vivacious young - a disappointed minor author by the name of Ozef to Kamila. And we shall probably never know the woman. So where’s the mystery? What makes it Kalda. In a letter to a friend, Kalda confessed to reason for Kamila’s husband allowing the liaison remarkable is the effect this “dark-eyed gypsy” passing off his fake bucolic poems as the work of a to continue - except, perhaps to guess that for a had on the white-haired composer. For the next self-taught country boy. stateless Jew born in Lvov, it was worth indulging 10 years, an unbroken stream of masterpieces However, like a Russian matrioshka doll, this the fantasies of a Czech celebrity. As for the reasons poured from Janacek’s pen - four operas, two string mystery concealed another and another. Janacek for the gap in the composition of the Diary and all quartets, two concertos, a stirring Sinfonietta, and had written the first 10 songs at breakneck speed, the other puzzles, you will have to watch my film. a mighty liturgy, almost all of them inspired by firing off letters to his new love describing his Stosslova. Most intriguing of these autumn fruits is progress. Then he stopped, halfway through the Dennis Marks the work he sketched a few days after the meeting, cycle, at the point where the young farmer is about the strange, obsessive song-cycle known as the to consummate his passion. He put the work aside Diary of One Who Disappeared. It is a setting of for 18 months. verses supposedly by a young Moravian farmer, who Why did the infatuated composer abandon had been seduced by a Roma girl and had run away his love gift and bury it in a chest? Why did to live with her. The poems had been published in Kamila, who was evidently indifferent to Janacek’s a newspaper a year earlier and Janacek had been music and devoted to her husband and children, hoarding them, as if waiting for an excuse to set continue to entertain Janacek’s obsession for them to music. more than 10 years? Why did her husband allow In the composer’s imagination, Stosslova, the the correspondence to continue? And why, in the young bourgeois mother, was reinvented as the composer’s final weeks, did she agree to visit him sexually provocative Gypsy of the poems. Within and sleep in his country cottage? days of meeting her, in the little spa town of When we visited Moravia, Ian and I began to Luhacovice, he sent her flowers and a breathlessly discover that, like the story of Kalda’s “sleight Ian Bostridge & Ruby Philogene indiscreet letter. Under the influence of his new of hand”, some of the answers had always been passion, he began to work feverishly on the songs. available. They had simply slept for 45 years in the This brings us to the first mystery. Janacek was black hole of Communist Czechoslovakia. Soviet unaware that the poems themselves were an societies were particularly sensitive to the foibles invention. The farmer never existed, and the verses of their national heroes. More than 700 letters were a fake. They were the first of many deceptions from Janacek to Kamila had been lying unread in and self-deceptions woven into the final decade of private hands, but it was not until the early 1990s Janacek’s life. that the full collection was published. Janacek’s wife Poorhouse!)t&rn',i>Newslettern 'DNo10 )%rR&C’s c!nd&r/011l5 Aurélie Dupont Rudolf Nureyev © Christian Leiber - Opéra national de Paris

directed for television by Thomas CiNDERELLA Grimm produced by Telmondis running time: 128’ in high definition After success with It is the period of the 30s and 40s, a moment in with 5.1 Surround Sound Prokofiev’s life when he had returned to the USSR Balanchine’s ‘Jewels’ and and felt some sort of hidden nostalgia for the west. ‘Three by Roland Petit’ Cinderella is not very Russian. It is his most Western work. The music does not only set the tone but the PHI is pleased to announce dances themselves are out of synch with the story. CiNDERELLA It is this being out of synch which we tried to get Sergei Prokofiev a world distribution deal across, and that is why we have transposed the fairy (1891 - 1953) tale into the world of the cinema. Nevertheless with Telmondis for the the workings of the plot have not been changed upcoming recording of in this version. You will find the two ridiculous Choreography Rudolf Nureyev and diabolical sisters, the terrible stepmother, the Musical Director Kevin Rhodes Nurejev’s ‘Cinderella’ at father torn between his new wife and this young girl – Cinderella – his own daughter. He knows full Sets Petrika Ionesco the Paris opera. well that she is ill-treated and has to withdraw into Costumes Hanae Mori a dream world, a world which is closed to her in Lighting Guido Levi As there is a lack of full length ballets Prokofiev’s reality, in order to survive. Cinderella was a welcome addition to the repertoire The drama of Cinderella lies in the passage of in 1945 when Rastislav Zakharov choreographed time, in the fear that her dream will evaporate, that Orchestra of the Paris Opera the first performance at the Bolshoi Theatre in she will squander her youth in unhappiness. That is The soloists of the Paris Opera Ballet Moscow. Rudolf Nureyev’s version of this ballet was why she disappears when she is transfigured by love. plus: first seen in Paris in 1986. Here are a few thoughts I myself see eternal life as the supreme luxury …! Aurélie Dupont of the choreographer at the time of creation: The ballet Cinderella has become a dream “The Cinderella story is one of the oldest fairy about the film world. A dream of white evening Hervé Moreau tales in the world and has spawned at least 300 dress, slightly tinged with pink to pay homage to Wilfried Romoli different versions. Prokofiev took an interest in the innocence, slightly silvery also because Cinderella Cinderella story and began to turn it into a ballet in is a character of today. She only has one dream: 1940 He only finished the orchestration at the end to become a star with all the material wealth that Running Time: 128 Minutes of the Second World War. goes with it. In my version of Cinderella the fairy has When Petrika Ionesco whispered something turned into a film producer, into the only character about a Hollywood Cinderella into my ear I was in modern mythology who by the magic of his art very reluctant at first. I feared for the abusive can transform a pumpkin into a limousine.” deformation of Perrault’s fairy tale. Do I regret that Rudolf Nureyev this idea worked its way into my head to a point that it became an obsession? I finally agreed and began immediately to work on the choreography in this sense.

PoorhouseJanuary - March 2007 !)t&rn',i>n'D 12 bac+tag9 NEW OUT ON DVD PRESS REViEW Two more titles distributed by PHI have been This is what the US press had to say about the released on DVD: transmission of Balanchine’s JEWELS on Great 1. ZOROASTRE by Jean-Philippe Rameau Performances: This is the fifth opera of Rameau PHI is handling, and we are particularly proud that this recording was made at Drottningholm, one of the very few “I9 O-st!nc< ;e'%,i6 gl>^ t8r>unS theatres of the time still in service. The extra eacS : t89 t8rN9 3eWi>)s, *s h@mag6 t1 feature will give viewers an insight into the workings of this theatre along with interviews by Pierre Audi, t89 c%0,%r'D ,raO!,i>)s : B'l'nc8!n9’s Christophe Rousset and Amir Hosseinpour and ad>pteG Fr'nc9 (“Em&r'lYs”), N&^ Y>r{ extracts from the opera and rehearsals. C!ty (“R%Vi6”) 'nG : t89 .‚'r-st R%ƒi5 (“Di'm>nYs”) != v-cS 89 J*s X'-3eG. …5 +%"p,u>%s g!a ?@A Gre'< P&rf>rm'nc6.” The New York Times

“A c2HD X6t!t9 *s Aun%+< ;e'rs d>w=. I9 u>r{ +t'nYs %k L'r,-c%l'rly u/0D >= t/l&v-+i>=. I-s -s Ou9 != l'rg9 L'r< t1 3&)+!,!v9 c'm&r5 u>r{, !)+%7!nj DOMiNiCK DUNNE - iN th'< „i&w&rs gM t89 (%0D Ke*+%r9 : SEARCH OF JUSTiCE B'l'nc8!n9’s `n/ly $r>un8< L'E&r)s, *s u/0D *s %k-cl239 +,uOi6 : t89 K'ny “De'r RH;&r<, Cl'r5 'nG J%0i5, d&m'nO!ng 3Hl2s 'nG L*s-d9-d& †.” The Washington Post I [%+< s'^ t89 DVD, I Xe'0ly l>veG !<. I t8!){ b> h'v9 d>n9 '= MORE REViEWS ‰ra>rO!n'ry [Hb. “A (')t*+,-. Ot/0l1 … J234 C%r5 W'rm6< Reg'rYs d6&7v6 t89 ,!tl9 : ;6< Ot/0l1 != D@"!)-c{” t89 c>)t&"p>r'ry sc&n9.” Filomusica NEW PROGRAMMES NOW AVAiLABLE FOR DELiVERY LOHENGRiN and introductory documentary 240’ & 68’ THE DARK SIDE OF THE FBI 55’ DOMiNiCK DUNNE - iN SEARCH OF JUSTiCE 52’ LADY MACBETH OF MTSENSK and introductory documentary 170’ & 55’ ZOROASTRE and introductory documentary 140’ & 60’

MiDEM 2007 During MIDEM Poorhouse International will be at stand R31.42, tel. +33 (0)4 92 99 88 61. Our Avant Premiere showreel will be screened on 2. Roland Petit’s CARMEN and LE JEUNE HOMME “I-s BH8‡m9 -s 5 gl>7i>%s Wednesday, January 24th. ET LA MORT. These two classics by Roland Petit in a new recording from Paris Opera Ballet are part of „!nO-c',i>= : ,raO!,i>n'D the Triology distributed by PHI. +tag!ng '< !ts !mag!n',!v9, X_re',!v9 ;6< … t8-s T&r+i>= AWARDS LES PALADINS - Grand Prix Audiovisual of the 7!C'0s t89 Z9ffir/00e L5 Sc'l5 Académie Charles Cros and the Diapason d’Or wroOuc,i>= : 2OO3 … V%< I 2006 for best DVD of the year. t8!){ t89 U&Jc@m&r [%+< $!)s LE JEUNE HOMME - SATIS HD Film Festival t89 day (>r !ts \8N&r, '0D-X>%nG BUDDHA’S PAINTER by Thomas Gonschior won T&7v9.” first prize at the Filmfest Eberswalde, a new but Alan Blyth, Gramophone December 2006 very prestigious doc festival in Germany

CARTES POSTALES has been officially selected to show in the 2007 Dance on Camera Festival which runs at the Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center from January 3 to 7; and January 12 and 13 This ballet production is part of a series comprising AL ANDALUS, RAVE, CARTES POSTALES and SECOND FRAME (26’ each). 17-18 Margaret Street JAMES ELLROY - AMERICAN DOG by Clara and London W1W 8RP Robert Kuperberg and PÄRNOGRAPHY by Hardi telephone/fax: +44 (0)20 7436 8663 Volmer were selected for the 25th Festival du Film email [email protected] sur l’Art in Montreal, March 8th to 18th 2007. Poorhouse!)t&rn',i>Newslettern 'DNo11