This Is Opera

Seven years old Fedya lives in a beautiful town on the sea shore. His life is always full of funny adventures.

The film documents the production of Anna Ķirse’s contemporary opera in the forests of Finland.

Royal Opera favourite Bryn Terfel heads the cast for this new production of Donizetti’s comedy of domestic drama across two generations. The witty story of a middle-aged man whose supposed young wife runs rings around him – with her own ulterior romantic purpose in mind – has long delighted and surprised audiences, not least as presented with the sparkle of its music and the virtuoso skill of its performers. Damiano Michieletto’s exhilarating production shows how contemporary the characters still are and how immediate and touching the story remains.

Tales of opera.

Described by Tchaikovsky as ‘lyric scenes’, Eugene Onegin receives a spectacular reinterpretation from the Norwegian director Stefan Herheim. His productions create controversy and excitement around Europe, and here he takes Pushkin’s story of illusion, disaffection and frustrated love, and places the protagonists – world-weary Onegin and naïve, passionate Tatyana – in a triple temporal perspective, referencing the theatrical present, the period of the work’s composition, and the pageant of Russia’s history. Mariss Jansons, renowned for his mastery of Tchaikovsky’s symphonies, conducts this performance from Amsterdam’s Muziektheater.

The year 2019, declared the Year of Stanislaw Moniuszko (18191872) by the Sejm of the Republic of Poland and UNESCO, abounds in a series of events commemorating the work of the father of the Polish national opera. The Opera Nova in Bydgoszcz has also joined the celebrations of the 200th anniversary of the birth of Stanislaw Moniuszko, publishing DVDs with the performance of Halka in a star cast, directed by Natalia Babiska and under the baton of Piotr Wajrak. The producers of the Bydgoszcz show suggest a refreshed, reinterpreted view of Halka, finding a broader historical and social background therein, and looking for, also in the music that follows the truth about interpersonal relationships discovered between the lines in an extremely natural way, Moniuszkos phenomenon, which escapes an easy categorisation.

It begins with a Tannhäuser performance and ends with the premiere of The Tales of Hoffmann. In between a young ingénue cast in her first big role, the Hoffmann rehearsals, the theatre director and his stage director exchanging cynicisms, a budding love affair. Gründgens at his most repulsive, trying to woo both lovers. And a hair-raising finale. Add to this some snappy dialogue and "pre-code" scenes that make you sit up and stare.

A trip across various parts of the world and of other times to understand my ideologic heritage and what to do with it. Opera Prima is my first look at the world that becomes a mirror in which to recognize myself.

The opera appeared at the "Tzavta" Theatre, and was concerned with real political subjects, such as the occupation of the territories of the West Bank and Gaza (which was then nearing its twentieth year), the unequal discrimination of the residents of southern Israel, and Israeli militarism.

Author Paula Gaitán's journey through the streets of São Paulo recording her songs and sound inventions as she walks.

Experimental film by Gábor Bódy. A woman sings in German on the left as text flashes on a separate frame on the right-hand side of the screen.

A concert with André Rieu which takes place in one of the most beautiful opera houses in the world, the famous Semper Opera in Dresden. As well as the famous ‘Vienna Debutantes’, there are 40 fabulous pairs of dancers from the same Elmayer Dance School in Vienna, the sopranos Mirusia Louwerse and Carmen Monarcha, the Platinum Tenors, baritone Morschi Franz and the Johann Strauss Orchestra and Choir. The audience at the Semper Opera are not just enthusiastic, they are delirious... carried along by the beautiful waltzes, the fiery paso doble, the gorgeous arias from opera and operettas, humorous scenes, and moving songs from The Phantom of the Opera. Dancing Through The Skies - A better party atmosphere than this you cannot imagine!

Kite performing on the Royal Opera in Stockholm, 2019. Concert film.

A somewhat perverted man who has a peculiar interest in hair starts dating a female artist who opens her own exhibition of pubic hair gathered from men she had slept with. Their abnormal relationship is established by exchanging visual letters shot on 8mm.

Jules Massenet | Werther W.A. Mozart | Don Giovanni Georges Bizet | Carmen Giuseppe Verdi | Macbeth Richard Wagner | Rheingold J. M. Staud – D. Grünbein | Die Weiden W.A. Mozart | Don Giovanni W.A. Mozart | Le nozze di Figaro Richard Strauss |Ariadne auf Naxos Richard Strauss | Capriccio Ludwig van Beethoven | Fidelio Giuseppe Verdi | „ Falstaff

"Soap Opera of a Frozen Filmmaker" project is a series of seven episodes of cinematic diaries. It is the unique point of view of an anonymous artist whose entire essence of existence is to make films, but he is rejected on every front time after time. During the process he ponders his life as an artist, the nature of material society and life in general, in which his owm life eventually become a tragedy.

Were nineteenth century operas to their age what Hollywood superproductions are to ours?' Andreas Velissaropoulos asks.... He describes his film as ‘a surrealist “poorman's superproduction,” full of cultural and historical allusions, contrasting with short glimpses of contemporary reality concerning life and mentalities of young inhabitants of modern Athens.' The sound track uses the music of Beethoven, Bach, Berg, Schoenberg, Richard Strauss and Wagner. Balinese monkey chants, pop culture, symbols of fates, seasons and the elements are interwoven.

Topi Lehtipuu and Anne-Catherine Gillet star in the 2012 Opera National de Paris production of Jean-Philippe Rameau's opera Hippolyte et Aricie. Also starring Sarah Connolly and Stephane Degout.

Federico finds his father dead and calls his brother, who decides to hire a medium to get in touch with the dead man. However, their father now seems to love opera.