Rusalka
★ 9 · 1986 · Music · Documentary
Dvořák's "Rusalka" in a production by David Pountney at the English National Opera in 1986. Mark Elder conducts the orchestra, accompanied by the English National Opera Chorus in English.
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2025
Widespread closures threaten the very existence of live theater in America. A traditional career as an opera singer seems less and less viable. And yet: In spite of a system stacked against them, young singers continue to follow their calling, risking everything to gain entry into fiercely competitive apprenticeship programs. In VHO’s searing, intimate new documentary film, 5 young opera singers across America share a year of their lives with unprecedented access. What is driving their ambition? Who will “make it”? And what does success even mean to the next generation?
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It's an event that draws many thousands of music lovers to one of the most beautiful cities in the world every summer: the opera season at the ancient Arena di Verona. The 2,000-year-old roman amphiteatre with its gigantic stage dimensions is one of the largest and best preserved Roman construction of its kind, and with over 22,000 seats it is undoubtedly one of the most spectacular open-air venues of the world! The revered master of opera Franco Zeffirelli, who died shortly before the premiere of Il Trovatore, created a legendary scenery with groups of giant sized armoured knights, a fortress turning into a luminous cathedral, an enormous choir, horses, breathtaking fights: “his perhaps best arena production” (Opernglas). It brings Anna Netrebko to the Arena of Verona where she is giving her much-anticipated debut in one of Giuseppe Verdi’s most popular operas.
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Amadeus
1984 · ★ 8
Disciplined Italian composer Antonio Salieri becomes consumed by jealousy and resentment towards the hedonistic and remarkably talented young Salzburger composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
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1996 · ★ 10
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Live 2001 production from the Zurich Opera House of the classic Mozart/Da Ponte opera, with Nikolaus Harnoncourt conducting and directed for television and video by Brian Large.
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Piero Cappuccilli and Shirley Verrett lead Verdi’s sombre masterpiece, drawn from one of Shakespeare’s most celebrated tragedies. Filmed for television at Teatro alla Scala in 1979, Claudio Abbado conductes a night to remember.
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