Very little footage of Vishnevskaya survives as much of it was destroyed when she and her husband Mtislav Rostropovich (the cellist) were sent into exile for harbouring the author and political refugee Alexander Solzhenitsyn.
The film
More information on the film can be found here.
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]]>This version, made in 1958 and directed by Roman Tikhomirov, features Galina Vishnevskaya singing Tatyana. No singers are to be seen on screen, however. Pushkin is too sacred for that.
In this 1940 film of the next morning’s wintry scene, Lensky is sung (and played) by star of the Bolshoi Sergei_Lemeshev.
Finally, the last scenes of the opera in a more recent film version, directed by Peter Weigl. The film is acted to the existing recording conducted by Sir Georg Solti, with Tatyana and Onegin sung by Teresa Kubiak and Bernd Weikl.
The Weigl film
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]]>The trailer to Derek Jarman’s unflinching film adaptation of Benjamin Britten’s harrowing setting of the Requiem Mass mixed with war poetry by Wilfred Owen. The DVD is available from Amazon
Britten’s own recording of War Requiem
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]]>Emmy nominee, Michael Lawrence, has spent several years on a mission to capture the modern world’s relationship to the magic of J.S.Bach. This first clip features the celebrated American concert violinist, Joshua Bell, playing Chaconne, partita no.2 (BWV 1004). Secondly, the multiple Grammy-winning Emerson String Quartet engages with the Art of Fugue (BWV 1080).
Finally, as a measure of the project’s wide-ranging compass, this third clip takes in another Grammy collector, the unique vocal athlete Bobby McFerrin.
The film is currently in post-production but the Emerson Quartet’s CD is available from Amazon
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]]>A Russian piece of animation from 1969, directed by Lev Atamanov with an original score by Alfred Schnittke, whose self-termed polystylistic technique is evident - often to comic effect.
The film is available on DVD (NTSC) as part of the series Masters of Russian Animation
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]]>The trailer for Touch the sound, Thomas Riedelsheimer’s inspiring documentary on Evelyn Glennie, one of the world’s greatest classical percussionists, which explores the profoundly deaf musician’s tactile relationship with sound.
The film
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]]>Christina Pluhar’s L’Arpeggiata has teamed up with Philippe Jaroussky for a new CD of Monteverdi canzonette. The first of these is spell-bindingly beautiful; the second is infectious but may ruffle a few authenticists’ feathers.
You can order Monteverdi: Teatro d’amore
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]]>Eugène Green’s philosophically intriguing film, Le Pont des Arts includes a striking rehearsal of Monteverdi’s madrigal, with Claire Lefilliâtre singing in for Natacha Régnier. Made in 2004, the cinematic study in connection and disconnection is set at the time of the eponymous bridge’s collapse of 1979.
You can order Le Pont des Arts
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The same lament, sung by Natalie Dessay, features in this behind-the-scenes look at the making of Emmanuelle Haïm’s CD, Lamenti, with Le Concert d’Astrée. Philippe Jaroussky gives us the tiniest teaser of Barbara Strozzi, with more Monteverdi laments by Rolando Villazón and Joyce DiDonato.
You can order Lamenti
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]]>A subtitled version can be found here. Their sound recording of this and other Schubert songs is available on CD from Amazon
Then a parody of the song - equally brilliant in its way - by a different Moore, Dudley Moore, with an introduction by Jonathan Miller.
Beyond the Fringe
Directed by Keith Warner, designed by Stefan Lazaridis and conducted by Antonio Pappano, the cast includes John Treleaven as Siegfried, Sir John Tomlinson as Wotan and Lisa Gasteen as Brunnhilde.
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