Lulu | Barbara Hannigan & Dietrich Henschel | La Monnaie 2012 (DVD trailer) @BelAirClassiques

Bel Air Classiques After his production of Médée (DVD & Blu-ray Bel Air Classiques), Krzysztof Warlikowski once again delves the innermost depths of the human psyche and tackles Alban Berg's opera Lulu as a deeply moving requiem ‘to the memory of an angel’, and Canadian soprano Barbara Hannigan gives a tremendous, never-to-be-forgotten account of the title role. Available on DVD !

Check out on website : geni.us/LuluHanniganDVD
Watch on VOD : geni.us/LuluHanniganVOD

Subscribe to BelAir Classiques : http://bit.ly/2g1aCPA
Follow on Facebook : http://bit.ly/BelAirFacebook
Follow on Twitter : http://bit.ly/TwitterBelAir
Follow on Instagram : http://bit.ly/InstaBelAir

The nuptials of eros and thanatos unveil their irresistible attraction in this second opera of Alban Berg who, following Wozzeck, describes the sometimes bright and often bestial intensity of human relations. Intoxicatingly enigmatic and deadly for those close to her, Lulu’s secret goes with her unto death. From the folly of love to the humiliation of vulgarity, she incites the excess. She unhinges reality… Frank Wedekind’s work provided fertile ground for the composer to create this striking opera, considered one of the major works of the 20th century, but which remained unfinished due to his untimely death in 1935.

Opera in three acts by Alban Berg
After Frank Wedekind’s tragedies Erdgeist and Die Büchse der Pandora
Third act by Friedrich Cerha

Lulu : Barbara Hannigan
Gräfin Geschwitz : Natascha Petrinsky
Dr. Schön & Jack The Ripper : Dietrich Henschel

Orchestre symphonique de la Monnaie
Conductor : Paul Daniel

Stage Direction : Krzysztof Warlikowski

Directed for TV by Myriam Hoyer

updated 10 years ago

Lulu | Barbara Hannigan & Dietrich Henschel | La Monnaie 2012 (DVD trailer)

Bel Air Classiques 2014-09-16 | After his production of Médée (DVD & Blu-ray Bel Air Classiques), Krzysztof Warlikowski once again delves the innermost depths of the human psyche and tackles Alban Berg's opera Lulu as a deeply moving requiem ‘to the memory of an angel’, and Canadian soprano Barbara Hannigan gives a tremendous, never-to-be-forgotten account of the title role. Available on DVD !

Check out on website : geni.us/LuluHanniganDVD
Watch on VOD : geni.us/LuluHanniganVOD

Subscribe to BelAir Classiques : http://bit.ly/2g1aCPA
Follow on Facebook : http://bit.ly/BelAirFacebook
Follow on Twitter : http://bit.ly/TwitterBelAir
Follow on Instagram : http://bit.ly/InstaBelAir

The nuptials of eros and thanatos unveil their irresistible attraction in this second opera of Alban Berg who, following Wozzeck, describes the sometimes bright and often bestial intensity of human relations. Intoxicatingly enigmatic and deadly for those close to her, Lulu’s secret goes with her unto death. From the folly of love to the humiliation of vulgarity, she incites the excess. She unhinges reality… Frank Wedekind’s work provided fertile ground for the composer to create this striking opera, considered one of the major works of the 20th century, but which remained unfinished due to his untimely death in 1935.

Opera in three acts by Alban Berg
After Frank Wedekind’s tragedies Erdgeist and Die Büchse der Pandora
Third act by Friedrich Cerha

Lulu : Barbara Hannigan
Gräfin Geschwitz : Natascha Petrinsky
Dr. Schön & Jack The Ripper : Dietrich Henschel

Orchestre symphonique de la Monnaie
Conductor : Paul Daniel

Stage Direction : Krzysztof Warlikowski

Directed for TV by Myriam Hoyer

Jodie Devos sings Haendels Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno (DVD & Blu-ray excerpt)

Bel Air Classiques 2024-09-07 | A musical and visual journey in the sublime Golden Gallery of the Central Bank of France, guided by Julien Chauvin and his Concert de la Loge, Jodie Devos, Justin Taylor, Thomas Dunford…

Check out online : geni.us/GoldenGalleryDVD

In 2018, the ‘‘Golden Gallery’’ of the Central Bank of France, and more precisely its renovation in the style of the 18th century by the Count of Toulouse, celebrated its tricentenary. Like the Hall of Mirrors at the Château de Versailles, it counts among the most lavish ceremonial galleries of France : it was in this glorious setting that several scenes of the movie Marie-Antoinette, by Sofia Coppola, were shot.

On this occasion, the baroque ensemble ‘‘Concert de la Loge’’ and its musical director Julien Chauvin drew upon this incredible setting, its paintings and its sculptures but also its history, and brought together various pieces from the baroque anc classical repertoire : Lully, Rameau, Couperin, Boccherini, Charpentier, Vivaldi, Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Haendel… Thanks to an elaborate scenography and to a smart lighting design, the program is also a journey through the mysteries of the visual works displayed in the gallery : for instance the allegories of the young Louis XIV at the beginning of his reign, the story of Henry IV... all of which is explained at length in a gorgeous booklet written by art specialists.

With the exceptional participation of the Quatuor Cambini-Paris, soprano Jodie Devos, theorbist Thomas Dunford, harpsichordist Justin Taylor, cellist Atsushi Sakai...

Rameau : Platée | Laurent Pelly & Marc Minkowski | Opéra national de Paris [DVD & Blu-ray trailer]

Bel Air Classiques 2024-01-05 | The hilarious Platée by Jean-Philippe Rameau, in Laurent Pelly's iconic production, makes its comeback at the Palais Garnier under Marc Minkowski's baton, with Sir Lawrence Brownlee in the role of the vain frog, and Julie Fuchs as La Folie...

On DVD & Blu-ray : geni.us/PlateeDVD

Jean-Philippe Rameau’s Platée is a masterpiece of the French operatic repertoire and was highly regarded by critics during the composer’s lifetime. Composed for the marriage of the Dauphin Louis, son of Louis XV, to the Infanta Maria Teresa of Spain, it was first performed at Versailles in 1745 and became an instant hit.

The plot revolves around the ugly and conceited frog Platée, the victim of a machination of the gods who make her believe that she is loved by Jupiter. Is this Rameau mocking Princess Maria Teresa of Spain – reputedly a woman of little beauty? Or the French court, which saw itself as a new Olympus?

This classic production from the Opéra national de Paris by Marc Minkowski and Laurent Pelly returns to the stage with an entirely new cast, featuring Julie Fuchs, Mathias Vidal, Jean Teitgen and Lawrence Brownlee in the title-role.

**************************************

Comédie lyrique (ballet bouffon) in a prologue and three acts (1745)

Music: Jean-Philippe Rameau
Libretto: Adrien-Joseph Le Valois d’Orville after Jacques Autreau

Platée: Lawrence Brownlee
Thalie, La Folie: Julie Fuchs
Jupiter: Jean Teitgen
Momus: Marc Mauillon
Un Satyre, Cithéron: Nahuel di Pierro
Thespis: Mathias Vidal
Mercure: Reinoud Van Mechelen
L’Amour, Clarine: Tamara Bounazou
Junon: Adriana Bignagni Lesca

Les Musiciens du Louvre
Conductor: Marc Minkowski
Chœurs de l’Opéra national de Paris
Chorus master: Ching-Lien Wu

Stage direction and costumes: Laurent Pelly
Set design: Chantal Thomas
Lighting design: Joël Adam
Choreography: Laura Scozzi
Dramaturgy: Agathe Mélinand

Molière (new edition) | Ariane Mnouchkine & Théâtre du Soleil (DVD & Blu-ray)

Bel Air Classiques 2022-09-02 | Ariane Mnouchkine's iconic biopic "Molière" in a new augmented edition and for the first time on Blu-ray, on the occasion of the French playwright's 400th anniversary of birth!

Buy now: geni.us/MoliereDVD

With 120 actors, 600 participants, 1300 costumes, 220 sets and after two years of work, this film tells the fascinating story of Molière, and of his century, in four hours. How did this young boy, born in 1622 to an upholsterer and a loving mother that he was to loose too soon, become the prodigious actor, and univerally acclaimed author so well, and yet so little known? From his childhood to his death, we follow Molière and his travelling companions, in their joy, misery and glory throughout a savage yet refined XVIIth century France, sharing their first theatrical adventures, their successes and failures, their valiant struggles and moments of cowardice.

This familiar and spectacular saga where the devout clash with the libertine, and famished peasents with wigged courtesans, is about the life of an honest man who exhausts himself in an unceasing struggle to practice his art in a century filled with repression and violent hypocrisy.

SPECIAL FEATURES

Behind the scenes in 1978 - Le film d'Ariane : spécial Molière (never published)
Interview with Ariane Mnouchkine in 2004
Interview with Ariane Mnouchkine in 2021 (never published)
Interview with Philippe Caubère in 2022 (never published)
Audio commentary by Ariane Mnouchkine

Paquita | Grand Pas Classique | Ural Ballet (DVD / Blu-ray excerpt)

Bel Air Classiques 2022-07-21 | A breath of fresh air is blowing over the Ural Opera Ballet with this new version of Paquita, halfway between tradition and modernity!

On DVD & Blu-ray : geni.us/PaquitaDVD

A festive ballet recounting the thwarted loves of a gypsy and an officer, Paquita marked the debut of Marius Petipa in Saint Petersburg. But only the last scene of the ballet, the famous Grand pas Classique, remained in the companies’ repertoire. Thanks to a careful reconstruction, the Ural Opera Ballet finally revives the original version in three acts.

The product of methodical research by expert Sergei Vikharev and former Principal Vyacheslav Samodurov, the choreography scrupulously recreates Petipa’s 1881 version, according to notes kept at the Harvard Theater Collection. The original score has been rearranged by the famous Saint Petersburg composer, Yuri Krasavin.

But if this new production uses the original libretto of the ballet, it nonetheless transposes it in time. The result is a show of great relevance, which brings up to date the strong political and social substrate of the original plot by illustrating it with artistic references gleaned throughout the 20th century. A powerful theatrical experience, crowned with the jury’s special award of the ‘‘Golden Masks’’ in 2019.

**********************************************************************

Ballet in three acts
Libretto by PAUL FOUCHÉ and JOSEPH MAZILIER (1846)

Music by ÉDOUARD DELDEVEZ (1846) and LUDWIG MINKUS (1881)
recomposed by YURI KRASAVIN (2018)

ORCHESTRA OF URAL OPERA BALLET — EKATERINBURG
Conductor PAVEL KLINICHEV
Conception PAVEL GERSHENZON
Musical Direction FYODOR LEDNYOV

Choreography MARIUS PETIPA
Revival by SERGEI VIKHAREV & SLAVA SAMODUROV
Stage Direction SLAVA SAMODUROV

Sets ALYONA PIKALOVA
Costumes ELENA ZAYTSEVA
Lighting ALEKSANDER NAUMOV
Choreographer Assistant KLARA DOVZHIK

Paquita EKATERINA MALKOVICH
Lucien d’Hervilly ARSENTI LAZAREV
Iñigo MAXIM KLEKOVKIN
Don Lopez de Mendoza VICTOR MEKHANOSHIN
Serafina KAMILA BEKNAZAROVA
Count d’Hervilly ANTON GUZEEV
Countess NADEZHDA SHAMSHURINA

HD recording: Ural Opera Theatre, Ekaterinburg – 11, 2021
Produced by FRANÇOIS DUPLAT | Directed for TV by BERTRAND NORMAND

Paquita | Marius Petipa | Slava Samodurov | Ural Opera Ballet (DVD & Blu-ray trailer)

Bel Air Classiques 2022-07-07 | A breath of fresh air is blowing over the Ural Opera Ballet with this new version of Paquita, halfway between tradition and modernity!

On DVD & Blu-ray : geni.us/PaquitaDVD
On VOD: geni.us/PaquitaVOD

A festive ballet recounting the thwarted loves of a gypsy and an officer, Paquita marked the debut of Marius Petipa in Saint Petersburg. But only the last scene of the ballet, the famous Grand pas Classique, remained in the companies’ repertoire. Thanks to a careful reconstruction, the Ural Opera Ballet finally revives the original version in three acts.

The product of methodical research by expert Sergei Vikharev and former Principal Vyacheslav Samodurov, the choreography scrupulously recreates Petipa’s 1881 version, according to notes kept at the Harvard Theater Collection. The original score has been rearranged by the famous Saint Petersburg composer, Yuri Krasavin.

But if this new production uses the original libretto of the ballet, it nonetheless transposes it in time. The result is a show of great relevance, which brings up to date the strong political and social substrate of the original plot by illustrating it with artistic references gleaned throughout the 20th century. A powerful theatrical experience, crowned with the jury’s special award of the ‘‘Golden Masks’’ in 2019.

**********************************************************************

Ballet in three acts
Libretto by PAUL FOUCHÉ and JOSEPH MAZILIER (1846)

Music by ÉDOUARD DELDEVEZ (1846) and LUDWIG MINKUS (1881)
recomposed by YURI KRASAVIN (2018)

ORCHESTRA OF URAL OPERA BALLET — EKATERINBURG
Conductor PAVEL KLINICHEV
Conception PAVEL GERSHENZON
Musical Direction FYODOR LEDNYOV

Choreography MARIUS PETIPA
Revival by SERGEI VIKHAREV & SLAVA SAMODUROV
Stage Direction SLAVA SAMODUROV

Sets ALYONA PIKALOVA
Costumes ELENA ZAYTSEVA
Lighting ALEKSANDER NAUMOV
Choreographer Assistant KLARA DOVZHIK

Paquita EKATERINA MALKOVICH
Lucien d’Hervilly ARSENTI LAZAREV
Iñigo MAXIM KLEKOVKIN
Don Lopez de Mendoza VICTOR MEKHANOSHIN
Serafina KAMILA BEKNAZAROVA
Count d’Hervilly ANTON GUZEEV
Countess NADEZHDA SHAMSHURINA

HD recording: Ural Opera Theatre, Ekaterinburg – 11, 2021
Produced by FRANÇOIS DUPLAT | Directed for TV by BERTRAND NORMAND

Tristan und Isolde | Daniel Barenboim • Dmitri Tcherniakov | Staatsoper Berlin (DVD/Blu-ray trailer)

Bel Air Classiques 2022-05-10 | Richard Wagner's Tristan und Isolde in Dmitri Tcherniakov's bold new production, conducted by Daniel Barenboim. With Andreas Schager and Anja Kampe in the title roles!

Buy online: geni.us/TristanBerlinDVD

If there is one work that has been crucial to Daniel Barenboim’s conducting career, it has to Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde: he has been working on piercing its secrets for more than 35 years. In the pit of the newly renovated Staatsoper Berlin and at the head of his Staatskapelle, he once again makes magic happen.

Entrusted with the stage direction, Dmitri Tcherniakov delves into the psychological aspects of the drama and gives a new realistic depth to this opus. Thanks to his demanding direction of the cast, but also to a clever use of video projections, he manages to craft intense images which effectively resonate with the rapturous and voluptuous enchantments of the score.

To complete this high-level artistic crew, the Staatsoper called upon some of the finest Wagner experts: Andreas Schager, already a superb Parsifal and a regular guest at the Bayreuth Festival, is Tristan, Anja Kampe is an unforgettable Isolde, and Ekaterina Gubanova thrills as Brangäne.

********************************************************

Opera in three acts
Music and libretto Richard Wagner (1813-1883)

Tristan Andreas Schager
King Marke Stephen Milling
Isolde Anja Kampe
Kurwenal Boaz Daniel
Melot Stephan Rügamer
Brangäne Ekaterina Gubanova
A Helmsman Adam Kutny
A Shepherd / A Young Sailor Linard Vrielink

Actors
Tristan's Mother Kristin Becker
Tristan's Father Mike Hoffmann

Solo English Horn Florian Hanspach-Torkildsen

Staatskapelle Berlin | Staatsopernchor Berlin
Conducted by Daniel Barenboim

Stage direction and set design Dmitri Tcherniakov
Costume design Elena Zaitseva
Lighting design Gleb Filshtinsky
Video Tieni Burkhalter
Dramatic advisors Tatiana Vershchagina, Detlef Giese
Chorus master Raymond Hughes

A film by Andy Sommer

Opéra de Paris : a (very) special season (DVD / Blu-ray trailer)

Bel Air Classiques 2022-04-04 | An intimate testimony of the Paris Opera Ballet dancers' day-to-day life during the COVID-19 pandemic. A sensitive documentary by Priscilla Pizzato, on DVD & Blu-ray.

Buy online : geni.us/SaisonParticuliereDVD

The Paris Opera Ballet is one of the most active dance companies in the world. The dancers, used to practicing 5 to 7 hours a day, develop themselves by working with coaches and choreographers, but first and foremost through a close relationship with their audience.

But in 2020, the pandemic radically changed their artistic life. They had never stayed away for so long from the rehearsal studios and from the stage of the Palais Garnier and the Opéra Bastille.

This film witnesses a unique moment in the history of the Ballet and follows the dancers from their first day back in the studios, to the reopening of the venues, and through the rehearsals of Rudolf Nureyev’s La Bayadère.

BONUS : Interview with Aurélie Dupont
Rehearsals from La Bayadère with Hugo Marchand, Amandine Albisson, Mathias Heymann

Tero Saarinen Company | Third Practice | Rooted with Wings (DVD & Blu-ray trailer)

Bel Air Classiques 2022-03-14 | Enter choreographer Tero Saarinen's peculiar universe with this superb new DVD, featuring the ballet "Third Practice" and a documentary, "Rooted with Wings - The dance art of Tero Saarinen".

Buy online : geni.us/TeroSaarinenDVD
Watch now on VOD : geni.us/TeroSaarinenVOD

“I am interested in the way that, right now, we are having to recalibrate our existence and to rethink our humanity: our relationship to the world, to its changes and its history. At turning points there is always a chance of finding but sadly also of forgetting something. Amid the tumult of the world the Renaissance values that resonate in the Madrigals seem to be perpetually relevant as a way of anchoring ourselves. On the other hand, just as the composer once did with his newly created Seconda pratica, I too seek a new kind of expression – a third practice – in my choreography.”
– Tero Saarinen

Tero Saarinen’s Third Practice explores radical shifts in values and perspectives. Claudio Monteverdi’s revolutionary, breathtakingly beautiful madrigals are incarnated by twelve dancers and musicians. The Tero Saarinen Company and the Helsinki Baroque Orchestra join forces to create a gripping contemporary fusion of dance, live music, opera and design.

Rooted with Wings is a visual dance documentary that explores the work of internationally acclaimed choreographer and dancer Tero Saarinen, granting the viewer a unique impression of this extraordinary artist’s creative process.

Two films by Thomas Freundlich

Third Practice
Choreography: Tero Saarinen
Music: Claudio Monteverdi
Singers: Topi Lehtipuu & Núria Real
Dancers of Tero Saarinen Company
Helsinki Baroque Orchestra

Le Chevalier de Saint-George | The Enlightened Violinist (DVD trailer)

Bel Air Classiques 2022-02-01 | The Chevalier de Saint-George's extraordinary destiny, as one of the most important characters of both the musical and the military worlds. On DVD!

Buy online: geni.us/SaintGeorgeDVD

An emancipated slave, the Chevalier de Saint-George managed to elevate himself to the highest spheres of the Enlightened 18th-century French society, thanks to his incredible accomplishments as a fencer, horseman, and musician. From the Guadeloupe where he was born, to Paris and Versailles where he made a name for himself, to Lille that he defended against the royalists during the French Revolution, he quickly became one of the most important characters in both the musical and the military scenes.
Through his compositions, testimonies from specialists and secrets shared by some of his best interprets, this film narrates his extraordinary adventures....

BONUS: 52’-concert by Julien Chauvin, Quatuor Cambini-Paris and Magali Léger around the music of the Chevalier de Saint-George

Demonstrations of the Paris Opera Ballet School | The School of Dreams (DVD trailer)

Bel Air Classiques 2021-11-18 | A double DVD, featuring the "Demonstrations of the Paris Opera Ballet School" and "The School of Dreams", a documentary revealing the many secrets of the most famous dance school in the world!

Check out online : geni.us/DemonstrationsDVD

DEMONSTRATIONS OF THE PARIS OPERA BALLET SCHOOL
The Demonstrations of the Ballet School are a traditional checkpoint for the institution: they consist of a performance where the audience can appreciate the beautiful and rich education of classical dance taught at the Paris Opera. Considered as one of the School’s highlights, this moment unveils the teaching methods of a traditional artistic knowledge. Led by their teachers, the students display the different skills necessary to master the codes of classical dance and the French style. The Demonstrations also invite the public to discover other artistic disciplines or choreographic styles that complete the student’s training: contemporary, folk, baroque, and character dances, mime and music class.

THE SCHOOL OF DREAMS
The Paris Opera Ballet School really is the school of dreams for each and everyone of its students, that all wish to became professional dancers for the Paris Opera Ballet. This intimate documentary film allows us to discover, through interviews and sneak peeks of the classes, their schedule, their day-to-day training, their passion, their hopes, their relationships with the teachers and ballet masters, and finally their ambition to become, one day maybe, an Étoile of the Ballet...

Sadko | Aida Garifullina sings Volkhovas Lullaby | Bolshoi Theater 2020 (DVD/Blu-ray excerpt)

Bel Air Classiques 2021-11-04 | A marvellous opera by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov staged by Dmitri Tcherniakov at the Bolshoi Theater of Moscow, multi-awarded at the Golden Masks (Russian National Theatre Award). With Aida Garifullina and Ekaterina Semenchuk.

Check out online : geni.us/SadkoDVD
Watch now on VOD: geni.us/SadkoVOD

In the 13th century, the rich merchants of Novgorod mock the dreams of far-away journeys and of commercial conquests brought forth by Sadko, a musician and singer. But Volkhova, the Sea King’s daughter, is enchanted by Sadko’s voice, and promises to help him fulfill his dreams...

Sadko is a decisive work in Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s aesthetic evolution. As in many operas, the composer draws his artistic material from Russian folk and fairytales, but also from old musical and poetic forms. The result is a prodigious opera, whose modernity - both dramatic and musical - erupts from the fabulous resources of traditional Russian epics, but also from the wonders of the marine universe, close to his former navigator self’s heart.

A subtle analyst of the slavic soul, stage director Dmitri Tcherniakov comes back to the great stage of the Bolshoi Theater and devises a surprising production that perfectly underlines the ambiguities of this paradoxical opera, between past and present, fantasy and reality. He surrounds himself with magnificent Russian soprano Aida Garifullina, but also some of his favorite singers : Mikhail Petrenko, Ekaterina Semenchuk... In the pit and at the head of the Bolshoi Theater Orchestra, young Russian conductor Timur Zangiev breathes in this little-know masterpiece all the energy, all the poetry, and all the passion it requires.

************************************************

Opera in seven scenes sung in Russian
Libretto Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
With the assistance of Vladimir Belsky
Based on Russian Bylinas

Sadko Nazhmiddin Mavlyanov
Volkhova Aida Garifullina
Lubava Buslaevna Ekaterina Semenchuk
Nezhata Yuri Minenko
Ocean-Sea, The Sea Tsar Stanislav Trofimov
Whistle Mikhail Petrenko
Fife Maxim Paster
Varangian Merchant Dmitry Ulianov
Indian Merchant Alexey Nekludov
Venetian Merchant Andrey Zhilikhovsky
Vision Of The Old Mighty Warrior In The Guise Of A Pilgrim Sergey Murzaev
Foma Nazaryich Roman Muravitsky
His wife Alexandra Durseneva
Luka Zinovyich Vladimir Komovich
His wife Irina Rubtsova
Tsarine Hydraqua Irina Parfyonova
Wise men Alexander Eremeyev, Oles Paritsky
Blind beggars German Golubev, Konstantin Dronov, Yuri Zalessky, Alexander Mashnin, Vladimir Tarasov, Igor Uvarov

State Academic Bolshoi Theatre Of Russia Orchestra And Chorus
Conductor Timur Zangiev
Chorus master Valery Borisov

Stage direction and sets Dmitri Tcherniakov
Costumes Elena Zaitseva
Lighting designs Gleb Filshtinsky
Sketches from Appollinary Vasnetsov, Konstantin Korovin, Ivan Bilibin, Vladimir Egorov, Nikolai Roerich, Fyodor Fedorowsky
were used in the scenography

Sadko | Dmitri Tcherniakov | Aida Garifullina | Bolshoi Theater 2020 (DVD , Blu-ray & VOD trailer)

Bel Air Classiques 2021-10-28 | A marvellous opera by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov staged by Dmitri Tcherniakov at the Bolshoi Theater of Moscow, multi-awarded at the Golden Masks (Russian National Theatre Award). With Aida Garifullina and Ekaterina Semenchuk.

Check out online : geni.us/SadkoDVD
Watch now on VOD: geni.us/SadkoVOD

In the 13th century, the rich merchants of Novgorod mock the dreams of far-away journeys and of commercial conquests brought forth by Sadko, a musician and singer. But Volkhova, the Sea King’s daughter, is enchanted by Sadko’s voice, and promises to help him fulfill his dreams...

Sadko is a decisive work in Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s aesthetic evolution. As in many operas, the composer draws his artistic material from Russian folk and fairytales, but also from old musical and poetic forms. The result is a prodigious opera, whose modernity - both dramatic and musical - erupts from the fabulous resources of traditional Russian epics, but also from the wonders of the marine universe, close to his former navigator self’s heart.

A subtle analyst of the slavic soul, stage director Dmitri Tcherniakov comes back to the great stage of the Bolshoi Theater and devises a surprising production that perfectly underlines the ambiguities of this paradoxical opera, between past and present, fantasy and reality. He surrounds himself with magnificent Russian soprano Aida Garifullina, but also some of his favorite singers : Mikhail Petrenko, Ekaterina Semenchuk... In the pit and at the head of the Bolshoi Theater Orchestra, young Russian conductor Timur Zangiev breathes in this little-know masterpiece all the energy, all the poetry, and all the passion it requires.

************************************************

Opera in seven scenes sung in Russian
Libretto Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
With the assistance of Vladimir Belsky
Based on Russian Bylinas

Sadko Nazhmiddin Mavlyanov
Volkhova Aida Garifullina
Lubava Buslaevna Ekaterina Semenchuk
Nezhata Yuri Minenko
Ocean-Sea, The Sea Tsar Stanislav Trofimov
Whistle Mikhail Petrenko
Fife Maxim Paster
Varangian Merchant Dmitry Ulianov
Indian Merchant Alexey Nekludov
Venetian Merchant Andrey Zhilikhovsky
Vision Of The Old Mighty Warrior In The Guise Of A Pilgrim Sergey Murzaev
Foma Nazaryich Roman Muravitsky
His wife Alexandra Durseneva
Luka Zinovyich Vladimir Komovich
His wife Irina Rubtsova
Tsarine Hydraqua Irina Parfyonova
Wise men Alexander Eremeyev, Oles Paritsky
Blind beggars German Golubev, Konstantin Dronov, Yuri Zalessky, Alexander Mashnin, Vladimir Tarasov, Igor Uvarov

State Academic Bolshoi Theatre Of Russia Orchestra And Chorus
Conductor Timur Zangiev
Chorus master Valery Borisov

Stage direction and sets Dmitri Tcherniakov
Costumes Elena Zaitseva
Lighting designs Gleb Filshtinsky
Sketches from Appollinary Vasnetsov, Konstantin Korovin, Ivan Bilibin, Vladimir Egorov, Nikolai Roerich, Fyodor Fedorowsky
were used in the scenography

Don Giovanni | Kyle Ketelsen | Madamina, il catalogo è questo (DVD / Blu-ray excerpt)

Bel Air Classiques 2021-10-25 | An interesting "Don Giovanni" at the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, staged by Dmitri Tcherniakov and conducted by Louis Langrée, on DVD and Blu-ray.

Check out on website : geni.us/DonGiovanniDVD

More than two centuries after its creation, the emotional pull of this supreme opera remains absolutely intact. Dmitri Therniakov duly revisits the myth and makes the seducer of Seville a ‘man without qualities’, a cipher whose words have a hypnotic power over women. His words will disrupt the proprieties ruling the Commandatore’s family. His words are also what makes Don Juan such a subversive figure and the embodiment of one of the most powerful modern European myths.

Leading the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra (Freiburger Barockorchester) one of the best Mozart current conductor, Louis Langrée takes from this formation magnificents tones. Bo Skovhus portrays a dispirited Don Giovanni, old playboy and anti-hero. Kyle Ketelsen is his servant Leporello, currently the most talented baritone for this role. The female trio is composed of Marlis Petersen (Donna Anna), Kristine Opolais (Elvira) and Kerstin Avemo (Zerlina).

Private Concerts at Daniel Barenboims and at Martha Argerichs (DVD trailer)

Bel Air Classiques 2021-10-21 | You're invited to a private concert (or two !)

Check out on website : geni.us/PrivateConcertsDVD

What if chamber music returned to its traditional venue: within well-loved artists’ homes? Initially, chamber music was composed for the private sphere, but ended up losing part of its essence as this form started performing within venues that gradually expanded. This double program rekindles the origins of the genre by showing itself inside the living rooms of grand artists for original concerts, played in an intimate and privileged setting: at Daniel Barenboim’s in Berlin, where he plays with Michael Barenboim and Kian Soltani; and at Martha Argerich’s in Geneva, with Mischa Maisky. They invite us to hear masterpieces of the chamber repertoire in a new light: Ludwig van Beethoven, Robert Schumann, Frédéric Chopin, Johannes Brahms… and between each movement, the artists confide about their lives and their art to presenter, Annie Dutoit, who has known them all sincechildhood. A tender musical lesson.

*****************************************

Private concert at Daniel Barenboim's
with Michael Barenboim, Kian Soltani

Beethoven: Piano Trio in D Major, Op. 70 No. 1,"Ghost"

Private concert at Martha Argerich's
with Mischa Maisky

Beethoven: 7 variations after a theme of The Magic Flute
Schumann: Fantasiestücke, Op. 73
Chopin: Sonate Op. 65 ; Introduction & Polonaise, Op. 3
Brahms: Lerchengesang, Op. 70/2

Presentation : Annie Dutoit

The Morozov Brothers. Story of a Russian Collection (DVD trailer)

Bel Air Classiques 2021-09-16 | The thrilling tale of two Russian patrons and collectors in early 20-th century Russia, and the discovery of the fabulous Morozov collections, filled with masterpieces of impressionism, subject of a monumental exhibition at the Louis Vuitton Foundation.

Buy online : geni.us/MorozovDVD

Moscow, 1917. The wind of the Bolshevik Revolution blows away the old Russian society and brings along a new order. Lenin decides to nationalize the great private art collections, one of which belongs to the formidable collectors, brothers Mikhail and lvan Morozov. For more thon two decades, these two Muscovite patrons, textile billionaires, acquired an astonishing collection of paintings, masterpieces by Monet, Renoir, Cézanne, Van Gogh, Matisse, Picasso, Gauguin, Serou and Vroubel. This film tells the story of these two flamboyant characters, bath major figures in the modern art scene, and follows the destiny of their fabulous collections...

Les Frères Morozov : Mécènes et Collectionneurs (DVD trailer)

Bel Air Classiques 2021-09-16 | Une plongée passionnante dans la Russie de la Belle Époque et une vue imprenable sur la fabuleuse collection de Mikhaïl et Ivan Morozov regorgeant de chefs d'œuvre impressionnistes, qui fera l'objet d'une exposition à la Fondation Louis Vuitton.

Acheter en ligne : geni.us/MorozovDVD

Moscou 1917, le vent de la révolution bolchévique balaie la société russe et instaure un ordre nouveau. L’art n’échappe pas à ce bouleversement et Lénine nationalise les grandes collections privées, au nombre desquelles celle des frères Mikhaïl et Ivan Morozov. Pendant un peu plus de vingt ans, ces mécènes moscovites, milliardaires du textile, avaient accumulé une époustouflante collection d’œuvres d’art, des chefs d’œuvre signés Monet, Renoir, Cézanne, Van Gogh, Matisse, Picasso, Gauguin, Bonnard, Serov et Vroubel s’exposent sur leurs cimaises. Ce film raconte le destin de cette famille aux personnalités flamboyantes, acteurs majeurs de la modernité artistique, et celui de leurs fabuleuses collections...

Bel Air Classiques | DVD & Blu-ray new releases

Bel Air Classiques 2021-06-29 | What 2021 holds in store.

Subscribe to BelAir Classiques : http://bit.ly/2g1aCPA
Follow on Facebook : http://bit.ly/BelAirFacebook
Follow on Twitter : http://bit.ly/TwitterBelAir
Follow on Instagram : http://bit.ly/InstaBelAir

THE SNOW MAIDEN
Music : Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Conducted by Mikhail Tatarnikov
Staged by Dmitri Tcherniakov
Opéra national de Paris

SADKO
Music : Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Conducted by Timur Zangiev
Staged by Dmitri Tcherniakov
Bolshoi Theater

PALAIS GARNIER: BUILDING THE PARIS OPERA HOUSE
A film by Patrick Cabouat

THE SIX BRANDENBURG CONCERTOS
Music: Johann Sebastian Bach
Choreography: Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker
Rosas
Opéra national de Paris

DAS RHEINGOLD
Music: Richard Wagner
Conducted by Pablo Heras-Casado
Staged by Robert Carsen
Teatro Real - Madrid

DIE WALKÜRE
Music: Richard Wagner
Conducted by Pablo Heras-Casado
Staged by Robert Carsen
Teatro Real - Madrid

THE MOROZOV BROTHERS
A film by Elisabeth Kapnist & Christian Dumais-Lvowski

DÉMONSTRATIONS DE L'ÉCOLE DE DANSE DE L'OPÉRA NATIONAL DE PARIS
with the students of the Paris Opera Ballet School

PARIS OPERA BALLET : AN UNUSUAL SEASON
A film by Priscilla Pizzato

PRIVATE CONCERTS
at Daniel Barenboim's
and at Martha Argerich's

LE CHEVALIER DE SAINT-GEORGE : L'ARCHET DES LUMIÈRES
A film by Martin Mirabel
Music played by Julien Chauvin & le Concert de la Loge

TRISTAN UND ISOLDE
Music: Richard Wagner
Conducted by Daniel Barenboim
Staged by Dmitri Tcherniakov
Staatsoper Berlin

ARENA DI VERONA COLLECTION VOL. 2
Bizet: Carmen
Verdi: Nabucco
Rossini: Il Barbiere di Siviglia

YURI GRIGOROVICH AT THE BOLSHOI
Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker
Tchaikovsky: The Sleeping Beauty
Minkus: La Bayadère
Tchaikovsky: Swan Lake
Shostakovich: The Golden Age
Yuri Grigorovich, the golden age (a film by Denis Sneguirev)

Palais Garnier : Un Opéra pour un Empire / Building the Paris Opera House (DVD trailer)

Bel Air Classiques 2021-06-22 | The thrilling tale of the construction of the Palais Garnier, a total work of art built over fifteen tumultuous years by the brilliant architect Charles Garnier.

Buy online: geni.us/OperaEmpireDVD

The myths surrounding the Phantom of the Opera still contribute to the renown of the Palais Garnier today – but when the tales are set aside, this exceptional building still houses many secrets. Commissioned by Napoleon III, the Palais Garnier is the symbol par excellence of the Second Empire, a building set apart by its technical and artistic ambition. But first and foremost, it is the product of fifteen years of construction on a massive scale, and the fruit of the obsessive drive of the then-unknown but visionary young architect Charles Garnier. Through previously unpublished archives, unobstructed views, historical reconstructions and accounts by historians, discover the origins and construction process of the extraordinary theatre which hosted the most celebrated artists from Maria Callas to Rudolf Noureyev.

********************************************************************
A film by Patrick Cabouat
co-written with Stéphane Landowski

With Damien Roussineau as Charles Garnier

and the participation of Mathias Auclair,
Bertrand Lemoine,
Xavier Mauduit,
Isabelle Morin Loutrel,
Paul Perrin,
Timothée Picard,
Alice Thomine-Berrada

Arena di Verona Collection | Carmen • Nabucco • Barbiere di Siviglia (DVD & Blu-ray Collector Box)

Bel Air Classiques 2021-06-01 | A 3-Opera Digistack (Limited Edition) featuring great productions seen at the prestigious Arena di Verona : Bizet's Carmen, Verdi's Nabucco, Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia.

Buy online : geni.us/VeronaBox2DVD

Subscribe to BelAir Classiques : http://bit.ly/2g1aCPA
Follow on Facebook : http://bit.ly/BelAirFacebook
Follow on Twitter : http://bit.ly/TwitterBelAir
Follow on Instagram : http://bit.ly/InstaBelAir

CARMEN
Bizet’s Carmen – one of the most beloved operas – staged at the world-famous Arena di Verona. This opulent production is directed by Franco Zeffirelli and sung by an international cast of excellent singers : Ekaterina Semenchuk, Irina Lungu, Carlo Ventre and Carlos Álvarez. The famous opera is staged as a colourful feast for the eyes, true to itssource and convincingly acted by soloists, chorus and ballet alike.

NABUCCO
Boldly transposing the action out of biblical times and into Italian Risorgimento, French director Arnaud Bernard goes as far as to center the entire opera during the popular uprisings of 1848 and in the insides of the Milanese opera house. A clever way to emphasize on the legends that have been building around Verdi’s operas and the role they played in the political process of uniting the Italian peninsula, and in the construction of an authentic italianità.

IL BARBIERE DI SIVIGLIA
For this reprisal of Hugo de Ana’s famous staging at the Arena di Verona, Rossini’s masterpiece is conducted by Maestro Daniel Oren. Italian baritone Leo Nucci, a true connoisseur of the part, is a boastful and virtuoso Figaro, while soprano Nino Machaidze and tenor Dmitry Korchak are perfect as the not-so-candid lovers around whom the opera revolves. And who better than Italian bass Ferruccio Furlanetto, who shines in the «Calunnia» aria, for the part of Basilio ?

********************************************************************
CARMEN
Music: Georges Bizet

Carmen : Ekaterina Semenchuk
Don José : Carlo Ventre
Micaëla : Irina Lungu

Orchestra, Coro e Corpo di Ballo della Fondazione Arena di Verona

Conductor : Henrik Nanasi
Stage direction & sets : Franco Zeffirelli

NABUCCO
Music : Giuseppe Verdi

Nabucco : George Gagnidze
Abigail : Susanna Branchini
Fenena : Nino Surguladze
Zaccaria : Rafal Siwek

Orchestra, Coro e Corpo di Ballo della Fondazione Arena di Verona

Conductor : Daniel Oren
Stage director : Arnaud Bernard

Il BARBIERE DI SIVIGLIA
Music : Gioacchino Rossini

Figaro : Leo Nucci
Almaviva : Dmitry Korchak
Rosina : Nino Machaidze

Orchestra, Coro e Corpo di Ballo della Fondazione Arena di Verona

Conductor : Daniel Oren
Stage director : Hugo de Ana

The Six Brandenburg Concertos | Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker | Palais Garnier (DVD/Blu-ray trailer)

Bel Air Classiques 2021-05-14 | An original version of Johann Sebastian Bach's "Brandenburg Concertos" by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker and her dance company Rosas: a new choreographical outlook on a masterpiece, available on DVD / Blu-ray !

Buy online : geni.us/RosasBrandenburgDVD

Like no other, Bach’s music carries within itself movement and dance, managing to combine the greatest abstraction with a concrete, physical and, subsequently, even transcendental dimension.
- Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker

During her 1980 stay in New York, in which she first rehearsed her celebrated Violin Phase to the music of Steve Reich, the only other recording playing in Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker’s studio was the Brandenburg Concertos by Johann Sebastian Bach. Thirty-five years later, De Keersmaeker continues her work with the piece.

The Brandenburg Concertos consist of six concerti grossi, in which Bach deploys the instruments from the baroque orchestra in different, often audacious constellations. Against this backdrop, De Keersmaeker sets sixteen dancers originating in different Rosas generations. Following her usual method, and as she did in Rain (after Steve Reich), she approaches the music as if it were a ready-made score for a dance piece, embodying Bach’s polyphonic mastery. The concertos are played live by the baroque ensemble B’Rock, conducted by violinist Amandine Beyer.

*********************************

Music Johann Sebastian Bach

Choreography Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker

Created with and danced by ROSAS
Boštjan Antončič,
Carlos Garbin,
Frank Gizycki,
Marie Goudot,
Robin Haghi,
Cynthia Loemij,
Mark Lorimer,
Michaël Pomero,
Jason Respilieux,
Igor Shyshko,
Luka Švajda,
Jakub Truszkowski,
Thomas Vantuycom,
Samantha van Wissen,
Sandy Williams,
Sue Yeon Youn

B’Rock Orchestra
Conducted by Amandine Beyer

Set and lighting design Jan Versweyveld
Costumes An D’Huys
Dramaturgy Jan Vandenhouwe
Artistic assistant Femke Gyselinck
Musical advice Kees van Houten

A Rosas production in coproduction with B’Rock Orchestra, Volksbühne (Berlin), La Monnaie / De Munt (Brussels), Opéra de Lille, Opéra national de Paris, Sadler’s Wells (London), Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg, Concertgebouw (Bruges), Hollandfestival (Amsterdam)

Rimsky-Korsakovs The Snow Maiden | Aida Garifullina | Opéra de Paris 2017 (DVD/Blu-ray trailer)

Bel Air Classiques 2021-04-29 | Snegurochka (Snowmaiden), the daughter of Spring and Winter, dreams of a life amongst the humans; but the bitter Sun, looking for revenge, plans to use the fire of love to make her melt away…

Buy now on DVD & Blu-ray : geni.us/SnowMaidenDVD

The Snow Maiden, Rimsky-Korsakov’s third opera, draws its focus from playwright Alexander Ostrovsky’s eponymous play, itself inspired from National folk tales. This literary work was quite unexpected, given that Ostrovsky was better known for his political satires rather than his interest in fairy tales. But the composer found a clever way to spin this paradox, and applied himself in turn to reconcile traditional singing with a creative orchestration, bringing together heritage and modernity.

Stage director Dmitri Tcherniakov, a highly regarded specialist in Russian opera, humanizes this marvellous and cruel coming-of-age tale, under the surface of which innocent eroticism and bitter jealousy boil furiously. He also uses this production to draw a parallel between this paradoxical work and the contradictions of modern-time Russia, by transposing the action into an intriguing backward-looking community which, and quite unlike Snowmaiden, does not seem to be quite ready to face the unknown yet…

***************************************************************
Opera in a prologue and four acts by NIKOLAI RIMSKY-KORSAKOV (1844-1908)
after ALEXANDER OSTROVSKY’s eponymous play

Snowmaiden (Fleur de Neige) AIDA GARIFULLINA
Lel YURIY MYNENKO
Kupava (Koupava) MARTINA SERAFIN
Tsar Berendey (Le Tzar Berendeï) MAXIM PASTER
Mizguir THOMAS JOHANNES MAYER
Spring Beauty (Dame Printemps) ELENA MANISTINA
Father Frost (Le Père Gel) VLADIMIR OGNOVENKO
Bermyata (Bermiata) FRANZ HAWLATA
Bobyl Bakula (Le bonhomme Bakoula) VASILY GORSHKOV
Bobylikha (La bonne femme) CAROLE WILSON
Wood Goblin (L’Esprit des bois) VASILY EFIMOV
Maslenitsa JULIEN JOGUET
First Herald (Premier Héraut) VINCENT MORELL
Second Herald (Second Héraut) PIERPAOLO PALLONI
Tsar’s Boy (Page du Tsar) OLGA OUSSOVA

Orchestre de l’Opéra national de Paris
Musical Director PHILIPPE JORDAN
Conductor MIKHAIL TATARNIKOV

Chœurs de l’Opéra national de Paris
Maîtrise des Hauts-de-Seine
Chœur d’enfants de l’Opéra national de Paris
Chorus Master JOSÉ LUIS BASSO

Stage Direction and Set Design DMITRI TCHERNIAKOV
Costume Design ELENA ZAYTSEVA
Lighting Design GLEB FILSHTINSKY
Video TIENI BURKHALTER

Conductor’s Assistant IGOR TOMASHEVSKII
Stage Director’s Assistants JOËL LAUWERS, MICHEL JANKELIOWITCH
Stage Movements and Stunts Assistant RAN ARTHUR BRAUN
Set Designer’s Assistant KATIA MOCHENOVA

Patrick Dupond in Swan Lake

Bel Air Classiques 2021-03-08 | TRIBUTE TO PATRICK DUPOND (1959-2021)
A memory of a "Swan Lake" with Marie-Claude Pietragalla at the Opéra national de Paris in 1992...

#patrickdupond

Traviata - vous méritez un avenir meilleur | Judith Chemla reads Germonts letter (DVD & Blu-ray)

Bel Air Classiques 2021-03-08 | In "Traviata – You deserve a better future", the audience is invited into Violetta’s privacy to have a close look at the fire to which she abandons herself, among the guests of this musical and phantasmagorical celebration that blends theatre and opera...

Check out on website : geni.us/TraviataLazarDVD

#InternationalWomensDay

An overpowering and paradoxical perfume of dream and reality floats around ‘‘La Traviata’’, as if the life and death of this so-called « errant » woman seem more real and more elusive than those of other opera heroines. It is with this perfume, composed of rare flower essences, of alcohols, of prescription drugs, of skins caressed, of seemingly odourless money, that Giuseppe Verdi deeply impregnated his musical material, just at the time when the perfume of the story of the courtesan Marie Duplessis, who died in 1847, six years before the opera was created in Venice, was evaporating.

In Traviata – You deserve a better future, the audience is invited into Violetta’s privacy to have a close look at the fire to which she abandons herself among the guests of this musical and phantasmagorical celebration that blends theatre and opera, voices that speak and sing, and where the distinction between the instrumentalists and the singers becomes blurred, where Charles Baudelaire is seated next to Christophe Tarkos, and where the phantoms of this Paris in full industrial boom whose future we are living at present, sing and die.

***************************************************************************************************
A show by Benjamin Lazar, Florent Hubert and Judith Chemla after La Traviata by Giuseppe Verdi
Sung in Italian with French dialogues

Violetta Valéry : Judith Chemla
Alfredo Germont : Damien Bigourdan
Giorgio Germont : Jérôme Billy
Flora Bervoix et Anina : Elise Chauvin
The Doctor : Florent Baffi
Violin : Marie Salvat
Cello : Myrtille Hetzel
Clarinet : Axelle Ciofolo
Contrabassa : Bruno Le Bris
Accordion : Gabriel Levasseur
Trombone : Sébastien Llado
Horn / Baron Douphol : Benjamin Locher

Conception : Benjamin Lazar, Florent Hubert and Judith Chemla
Stage direction : Benjamin Lazar
Arrangements and musical direction : Florent Hubert and Paul Escobar
Vocal coach : Alphonse Cemin
Scenography : Adeline Caron
Costumes : Julia Brochier
Lighting design : Maël Iger
Make-up and hairdressing : Mathilde Benmoussa
Assistant to the stage director : Juliette Séjourné
Assistants to the scenographer : Nicolas Brias and Fanny Commaret

Recorded in HD at the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord (Paris) in 09/2017
TV direction : Corentin Leconte

Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker | Bolshoi Ballet (DVD, Blu-ray & VOD trailer)

Bel Air Classiques 2021-01-19 | Masterpiece of classical dance, this Nutcracker is a magical version of the score by Tchaikovsky filmed at the Bolshoi Theatre.

Buy online: geni.us/NutcrackerBolshoiDVD
Watch now on VOD: geni.us/NutcrackerBolshoiVOD

Masterpiece of classical dance this Nutcracker is a magical version of the score by Tchaikovsky filmed at the Bolshoi Theatre.

Till its première in Saint-Petersbourg in 1892, The Nutcracker is one of the most successful classical ballet and Tchaikovsky's score has become one of his most famous compositions.

Yuri Grigorovich deals with Hoffmann’s fantastic imagery and takes ideas from the Marius Petipa’ scenario : battle of the mice, snowflakes flurry, characters dances executed by little doll that came to life…

The most talented soloists of the Bolshoi Ballet appear in this production as Nina Kaptsova (Marie) and Artem Ovcharenko (the Nutcracker Prince) or Denis Savin (Drosselmeyer).

The Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra is conducted by Pavel Klinichev.

Le Lied. Histoire dun voyage, raconté par André Tubeuf (DVD & VOD trailer)

Bel Air Classiques 2020-12-18 | Dans son salon de la rue Milton, André Tubeuf (1930-2021) raconte avec son savoir, son langage et sa mémoire, l’histoire du Lied allemand. De Mozart et Beethoven à Mahler et Strauss en passant par Schubert, Schumann, Brahms et Wolf, c’est tout un pan de la culture européenne et de l’histoire de la musique qui reprend vie et renaît devant nos yeux et nos oreilles.

En VOD : geni.us/LiedTubeufVOD
En DVD : geni.us/LiedTubeufDVD

Épisode 1 : Mozart & Beethoven - L’Aurore du Lied
André Tubeuf raconte l’essence du Lied allemand et revient sur les circonstances qui l’ont amené à le découvrir en 1950, à l’âge de vingt ans. Il aborde ensuite les prémices de l’histoire du Lied en étudiant tour à tour les exemples de Mozart puis de Beethoven.

Épisode 2 : Schubert - L’Eau de l’âme
André Tubeuf évoque la figure de Franz Schubert, de son enfance de petit chanteur à la cathédrale de Vienne à l’élaboration de la Belle Meunière, en passant par le solitaire et l’amateur de nature.

Épisode 3 : Schubert - Le Voyage d’hiver
Du préambule « bonne nuit » au final « joueur de vieil », André Tubeuf présente chacune des ving-quatre stations de ce Voyage d’hiver, œuvre unique dans l’histoire de la musique en général et du Lied en particulier.

Épisode 4 : Schumann - Les Fleurs endeuillées
André Tubeuf expose le cas Robert Schumann, son caractère fantasque et ses bizarreries artistes, son attachement plus ou moins empoisonné au Rhin et aux fleurs, ainsi que la prodigieuse année 1840, qui fut pour lui celle de l’explosion du Lied.

Épisode 5 : Brahms - Une Immense Bonté
André Tubeuf raconte Johannes Brahms, de son enfance à Hambourg jusqu’à sa mort après ses Quatre Chants Sérieux. C’est un Brahms familier et fraternel qui est dessiné, un Brahms doux et profond, solide marcheur et grand compositeur.

Épisode 6 : Wolf - Les Poètes sur-mesure
André Tubeuf évoque la comète que fut Hugo Wolf. De son enfance autrichienne à sa folie viennoise, André Tubeuf révèle un Hugo Wolf à la fois erratique et tordu, à la fois brillant et insalissable, éclatant et unique.

Épisode 7 : Mahler & Strauss - Le Crépuscule du Lied
André Tubeuf disserte sur le rapport de Mahler au Lied jusqu’à l’élaboration du chef d’œuvre hybride qu’est Le Chant de la Terre. Puis, Richard Strauss et notamment ses Quatre Derniers Chants viennent clôturer cette histoire du Lied.

Yuri Temirkanov conducts Tchaikovsky | Variations on a Rococo theme, trumpet version (DVD exerpt)

Bel Air Classiques 2020-11-30 | Three amazing concerts dedicated to Tchaikovsky recorded at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris with Yuri Temirkanov conducting the Saint Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra.

Buy on DVD: geni.us/Temirkanov3DVD
Watch now on VOD: geni.us/Temirkanov3VOD

In volume III : Romeo and Juliet – Overture (1870), Variations on a Rococo Theme, Op. 33 for Trumpet and Orchestra (1877) with soloist Sergei Nakariakov and famous Symphony No. 6 in B minor, Op. 74 “Pathétique” (1893).

Yuri Temirkanov conducts Tchaikovsky | Symphony #5 in E minor (DVD excerpt)

Yuri Temirkanov conducts Tchaikovsky | Piano Concerto #1 with Denis Matsuev (DVD excerpt)

Bel Air Classiques 2020-11-26 | Three amazing concerts dedicated to Tchaikovsky recorded at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris with Yuri Temirkanov conducting the Saint Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra.

Buy on DVD: geni.us/Temirkanov1DVD
Watch on VOD: geni.us/Temirkanov1VOD

In volume 1 : Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor, Op. 23 (1875) with acclaimed soloist Denis Matsuev and Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Op. 36 (1878).

Vladimir Fedoseyev conducts Tchaikovsky | Musikverein 2009 | Manfred Symphony (DVD excerpt)

Bel Air Classiques 2020-11-24 | Filmed in one of the most prestigious world concert halls – Gold concert hall “Musikverein” in Vienna – a cycle of the concert of the Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra under Vladimir Fedoseyev’s baton.

Buy on DVD: geni.us/Fedoseyev4DVD
Watch on VOD: geni.us/Fedoseyev4VOD

The Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra headed by its artistic director and chief conductor Vladimir Fedoseyev has become the first one of the Russian orchestras which was twice invited to perform at this famous stage with a cycle of concerts. The tour in 2005 when The Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra performed five days running in Musikverein was called triumphal.

In volume 4 : Tchaikovsky's Symphony "Manfred" in B minor, op. 58 (1885) and Nikolay Miaskovsky's Cello concerto in C minor op. 66 (1945) (Austrian premiere)

Vladimir Fedoseyev conducts Tchaikovsky | Musikverein 2009 | Symphony #6 Pathétique (DVD excerpt)

Bel Air Classiques 2020-11-24 | Filmed in one of the most prestigious world concert halls – Gold concert hall “Musikverein” in Vienna – a cycle of the concert of the Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra under Vladimir Fedoseyev’s baton.

Buy on DVD: geni.us/Fedoseyev3DVD
Watch on VOD: geni.us/Fedoseyev3VOD

The Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra headed by its artistic director and chief conductor Vladimir Fedoseyev has become the first one of the Russian orchestras which was twice invited to perform at this famous stage with a cycle of concerts. The tour in 2005 when The Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra performed five days running in Musikverein was called triumphal.

In volume 2 : Beethoven's Symphony n° 4 in B flat major, op. 60 (1806) and Tchaikovsky's Symphony n° 6 in B minor, op. 74 “Pathetic” (1893).

Encore : Echo of Waltz from “The Snowstorm” by Georgy Sviridov

Vladimir Fedoseyev conducts Tchaikovsky | Musikverein 2009 | Symphony #5 in E minor (DVD excerpt)

Bel Air Classiques 2020-11-23 | Filmed in one of the most prestigious world concert halls – Gold concert hall “Musikverein” in Vienna - a cycle of the concert of the Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra under Vladimir Fedoseyev's baton.

Buy on DVD: geni.us/Fedoseyev2DVD
Watch on VOD: geni.us/Fedoseyev2VOD

The Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra headed by its artistic director and chief conductor Vladimir Fedoseyev has become the first one of the Russian orchestras which was twice invited to perform at this famous stage with a cycle of concerts. The tour in 2005 when The Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra performed five days running in Musikverein was called triumphal.

In volume 2 : Beethoven’s Symphony n°2 en D major op.36 (1803) and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony n°5 in E minor op.64 (1888).

Encore : Tchaikovsky’s “Danse espagnole” from Swan Lake and Valery Gavrilin’s “Away from Vologda to Kerch”.

Vladimir Fedoseyev conducts Tchaikovsky | Musikverein 2009 | Symphony #4 in F minor (DVD excerpt)

Bel Air Classiques 2020-11-23 | Filmed in one of the most prestigious world concert halls – Gold concert hall “Musikverein” in Vienna - a cycle of the concert of the Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra under Vladimir Fedoseyev's baton.

Buy on DVD: geni.us/Fedoseyev1DVD
Watch on VOD: geni.us/Fedoseyev1VOD

The Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra headed by its artistic director and chief conductor Vladimir Fedoseyev has become the first one of the Russian orchestras which was twice invited to perform at this famous stage with a cycle of concerts. The tour in 2005 when The Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra performed five days running in Musikverein was called triumphal.

Volume 1: Symphony No. 8 in F major, op. 93 (1812) by Beethoven and Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Op. 36 (1877) by Tchaikovsky.

Encores : “Chant d’automne” excerpt from The Seasons and “Spanish dance” from Swan Lake by Tchaikovsky.

La Bayadère | Angelina Vorontsova as Nikiya | Mikhailovsky Theater 2019 (DVD / Blu-ray excerpt)

Bel Air Classiques 2020-11-09 | The purity of classical dance meets the opulant exoticism of the Maharajas’ India in this 150-year-old ballet, glorified by Nacho Duato for the Mikhailovsky Ballet.

Check out online : geni.us/BayadereDuatoDVD
Watch on VOD : geni.us/BayadereDuatoVOD

Of Ancient India, composer Ludwig Minkus made in his La Bayadère the shiny background of the tragic love story between a priestess and a warrior, unable to get together in this world or in the next. For this new production with the Mikhailovsky Ballet, of which he is the artistic director, Spanish choreographer Nacho Duato created a new version extremely respectful of Marius Petipa’s original, preserving the traditional synopsis and the great coups de théâtre of the libretto, and keeping the original choreography for the most famous scenes. But at the same time, he liberates the ballet from the weight of its own anachronism, removes the episodes of pointless pantomime, and relocates it in a extravagant, lavish and colourful set.

Before working on La Bayadère, Duato had already tackled some of the great classics of the Russian classical ballet school : his original versions of Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker, both commissionned by the Mikhailovsky, have since then toured in the whole world and were met with tremendous success – from Milan and Berlin to Novossibirsk. For this new project, he surrounds himself with the excellent Principals Angelina Vorontsova and Victor Lebedev, but also with Andrea Laššáková, outstanding in the role of Gamzatti.

**************************************************************************

Ballet in three acts
Music by LUDWIG MINKUS (1826-1917)
Libretto by MARIUS PETIPA and SERGEI KHUDEKOV

Nikiya, Bayadère ANGELINA VORONTSOVA
Solor, Warrior VICTOR LEBEDEV
The High Brahmin SERGEY STRELKOV
Dugmanta, Rajah ANDREY KASYANENKO
Gamzatti, his daughter ANDREA LAŠŠÁKOVÁ
Bronze Idol NIKITA TCHETVERIKOV

THE MIKHAILOVSKY BALLET

ORCHESTRA OF MIKHAILOVSKY THEATRE
Musical Director of the production and Conductor PAVEL SOROKIN

Choreography NACHO DUATO after MARIUS PETIPA
Stage and Costume Designer ANGELINA ATLAGIĆ
Stage Designer Assistant (Sets) MAGDALENA VLAJIĆ
Stage Designer Assistant (Costumes) SRDJAN PERIĆ
Lighting Designer BRAD FIELDS
Choreographer’s Assistant GENTIAN DODA

La Classe dAlexandre Kalioujny | Elisabeth Platel & Charles Judes (DVD trailer)

Bel Air Classiques 2020-11-03 | Enter the Ballet School of the Opéra national de Paris and follow the young students’ dance lessons, taught by Danseurs Étoiles Élisabeth Platel (also Director of the Ballet School) and Charles Jude in the style of legendary ballet master Alexander Kalioujny...

Buy online : geni.us/KalioujnyDVD

A ‘‘Danseur Étoile’’ and ballet master, Alexander ‘‘Sasha’’ Kalioujny was born in Prague in 1923 to emigrants Russian parents. After a brilliant carreer in Serge Lifar’s Ballet de l’Opéra national de Paris, he was appointed ballet teacher at the Nice Conservatoire. In 1970, he was called back to the Opéra by the other ‘‘Étoiles’’ so that he could teach their classes. There, he devised a training highly praised by dancers, focusing on technique, strength and movement mastery. In 1985, Rudolf Nureyev, then Ballet Director, started planning a book based on those classes, but died before he could complete this project. Thirty-five years later, this film aims to be the living memory of his classes, reconstituted by his former students, Danseurs Étoiles Élisabeth Platel and Charles Jude, and performed by the young dancers of the Ballet School of the Opéra national de Paris. A fascinating testimony and an indispensable work tool for all classical dancers around the world.

Special features :
Interviews with Élisabeth Platel (1)
Conversation between Charles Jude & Élisabeth Platel
Interview with Charles Jude
Interview with Noëlla Pontois, Danseuse Étoile
Interview with Attilio Labis, Danseur Étoile
Interview with Gil Isoart, Danseur et pédagogue
Interview with the students (girls)
Interview with the students (boys)

Lohengrin | Árpád Schilling & Cornelius Meister | Staatsoper Stuttgart 2018 (DVD / Blu-ray trailer)

Bel Air Classiques 2020-10-29 | What are heroes made of and why do our societies need them so badly ? At the Staatsoper Stuttgart, stage director Árpád Schilling tries to answer this mythological, political and existential question, lying at the core of Richard Wagner’s Lohengrin.

Buy on DVD & Blu-ray : geni.us/LohengrinDVD

Subscribe to BelAir Classiques : http://bit.ly/2g1aCPA
Follow on Facebook : http://bit.ly/BelAirFacebook
Follow on Twitter : http://bit.ly/TwitterBelAir
Follow on Instagram : http://bit.ly/InstaBelAir

‘‘A wonder! A miracle!”, the men and women of Brabant agreed when, against all expectations, someone stood up for Elsa and invalidated the allegations made by the plaintiff Telramund. And yet he does the most normal thing in the world: to help a person in distress. So why is there a need for this savior, surrounded by the aura of mystery, whose name and origin even his new wife Elsa cannot ask? Why does the collective body abdicates its moral and political responsibilities and surrenders them to a single individual? And when does the providential man stops being a savior and becomes a threat? For Hungarian stage director Árpád Schilling, a fierce enemy of the very idea of the cult of a personality, and he himself a political exile, these questions lie at the core of Richard Wagner’s Lohengrin.

For his new production at the Staatsoper Stuttgart, the stage director recenters the opera on the expressivity of the direction, and strips the stage of all its ornamental or mythological elements. He creates a coming-of-age tale, pervaded by the themes of responsibility, trust, and the relationship between the individual and the collective. This powerful and ambitious proposition is mirrored in Maestro Cornelius Meister’s expressive and philosophical conducting, and in Michaël König, Simone Schneider, Martin Gantner, Okka von der Damerau’s profound singing.

****************************************

Romantic opera in three acts

Music & Libretto Richard Wagner

Heinrich der Vogler Goran Jurić
Lohengrin Michael König
Elsa von Brabant Simone Schneider
Friedrich von Telramund Martin Gantner
Ortrud Okka von der Damerau
Der Heerrufer des Königs Shigeo Ishino
Vier Edle Torsten Hofmann, Heinz Göhrig, Andrew Bogard, Michael Nagl
Vier Edelknaben Elisabeth Von Stritzky, Heike Beckmann, Simone Jackel, Jie Zhang

Staatsopernchor Stuttgart
Staatsorchester Stuttgart

Conductor Cornelius Meister

Stage Direction Árpád Schilling
Set Design Raimund Orfeo Voigt
Costume Design Tina Kloempken
Costume Design Collaboration Saskia Schneider
Lighting Design Támás Banyai
Dramaturgy Miron Hakenbeck
Chorus Master Manuel Pujol

La Bayadère | Nacho Duato & Mikhailovsky Ballet | Mikhailovsky Theater 2019 (DVD / Blu-ray trailer)

Bel Air Classiques 2020-10-19 | The purity of classical dance meets the opulant exoticism of the Maharajas’ India in this 150-year-old ballet, glorified by Nacho Duato for the Mikhailovsky Ballet.

Check out online : geni.us/BayadereDuatoDVD
Watch on VOD : geni.us/BayadereDuatoVOD

Of Ancient India, composer Ludwig Minkus made in his La Bayadère the shiny background of the tragic love story between a priestess and a warrior, unable to get together in this world or in the next. For this new production with the Mikhailovsky Ballet, of which he is the artistic director, Spanish choreographer Nacho Duato created a new version extremely respectful of Marius Petipa’s original, preserving the traditional synopsis and the great coups de théâtre of the libretto, and keeping the original choreography for the most famous scenes. But at the same time, he liberates the ballet from the weight of its own anachronism, removes the episodes of pointless pantomime, and relocates it in a extravagant, lavish and colourful set.

Before working on La Bayadère, Duato had already tackled some of the great classics of the Russian classical ballet school : his original versions of Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker, both commissionned by the Mikhailovsky, have since then toured in the whole world and were met with tremendous success – from Milan and Berlin to Novossibirsk. For this new project, he surrounds himself with the excellent Principals Angelina Vorontsova and Victor Lebedev, but also with Andrea Laššáková, outstanding in the role of Gamzatti.

**************************************************************************

Ballet in three acts
Music by LUDWIG MINKUS (1826-1917)
Libretto by MARIUS PETIPA and SERGEI KHUDEKOV

Nikiya, Bayadère ANGELINA VORONTSOVA
Solor, Warrior VICTOR LEBEDEV
The High Brahmin SERGEY STRELKOV
Dugmanta, Rajah ANDREY KASYANENKO
Gamzatti, his daughter ANDREA LAŠŠÁKOVÁ
Bronze Idol NIKITA TCHETVERIKOV

THE MIKHAILOVSKY BALLET

ORCHESTRA OF MIKHAILOVSKY THEATRE
Musical Director of the production and Conductor PAVEL SOROKIN

Choreography NACHO DUATO after MARIUS PETIPA
Stage and Costume Designer ANGELINA ATLAGIĆ
Stage Designer Assistant (Sets) MAGDALENA VLAJIĆ
Stage Designer Assistant (Costumes) SRDJAN PERIĆ
Lighting Designer BRAD FIELDS
Choreographer’s Assistant GENTIAN DODA

Eskapist | Alexander Ekman & Mikael Karlsson | Royal Swedish Ballet 2019 (DVD/Blu-ray trailer)

Bel Air Classiques 2020-09-07 | With the complicity of the excellent Royal Swedish Ballet, Alexander Ekman makes dreams dance in a new surprising, lyrical and cosmic choreographical piece.

Buy now on DVD / Blu-ray : geni.us/EskapistDVD
Watch on VOD : geni.us/EskapistVOD

After the instant success of Midsummer Night’s Dream, exploring the density of traditional mysticism and the maze of imagination, choreographer Alexander Ekman and the Royal Swedish Ballet once again brings us on a dancing journey through the looking glass, beyond our own reality. Known for the spectacular quality of his pieces and the oneiric imagery he tends to deploy, Ekman seamlessly takes us from one unlikely situation from the next, thanks to the incredible technical maestria and versatility of the Royal Swedish Ballet dancers. ‘‘I like creating worlds that have never been seen before’’, Ekman wrote while creating Play with the Paris Opera Ballet : without ever sacrificing lyrical beauty and deep contemplation to pointless incongruity, Eskapist proves once again that the theatrical stage truly is a magic place, where the world as we know it shifts shapes only to dissolve into the most poetic fantasies one could envision.

Once more, Ekman has sought support from his long-term acolyte, Swedish composer Mikael Karlsson, whose entrancing music follows the wide range of styles mobilized by Ekman : sometimes downright comic and uplifting, and sometimes reflexive, deep, and ultimately cosmic.

********************************************

A piece by Alexander Ekman
Choreography, scenography, lights Alexander Ekman
Music Mikael Karlsson
Costumes Henrik Vibskov
Dramaturge Carina Nildalen

Royal Swedish Ballet

Eskapist Oscar Salomonsson
Cone heads Daria Ivanova, Sarah Jane Medley
Tree Queen Jonna Savioja
You and Me Anton Valdbauer, Emily Slawski
Old Eskapists Joakim Adeberg, Jérôme Marchand, Anton Valdbauer, Mayumi Yamaguchi
Classic duet Haruka Sassa, Adilijiang Abudureheman
Red hatwoman Alina Lagoas
Eskapists Coralie Aulas, Frida Hambraeus, Luiza Lopes, Kisa Nakashima, Moe Nieda, Natalie Ogonek, Alessa Rogers, Desislava Stoeva, Lisa Van Cauwenbergh, Madeline Woo, Kaho Yanagisawa, Gabriel Barrenengoa, William Dugan, Mackenzie Farquhar, Hampus Gauffin, Hiroaki Ishida, Pascal Jansson, Julien Keulen, Calum Lowden, Preston Mcbain, Kentaro Mitsumori, Jeremie Neveu, Samuele Ninci, Javier Rojas, Erik Rudqvist
Cellist Erik Wahlgren

Film by Tommy Pascal

Bel Air Classiques | DVD & Blu-ray new releases

Bel Air Classiques 2020-05-25 | Subscribe to BelAir Classiques : http://bit.ly/2g1aCPA
Follow on Facebook : http://bit.ly/BelAirFacebook
Follow on Twitter : http://bit.ly/TwitterBelAir
Follow on Instagram : http://bit.ly/InstaBelAir

Turandot | Nicola Luisotti & Robert Wilson | Teatro Real 2018 (DVD & Blu-ray trailer)

Bel Air Classiques 2020-05-14 | Puccini's Turandot conquers the Teatro Real, in a new production by Robert Wilson. With Irene Theorin, Gregory Kunde, Yolanda Auyanet...

Buy online : geni.us/TurandotWilsonDVD

Giacomo Puccini wrote what was supposed to be his last opera at a time where, riddled with disease and old age as he was, he felt like his own turmoil was reflected in the outside world: itself staggering, unsteady, overwhelmed and smashed by the chaos of European diplomacy. In spite of these obstacles, he persevered and worked until the very end of his life on this opera that he left unfinished but that proved to be a “way out” for him in many ways. Drawn from an ancient Persian epic from the 13th century, Turandot was indeed an excuse to escape into a new dramatic universe, one made of unexpected sounds and symbols. Here, in a world removed both geographically and chronologically from his own reality, he gave into the seductive powers of exoticism and eroticism, just as his own heroin Princess Turandot abandons herself to the mysteries of love and forgiveness.

After twenty years of absence, Puccini’s Turandot was revived on the stage of the Teatro Real in a new production by American stage director Robert Wilson. One of the most important theatre and visual artist of our times, the director who gave life to Philip Glass’s Einstein of the Beach and who reinvented Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande hadn’t worked on a Puccini opera in twenty-five years, since his ground-breaking Madama Butterfly commissioned by the Paris Opera in 1993. This new encounter between his powerful visual universe and Puccini’s evocative music was bound to be an outstanding event. Carried out by a brilliant cast of singers, dominated by Irene Theorin as Turandot, Gregory Kunde as Calaf and Yolanda Auyanet as Liù, this magnificent production is conducted by the Teatro Real’s associate musical director Nicola Luisotti - and has been met with universal acclaim.

*******************************************************

‘Dramma lirico’ in three acts and five scenes
Libretto Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni
after the comedy Turandot by Carlo Gozzi

La Principessa Turandot: Irene Theorin
Imperatore Altoum: Raúl Giménez
Timur: Andrea Mastroni
Liù: Yolanda Auyanet
Il Principe Ignoto (Calaf): Gregory Kunde
Ping: Joan Martín-Royo
Pang: Vicenç Esteve
Pong: Juan Antonio Sanabria
Un Mandarino: Gerardo Bullón

Orchestra and Chorus of Teatro Real
Jorcam Children Chorus
Conductor Nicola Luisotti

Stage Direction, Scenography and Lighting Design: Robert Wilson
Stage Direction Assistant: Nicola Panzer
Scenography Assistant: Stephanie Engeln
Costumes Design: Jacques Reynaud
Lighting Design Assistant: John Torres
Hairstyles and Makeup: Manuela Halligan
Video: Tomek Jeziorski
Dramaturgy: José Enrique Macián
Chorus master: Andrés Máspero

A Teatro Real new production, in coproduction with the Opéra national de Paris, The Canadian Opera Company of Toronto, The Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre and The Houston Grand Opera

HD recording: Teatro Real, Madrid – 12/2018
Produced by Natalia Camacho & Xavier Dubois | Directed by Andy Sommer

Prokofiev: Romeo and Juliet | Vyacheslav Samodurov | Ural Opera Ballet (DVD & Blu-ray trailer)

Bel Air Classiques 2020-03-20 | Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet, choreographed by Vyacheslav Samodurov (former Principal of the Royal Ballet) for the Ural Opera Ballet, now on DVD, Blu-ray and VOD.

Check out online : geni.us/RomeoJulietDVD
Watch on VOD : geni.us/RomeoJulietVOD

Two lovers, united by fate but kept apart by an old family feud, who can only be together in death : Shakespeare’s timeless tale, set to ballet music by Sergey Prokofiev in 1935, needs no introduction. However, this production from the Ural Opera Ballet in Ekaterinburg, which won the prestigious Golden Mask Prize as “Best Ballet” in 2017, adds interesting twists to this well-known frame, as choreographer Vyacheslav Samodurov sets his performance in a dance studio, during a rehearsal of the Romeo and Juliet ballet.

This way, the characters of the play are placed out of a specific country or era: the action could take place anytime and anywhere. It could even be happening in front of your window right now: it is not by chance that the dancers reminded the audience of today’s ‘boys and girls from the Uralmash district’, as some viewers have noted in social media. The motive of struggle between the two clans disappears from the performance – it does not matter which families the street fighters belong to. The concept of repetition and inexorability of the theatrical ritual plays a central part: a tragedy is about to happen and the lovers will die today, but afterwards everyone will go home, a new rehearsal will start tomorrow, and the story will be repeated again from the start.

With outstanding performances from principals Ekaterina Sapogova and Alexandr Merkushev, choreographer Vyacheslav Samodurov creates an intricate and surprisingly modern choreographical language that draws from classical movements but also from pantomime to best express the feelings and the drama at play in this eternal masterpiece.

***************************************************************************

Ballet in three acts

Libretto by Leonid Lavrovsky, Adrian Piotrovsky, Sergei Prokofiev, Sergei Radlov
based on the eponymous tragedy of William Shakespeare

Music by Sergey Prokofiev (1891-1953)

Juliet Ekaterina Sapogova
Romeo Alexandr Merkushev
Mercutio Igor Bulytsyn
Benvolio Gleb Sageev
Tybalt Vadim Eremin

Ural Opera Ballet (Ekaterinburg)

Orchestra of Ural Opera Ballet Theatre (Ekaterinburg)
Conductor Pavel Klinichev

Choreography Vyacheslav Samodurov
Sets Anthony Macilwaine
Costumes Irena Belousova
Lighting Simon Bennison
Assistant Choreographer Klara Dovzhik

HD recording: Ural Opera Theatre, Ekaterinburg - 04/2019
Produced by François Duplat | Directed for TV by Denis Caïozzi

Falstaff | Laurent Pelly & Daniele Rustioni | Teatro Real - Madrid 2019 (DVD & Blu-ray trailer)

Bel Air Classiques 2020-03-19 | Giuseppe Verdi and Arrigo Boito‘s last masterpiece takes the stage of Teatro Real for the first time in seventeen years, in a new production by Laurent Pelly conducted by Daniele Rustioni.

Check out online : geni.us/FalstaffDVD
Watch on VOD : geni.us/FalstaffVOD

Out of Giuseppe Verdi’s adoration for William Shakespeare three masterpieces were born : Macbeth, Otello and, as a musical testament, his only comedy Falstaff. But in accordance with its librettist Arrigo Boito’s wish to remove the original bourgeois farce The Merry Wives of Windsor out of the English mists and to warm it up to the clear Tuscan sun, Falstaff transforms Shakespeare’s morality play into an ode to life, to pleasure and to reconciliation that forgives human vices, rewards intelligence and virtue, and praises that spark of madness that gives life its flavour. Shakespeare’s most famous and subversive comic character has indeed proved to be a fertile ground for Verdi who, then eighty-years old, signed with Falstaff his most modern, most ambitious, but also wisest and ambiguous opera.

It was high time that French stage director Laurent Pelly, an eminent specialist of the buffa repertoire, tried out his talents on this whimsical music drama : a task he performs with absolute maestria, highlighting with remarkable subtlety the numerous comic devices invented by Verdi and Boito but also pondering on the equivocal morality of the argument. He is, of course, helped in this endeavour by a wonderful team of singers : from the excellent baritone Roberto de Candia to the earthy mezzo soprano Daniela Barcellona as Mrs Quickly, without forgetting the exceptional Simone Piazzola as Ford, the wonderfully lyrical Rebecca Evans as Alice, or the candid Ruth Iniesta and Joel Prieto as Nannetta and Fenton, the young couple whose tender romance counterpoint Falstaff’s heroicomic gest. At the head of the Orchestra of the Teatro Real, conductor Daniele Rustioni underlines with unusual clarity and finesse the extraordinary complexity of this ‘‘opus ultimum’’.

****************************************************************************

‘Commedia lirica’ in three acts
Libretto Arrigo Boito
Based on Henry IV, Part I and II and The Merry Wives Of Windsor by William Shakespeare

Sir John Falstaff Roberto De Candia
Fenton Joel Prieto
Dr. Caius Christophe Mortagne
Bardolfo Mikeldi Atxalandabaso
Pistola Valeriano Lanchas
Mrs. Alice Ford Rebecca Evans
Ford Simone Piazzola
Nannetta Ruth Iniesta
Mistress Quickly Daniela Barcellona
Mrs. Meg Page Maite Beaumont
Actors Magdalena Aizpurúa, Beatriz Bergamín, Estrella Martín, Dina Meïer, José Luis Alcedo Wi,
David Guimera, Jorge Soria, Pablo Viña

Orchestra and Chorus of Teatro Real
Conductor Daniele Rustioni

Stage Direction and Costumes Design Laurent Pelly
Sets Design Barbara De Limburg
Lighting Joël Adam
Musical Director Assistant Alessandro Poleggi
Assistants to the Stage Director Christian Räth, Barbara Lluch
Sets and Costumes Assistant Anuschka Braun
Chorus Master Andrés Máspero

HD recording : Teatro Real - Madrid | 04/2019
Produced by François Duplat & Xavier Dubois | Directed by Stéphane Lebard

Janáček: From the House of the Dead | Frank Castorf & Simone Young | Munich 2019 (DVD/Blu-ray)

Bel Air Classiques 2020-01-23 | Being alive yet being already dead : that is the paradox at the heart of Janáček's last opera : an absolute masterpiece, to discover in Frank Castorf's powerful staging for the Bayerische Staatsoper on DVD & Blu-ray.

Buy online : geni.us/HouseOfTheDeadDVD

Subscribe to BelAir Classiques : http://bit.ly/2g1aCPA
Follow on Facebook : http://bit.ly/BelAirFacebook
Follow on Twitter : http://bit.ly/TwitterBelAir
Follow on Instagram : http://bit.ly/InstaBelAir

Death is never far away in Leoš Janáček’s work : in The Cunning Little Vixen, the main character falls under the fire of a hunter, Katia Kabanova kills herself, Emilia Marty in The Makropulos Case has to deal with the hard consequences of eternal youth. From the House of the Dead makes no exception, especially since the composer knew he was living out his final days when he decided to adapt into an opera Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s eponymous novel, a literary work inspired by the time the novelist spent in a Siberian prison. This painful feeling of ineluctability pervades through his disillusioned and savage score, that recounts the hopeless life of the convicts of a Soviet concentration camp. In this place where life has already drawn out, in this no man’s land forsaken by civilization, Janáček portrays the anonymous and daily sufferings, the abuses, the corporal punishments, but also evokes fragments from the prisoners’ past, bringing them back to life for the duration of a game or of a story.

Against this background that contrasts the empathic solidarity of simple men with the horrific brutality of the prison guards, stage director Frank Castorf - who created a memorable Ring Cycle in Bayreuth for the Wagner Bicentennial in 2013 - embraces the aesthetics of grotesque and absurd suggested by Janáček’s score, and chooses to crudely display, with stark realism, the physical and psychological violence at the heart of the opera. In the pit, conducting the Bayerisches Staatsorchester, Simone Young underlines the power plays and the overwhelming lyricism unleashed by Janáček’s music. As the main protagonists, Peter Rose, Charles Workman and Bo Skovhus, all familiar with Janáček’s subtleties, bring back to life these agonizing anti-heroic characters forsaken by God and men.

*********************************************************************

Opera in three acts
Music and libretto Leoš Janáček (1854-1928)
After the novel From The House Of The Dead by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Alexandr Petrovič Gorjančikov Peter Rose
Aljeja, A Young Tartar Evgeniya Sotnikova
Luka Kuzmič (Filka Morozov) Aleš Briscein
Skuratov Charles Workman
Šiškov Bo Skovhus
Prison Governor Christian Rieger
Nikita, Big Prisoner Manuel Günther
Small Prisoner Tim Kuypers
Old Prisoner Ulrich Reß
Cook (A Prisoner) Boris Prýgl
Pope Peter Lobert
Čekunov Johannes Kammler
Šapkin Kevin Conners
Blacksmith (A Prisoner) Alexander Milev
Kedril, Prisoner Matthew Grills
A Prostitute Niamh O’Sullivan
Don Juan, Brahmane Callum Thorpe
Čerevin, Voice of the Kirghiz Steppe Dean Power
Drunken Prisoner Galeano Salas
Guard Long Long

Bayerisches Staatsorchester | Chorus of the Bayerische Staatsoper
Conductor Simone Young

Stage Direction Frank Castorf
Sets Design Aleksandar Denić
Costume Design Adriana Braga Peretzki
Lighting Design Rainer Casper
Video Andreas Deinert, Jens Crull, Stefanie Nirschl
Dramaturgy Miron Hakenbeck
Chorus Master Sören Eckhoff

HD recording Bayerische Staatsoper (05/2018)
TV direction Andy Sommer

Galerie Dorée - The Tricentenary Concert | Julien Chauvin & Concert de la Loge (DVD/Blu-ray trailer)

Bel Air Classiques 2020-01-07 | A musical and visual journey in the sublime Golden Gallery of the Central Bank of France, guided by Julien Chauvin and his Concert de la Loge, Jodie Devos, Justin Taylor, Thomas Dunford…

Check out online : geni.us/GoldenGalleryDVD

In 2018, the ‘‘Golden Gallery’’ of the Central Bank of France, and more precisely its renovation in the style of the 18th century by the Count of Toulouse, celebrated its tricentenary. Like the Hall of Mirrors at the Château de Versailles, it counts among the most lavish ceremonial galleries of France : it was in this glorious setting that several scenes of the movie Marie-Antoinette, by Sofia Coppola, were shot.

On this occasion, the baroque ensemble ‘‘Concert de la Loge’’ and its musical director Julien Chauvin drew upon this incredible setting, its paintings and its sculptures but also its history, and brought together various pieces from the baroque anc classical repertoire : Lully, Rameau, Couperin, Boccherini, Charpentier, Vivaldi, Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Haendel… Thanks to an elaborate scenography and to a smart lighting design, the program is also a journey through the mysteries of the visual works displayed in the gallery : for instance the allegories of the young Louis XIV at the beginning of his reign, the story of Henry IV... all of which is explained at length in a gorgeous booklet written by art specialists.

With the exceptional participation of the Quatuor Cambini-Paris, soprano Jodie Devos, theorbist Thomas Dunford, harpsichordist Justin Taylor, cellist Atsushi Sakai...

Swan Lake | Ballet Company of the National Opera of Ukraine 2019 (DVD/Blu-ray)

Bel Air Classiques 2019-11-20 | Valery Kovtun's legendary "Swan Lake" (after Petipa), danced by the Ballet Company of the National Opera of Ukraine, now available on DVD & Blu-ray !

Buy online : geni.us/SwanLakeKievDVD
Watch on VOD : geni.us/SwanLakeKievVOD

The impossible love between a human prince and a swan princess, tragic fates, the constant opposition between imagination and reality: these are the core elements of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake. Profoundly classical, Valery Kovtun’s version for the Ballet of the National Opera of Ukraine is an homage to Tchaikovsky’s talent, but also to Marius Petipa’s timeless heritage. As in the original libretto, this Swan Lake ends with the two main character’s death, drowned into the lake’s tears. But evil is overpowered by love, and in the final apotheosis, Odette and Siegfried are forever united in a world of perfect harmony.

A first class company, the Ballet Company of the National Opera of Ukraine has toured all around the world : from the United States to Europe and Asia. Thanks to its rich classical heritage, the Company has managed to win the hearts of its audience thanks to its amazing technique and artistic maestria, and as in every good dance company, the whole is equal to the sum of its parts. The Company has also, over the years, established itself as a unique talent pool, that has nurtured first class dancers such as Iana Salenko (Staatsballet Berlin), Alina Cojocaru (Royal Ballet), Maxim Beloserkovsky and Irina Dvorovenko (American Ballet Theater) ; and the young gifted dancers that make the Ballet’s reputation ensure the preservation of the classical heritage of this historical and world-renowned company.

Also available in the Bel Air Classiques catalogue : Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker (on DVD & Blu-ray).

********************************************************************

Ballet in three acts

Libretto by Vladimir Begichev and Vasily Geltser
Music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)

Choreography Marius Petipa, Lev Ivanov, Alexandre Gorski
Choreographic Version Valery Kovtun (premiered in 1986)
Stage and Costumes Design Maria Levytska

Odette/ Odile Natalia Matsak
Prince Siegfried Denys Nedak
Rothbart Yaroslav Tkachuk
Pas de trois Ganna Muromtseva, Olga Skripchenko, Oleksandre Skulkine
The Brides & Big Swans Margarita Alyanakh, Irina Borisova, Ganna Muromtseva, Svetlana Onipko
Little Swans Elisaveta Goguidze, Katerina Didenko, Inna Chorna, Katerina Chupina
Venetian Dance Oleksandre Skulkine
The Tutor Sergey Litvinenko
The Knight Vladislav Ivashchenko
The Queen Ludmila Melnik

The Ballet Company of The National Opera of Ukraine

The Orchestra of The National Opera of Ukraine
Conductor Mykola Dyadura

HD recording : National Opera of Ukraine, Kiev, 06/2019
Produced by François Duplat | Directed by Bertrand Normand

Traviata - vous méritez un avenir meilleur (DVD & Blu-ray trailer)

Bel Air Classiques 2019-11-19 | An overpowering and paradoxical perfume of dream and reality floats around ‘‘La Traviata’’, as if the life and death of this so-called « errant » woman seem more real and more elusive than those of other opera heroines. It is with this perfume, composed of rare flower essences, of alcohols, of prescription drugs, of skins caressed, of seemingly odourless money, that Giuseppe Verdi deeply impregnated his musical material, just at the time when the perfume of the story of the courtesan Marie Duplessis, who died in 1847, six years before the opera was created in Venice, was evaporating.

Check out on website : geni.us/TraviataLazarDVD

In Traviata – You deserve a better future, the audience is invited into Violetta’s privacy to have a close look at the fire to which she abandons herself among the guests of this musical and phantasmagorical celebration that blends theatre and opera, voices that speak and sing, and where the distinction between the instrumentalists and the singers becomes blurred, where Charles Baudelaire is seated next to Christophe Tarkos, and where the phantoms of this Paris in full industrial boom whose future we are living at present, sing and die.

***************************************************************************************************
A show by Benjamin Lazar, Florent Hubert and Judith Chemla after La Traviata by Giuseppe Verdi
Sung in Italian with French dialogues

Violetta Valéry : Judith Chemla
Alfredo Germont : Damien Bigourdan
Giorgio Germont : Jérôme Billy
Flora Bervoix et Anina : Elise Chauvin
The Doctor : Florent Baffi
Violin : Marie Salvat
Cello : Myrtille Hetzel
Clarinet : Axelle Ciofolo
Contrabassa : Bruno Le Bris
Accordion : Gabriel Levasseur
Trombone : Sébastien Llado
Horn / Baron Douphol : Benjamin Locher

Conception : Benjamin Lazar, Florent Hubert and Judith Chemla
Stage direction : Benjamin Lazar
Arrangements and musical direction : Florent Hubert and Paul Escobar
Vocal coach : Alphonse Cemin
Scenography : Adeline Caron
Costumes : Julia Brochier
Lighting design : Maël Iger
Make-up and hairdressing : Mathilde Benmoussa
Assistant to the stage director : Juliette Séjourné
Assistants to the scenographer : Nicolas Brias and Fanny Commaret

Recorded in HD at the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord (Paris) in 09/2017
TV direction : Corentin Leconte

Weills Street Scene | John Fulljames & Tim Murray | Teatro Real 2018 (DVD / Blu-ray trailer)

Bel Air Classiques 2019-10-31 | Street Scene, an "American opera" by Kurt Weill and recipient of the first Tony Award, revived at Teatro Real - Madrid by Tim Murray and John Fulljames.

Buy online : geni.us/StreetSceneDVD

Subscribe to BelAir Classiques : http://bit.ly/2g1aCPA
Follow on Facebook : http://bit.ly/BelAirFacebook
Follow on Twitter : http://bit.ly/TwitterBelAir
Follow on Instagram : http://bit.ly/InstaBelAir

Kurt Weill wrote Street Scene shortly after fleeing Nazi Germany to the United States. When he discovered the vitality of the American musical scene, his focus became to reconcile the Broadway “musical” with European traditional opera, jazzy and North-American tunes with an almost Puccinian-like lyricism. In his mind, opera had to embrace and reclaim its own theatricality : thus he wrote his Street Scene, meant to be a truly American opera, half-way between his Brechtian Threepenny’s Opera and Bernstein’s later West Side Story and drawing from the famous play by Elmer Rice (recipient of the Pulitzer Price when it was published in 1928).

The main plot of this rampant collection of scenes from the streets of the lower East Side of New York revolves around Frank and Anna Maurrant and their daughter Rose. A violent and tough character, Frank fails to see his wife’s growing despair due to his lack of affection. When he discovers her with her lover, he shots them both and goes to jail, leaving behind a heartbroken Rose who, after having experienced relentless harassment by two aggressive suitors, misses her one true chance at love. The opera ends by showing the streets of New York City moving on from these mundane events in total indifference.

Under Tim Murray’s vivid and precise baton, this superb production by John Fulljames perfectly renders the vitality and energy released by the streets of New York, that proved to be a great inspiration to the theatrical mind of the composer.

********************************************************************************************

An American Opera in two acts (1947)

Music : Kurt Weill (1900-1950)
Libretto : Elmer Rice after his own eponymous play
Lyrics : Langston Hughes and Elmer Rice

Frank Maurrant Paulo Szot
Anna Maurrant Patricia Racette
Rose Maurrant Mary Bevan
Sam Kaplan Joel Prieto
Emma Jones Lucy Schaufer
Greta Fiorentino Jeni Bern
Lippo Fiorentino Michael J. Scott
Daniel Buchanan Tyler Clarke
Jennie Hildebrand Marta Fontanals-Simmons
Henry Davis Eric Greene
Harry Easter Richard Burkhard
Mae Jones Sarah-Marie Maxwell
Dick McGann Dominic Lamb

Orchestra and Chorus of Teatro Real de Madrid
Pequeños y Jóvenes Cantores de la JORCAM

Conducted by : Tim Murray

Stage direction : John Fulljames

Set and Costume Design Dick Bird
Lighting Design James Farncombe
Choreography Arthur Pita
Associate Director Lucy Bradley
Sound Design Poti Martin
Chorus Master Andrés Máspero

Eugene Onegin | Tatiana Monogarova in the Letter Scene | Paris 2008 (Blu-ray re-issue)

Bel Air Classiques 2019-10-28 | Mariusz Kwiecien and Tatiana Monogarova triumph in « Eugene Oneguin » staged by Dmitri Tcherniakov. An iconic production, now for the first time on Blu-ray !

Buy online : geni.us/EugeneOneginDVD

Subscribe to BelAir Classiques : http://bit.ly/2g1aCPA
Follow on Facebook : http://bit.ly/BelAirFacebook
Follow on Twitter : http://bit.ly/TwitterBelAir
Follow on Instagram : http://bit.ly/InstaBelAir

Bolshoi troupe triumphs at Paris Opera’s 2008 season opening with Eugene Onegin under the talented direction of Dmitri Tcherniakov.

Three romantic heroes each with a solitary destiny: Tatiana, a Romanesque young woman seeking absolution, Onegin, a distant dandy hiding emptiness under affected haughtiness, and Lenski, abandoned by his literary idol. Between these three, barren affections presage the inexorable social ruin.

All the resources of the Bolshoi Theatre of Moscow are brought to bear to ensure this opera performance is exceptional evening of theatre and song: a vocal line-up of the highest order with notably the baritone Mariusz Kwiecien and the Bolshoi Orchestra and Chorus conducted by Alexander Vedernikov.

With a stage setting as sombre as it is effective – a great dining table appears in the middle of a salon – the director Dmitri Tcherniakov separates two different worlds and lends the drama a clarity rarely reached.

The exceptional quality of this production, and the great success encountered by its first edition on DVD, inevitably led to the remastering in high-definition of this program to celebrate the 10th anniversary of its original release. It is now and for the first time also available on Blu-ray.

*******************************************************************************************

Lyrical scene in three acts

Music : Piotr Illitch Tchaïkovski (1840-1893)

Libretto : P. I. Tchaïkovski & K. S. Shilovsky
After the poem by Alexandre Pouchkine

Eugene Onegin Mariusz Kwiecien
Madame Larina Makvala Kasrashvili
Tatiana Tatiana Monogarova
Olga Margarita Mamsirova
The nurse Emma Sarkisyan
Lenski Andrey Dunaev
Prince Gremin Anatolij Kotscherga
Zaretski Valery Gilmanov

Soloists, Orchestra and Chorus of the State Academic Bolshoi Theater

Conducted by Alexander Vedernikov

Stage direction : Dmitri Tcherniakov

Costumes : Maria Danilova
Lighting design : Gleb Filshtinsky
Chorus master : Valery Borisov

The Art of Ohad Naharin vol.2 | Batsheva - the Young Ensemble | Sadeh21 (DVD/Blu-ray trailer)

Bel Air Classiques 2019-09-23 | After a first volume featuring Naharin’s Virus and Last Work, two of the most emblematic works oh Ohad Naharin and the Batsheva Dance Company this new release presents Sadeh21, created in 2011 in collaboration with the dancers, and interpreted by the ‘‘junior’’ branch of Batsheva : The Young Ensemble. Now on DVD & Blu-ray !

Buy online : geni.us/Sadeh21DVD
Watch on VOD : geni.us/Sadeh21VOD

Subscribe to BelAir Classiques : http://bit.ly/2g1aCPA
Follow on Facebook : http://bit.ly/BelAirFacebook
Follow on Twitter : http://bit.ly/TwitterBelAir
Follow on Instagram : http://bit.ly/InstaBelAir

Founded in Tel-Aviv in 1964, the Batsheva Dance Company was headed from 1990 to 2018 by Ohad Naharin, an incredible dancer with a musical training, and a true passion for movement. Through his “Gaga” technique, a choreographic vocabulary that explores the sensations and the availability of the bodies, he made his mark on the dance world and offered the company its finest hours. In 2015, Tomer Heymann’s documentary “Mr. Gaga” paid tribute to the Naharin phenomenon, its influence on the contemporary dance scene and in pop culture. The collection ‘‘The Art of Ohad Naharin’’ is a showcase of Naharin’s aesthetics and demanding technique : after a first volume featuring Naharin’s Virus and Last Work, two of the most emblematic works in the company’s current repertoire, this new release presents Sadeh21, created in 2011 in collaboration with the dancers, and interpreted by the ‘‘junior’’ branch of Batsheva : The Young Ensemble.

Transmission is a fundamental element of Naharin’s philosophy. It is not surprising that Batsheva - The Young Ensemble was created the same year that the choreographer took over the Israeli company, on the contrary, it shows the choreographer’s desire to nurture young dancers and help them develop their creative process, but also to deepen his own choreographic language by getting an outside look on his own work. This is what happens with Sadeh21 : upon seeing it danced by the Young Ensemble, Naharin even said it felt like seeing it for the first time. This ‘‘choreographic odyssee’’, this ‘‘epic-dance expedition’’, with its strong contrasting effects and its bare simplicity, presents the essence of movement, stripped of all tricks or devices, and thus underscores the extraordinary emotional powers of dance. Rejuvenated by a new generation of interprets from all over the world, the choreography becomes incandescent and resembles an explosion of sensuality, radiant, dangerous and exciting.

**************************************************************

SADEH21
by Ohad Naharin

With the dancers of Batsheva - The Young Ensemble
Chen Agron, Gil Amishai, Cesar Brodermann, Ariel Gelbart, Londiwe Khoza, Béatrice Larrivée, Shir Levy, Federico Longo, Ohad Mazor, Robin Lesley Nimanong, Tom Nissim, Igor Ptashenchuk, Tamar Rosenzweig, Lihi Shochatovitch, Nicolas Ventura, Shaked Werner
and Reches Itzhaki, Avigail Shafrir

Lighting design : Avi Yona Bueno (Bambi)
Soundtrack Design and Edit : Maxim Waratt
Costumes : Ariel Cohen
Videos : Raz Friedman

This piece is dedicated to Noa Eshkol (1924 – 2007)
Creator of the Eshkol-Wachman Movement Method and Notation

Musical excerpts :
Autechre & The Hafler Trio – 3hae
Ohad Fishof & Maxim Waratt – Pictures
David Darling – Stones Start Spinning, Music Of A Desire, Remembering Our Mothers
Tomoko Sauvage – Calligraphy
Autechre – Vletrmx
Jun Miyake – La Clé
Gavin Bryars – After The Requiem
Jacob Kirkegaard – Swimming Pool
Angelo Badalamenti – Diane And Camilla
Junko – Untitled (Side A)

Filmed by Tommy Pascal at Chaillot - Théâtre national de la Danse

Lhistoire terrible mais inachevée de Norodom Sihanouk, roi du Cambodge (DVD trailer)

Bel Air Classiques 2019-09-19 | La pièce mythique d'Ariane Mnouchkine et du Théâtre du Soleil (1985), recréée en khmer par Georges Bigot et Delphine Cottu pour les comédiens de Phare Ponleu Selpak de Battambang (Cambodge), enfin en DVD !

Acheter en ligne: geni.us/SihanoukDVD

Subscribe to BelAir Classiques : http://bit.ly/2g1aCPA
Follow on Facebook : http://bit.ly/BelAirFacebook
Follow on Twitter : http://bit.ly/TwitterBelAir
Follow on Instagram : http://bit.ly/InstaBelAir

LA PIÈCE
Le Cambodge, pays des Khmers, antique royaume paysan, a pour fatalité sa situation géographique tout contre le Vietnam. Viennent les guerres indochinoises. Après la France, les États-Unis s’attaquent au Vietnam communiste. Le Cambodge neutre est emporté dans la tempête. L’Amérique n’hésite pas à lui passer sur le corps et à le piétiner pour l’atteindre. Fuyant ce nouvel ennemi, le peuple khmer se retrouve dans les bras meurtriers des Khmers rouges, effrayants nourrissons de l’idéologie communiste, puis descend les degrés de l’enfer Pol Pot. La pièce s’achève le 6 janvier 1979. Ce jour-là, le Vietnam, armé par l’URSS, s’empare du Kampuchea démocratique de Pol Pot, défait les Khmers rouges et sauve un reste de peuple à l’agonie... et puis absorbe le pays. En 1979 a donc commencé la troisième tragédie du Cambodge contemporain. Nous en ignorons la fin.

LA RECONSTITUTION
Depuis 2007, le Théâtre du Soleil travaille à la recréation en khmer de cette pièce avec les apprentis comédiens du Phare Ponleu Selpak de Battambang, eux-mêmes descendants des victimes des Khmers rouges. A travers les indications scéniques de Georges Bigot (le Sihanouk original d’Ariane Mnouchkine), à travers aussi des jeux d’improvisation, de traduction et de réappropriation autour du texte poétique d’Hélène Cixous, c’est la conquête de la mémoire et de l’identité qui se joue sous nos yeux.

Pelléas et Mélisande | Alain Altinoglu & Dmitri Tcherniakov (DVD/Blu-ray trailer)

Bel Air Classiques 2019-07-29 | A new Pelléas et Mélisande from the Opernhaus Zürich, and probably one of Dmitri Tcherniakov’s most innovative production ! Now on DVD & Blu-ray.

Buy online : geni.us/PelleasZurichDVD

Subscribe to BelAir Classiques : http://bit.ly/2g1aCPA
Follow on Facebook : http://bit.ly/BelAirFacebook
Follow on Twitter : http://bit.ly/TwitterBelAir
Follow on Instagram : http://bit.ly/InstaBelAir

This new Pelléas et Mélisande from the Opernhaus Zürich should be remembered as one of Dmitri Tcherniakov’s most innovative production. Forget about the fountains, the caverns, the forest, the castles and the towers : here, the density of Maurice Maeterlinck’s and Claude Debussy’s symbolism becomes the starting point of an analytical journey into the human mind : it is now the psychoanalyst, ‘‘doctor’’ Golaud, who has to uncover the secrets of Melisande, an unfortunate and traumatized creature he brings home, and whose silence and puzzling attitude eventually bring him on the verge of insanity.

But this production is also the occasion for a reunion between Dmitri Tcherniakov and French conductor Alain Altinoglu, after the tremendous success of the Tchaikovsky dyptich Iolanta / The Nutcracker - arguably one of the most successful titles of the Bel Air Classiques catalogue. Their artistic complicity is intact : the precise, analytical but also nuanced and poetic baton of Altinoglu proves to be the best possible response to Tcherniakov’s subtle exploration of the human psychology. Corinne Winters, as Melisande, Jacques Imbrailo, as Pelléas, and especially Kyle Ketelsen, as Golaud, embody with an incandescent realism these characters plagued by a form of evil and violence that we will never quite understand.

**************************************************************************************************

Opera in five acts (1902)

Music : Claude Debussy (1862-1918)
Libretto : Claude Debussy after the eponymous play by Maurice Maeterlinck

Arkel Brindley Sherratt
Pelléas Jacques Imbrailo
Golaud Kyle Ketelsen
Yniold Damien Göritz
A medic Charles Dekeyser
Mélisande Corinne Winters
Geneviève Yvonne Naef
Pelléas’s father Reinhard Mayr

Philharmonia Zürich
Zusatzchor der Oper Zürich
Sopralti Der Oper Zürich

Conductor : Alain Altinoglu

Stage director : Dmitri Tcherniakov

Costumes : Elena Zaytseva
Lighting design : Gleb Filshtinsky
Video : Tieni Burkhalter
Chorus master : Jürg Hämmerli
Dramaturgy : Beate Breidenbach

HD recording : Zurich Opera | 05/2016
Directed for TV by Andy Sommer