The Singing City

High Fidelity: The Adventures of the Guarneri String Quartet

September 1989 •English

Relationships, rehearsals, performances, hobbies, and family life of the members of the Guarneri String Quartet.

Fuoco sacro – Suche nach dem heiligen Feuer des Gesangs

April 2022 •German

What drives men and women to risk their own lives to save those of others? Fuoco Sacro tells the story of the Vigili del Fuoco, the Italian fire department, and does it through the voices of the people who, over half a century of history, have tackled with competence and a spirit of self-sacrifice the greatest calamities that Italy has tragically had to experience at firsthand.

Florence Foster Jenkins: A World of Her Own

June 2007 •English

Documentary about Florence Foster Jenkins, her delusions, and how the people around her reacted to them.

Antonio Paoli: Rey de Tenores y Tenor de Reyes

January 1991 •Spanish

The life and career of Puerto Rican tenor Antonio Paoli, also known as The King of Tenors and The Tenor of Kings.

Einstein on the Beach: The Changing Image of Opera

October 1985 •English

The creative processes of avant-garde composer Philip Glass and progressive director/designer Robert Wilson are examined in this film. It documents their collaboration on this tradition breaking opera.

Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet at Work on a Film Based on Franz Kafka’s Amerika

November 1983 •German

This film is at once a self-portrait and an homage to Jean-Marie Straub, Farocki's role model and former teacher at the Film Academy.

Marjorie Lawrence: The World at Her Feet

December 2021 •English

Marjorie grew up in Winchelsea in country Victoria, Australia, dreaming of becoming an opera star like Dame Nellie Melba. In 1928 she went to Paris to study opera without knowing a word of French and having never heard of Richard Wagner. In 1941, at the height her success, she was tragically cut down by polio and became completely paralysed. With the help of Australian nurse, Sister Kenny, Marjorie regained movement in her upper body and resumed her career in a wheelchair. In 1955, MGM made a movie of her life, "Interrupted Melody", starring Eleanor Parker and Glenn Ford, which won an Academy Award.

Hoteliér

October 2013 •Czech

Carmen Not Only According to Bizet

January 1968 •Czech

This is funny or rather crazy adaptation of classical opera Carmen inspired by famous czech theatre Ypsilon play of the same name shot at various bizarre locations such as airport, botanical garden and winter forest.

War Dance

February 2007 •English

Three children living in a displacement camp in northern Uganda compete in their country's national music and dance festival.

Kundry

January 1996 •German

Documentary about opera production and the life of theatre stars.

Sounds of Dortmund

April 2021 •German

The Golden Ring

December 1965 •English

Watching the Vienna Philharmonic, Georg Solti, and a stellar cast record Wagner's immense Götterdämmerung for Decca in the fall of 1964 provides a thousand lessons in the art of working under pressure. For this classic documentary, The Golden Ring, a BBC camera crew eavesdropped as producer John Culshaw guided his engineering team through tricky technical maneuvers far removed from the relative ease of modern digital editing. What utter concentration and focus Birgit Nilsson, Wolfgang Windgassen, Gottlob Frick, and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau bring to their collective and individual singing! Solti, for his part, oozes energy and exactitude as he pleads for greater precision and frets over details in the car en route to the sessions.

The Revenge of the Diva

March 2019 •Swedish

Sivandivan is a documentary about an uncompromising royal singer who refused to adapt to the norm of how a female artist should behave. And for that, she has had to pay dearly. She is now 72, has no family, not many know who she is and to those who do, she is an outcast.This movie is about Siv’s revenge and comeback.

Peter Dvorský

April 2022 •Slovak

Diptych

June 1967 •French

A short film by Walerian Borowczyk in two parts. The first 'panel' follows the morning routine of Leon Boyer who, despite being almost 100 years old, still farms the land, drives a vintage car, and plays with his two dogs. The second panel shows shots of beautiful flowers and a cat, to a recording of Tino Rossi singing 'La romance de Nadir / Je crois encore entendre' from Bizet's opera 'Les pêcheurs de perles'.

Confession of the Vanished

April 2015 •Czech

The film follows the staging of the opera Olimpiade while at the same time exploring the dramatic life of its composer Josef Mysliveček, a friend and teacher of W. A. Mozart.

Pavarotti, Birth of a Pop Star

September 2017 •French

Although he is unanimously credited with having democratised opera, making it accessible to the greatest number, focus is rarely put on the strategy he devised and implemented in order to carry out his actions, nor what his actions reveal of the man and artist, and of the resulting metamorphosis from opera singer to pop artist. Through this angle, this film sets out to pay tribute to the man who summed up his credo, obsession and life’s work, in the following way: “They led the public to believe that classical music belonged to a restricted elite. I was the way to prove to the world that was wrong.

La Traviata: Love, Death & Divas

July 2015 •English

The arias of La traviata are instantly recognisable. Yet at its London premiere in 1856, it was denounced for bringing 'the poetry of the brothel' to the stage and unleashing uncomfortable truths on Victorian society.

Sena Jurinac - Jedes Ding hat seine Zeit

January 2005 •German

Documentary about the opera singer Sena Jurinac.