Les Films Jack Fébus

Utopia, the new orchestra of conductor Teodor Currentzis, can be experienced for the first time in Vienna on its inaugural tour with the 1945 version of Igor Stravinsky’s ‘The Firebird’ and Maurice Ravel’s Suite No. 2 of ‘Daphnis et Chloé’, ‘La Valse’ and ‘Boléro’.

For Mahler, symphonies always were a means of interpreting the most convoluted philosophical problems that couldn’t be resolved verbally. The ambitious structure of the five-part Fifth Symphony spans from the Funeral March to the roaring finale. It is a forthright attempt to resolve the tragic conflict with the surrounding world. The brilliant fourth part of the symphony, Adagietto, resembles a beautifully mysterious flower that every conductor reimagines in their own style. As one of the twentieth century’s most influential maestros, Mahler redefined the conductor’s role. For him, the conductor is just as integral to his own musical works as they are to the composer. When a maestro steps onto the podium and opens the score, he recreates musical universes from scratch. Teodor Currentzis and the musicAeterna orchestra have performed Mahler’s symphonies around the world for many years. The Fifth Symphony has earned its place as one of the highlights of the cycle.

When dancer, choreographer and acrobat Yoann Bourgeois was invited by the Center des Monuments Nationaux to create a performance for the Pantheon in Paris, he chose the fight against gravity as his leitmotif. “The Mechanics of History – an attempt to approach a point of suspension” became a dizzying performance that took place in the ridge of this historic dome. The Great Ghosts is a cinematographic adaptation of this special project in a breathtaking setting. Balance and movement are the starting points for the choreography, with the famous Foucault Pendulum as the constant center. Bourgeois uses trampolines, a turntable and his famous “seesaw of frivolity”, with which he defies gravity and balances between beauty and fear. How far do the dancers dare to go while playing with Foucault’s Pendulum? And for how long?

Face to the firing squad a dictator is awaiting death. As the soldiers shoulder their rifles, the man remembers. He recalls with wicked jubilation his devouring ambition, his complete absence of scruples, his brutal lack of humanity, his taste for manipulation, the cowardice of his entourage, his ambiguous relationships with a woman named Dêmokratia.

Envy and conspiracy, but also passionate loves, jealousy, revenge and final forgiveness come together in the masterpiece of Verdi, which aroused the anger and prohibitions of censors of the time until the composer and librettist was compelled to make changes in it: from the original Sweden to far away Boston. The great Polish tenor Piotr Beczala returns to the Liceu with one of his opening credits, accompanied by the soprano Keri Alkema. Vincent Boussard’s sets reinforce the dark and mysterious atmosphere surrounding the piece, which features costumes by Christian Lacroix and Vincent Lemaire’s sober staging, which allows one to focus their attention on the dramatic core of the score. The cast, directed by a true specialist like Renato Palumbo, also presents a leader in Verdian song: Dolora Zajick.

The Pucchini opera "Turandot" will be shown completely new at the Gran Teatre del Liceu. The new production by the Spanish video artist Franc Aleu refers with a wink to the history of the Catalan institution: 20 years ago, this very opera was resumed there after a fire in 1994 severely damaged the theater.

The life and work of French naturalist-scientist-priest Père Armand David, living as a missionary in China, who is thought to be the first Westerner ever to lay eyes on a wild panda as he was documenting species of Chinese flora and fauna.