Renata is obsessed with the love for the "fiery angel". Ruprecht, in love with Renata, wants to free her from the madness, but all his efforts are in vain. She goes to the monastery, but here too she is being haunted by the image of the fiery angel. The Inquisition accuses Renata of witchcraft and sentences her to death. Prokofiev's Fiery Angel is one of the outstanding operas of the 20th century. With her production, director Andrea Breth moves the action from 16th century Germany to the sterile environment of a modern psychiatric ward. The atmosphere of this prison-like place is somber. "Musically gripping, scenically intense" (Wiener Zeitung) / A scenic sensation" (Kurier) / "Au�rine Stundyte succeeds in her singing balancing act between eruptive power and vulnerability" (Die Presse)

Also available on Blu-ray

55 years after its premiere, the Stuttgart Ballet revisits John Cranko’s legendary “Romeo and Juliet” – the very choreography which laid the foundations for the “Stuttgart Ballet Miracle”, the company’s meteoric rise to fame. Vividly etched characters, breathtaking pas de deux, dashing sword fights, colorful ensemble scenes, magnificent sets and costumes evoking the sunlit streets of Verona – all this is Cranko’s “Romeo and Juliet”. John Cranko, who led the Stuttgart Ballet from 1961 until his death in 1973, created the choreography of “Romeo and Juliet” especially for his ensemble. Set to Sergei Prokofiev’s lush score, Cranko’s ballet is one of the definitive versions of the Shakespearean love tale being performed around the globe today. This production is marked by yet another anniversary: Marcia Haydee, Cranko’s muse and prima ballerina, was the very first, highly acclaimed Juliet. Haydee, who followed Cranko as artistic director of the Stuttgart Ballet, participates in this performance as Julia’s nurse, celebrating her 80th birthday on stage. She is joined by two other stars of the ensemble, Haydee’s former dance partner Egon Madsen as Friar Lawrence and Artistic Director Reid Anderson as Lord Capulet. As danced by the Stuttgart Ballet – one of the world’s leading ballet companies – this performance is “a revelation” (Daily Express).

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REVIEW:

Several choreographers have had a go at it, but this 1961 version, by John Cranko, is by some way the finest of all I have seen. It is not surprising that it remained his signature work and has remained in the repertory of the Stuttgart company, for whom he wrote it, ever since he created it. This is a recent performance, with excellent sound and picture quality. All the dancers act as well as dance, and every one has an individual character. The set and costumes bring Renaissance Verona to life, the orchestral playing is very good and the whole performance is a delight.

– MusicWeb International

Classical Music

Also available on Blu-ray

Shakespeare’s play “Romeo and Juliet” has inspired generations of artists to adaptations like scarcely any other work. In his colorful, passionate music, the Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev brilliantly captured the clash of love and hatred, and the proximity of tenderness and violence. Inspired by Prokofiev’s vivid music and the timeless quality of Shakespeare’s tragedy, choreographer Christian Spuck and the Ballet Zurich narrate the most famous love story in world literature using strong images that are full of enthralling theatricality and touching emotion. Michail Jurowski, a true Prokofiev expert, is at the rostrum of the Philharmonia Zurich.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Written in 1944, Prokofiev's Fifth Symphony is one of his greatest and most complete symphonic statements. At it's premiere he himself called it "a symphony of the grandeur of the human spirit". The first movement couples considerable strength with unexpected yet highly characteristic twists of melody. After a violent scherzo followed by a slow movement of sustained lyricism, with a fiercely dramatic middle section, the finale blazes with barely suppressed passion. The Year 1941 is another wartime work, a symphonic suite written in response to the German invasion of the Soviet Union. Marin Alsop has been Music Director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra since 2007, a relationship now extended to 2015. Currently Conductor Emeritus of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and Music Director Laureate of the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, since 1992 she has also been Music Director of California's prizewinning Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music.

Classical Music

Classical Music

PROKOFIEV: Piano Sonatas Nos. 1, 3 and 4

Sergei Prokofiev’s score for the melodrama “Eugene Onegin” was written as incidental music for a centenary Pushkin celebration staging that Stalin abruptly halted and banned in 1936; as a result the work and the music went unheard until its recent discovery in a Russian archive and subsequent reconstruction. This almost unknown composition and its accompanying melodrama focuses on parts that Tchaikovsky, in his world-famous opera, didn’t set to music. Comparable with the best of Prokofiev’s music for film, it is both a deeply emotional and highly dramatic work.

PROKOFIEV: Orchestral Suites

PROKOFIEV: Symphony No. 1, 'Classical' / Symphony No. 5

Prokofiev: Symphony No. 5 - The Year 1941

PROKOFIEV: Symphonies Nos. 1 and 2 / Dreams, Op. 6