Otto Schenk

Stories about citizens of a big city who encounter a variety of fates as a result of their difficulties in communicating with each other.

A documentary about the life and career of the conductor Carlos Kleiber. Featuring interviews with Placido Domingo, Brigitte Fassbaender, Manfred Honeck, Michael Gielen, and others. On the 11th July 2004 Carlos Kleiber got into his car and drove from Munich, via the Alps, to his holiday home in the remote Slovenian village of Konjsica. There he wrote a final letter to a friend in which he bid farewell to the world. A short time later the conductor, increasingly plagued by illness and suffering, was found dead.

The film consists of several small episodes that take place in and around Munich.

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No synopsis available yet.

In October 1936, a high official in the Austrian government receives a letter from a German Jewish woman with whom he had an affair in 1925 asking him to help place an 11-year-old, half Jewish boy in a good Austrian school. Is the child his? Should he help? And above all should he help now, at a time when Nazis are becoming powerful in Austria?

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No synopsis available yet.

A murder case is drawing more attention to the family history of historian Adelgunde. In cooperation with a young Russian girl, who knows surprisingly much about her father, Adelgunde finds out about strictly guarded family secrets.

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Witty, fun, intoxicating film of Johann Strauss II's popular operetta, based on a stage production from Vienna State Opera; this is a showcase for the entire cast, but most especially Eberhard Wächter as the insufferably boorish Gabriel Eisenstein, and Gundula Janowitz as his long-suffering wife. Open the champagne, have yourself some torte, and enjoy this delectable comedy from Vienna.

No synopsis available yet.

No synopsis available yet.

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No synopsis available yet.

Hannes Engel is a successful radio presenter in the countryside. By chance, he is heard by program director Conrad Scheffer one night, who immediately recognizes the potential of the cheeky presenter and wants to sign him up as the new figurehead for his late show, which is in a ratings slump. But this proves to be more difficult than planned. First of all, they have to get rid of the old show host, then Engel's wife has just been thrown out of one of the station's productions, and Engel is also being pursued by a sensationalist tabloid journalist who never misses a chance to drag Engel through the mud....

An old, rich bachelor learns that he has a granddaughter ...

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No synopsis available yet.

No synopsis available yet.

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No synopsis available yet.

The master of the house developed his culinary skills to such an extent that he poached 'the' chef and hired him for his household in New York. Lilli flies to New York with her private secretary William, where she cooks for her unknown boss using every trick in the book. During a walk she meets a young man with whom she ultimately falls in love.

James Levine leads a stirring performance of Wagner’s epic comedy, seen in Otto Schenk’s classic production. Baritone Michael Volle stars as Hans Sachs, the cobbler-poet at the heart of this story of love, art, and youth vs. age. Leading Wagnerian tenor Johan Botha is Walther von Stolzing, the young knight whose new ideas upset the traditional ways of the mastersingers, and Annette Dasch sings Eva, the girl he loves, whose hand has been promised to the winner of a singing contest. Johannes Martin Kränzle as the pedantic town clerk Beckmesser, Hans-Peter König as Pogner, Eva’s father, and Paul Appleby as David, Sachs’s apprentice complete the stellar cast.

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Every bar bubbles with the spirit of the Bohemian countryside in Otto Checnk's picturesque 1982 production from Vienna, where Smetana's comic masterpiece first conquered the heart of opera lovers with its lilting melodies, lovable characters and rousing Czech folk dances. This colourful, beautifully sung performance features legendary Czech soprano Lucia Popp and German tenor Siegfried Jerusalem. Filmed live at the Wiener Staatsoper in 1982, the appearance of the townsfolk, wearing their traditional Bohemian costumes, exuberantly singing and dancing, serves to quickly draw us into the early 1870s and this engaging comedy of love nearly thwarted but ultimately triumphant.

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Janacek's opera performed in Vienna on April 11, 2016

Felicity Lott, Anne-Sofie Von Otter, and Kurt Moll star in this production of Richard Strauss' opera, staged in Vienna in 1994. A romantic comedy of errors. Princess von Werdenberg must hide her affair with Octavian from her family; when he disguises himself as a chambermaid to avoid scandalizing the Princess, he is pressed into presenting a gift to Baron Ochs von Lerchenau, who has arrived to propose marriage to Sophie von Faninal. However, Ochs soon finds himself infatuated with the chambermaid, much to Octavian's chagrin, which proves to be only the first of a long series of romantic misunderstandings. This production of Der Rosenkavalier is performed by the Vienna State Orchestra and Chorus, under the direction of Carlos Kleiber.

An all-knowing interlocutor guides us through a series of affairs in Vienna, 1900. A soldier meets an eager young lady of the evening. Later he has an affair with a young lady, who becomes a maid and does similarly with the young man of the house. The young man seduces a married woman. On and on, spinning on the gay carousel of life.

An all-knowing interlocutor guides us through a series of affairs in Vienna, 1900. A soldier meets an eager young lady of the evening. Later he has an affair with a young lady, who becomes a maid and does similarly with the young man of the house. The young man seduces a married woman. On and on, spinning on the gay carousel of life.

The plot of Die Fledermaus is woven around a ball given by Prince Orlofsky.

No synopsis available yet.

No synopsis available yet.

No synopsis available yet.

No synopsis available yet.

Witty, fun, intoxicating film of Johann Strauss II's popular operetta, based on a stage production from Vienna State Opera; this is a showcase for the entire cast, but most especially Eberhard Wächter as the insufferably boorish Gabriel Eisenstein, and Gundula Janowitz as his long-suffering wife. Open the champagne, have yourself some torte, and enjoy this delectable comedy from Vienna.

Burgtheater recording, based on Shakespeare's play.

Strauss’s elegant romance brings the glamour and enchantment of 19th-century Vienna to cinemas worldwide in a sumptuous production by legendary director Otto Schenk that “is as beautiful as one could hope” (The New York Times). Soprano Rachel Willis-Sørensen stars as the title heroine, a young noblewoman in search of love on her own terms. Radiant soprano Louise Alder is her sister, Zdenka, and bass-baritone Tomasz Konieczny is the dashing count who sweeps Arabella off her feet.

No synopsis available yet.

Wagner’s Meistersinger is a festive opera in its own right, but at the unforgettable performances of the work at the Vienna State Opera in January 2008 the festive spirit literally leapt out into the audience as well. Vienna’s dailies exploded with praise: “a feast of singers” (Der Standard), “grandiose” (Die Presse) and “close on six hours of pure enjoyment” (Der Kurier). The plaudits applied to all the singers from Hans Sachs to the nightwatchman as well as to the chorus and orchestra.

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Although Domingo was younger and Banackova looked more like the sweet and innocent young Madalena than the one played by Tomowa-Sintow in the ROH production, this production was not as good. It was not as tight and neat. The tempo set was far too slow for the time-period of the story. The stage setting was distracting. The lighting was too dark. Except Domingo, a natural actor who was always into his role and sings and acts with passion, none of the other performers came up with a convincing portrayal of the role he/she played.

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A filmed German performance of William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, directed for the stage by Otto Schenk and performed at the Landestheater in 1973.