René Kollo

Take a perfect cast, a great conductor and a groundbreaking staging in-out makes a 'Tristan' for eternity. The 1983 performance in Bayreuth was a great moment for the world of opera. The ensemble performance of René Kollo, Johanna Meier and Matti Salminen with, then as now the Wagner admirer, Daniel Barenboim conducting the Bayreuth orchestra inspired singers and instrumentalists to peak performance. Jean-Pierre Ponnelle created a dream-beautiful stage.

The richness and intensity of Richard Strauss's masterful one-act opera, in Herbert Wernicke's compelling production, vividly portrays the relentless pursuit and ecstatic realization of vengeance. Featuring Linda Watson, Jane Henschel, Manuela Uhl, Rene Kollo, and Albert Dohmen. The Philharmonia Chor Wien and Münchner Philharmoniker are conducted by Christian Thielemann

The singer Max Lorenz was Hitler's favourite tenor: married to a Jewess, he was also homosexual. The biography of this outstanding Wagner singer is also closely bound up with the story of Haus Wahnfried in Bayreuth.

"Four Ways to Say Farewell" is a personal introduction to Mahler and his Ninth Symphony, during which Leonard Bernstein is seen and heard rehearsing the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. Filmed in 1971, this rehearsal was directed by Humphrey Burton,

An operetta with music by Johann Strauss II. However, he did not see the premiere. Wiener Blut is set at the time of the Congress of Vienna, 1814-1815, an international conference that sought to settle Europe after the upheavals of the Napoleonic Wars, and follows a traditional operetta plot full of mistaken identities. Count Balduin Zedlau, ambassador of the tiny court of Reuss-Schleiz-Greiz, is posted to Vienna. Count Zedlau is married but a real Don Juan always looking for a new encounter. Many of Strauss' compositions are used in the operetta although he did not specifically composed them for the operetta.

Wagner's erotic opera in a production by the German Opera of Berlin under the direction of Gotz Friedrich, with music conducted by Jiri Kout. Recorded at the Deutsche Oper Berlin.

A german christmas video tape, accompanied by music and christmas poems.

Opera in one act with prologue. Based on the production of the Vienna State Opera by Filippo Sanjust. Libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal

David Alden's production of Wagner's grand romantic opera was recorded at the National Theatre in Munich, with Bayerische Staatsoper, in September 1994. Shot over three days by leading opera director Brian Large, this recording benefits from the ideal technical conditions made possible by a closed session. Alden, one of the most iconoclastic interpreters of classical opera, stirs up the visionary, erotic, and archetypal elements in Wagner's work. The cold, forbidding aspect of the stylized and predominantly monochrome sets and costumes by Roni Toren and Buki Shiff manifests the strait-jacket of tradition from which Tannhäuser seeks to free himself in this powerful opera.

No synopsis available yet.

Sir Georg Solti leads the Wiener Philharmoniker in this intimate film of Strauss's comedy of manners. Using traditional sets and costumes, this is the only film version available of this opera. A talented cast includes Gundula Janowitz, Edita Gruberova, Bernd Weikl and Rene Kollo.

The time from 1895 to 1945, the Berlin of Zille and Otto Reutter, Claire Waldoff, the imperial parades and marches under the Brandenburg Gate; the two world wars, the lavish premieres in the Apollo Theatre and small, intimate rounds in the country.

Kálmán Imre's beloved operetta comes to the screen in this comedy of music, marriage and class set in Budapest and Vienna before the outbreak of the First World War, recorded at the Budapest Opera in 1963.

Karajan's very best video Beethoven 9th Symphony, recorded December 31, 1977. The Quartet of vocal soloists and Chorus in IV are superb. This is much better than Karajan's 1968 Berlin Philharmonic Beethoven 9 video (DG), filmed in the Philharmonie with no live audience present.

A countess, paying a rare visit to her estate, clashes with the man she has hired to manage it.

For his audio-visual recordings of both Das Lied von der Erde and the songs from Des Knaben Wunderhorn, Leonard Bernstein turned to the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, an ensemble with which he had a decades-long relationship. For this live recording made at the Frederick Mann Auditorium in Tel Aviv of Mahler’s 1908 work – a part symphony, part song cycle setting fin-de-siècle German translations of Chinese poetry – the conductor is joined with two of the greatest singers of the time: tenor René Kollo and mezzo-soprano Christa Ludwig, who features in the final song of the work, “Der Abschied” – a heartbreaking farewell that lasts as long as all five other movements put together.

No synopsis available yet.

A music comedy by Franz Marischka.

During a break in rehearsals with the Israel Philharmonic, Leonard Bernstein sat down at the piano to film an introduction to the poetry and music of Gustav Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde.

Franz Léhar's operetta The Merry Widow has enjoyed extraordinary international success since its premiere in Vienna in 1905 and has been performed and performed again and again. With the 1979 revival at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, August Everding revives a forgotten piece of German-Jewish cultural history. When the Deutsche Oper Berlin staged this great work in 1979, the opera house initially came in for fierce criticism. However, this was not due to the performance itself, but to the fact that the Deutsche Oper Berlin was including operettas in its program for the first time. After 40 years, we have now succeeded in publishing this wonderful performance. This is also thanks to the approval of Dame Gwyneth Jones.

This production is a gala affair; the sets are traditional (evocative of 18th-19th century Spain); the lighting is bright, so colors are good and one can see all of the action. Singers are generally well chosen and perform admirably. However, at this point, slight reservations creep in; although Janowitz (Fidelio/Leonore) and Kollo (Florestan) look "good" and act well, the singing parts tax them a bit when pushed to the limit. Most of the time that doesn't matter, and an argument can be made that a little vocal strain is in character with their dire plight. Ideally, for me, Vickers as Florestan would have added extra vocal heft and more sensitive acting than Kollo.

No synopsis available yet.

Lehar's The Land of Smiles touches the heart as it provides unforgetable melodies from start to finish. There are no weak links in the cast. Too often, we think of operetta as musical fluff, tired cliches, and obligatory dance scenes when things start slowing down. Not so in this classic operetta. We feel the pain of loss suffered by the two main characters, who make their roles natural and believable. There is more to this work than "Yours Is My Heart Alone." There is dramatic consistency and people you find yourself caring about as much as the music, the costumes, and the colorful sets.

The annual New Year’s Eve Concert is one of the highlights in the calendar of every classical music fan in Berlin and beyond. On New Year‘s Eve, the Berliner Philharmoniker invite an exceptional soloist for a festive gala. Together, the musicians bid farewell to the old year and welcome the new. The 1977 concert was conducted by Herbert von Karajan and featured Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 and the Chor der Deutschen Oper Berlin.