Verdi: Requiem

The opening ceremony of the Barcelona Summer Olympics took place on July 25, 1992, at the Montjuïc Olympic Stadium before an audience of over 65,000. This historic event was largely orchestrated by the renowned Catalan troupe La Fura dels Baus, which staged spectacular scenes depicting the history of the Mediterranean and the Labours of Hercules. Music played a central role in the evening, featuring great operatic voices; the audience was captivated by performances from Montserrat Caballé, José Carreras, Plácido Domingo, Alfredo Kraus, and Teresa Berganza. Although he had passed away the previous year, Freddie Mercury was also present—both on screen and in voice—through the broadcast of their iconic duet "Barcelona," which became the definitive anthem of the Games. Additionally, British pop star Sarah Brightman performed the official anthem, "Amigos Para Siempre," alongside José Carreras.

Documents the interpretations of Gustav Mahler's compositions by conductors Bernard Haitink, Riccardo Chailly, Riccardo Muti, Claudio Abbado, and Simon Rattle, who detail the special relationship they have with Mahler's work.

The last and arguably finest opera of Modest Mussorgsky is captured in one of its most powerful interpretations in this 1989 recording from the Vienna State Opera, conducted by Claudio Abbado. A moody opera that is thematically broad at times and intimately personal in others, "Khovanshchina" tells the story of the 17th-century clash between Russian conservatives and Peter the Great's reformists. Among the singers is renowned basso Nicolai Ghiaurov and Paata Burchuladze, as well as Anatoly Kocherga, Ludmila Semtchuk, and Heinz Zednik.

Piero Cappuccilli and Shirley Verrett lead Verdi’s sombre masterpiece, drawn from one of Shakespeare’s most celebrated tragedies. Filmed for television at Teatro alla Scala in 1979, Claudio Abbado conductes a night to remember.

Filmed at the Teatro del Silenzio (Theatre of Silence) in Lajatico over three nights in 2024 and marking his 30th year as an artist, this once-in-a-lifetime event sees classical star Andrea Bocelli appear in his home of Tuscany with a star-studded lineup of special guests to perform songs that have been the pillars of his career. This 4-disc package features two shows – “The Celebration” and “30 Years of Musical Inspiration” and over 4 and a half hours of performances. Bocelli is joined by an 80-piece orchestra, a cast of over 200 musicians and family and friends including Ed Sheeran, Jon Batiste, Shania Twain, Brian May and more. It’s a night that transforms both the landscape and beautiful Tuscan sky into something totally spectacular. The result: a mesmerising and truly unforgettable concert.

Featuring never-before-seen footage, concert performances and intimate interviews, filmmaker Ron Howard examines the life and career of famed opera tenor Luciano Pavarotti.

Journey to the Teatro del Silenzio (Theater of Silence), Lajatico, where once-in-a-lifetime performances showcase the Maestro’s extensive and beloved repertoire, alongside captivating duets with an unprecedented cast of global superstars, including Ed Sheeran, Shania Twain, Will Smith, Jon Batiste, Sofia Carson, Lang Lang, Nadine Sierra and more. With extraordinary staging, production, and visuals, set against a landscape of unparalleled beauty amongst the Tuscan hills, Andrea Bocelli’s sensational career comes to life in a truly unforgettable experience.

Jessye Norman is a regal Ariadne, the mythological Greek heroine in this opera-within-an-opera, opposite the passionate Bacchus of the great James King. Kathleen Battle delivers the coloratura fireworks of Zerbinetta, the leader of a commedia dell’arte troupe that finds itself stranded on Ariadne’s island. Tatiana Troyanos and Franz Ferdinand Nentwig star as the young Composer and the Music Master in the opera’s prologue. James Levine brings out all the color and charm of Strauss’s brilliant chamber-sized score with its equal amounts of pathos and humor. Bodo Igesz’s production features sets by esteemed designer Oliver Messel.

Wembley Stadium hosts a concert featuring stars from the fields of music, comedy and film, in celebration of the 70th birthday of imprisoned ANC leader Nelson Mandela. Highlight of the evening is the one hour live performance of Dire Straits feat. Eric Clapton.

On the eve of the 1990 World Cup final, Plácido Domingo, José Carreras, and Luciano Pavarotti sang together for the first time. A look behind the scenes at a musical event whose phenomenal success lasted for more than a decade.

In the early 19th century, in Seville and the surrounding area, Carmen seduces the sergeant Don José, who deserts the army to be with her. But the beautiful gypsy falls in love with the bullfighter Escamillo, much to Don José’s despair.

There was a time when the biggest names in pop music believed they could change the world for the better. Faced with the intolerance and excesses of the established authorities, music celebrities decided to use their prestige to draw attention to the problems that less favoured people in the world faced. Wembley Stadium, London, 1988: thousands of English people fill one of the most famous football arenas in the world to celebrate an unforgettable pop music festival, with a lofty goal above entertainment - the celebration of the seventieth birthday of African leader Nelson Mandela.

On April 11, 1992, The Grand Opening of Euro Disney aired on CBS, offering viewers a spectacular, entertainment-filled evening as well as a special “sneak preview” of the Euro Disney Theme Park and Resort. The special was simulcast live across Europe in five languages and broadcast later the same day in the United States. Each country’s customized broadcast was hosted by popular local celebrities, introducing entertainers from their own countries.

The captivating story of the Venezuelan Youth Orchestra System - an incredible network of hundreds of orchestras formed within most of Venezuela’s towns and villages. Once a modest program designed to expose rural children to the wonders of music, the system has become one of the most important and beautiful music phenomena in modern history. To Play and To Fight presents interviews and performances by many of the world’s most renowned musicians including the great tenor Placido Domingo, Claudio Abbado, Sir Simon Rattle, Guiseppe Sinopoli, and Eduardo Mata, as they reflect on the impact of such a far-reaching social project. The documentary also presents the inspirational stories of world class musicians who have been trained by the Venezuelan system, including The Berlin Philharmonic’s youngest player Edicson Ruiz and world class conductor Gustavo Dudamel.

Live performance from the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, 23 July 2005.

In an epic tale of good versus evil, Faust sells his soul to the Devil and tries to save Marguerite from an eternity in Hell.

On April 11, 1992, host Jean-Pierre Foucault and singer David Hallyday presented an exceptional evening live on TF1 from 8:50 p.m. to 11 p.m., to celebrate the inauguration of Euro Disney Resort. Euro Disney L'Ouverture was broadcast worldwide for the occasion, giving this media event its international character (CBS in the United States). Numerous concerts were organized and many images presenting the places (Disneyland Park, the rest of the Resort and its future expansion plans) were broadcast.

An impressive lineup of international stars puts on a spectacular "Symphony for the Spire" to kick off the world-famous Salisbury Arts Festival in 1991, held on the Salisbury Cathedral's West Green. Segments feature individual performances by Spanish tenor Placido Domingo, American soprano Jessye Norman and cellist Ofra Harnoy, as well as a special staging of Shakespeare's "Henry V" starring Kenneth Branagh and Charlton Heston.

Count Almaviva is in love with Rosina. However, she is currently staying with Dr. Bartolo – who desires to marry her. By using a series of disguises, Almaviva manages to pass letters to Rosina and serenade her with his beautiful voice. Dr. Bartolo does his best to stop Almaviva but is constantly thwarted. In the end, Count Almaviva marries Rosina and Dr. Bartolo comes to terms with his defeat.

Berlioz’s colossal masterpiece requires stupendous forces—dozens of soloists, enormous chorus, orchestra and ballet, a superb conductor who understands the uniqueness of the score—plus a production that does visual justice to the work. “A stupendous achievement” was one critic’s assessment of Peter Wexler’s inventive production. And with James Levine’s wizardry galvanizing the marvelous all-star cast, this is truly a gem. Plácido Domingo is the legendary hero Aeneas, Jessye Norman the obsessed prophetess Cassandra, and Tatiana Troyanos is Queen Dido, who commits suicide when Aeneas leaves her.

For this performance of Mahler's Symphony No. 3, recorded live in 2007 at the Congress and Concert Hall Lucerne, Claudio Abbado and the Lucerne Festival Orchestra are joined by the Arnold Schoenberg Chor and the Tölzer Knabenchor. The soloist is Anna Larsson.

This intimate portrait of the legendary conductor Seiji Ozawa focuses on the Japanese master and teacher's career, his advocacy of modern composers and the behind-the-scenes world of the symphony orchestra.

A possible impostor torments a newly crowned medieval czar who may have ordered the real successor's death.

Impressed by Jean Cocteau’s rewrite of Antigone, Stravinsky asked the poet for an adaptation of Oedipus Rex. The resulting libretto brings together the key scenes of Sophocles’s tragedy translated by the Abbé Jean Daniélou into Latin—a language that, according the composer, “is not dead but engraved in stone, and so imposing that it is immune to any popularization”.

Tony Randall and some children, filmed in Connecticut, provide the framework of the history of some of the carols sung by opera stars.

An Egyptian military commander, Radamès, struggles to choose between his love for the enslaved Ethiopian princess Aida, and his loyalty to the Pharaoh. To complicate the story further, the Pharaoh's daughter Amneris is in love with Radamès, although he does not return her feelings.

A behind-the-scenes look at the Aldeburgh Festival and the opening by The Queen of the new concert hall at Snape.

In this whimsical fable, Resnais deftly interweaves three story lines: the creation of an early-20th-century utopia; romantic high jinks at a school conference; and a fantasy sparked by F/X pioneer Georges Méliès.

When their daughter decides to get a divorce, Coline and Andre can’t come to terms with it as they are very fond of their son-in-law. The only way to keep seeing him is in secret. But for how long can they lead a double life?

Desire, power, and passion take center stage in the Opéra Royal de Wallonie’s 2014 production of Puccini’s incomparable masterpiece Tosca. The brilliant three-act melodrama was staged by Claire Servais and featured Paolo Arrivabeni as music director. Dutch soprano Barbara Haveman is the desperate Tosca to acclaimed Italian bass-baritone Ruggero Raimondi’s evil Scarpia.

This adaptation of Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther offers a chilly and remote view of love and its passions. The setting is changed to Spain, and Werther (Eusebio Poncela) has taken a job tutoring the son of an estranged husband and wife. The boy's mother is a surgeon and therefore a rather uncommon woman for her society. She and Werther gradually become romantically involved, and his feelings for her begin to run much deeper than is apparent on the surface.

A young talented painter dreams of glory. A man promises it in exchange for his talent and his soul.

The sexual and social dysfunctional behaviour of the corporate elite are further aggravated when a naive married woman becomes the obsession of two wealthy suitors.

The film tells the story of classic black singing against the background of black emancipation in politics and society. This story stretches from the first successes of the bass Paul Robeson, who all his life regarded his voice as an instrument of liberation, to the young singing pupils of the Harlem School of Arts, who identify themselves with their origins in rejuvenated pride. The great African-American singers express their views, as do opera company directors and critics. Historical and contemporary film extracts and specially produced film sequences demonstrate the richness and variety of black singing.

Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison is America's first lady of literature. Her books encompass black American history but live and breathe in the present, rich in vivid characters, haunted by ghosts. Born poor in Ohio in 1931, she now lives in New York. She tells Alan Yentob how her father hated whites so much he wouldn't let them in the house. Her masterpiece, Beloved, shows the horrors of slavery perhaps better than any other artwork. She talks as she writes - with warmth and wit. Contributors include Angela Davis (whose biography she edited) and singer Jessye Norman.

On the occasion of the fourty years anniversary of François Mitterand's election, a look back to the relationship between the President and artists, from admiration to manipulation.