Franz Welser-Möst Movies

Follows the artist over two years as he explores his „life after Beethoven“, as he searches for his next challenge, his identity as an artist.

Brahms Symphonies 1-3. In 2014, Franz Welser-Möst conducts the Cleveland Orchestra in Symphony No. 1 at the Royal Albert Hall, London and Symphonies 2 and 3 at the Musikverein Golden Hall, Vienna. This disc is also available as part of a box set with Brahms' most famous symphonic works. Symphony 1...

Celebrate the triumphant return of the famed Salzburg Festival with this extraordinary production of Richard Strauss’s Elektra, live from the spectacular Felsenreitschule! Lithuanian soprano Aušrinė Stundytė makes her grand debut on the mythical festival stage in the title role, accompanied by...

Based on Oscar Wilde's lurid play, it is an intense exploration of the Salome story. Its sumptuous vocal and orchestral writing seethes and pulsates as Strauss conjures up the brutality of Herod's corrupt court. Richard Strausss opera at the Salzburg Festival, staged by Romeo Castellucci at the...

This hard-edged postmodern production of Giuseppe Verdi's haunting masterpiece brings the story of Shakespeare's bloody tragedy to vivid life, characterized by spine-tingling atmospherics and a triumphant debut by American baritone Thomas Hampson in the title role. This Zurich Opera House...

With their “comedy for music” in the spirit of Mozart, Richard Strauss and his inspired librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthal created the most popular of all their works and one of the most frequently performed operas of all time. In the guise of a gossamer-light and supremely entertaining...

Live recording from Oper Zurich, 2008, DVD release 2014. Jonas Kaufmann, 'the Prince of Tenors', appears with international star Vesselina Kasarova in Zürich Opera's starkly palpable staging of Bizet's ever-popular Carmen. The production sees Don José (Kaufmann) abandon his teenage attitudes in...

Documentary about the state of the conducting world in the 1990s. Broadcast as part of the BBC OMNIBUS strand of documentaries.

Schubert Opera composed in 1823 but not performed until 1988. It is set in a medieval world and based on La Chanson de Roland and the legend of the love between Eginhard and Emma. Live performance from 2007 at the Opernhaus Zürich.

Operetta in three acts / Sung in German Five years after Wagner's "Parsifal," Johann Strauss II presented "Simplicius" in the Theater an der Wien. Neither an opera nor an operetta, it was a work that did not fit into any of the pre-defined categories. On the 100th anniversary of the composer's...

Arabella, Op. 79, is a lyric comedy or opera in three acts by Richard Strauss to a German libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal, their sixth and last operatic collaboration. Arabella is determined to marry for love, not wealth - against the wishes of her impoverished aristocratic parents. When she...

This DVD of a live 2005 performance from the Zürich Opera under the musical direction of Franz Welser-Möst has many things to recommend it -- the young tenor Piotr Beczala as Alfredo, the marvelous Thomas Hampson as Giorgio Germont, the playing of the Zurich Opera orchestra, the simple but...

Claude Debussy's fairy tale-based opera Pelléas et Mélisande is by now well known; at once a tale of doomed love and a meditation on the cycle of creation and destruction (adapted from Maurice Maeterlinck's 1893 symbolist play), it originally premiered in 1902 to mixed critical reception, but has...

This is an effective staging, though the set looks medieval and the costumes are modern. It’s well paced, well played, well sung. Jonas Kaufmann is an ideal Tito. His voice is not only beautiful and flexible, it’s also ample, retaining warmth and sweetness when he sings out. The character of...

When a wealthy Turkish aristocrat arrives in a humble Italian town, the married women roll their eyes in delight, their rival lovers lose out, and the husbands rage with jealousy. These may be silly clichés, but they are the subject of IL TURCO IN ITALIA and the composer plays with them – quite...

Zurich Opera House production of Franz Léhar's operetta, with Dagmar Schellenberger, Rodney Gilfry, and Ute Gfrerer in lead roles. Baron Zeta is desperate that the fabulously wealthy widow Hanna Glavari marry a Pontevedrian man so that her fortune remains in the country. He attempts to match her...

To avoid serving his prison sentence, a fashionable socialite sneaks off to a lavish party. The champagne flows as guests waltz the night away, but several of them have something to hide. This internationally renowned production by Otto Schenk takes the audience on a bumpy ride through all kinds...