Michael Schade

Jeanine, an earnest theatre director, has been given the task of remounting her former mentor’s most famous work, the opera Salome. Haunted by dark and disturbing memories from her past, she allows her repressed trauma to color the present as she re-enters the opera world after so many years away.

Depuis le somptueux décor de la place Saint-Marc de Venise, l’Orchestre et le Choeur de la Fenice s’attaquent à la neuvième symphonie de Beethoven, sous la direction du maestro Juraj Valcuha.

Lorsque la courtisane la plus voluptueuse et la plus recherchée du monde rencontre un moine ascétique dont la vie est consacrée à Dieu, on sait que des étincelles érotiques vont jaillir. Et quand le choc a lieu dans un opéra glorieux mais rarement joué de Massenet, c’est un délice pour les oreilles autant que pour les yeux. Renée Fleming est la Thaïlandaise glamour, enveloppée dans des robes élégantes conçues par Christian Lacroix. Thomas Hampson est l'homme de Dieu torturé. Cette production de John Cox, créée en décembre 2008, prépare avec brio le terrain pour une confrontation aussi vieille que la civilisation elle-même.

Cet été, le Chœur et l’Orchestre du Théâtre de La Fenice, sous la direction de Fabio Luisi, ont investi la place Saint-Marc de Venise le temps d’un concert grandiose. Face à la basilique, les musiciens ont interprété la célèbre cantate "Carmina burana", vingt-quatre poèmes médiévaux mis en musique par Carl Orff entre 1935 et 1936. Ces textes païens, rédigés en latin, en moyen haut allemand (la langue parlée au Moyen Âge dans l’actuelle Allemagne) et en ancien français, racontent l’instabilité du bonheur et les joies procurées par le vin, le jeu et la chair. Un concert envoûtant, porté par un prestigieux plateau de solistes – Regula Mühlemann, Michael Schade et Markus Werba – qui s’insère avec brio dans les rythmes dionysiaques scandés par le chœur et l’orchestre. Programme Fortuna Imperatrix mundi Primo vere Uf dem anger In Taberna Cour d'amours Fortuna Imperatrix mundi

Claudio Abbado leads the Berlin Philharmonic and the Swedish Radio Choir in a performance of Mozart's Requiem at the Salzburg Cathedral to commemorate the 10th anniversary of renowned Austrian conductor Herbert Von Karajan's death. Featuring soloists Rachel Harnisch, Karita Mattila, Sara Mingardo, Bryn Terfel and Michael Schade, this solemn evening is a fitting tribute to one of the 20th century's most influential musical personalities. Live from Salzburg Cathedral on July 16th, 1999.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Don Giovanni is performed live at the Theater an der Wien in this 1999 production starring Carlos Alvarez in the title role and featuring the music of the Choir and Orchester der Weiner Staatsoper performing under the guiding wand of conductor Riccardo Muti.

The 1791 La Clemenza di Tito (or 'The Clemency of Titus') marked Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's final opera seria. With a libretto by Metastasio (edited slightly by Caterino Mazzolà), the work dramatizes the palace intrigues surrounding emperor Titus's attempts to coronate a new bride and the envious Vitellia's attempts to have Titus assassinated (with the help of Titus's friend Sextus) following the deposition of Vitellia's emperor father. Stage director Martin Kušej mounted Tito in August 2003, at the Felsenreitschule in Salzburg; a film of that live performance now appears in this home video release. The cast includes Michael Schade as Titus, Vesselina Kasarova as Sextus and Dorothea Roschmann as Vitellia. The Wiener Staatsopernchor, under the baton of Nikolaus Harnoncourt, provides musical accompaniment; Jens Kilian designed the sets.

Riccardo Muti leads the Orchestra of the Wiener Staatsoper in this performance of Mozart's opera, recorded live in 1996. The performers include Barbara Frittoli, Angelika Kirchschlager, Angelika Kirchschlager and Michael Schade.

When Joseph Haydn completed his fourth and final oratorio at the beginning of 1801 the 69-year-old composer was famous throughout Europe. Born in 1732 as the son of a humble wheelwright, Haydn grew up in a rural, peasant environment. That such a child should make his way eventually to the position of court composer was an extremely rare occurrence. Even in his days at royal courts, however, Haydn still felt a close and intimate attachment to Nature and to life in the countryside. When Baron Gottfried van Swieten, then, presented to Hadyn a libretto on the theme of The Seasons, he found in the old composer a worthy partner in his own veneration for Nature.

Fierrabras of 1823 is the last of Franz Schubert’s stage works. Rarely performed to this day, this heroic-romantic opera has now been staged for the first time ever at the Salzburg Festival by famous director Peter Stein. Based on an old French 12th-century epic, the plot depicts the military conflict between Christians and Moors at the time of Charlemagne – as a backdrop to stories of love and friendship that prove to be stronger than war and hatred of otherness. The strong cast includes the “marvellously expressive miracle Dorothea Röschmann” (Die Zeit) and “Michael Schade, who exudes his exceptional tenor in Fierrabras’s heroic arias” (Der neue Merker). Under the energetic baton of lngo Metzmacher, the Vienna Philharmonic unfold “the melos, the poetry, the sweetness and the dramatic force of Schubert’s highly refined and atmospheric sound worlds” (Kleine Zeitung) in highly romantic fashion.

Richard Strauss' last stage work is an opera about opera as an art form, depicting the creation of a music drama in a wise and witty way. Which came first the words or the music? That is the question Strauss and his librettist Clemens Krauss address through the story of a Countess torn between a composer and a poet.

Arthaus presents a truly new way of looking at La clemenza di Tito with this famous and star-studded production from the Salzburg Festival 2003. Here Nikolaus Harnoncourt, renowned for his analytical approach to the search for the core of the music, interprets Mozart’s last opera. Martin Kušej, who is acclaimed for his theatre productions directs the production. Nikolaus Harnoncourt identifies with Mozart’s score as both an extremely knowledgeable musician and a conductor who invariably plays an active part in helping to shape the drama. Together with the Vienna Philharmonic, he savours the miracles of Mozart’s late work, bringing out its instrumental colours and effects and at the same time stimulating his singers while proving a solicitous accompanist.

Distinguished conductor Lorin Maazel leads the fifth annual Vienna Philharmonic Summer Night Concert 2013. This year’s gala concert revolves around the works of Richard Wagner and Giuseppe Verdi, both of whom would have celebrated their 200th birthday this year, and features German Canadian tenor soloist Michael Schade.

Daphne is based on the Greek myth of the nymph and her transformation into a laurel tree to escape the god Apollo.