Mirella Freni

Recently added

La Bohème
8

La Bohème

Jan 01, 1988

La Bohème
1988 116 min 2 vues
Giacomo Puccini's bittersweet opera of high-spirited bohemians and the doomed love between Rodolfo, the idealistic poet and Mimi, the consumptive flower-maker, is a beautifully balanced series of tableaux depicting the infectious joie de vivre of youth and the tragic waste of disease and separation. The legendary and incomparable partnership of Mirella Freni and Luciano Pavarotti as the two lovers has been captured in this special live recording from stage of the San Francisco Opera. Brian Large has adapted Francesca Zambello's production for video, further illuminating the fascinating interaction of Puccini's characters. Gino Quilico sings Marcello, the colorful and moody painter, whose tempestuous relationship with the flirtatious Musetta (sung by Sandra Pacetti), comically mirrors the more profound love of Rodolfo and Mimi. Nicolai Ghiaurov sings Colline.
Musique
La Bohème
8

La Bohème

Jan 16, 1965

La Bohème
1965 105 min 2 vues
In the early 1960s two artistic giants, conductor Herbert von Karajan and director Franco Zeffirelli, joined forces to create this milestone production of Puccini’s masterpiece at Milan’s Teatro alla Scala. Filmed in that legendary opera house in 1965, with Zeffireli himself directing for the cameras, this “Bohème” has been acclaimed universally for its unique theatrical impact and visual splendour. Starring the young Mirella Freni in her carreer-making performance. – For the first time the full dimension of opera on film.
Drama
Le nozze di Figaro
6.5

Le nozze di Figaro

Jan 01, 1975

Le nozze di Figaro
1975 181 min 4 vues
Mozart's Marriage of Figaro is a comedy whose dark undertones explore the blurred boundaries between dying feudalism and emerging Enlightenment. Herman Prey's Figaro is admirably sung in a firm baritone and aptly characterized. So too, is his antagonist, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau as the Count perpetually frustrated by the scheming wiles of Figaro and Susanna, here the perky Mirella Freni, who sings and acts like a dream. The Countess is creamy-voiced Kiri Te Kanawa, and the Cherubino, Maria Ewing, looks just like the horny, teenaged page she's supposed to be. The all-star leads are complemented by worthy supporting singers, the Vienna Philharmonic at the top of its form, and the experienced Mozartian, Karl Böhm conducting a stylishly fleet performance.
Comedy
Bizet Carmen
6

Bizet Carmen

Jan 01, 1967

Bizet Carmen
1967 164 min 1 vues
This spectacular opera film was taped in 1967 and is based on the 1966 Salzburg Festival production directed by Herbert von Karajan himself, who also conducts the fabulous Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. The production features the three greatest exponents of their respective roles at the time: Grace Bumbry’s magnificently seductive-toned Carmen, Mirella Freni’s ineffably lovely, touching Micaëla and Jon Vickers’s thrillingly manic-depressive Don José. On its release the film was hailed by Die Presse, (Vienna) as a “unique artistic event”, while Le Monde felt that Karajan’s production brought “a whole new dimension” to the opera, “combined with a magisterial interpretation”. A classical and utterly dramatic approach to probably the world's most beloved opera – Karajan’s Carmen is as much a delicacy for opera fans as it is a perfect starter for newcomers.
Drama
Madame Butterfly
9.5

Madame Butterfly

Sep 14, 1974

Madame Butterfly
1974 145 min 2 vues
Cio-Cio-San, une jeune geisha de Nagasaki, devient Madame Butterfly en se mariant à Pinkerton, un officier de la marine américaine. La jeune femme lui voue un amour éternel et attend patiemment son retour avec son fils, jusqu'au jour où Pinkerton revient avec sa nouvelle femme américaine.
Music
Verdi: Otello
1

Verdi: Otello

Jul 12, 1976

Verdi: Otello
1976 137 min 1 vues
The Moorish general Othello is manipulated into thinking that his new wife Desdemona has been carrying on an affair with his lieutenant Michael Cassio when in reality it is all part of the scheme of a bitter ensign named Iago.
Fedora
1

Fedora

Apr 26, 1997

Fedora
1997 100 min 1 vues
Princess Fedora, who is to marry the Count the following day, arrives and sings of her love for him, unaware that the dissolute Count has betrayed her with another woman. The sound of sleigh-bells is heard, and the Count is brought in mortally wounded. Doctors and a priest are summoned, and the servants are questioned. It is proposed that Count Loris Ipanov, a suspected Nihilist sympathiser, was probably the assassin. De Siriex (a diplomat), and Grech (a police inspector) plan an investigation. Fedora swears on the jewelled Byzantine cross she is wearing that Count Andrejevich's death will be avenged.
Music
Adriana Lecouvreur
1

Adriana Lecouvreur

Jun 02, 1989

Adriana Lecouvreur
1989 158 min 1 vues
Francesco Cilea's Adriana Lecouvreur concerns a doomed love based on a real story about an actress involved in a famous love triangle. Mirella Freni sings the title part in this production that was broadcast on television originally in 1989. Gianandrea Gavazzeni conducts the orchestra. Live from La Scala, 1989
Music
Verdi Don Carlo
8

Verdi Don Carlo

Jul 28, 1983

Verdi Don Carlo
1983 213 min 1 vues
Ghiaurov, Freni, and Bumbry were great voices in their time, and they are still effective here -- good enough musicians to put over the quite heavy vocal and expressive demands of their roles. Louis Quilico was never quite in that league, and he sounds a bit spread and woofy in places here, but he works hard and effectively to bring Rodrigo to life. Placido Domingo recorded his first Don Carlo, for EMI with Giulini, about 15 years before this production, but he looks and sounds fine here -- in the early 1980's he was doing very good Otellos and Lohengrins too, and Furlanetto, still in his 30's, brings a rich, young voice to an old part and succeeds in making the Grand Inquisitor vocally as well as expressively formidable. Levine brings both weight and energy to the score, and that reading fits well with the overall "traditional" design and production -- the Met's wardrobe budget must have been severely taxed, but everybody looks splendid.
Music
Verdi Ernani
8

Verdi Ernani

Jul 28, 1982

Verdi Ernani
1982 138 min 1 vues
It truly is an historic performance. Domingo looking and singing like a god pouring out golden tones; Renato Bruson sounds, like the sublime Verdian Baritone that he was at that time; Nicolai Ghiaurov proves again that he was one of the greatest "Verdi Basses"; Mirella Freni shows that there was more to her than just being Mimi and Susannah-in fact I can remember reading that at the time of the premiere of this production that there were fist fights (not unusual in La Scala's gallery) between Mirella's many fans--between those fans that just wanting her to continue singing the light lyric repertoire that they were use to her singing and those that felt she should and could sing the lyric-spinto repertoire which, of course, she proved that,indeed, she could (She's still singing more than twenty years later). This performance captures some of the best Verdi singers of the time doing dear ole wonderful Giuseppi proud.
Music
Falstaff
8.2

Falstaff

Jan 01, 1993

Falstaff
1993 126 min 2 vues
It is to composer and librettist Arrigo Boito and his constant pestering of the octogenarian Verdi that there remained within him one last great comedy fighting to get out that we owe this absolute miracle of an opera. Produced in 1893 as Verdi turned 80 there is much in this masterpiece that can be identified as a modernist neoclassical work. The use of short motifs instead of long arioso melodic lines, the spry and reduced orchestral textures and the lack of a single 'stand and deliver' dramatic declamatory aria all serve to make this more of a 20th century work than an example of 19th century late-Romanticism.
Music
Verdi: Simon Boccanegra
1

Verdi: Simon Boccanegra

Oct 27, 1978

Verdi: Simon Boccanegra
1978 145 min 1 vues
Abbado wholly vindicates Verdi’s intentions through his feeling for the shape of a whole scene, for the inherent subtleties of Verdi’s scoring and for certain rhythmic effects.
Music
Karajan, ou la beauté telle que je la vois
1

Karajan, ou la beauté telle que je la vois

May 10, 2008

Karajan, ou la beauté telle que je la vois
2008 86 min 1 vues
Des témoins directs de la légende Karajan livrent leurs souvenirs, illustrés d'images d'archives, de répétitions et de concerts. Il y a Christa Ludwig, mezzo-soprano, qui fut l'une de ses interprètes favorites ; Gundula Janowitz, la soprano autrichienne à laquelle Karajan offrit le Festival de Salzbourg ; le pianiste russe Evgeni Kissin et l'ex-petite prodige du violon Anne-Sophie Mutter, auxquels il apporta son soutien et ses conseils ; Seiji Ozawa, son disciple préféré, qui fut l'assistant du maître avant de devenir un maître lui-même ; Sir Simon Rattle, actuel chef de l'Orchestre Philharmonique de Berlin que Karajan a développé et dont il a veillé sur le destin pendant 35 ans ; le chef d'orchestre Georg Solti, successeur de Karajan à la direction artistique du Festival de Pâques de Salzbourg ; le critique musical Joachim Kaiser, ainsi que de nombreux musiciens.
Documentary
The Metropolitan Opera Centennial Gala
1

The Metropolitan Opera Centennial Gala

Jan 01, 1983

The Metropolitan Opera Centennial Gala
1983 231 min 1 vues
In celebration of its 100th anniversary in 1983, the Metropolitan Opera hosts a four-hour performance uniting some of the world's most spellbinding opera singers and conductors. The event includes a ballet from Samson et Dalila and boasts incredible classical performances from Kathleen Battle, Plácido Domingo, Jose Carerras, Leonard Bernstein, Marilyn Horne, Leona Mitchell, Luciano Pavarotti and many more.
Music
Otello
1

Otello

May 21, 1973

Otello
1973 140 min 1 vues
Herbert von Karajan directed this film of Verdi’s Shakespearan masterpiece as well as conducting the Berlin Philharmonic. As the tragic Moor of Venice, arguably his greatest role, John Vickers (in the words of critic David Cairns) "commands both the notes and the moral grandeur of the part. … And he has the aura of greatness – greatness of heart, of bearing, of musical and dramatic conception". Mirella Freni is a heartbreakingly lovely and fragile Desdemona, while the fine English baritone Peter Glossop plays the villainous Jago.
Music
The Berliner Philharmoniker’s New Year’s Eve Concert: 1998
1

The Berliner Philharmoniker’s New Year’s Eve Concert: 1998

Dec 31, 1998

The Berliner Philharmoniker’s New Year’s Eve Concert: 1998
1998 89 min 1 vues
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 1998 concert was conducted by Claudio Abbado and featured Marcelo Álvarez (tenor), Mirella Freni (soprano), Simon Keenlyside (baritone), Christine Schäfer (soprano) performing: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro (Excerpts), Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Don Giovanni (Excerpts), Georges Bizet: L'Arlésienne (Excerpts), Gioachino Rossini: La gazza ladra: Overture, Giuseppe Verdi: Rigoletto (Excerpts), Giuseppe Verdi: Un ballo in maschera (Excerpts), Hector Berlioz: Le Carnaval Romain, Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Eugene Onegin (Excerpts), Giuseppe Verdi: La Traviata (Excerpts).
Music
Le Grand Échiquier
8

Le Grand Échiquier

Oct 29, 2020

Le Grand Échiquier
2020 min 2 vues
Le Grand Échiquier mêle tous les arts et toutes les générations d'artistes et propose des rencontres artistiques exceptionnelles, inédites et insoupçonnables entre chanteurs, musiciens, chorégraphes, danseurs, humoristes ou encore chefs d'orchestre.
Reality
Great Performances
5.2

Great Performances

Jan 01, 2025

Great Performances
2025 min 16 vues
The best in the performing arts from across America and around the world including a diverse programming portfolio of classical music, opera, popular song, musical theater, dance, drama, and performance documentaries.
Comedy