RM Arts

Modern adaptation of the classic operatic drama, with a few twists. Micaela, José's Mother, and Mörd (Death) are played by the same dancer. The action is reduced to a single act in 13 scenes. The love scenes are played to a minimum and the working women's fight is adjourned to the last scene [and cut from some DVD editions] that concentrates all the pathos announced throughout by the eerie music.

BBC documentary about Franz Kafka played by GREEK TV in 1990.This documentary is one of the ten films of "The Modern World: Ten Great Writers (1988)".

Frida Kahlo: declared a symbol of Mexican national heritage, made into a cult figure by the women's movement, praised by the likes of Picasso and Breton, this film uses images and music to reveal the soul of an icon.

A documentary featured on BBC's Arena series in 1983. The author discusses his life, his work and his thoughts and opinions.

A funny, cruel exploration of the male psyche, Enter Achilles is set in a typical British pub, a shabby, nicotine-stained boozer. Pop songs tumble out of the jukebox, there is football on the TV, and the eight men lark around, pint glasses in hand. But their blokish fun is balanced on a knife-edge of tension, for beneath the mateyness lurks a disturbing undercurrent of paranoia and insecurity, where weakness is brutally exploited and violence covers up vulnerability.

Benjamin Britten's opera as performed by the English National Opera, with Philip Langridge in the title role.

From the series "The Modern World: Ten Great Writers", this playful documentary introduces James Joyce's most famous work "Ulysses". It includes fantastic adaptations to film from passages of the novel. It also includes excerpts from a book written by Joyce's friend, the artist Frank Budgen, entitled "James Joyce and the making of Ulysses". Amongst those interviewed is author Anthony Burgess.

A delightful fairy tale, Mozart's final operatic legacy remains a great work in the spirit of the Enlightenment. Intertwining music of awesome purity and beauty with the conventions of musical comedy, it explores Man's search for truth and his confusion between the forces of light and dark. This production from The Drottningholm Court Theatre is conducted by Arnold Ostman and played on authentic period instruments.

The love story of young Countess Natasha Rostova and Count Pierre Bezukhov, is intertwined with the "Great Patriotic War" of 1812 against the invading Napoleon's Armies. People of Russia from all classes of society stand up united against the enemy. Both sides suffer tremendous losses during the war, and Russian society is left irrevocably changed.

Richard Wagner's operatic retelling of the story of the search for the Holy Grail receives a lavish production in this video, which records performances held in Bayreuth, St. Petersburg, and Ravello, Italy. Internationally renowned tenor Placido Domingo leads the distinguished cast; Tony Palmer directs.

The life of Austrian composer Anton Bruckner and his numeromania.

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.

The opening of the Picasso-National Museum in Paris granted a unique chance for Didier Baussy to document the precious collection in the museum in 81-minutes of film. The museum shows paintings held back by Picasso himself which have been very valuable for his connection to the world and his memories. A sensitive Analysis of these pictures dominantly from the Guernica-phase, grant a deep insight into the history of this artist and man Picasso, a geographical location of the scenes and a glimpse of his sources of inspiration.

Discover acclaimed Swedish choreographer Mats Ek’s 1987 reworking of the ballet classic, Giselle, for the Cullberg Ballet. With the sensational Ana Laguna in the title role, Mats Ek’s interpretation of the ballet classic has all the whimsy and imaginative innovation so closely associated with the choreographer. In this version of Giselle, the traditional romantic Rhineland village is replaced by a landscape in the shape of breasts, and the supernatural realm of the Wilis is replaced by the harsh reality of a lunatic asylum giving this interpretation a harsh modern relevance. Ana Laguna dances superbly as the barefoot girl who falls ‘madly in love’.

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.

American dancer and choreographer Hermes Pan recalls his life and work as he relives the glorious history of the Hollywood musical.

This luminous, visionary opera tells the story of how Mahatma Gandhi developed the philosophy of satyagraha, nonviolent active resistance, as a political revolutionary tool to fight oppression, connecting his lifework to three historical figures who advanced his philosophy: the celebrated Russian writer Leo Tolstoy, the great Indian poet and philosopher Rabindranath Tagore and the heroic American civil rights leader Martin Luther King. The libretto is comprised of passages from “The Bhagavad-Gita,” India’s greatest philosophical epic, and perfectly complements Glass’ ravishing score, mysteriously transporting the audience with a serene power and an all-encompassing sense of peace.

This documentary examines Borges' extraordinary life and work, using dramatizations of his most memorable stories and rare interview footage with the author at his Buenos Aires home.

Alvin Ailey played a key role in the growth of modern dance in USA and his company, founded in 1958, is one of the USA’s oldest dance troupes as well as one of the most youthful and vital on the dance scene. In this two-part program, members of Ailey's dance company celebrate his memory by performing three works choreographed by Ailey himself, as well as a special ballet tribute choreographed by Ulysses Dove. Each piece is introduced by Judith Jamison, the dancer and choreographer whose career was nurtured to stardom by Ailey, and who was, at the time of this production, Artistic Director of the company. The Alvin Ailey Dance Theater is uniquely eclectic in range, repertory, and style. As a choreographer, Ailey explored the black experience and went beyond, finding universal human truths in all his work.

Johannes Felsenstein’s production of HANSEL AND GRETEL presents it with every sinister element removed. The children remain in a home setting with their own bed central to the scene and the barest hint of a forest behind, while their father plays the witch as an amiable, totally benevolent figure, not sinister at all, even joining them in the final joyful ensemble. When they sing that the witch is dead, you find that the production contradicts that completely. Taking that unsinister stance means that the opera loses much of its bite. No doubt Felsenstein felt that it would make the piece more accessible for very young children, though many of them relish the sinister element. That said, it is a strong and capable performance, very well conducted and with a cast of good if not outstanding singers. One wonders what Felsenstein meant to convey, just as it is not clear why the central characters should regularly be carrying dolls. A highly individual version of a much-loved opera.