Das Kraftwerk der Gefuehle (Kluge) (2DVD)

The Power Station of Emotions: For over 400 years, musical theatre has accompanied all the virtues and flaws of modern society. Here we cover Wagner, the relationship between the earliest operas (Monteverdi, Cavalli) to the most modern (Nono, Lachenmann, Rihm) and also Mozart, an operatic doctor, a chamber singer as the user of doping substances and rarities by Portici and Bizet. Villains Sing Bass: Why do male figures in opera kill the sopranos? For what reason is Evil always given the best melodies? The beauty of opera lies in these relationships and interconnections. The 80,000 operas in existence form one single score which accompanies the past 400 years of society like a distorted mirror: This is the thesis propounded in Xaver Holtzmann's imaginary opera guide.








DVD 1
Richard Wagner and the Law of Ruin Value in Music (1990-2007), 50'
Feat. Pierre Boulez, Michael Gielen, Peter Konwitschny
With Richard Wagner's Twilight of the Gods (behind the stage), The Valkyrie, Siegfried, The Flying Dutchman, The Mastersingers of Nuremberg.
"80,000 Operas!" (1994-2006), 33'
Feat. Robert Schulz, August Everding, Beate Mainka-Jellinghaus, Joachim Kaiser, Lothar Zagrosek, Annette Elster, Alexander Kluge With passages from Orpheus and The Coronation of Poppea (Monteverdi) and from operas by LuigiNono, Wolfgang Rihm, and Helmut Lachenmann.
"Of which we cannot speak we must sing!" (1998-2006), 12'
Feat. Lothar Zagrosek, Catherine Naglestad, Hans Neuenfels, Julia Schölzel. Sylvia Ackermann Mozart's The Abduction from the Seraglio: Why does this person speak and not sing? He longs to sing. Singing generally emerges when language becomes helpless. Ferdinand Raimund's magic plays The Alpine King and the Misanthrope and The Captive Fantasy. "For all happiness, we are loath to believe, at the end is only fantasy." Mozart's The Clemency of Titus: Servilia and Annius light a candle symbolising their love. From Mozart's last opera The Magic Flute: "The rays of the sun conquer the night and destroy the hypocrites' fraudulent power."
The Opera Doctor (2007), 24'
Dr. med. Josef Schlömicher-Thier is an otorhinolaryngologist working at the Salzburg Festival. He is particularly interested in the marvel of the human voice, which creates the best moments of opera. What are the risks menacing the voice that the doctor has to contend with? What are the distinctive traits that make a voice ingenious?
I Lived for my Art (2007), 15'
With Peter Berling - First aired on: April 30, 2007, dtcp on RTL - Opera stars face daunting competitive pressure. It's thus not unusual for some of the best among them to seek to improve their performance by secretly doping. Unlike in elite sports, this goes without punishment. The famous baritone Edouard de Scaramberg tells all.

12 page booklet with texts by Alexander Kluge

DVD 2
The Phenomenon of the Opera (1998-2007), 22'
With Christoph Schlingensief. A coffin, witches in Macbeth, Othello in time lapse, the Reich Chancellor Hitler as opera-lover: Clips from Xaver Holzmann's Imaginary Opera Guide. F for Fidelio, C for Carmen, S for female prompter, P for prompter, H for Hopkins the Machinist, the only opera that tells about the industrial world, J for The Jewess, Jacques Fromental-Halévy's opera on religious fanaticism and racism. Why do we need an imaginary opera guide?
Soprano versus Bass (1992-2006) 47'
With Michael Gielen, Gabriel Sadé, Catherine Naglestad, Attila Jun, Götz Friedrich, Tichina Vaughn - Scenes from Nabucco (1842), I due foscari (1844), Macbeth (1847), Luisa Miller (1849), Il trovatore (1853), La traviata (1853), Les vépres siciliennes (1855), La forza del destino (1862), Don Carlos (1867). Seven chapters: 1. Women who fight for their men; 2. Destiny rages; 3. Fathers against their sons; 4. The sopranos; 5. Killed by the bass; 6. Murder night in Palermo; 7. Grand finales. What patron attending an opera notices immediately that the music of the Grand Inquisitor in Don Carlos is the same as the music of the assassin in Rigoletto? Does one realize (if one only attends one opera on one particular evening) how related and yet how extremely different the finales of Verdi's operas are? Thus 12 x Verdi in context. A special contribution to Xaver Holzmann's Imaginary Opera Guide.
Darklings Sing Bass (2002), 24'
With Jörg Friedrich. What is the difference between tenors, basses, sopranos, baritones, and altos in comparison to good and evil? The voice of the tenor cuts like a knife and it shines. Baritones are fathers, murderers, and cardinals offering velvety range. Sopranos can twirl through the air ethereally and otherworldly, Queen of the Night, and yet express hysteria and insanity. The darklings sing bass.
The Mute Girl of Portici (1998), 14'
With Christine Schönfeld, Sylvia Ackermann, Uwe Schönfeld.
The world's only opera to trigger a revolution during its premiere is "The Mute Girl of Portici" by Daniel Francois Esprit Auber. The audience in Brussels, outraged over a girl's mistreatment, exited the theater, stormed the government buildings and called for a republic.
Dance on the Volcano (2001), 10'
With Stephen Hess, Hernan Iturralde, Simone Nold, Sebastian Geyer, Alessandro De Marchi, Juliane Votteler. Aristocrats playing at the simple life are surprised by a revolution. Now, under emergency conditions, love relations develop with great power. Masaniello Furioso, a legendary folk hero like Wilhelm Tell, Robin Hood or Rienzi, is the leader of the uprising of fishermen of 1647 in Naples. A captivating baroque opera by Reinhard Keiser (1706) tells its story.
The Deluge (1999), 8'
With Astrid Ackermann, Sylvia Ackermann. Georges Bizet's "Noah," an opera in 5 acts. It tells of the events occurring immediately before the deluge and what triggered them. Bizet's father-in-law Jacques Fromental Halévy ("The Jewess," "L'éclair") started working on the opera. Bizet was only allowed to marry if he would promise to finish composing the opera.

Directed and written by: Alexander Kluge - Cinematography by: Heribert Kansy, Walter Lennertz, Thomas Willke - Edited by: Kajetan Forstner, Andreas Kern - Contributors: Astrid und Sylvia Ackermann, Roland Forstner, Michael Geißmayer, Erich Harandt, Alexandra Kluge, Michael Kurz, Digne Meller-Marcovicz, Claudia Toursarkissian, Alexander Weil, Toni Werner, Beata Wiggen - Produced by: Kairos-Film, München, Germany 1990-2008

Short stories and a book by Alexander Kluge as ROM features

DVD edited by: Filmmuseum München and Goethe-Institut, funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation

4:3 (PAL) / 1.37:1/ Dolby Digital 2.0 / language: German / subtitles: English, French, Russian, Spanish, Portugese, Chinese