German opera film festival

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33493, 26 March 1974, Page 8

German opera film festival

The Music Federation, through the West German Embassy, has secured several opera films, all in colour, for showing to private audiences in New Zealand.

Four of these films will be screened at the Hollywood Cinema. Sumner, early next month for the Christchurch Music Society. The four will be “The Marriage of Figaro”, “Wozzeck”, “The Mas-ter-singers”. and “The Magic Flute”.

The performances are by the Hamburg State Opera Company, with the Hamburg State Philharmonic Orchestra, under the artistic direction of Professor Rolf Liebermann. and feature starstudded casts (including Hans Sotin, Nicolai Gedda, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, and Edith Mathis). This company looks back almost 300 years to 1677, when the citizens of Hamburg decided to establish a public opera house — that is, one open to all the people, as distinct from the court theatres whose audiences comprised only invited guests.

From its earliest days, Germany’s first opera house attracted famous musicians, conductors and composers. Bach, Handel, Weber, Wagner, Gounod, Puccini, Bizet, Mahler, Bruno Walter, and Otto Klemperer were all closely associated with the Company. The list of artists who have sung on the Hamburg stage reads like a “Who’s Who” of opera, and the company has long had the reputation of being an important sounding-board for contemporary works, not only of opera, but of drama and ballet. Rolf Liebermann has been the Staatsoper’s artistic: director since 1959. All seats for the films will be pre-sold.