Tour of the World of Saint-Saëns

Fervent defenders of Saint-Saëns’ music, Les Siècles and François-Xavier Roth have teamed up with two great French soloists, violinist Renaud Capuçon and pianist Bertrand Chamayou, for a journey through the multiple works of the Romantic composer, whose death is being celebrated in 2021.

Some works will be recorded for the first time, such as ” Waltz ” from ” The Silver Bell”, of which there is no recording in the world.

PROGRAM

The Youth of Hercules

Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso

Phaéton

Havanaise

Africa

The Spinning Wheel of Omphale

Piano Concerto No. 5 “Egyptian” – Andante

The Silver Bell – Waltz

Danse Macabre

Iphigenia, a new Opera by Wayne Shorter with Esperanza Spalding

Available for coproduction and prebuy

Can be paired with the behind-the-scene documentary featuring Esperanza Spalding and Wayne Shorter

Iphigenia is not an adaptation of the Greek myth as much as it is an intervention into mythmaking itself, and an intervention into music and opera as we know it. Classical and jazz forms collide in a full orchestral score that features Shorter’s groundbreaking method of symphonic improvisation, with his venerated quartet at the center. Spalding’s libretto is deeply poetic and then suddenly radical – Iphigenia is multiplied, her identity is fractured and shared until the stage is occupied by a chorus of her.

Iphigenia was born to be sacrificed – or so the Greek myth would have us believe, but what if she contests her fate? What if the winds don’t blow and the sails hang limp in the sea air? Iphigenia stares down the history of opera and makes some demands on its future: No more tragic women singing through suicide and going mad in perfect pitch. No more spectacles of women dead and dying. In the end Shorter and Spalding turn their gaze outward beyond the stage: What will we make, they ask, at this precise moment in our collective present when we are so desperately in need of new visions for the world.

90min Opera

52min Documentary

Tosca by Giacomo Puccini at Teatro Real Madrid

Melodrama in three acts

Music by Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924)

Libretto by Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica, after the play La Tosca (1887) by Victorien Sardou.
A co-production of Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona and Teatro de la Maestranza in Seville Principal Chorus and Orchestra of the Teatro Real.

Starring Anna Netrebko, Jonas Kaufmann, Joseph Calleja, Carlos Álvarez and the great Sondra Radvanovsky.

That in this veristic melodrama of rivalries, politics, thwarted passions, and brutal outcome the words “honor” or “revenge” are never once said gives an idea of Puccini’s intentions to transcend and renew the framework of Italian melodrama as well as the Verismo style. Proof of this is the almost cinematographic pace of the dramatic action, the abundance of leitmotiv examples and the massive orchestration which reaches its heights in scenes like the «Te Deum» or the interrogation scene. Under the iron hand of sinister Scarpia, the lovers Tosca and Cavaradossi are unable to raise their voices except to express discouragement and defeat, portrayed as victims. They are fully-fledged creations of a century which witnessed the birth of the modern totalitarian state, mass destruction and genocide. First seen at the Teatro Costanzi of Rome in 1900, to this day Tosca is one of the most popular and incombustible of operas. Suitable for all tastes, it comes to the stage of the Teatro Real in the production of Paco Azorín, which premiered at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona. This is a vibrant and explicit version, set on a revolving stage accompanied by video projections.

Duration: 138′
Genre: Opera
Format: HD
Production Year: 2021
Stage Director: Paco Azorín

The Complaint of the Anthem of Europe

(Provisional title)

In production – available for coproduction and prebuy
Genre: Documentary
Duration: 52′
Directed by Jean-Marc Longval

Time, No Changes: Miles Davis’ Second Great Quintet

In production – Available for coproduction or prebuy

In 1962, Miles Davis was one of the major forces in music worldwide, and his artistic influence extended far beyond jazz. In 1964, he found four dynamic and up-and-coming musicians: Wayne Shorter on saxophone, Herbie Hancock on piano, Ron Carter on bass, and Tony Williams on drums. Subsequently, all four went on to become musical icons.

This group of younger musicians, orbiting one of the greatest artists of all time, pushed the boundaries of improvised music, and the group came to be known as Miles Davis’ Second Great Quintet. Fifty years later, their experimental approach to music is unmatched and may be the most influential force in jazz today.

The documentary focuses on the Quintet’s musical landmarks and unfolds the inspired magic that made it all happen. It is a deep dive into the recordings, live performances, band dynamic, and how it all came to an end in 1968. The film features three of the surviving members — Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, and Ron Carter — along with other musicians the band has influenced.

This is the story of Miles Davis’ Second Great Quintet.

Genre: Jazz
Director: Christian D. Bruun
Duration: 75′
Format: HD

Alice and other Wonders & Alice goes through the Mirror

Genre: Theater Play
Location: Théâtre de la Ville, Paris
Duration: 2×78′
TV Direction: Isabelle Julien

Auditorium Films presents Lewis Carroll’s famous plays: Alice and other Wonders & Alice goes through the Mirror

Alice and other Wonders
“Oh my goodness! Everything is weird today! Yesterday things were normal. Maybe I was changed during the night? Alice returns to surprise and intrigue us, to reopen the strange landscapes and worlds that arise during her adventure. A limitless adventurer, Alice is a child at the threshold of adolescence, capable of going back and forth between these two ages of life. The incredible story of her adventures continues to amaze adults and children, researchers and scholars, for more than 150 years through all eras. Without doubt, one could even prove that the more time passes, the more sciences progress, the more technologies upset our relationship to time and space, the more these adventures seem familiar and plausible to us.” Fabrice Melquiot.

Alice goes through the Mirror
“In the continuation of the adventures, the other side of the mirror is a little more disturbing than Wonderland. Alice finds the same White and Red Queens, even stranger, chatting with living flowers and a big egg-headed Humpty-Dumpty, who claims that even the meaning and shape of words are relative. In this strange world, everything goes wrong: time, memory, distances, up, down, real and virtual. Alice flies weightless in a staircase image and meets heroines who could be her descendants: Dorothy, from the Wizard of Oz, Zazie the Queneau kid, and Rose, a girl of today. By the way, who is in whose dream?” Odile Quirot