Stars: Christine Schafer, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Pierre Boulez, Natascha Osterkorn

Director: Oliver Herrmann

Summary: A performance by the soprano Christine Schafer plus an in-depth interview followed by Oliver Herrmann's film based on Schumann's song cycle.

Oliver Herrmann directs film versions of Schoenberg's PIERROT LUNAIRE and Schumann's song cycle DICHTERLIEBE. Soprano Christine Schafer stars in both, accompanied in the first instance by Pierre Boulez's Ensemble Intercontemporain, and by pianist Natascha Osterkorn in DICHTERLIEBE.

WIN DVDs by rating this DVD

Average User Rating:

WIN DVDS by being amongst the first to review this DVD. Reviewing DVDs earns you bonus entries and lets you WIN DVDs!Please login before reviewing this DVD. If you're a new user, register for free and enter to WIN FREE DVDs!

Song cycles--anthologies that tell a story--are perfect for visual treatment, and Oliver Herrmann has chosen two that typify the expressive and the expressionist. Subtitled "A Story of Red and Blue", Dichterliebeplaces Schumann's songs in a nightclub setting, intercutting them with rehearsal and pre-production sequences that don't shed much light on either the settings or their interpretation. Christine Schäfer captures the lovelorn feel of this music, and Natascha Osterkorn is a sensitive accompanist, but the peer presentation style could well grate on repeated viewing.

One Night. One Life, Herrmann's presentation of Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire, is likely to prove more durable. Schäfer walks listlessly down corridors and through rooms of Dali-esque paranoia, emerging into the cold facelessness of a modern city, before retreating behind her own persona. The performance, directed by Pierre Boulez, is unfailingly good and this ought to attract new listeners to Schoenberg's light, ironic and ever-relevant cabaret.

On the DVD:Dichterliebeand Pierrot Lunaireon disc are presented in a 16:9 picture format that reproduces with needle-sharp clarity, and the PCM stereo sound has the required immediacy and finesse. There are subtitles in four European languages and detailed introductions to both works are provided in the booklet. The lengthy interview with Schäfer is insightful, if not without an element of Blind Date, Fassbinder style! --Richard Whitehouse

Aspect Ratio:	16:9 Wide Screen
Main Language:	German
Region:	Region 2
Subtitles:	English, French, German, Spanish
Release Date:	March 4, 2002
Runtime:	81 minutes
Certification:	Exempt.
Catalogue Number:	100 330
Keywords:	Music, Christine, Wide, Screen, Classical, Schumann, Performing, Choral, Pierrot, Vocal, Arts, Schoenberg, Lunaire, Dichterliebe, Schafer
Genre:	Music/Performing Arts