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Jeopardy! fans love a good game. When all the stars align it is hard not to celebrate. Likewise, Ken Jennings always brings a layer of fun to the screen. Now fans are going wild after watching a match some are coining as the “best game” of 2024.

‘Best Game’ Of The Year

Jeopardy! fans are losing it after watching an extremely exciting match on Friday, November 8. After seeing the competition, fans are calling it the “best game” they have seen so far in 2024. Rachel Marcus, a writer and consultant from New York City; Ross Dickson, a research consultant from Halifax, Nova Scotia; and Susan Stumme, a journalist from Arlington, Virginia faced each other for a fun and eventful night. Fans enjoyed the players’ sense of humor and competitive play during the show.

Ken Jennings | YouTube

Susan Stumme was off to a great start with an early lead. She kept the top...

The final episode of Mozart: Rise of a Genius explores the composer’s life following his father’s death. Mozart’s music takes on increased intensity and emotional depth as he processes the losses he has endured. His opera Don Giovanni, which succeeds The Marriage of Figaro, is characterised by its powerful drama and sophistication. However, the Viennese […]

Mozart: Rise of a Genius: Series Final...

On Saturday September 28 2024, UPtv broadcasts Euro Arts!

Europakonzert 1991 Season 1 Episode 35 Episode Summary

The upcoming episode of “Euro Arts,” titled “Europakonzert 1991,” promises to be a delightful experience for classical music lovers. This episode will air on UPtv and features some of the most celebrated works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The focus will be on a selection of pieces that showcase Mozart’s genius and creativity.

The episode will include the Overture and Arias from the famous opera “Don Giovanni.” This opera is known for its rich characters and dramatic storytelling. The music captures the essence of the story, and viewers can expect to hear some of Mozart’s most memorable melodies. The performance will bring to life the emotions and themes present in the opera, making it a highlight of the episode.

In addition to “Don Giovanni,” the episode features Symphony No. 29 in A major K. 201. This symphony is celebrated...

This Saturday, September 28, 2024, at 6:00 Am, Euro Arts presents a special musical event in Season 1, Episode 35 titled “Europakonzert 1991.” This episode celebrates the timeless works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, showcasing a selection of his masterpieces that highlight his brilliance as a composer.

Viewers can expect to hear the captivating Overture and Arias from Mozart’s renowned opera Don Giovanni, a piece that masterfully blends drama and melody. The episode also features Symphony No. 29 in A major, K. 201, known for its lively character and intricate orchestration. Adding to the enchantment, the Scena and Rondo for soprano and piano forte obligato and orchestra, K. 505, brings a delightful vocal performance that showcases Mozart’s skill in blending voice with instruments.

To top it all off, the program concludes with Symphony No. 35 in D major, K. 385, often referred to as the “Haffner” Symphony, known for its jubilant and festive spirit. This episode is a must-see...

Exclusive: CAA has signed Tony and Olivier-Award winning director Ivo van Hove in all areas.

Belgian-born van Hove has built a reputation for experimental revisions of Hollywood and Broadway classics including Broadway revival productions of Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge, for which he received a Tony Award and a Laurence Olivier Award, and The Crucible as well as Lee Hall’s Network (starring Bryan Cranston and Tatiana Maslany), All About Eve (with Gillian Anderson in the Bette Davis role) and Stephen Sondheim’s West Side Story.

Last year, van Hove teamed with John Wells to develop Doll at Warner Bros. Television. The project is described as a psychological thriller series set in the ruthless world of a modern music conservatory. The former’s artistic collaborator, Jan Versweyveld, was set to serve as production and lighting designer on the project, which marks the duo’s first foray into scripted television.

Arriving in the wake of Tár, Maestra reaches an audience primed to see the dark side of the classical music world. And while Cate Blanchett’s Lydia Tár stands out for her abusive behavior, she also represents one common fact: Very few conductors of major orchestras are women.

Maggie Contreras’ likeable, informative Tribeca documentary follows an event created in 2018 to address that inequity. Every two years, women in the early stages of their conducting careers join the La Maestra competition in Paris, vying to win attention and professional help. They need all the help they can get. Marin Alsop, a competition judge and perhaps the most famous female conductor in the world, says in the film that when she told her childhood violin teacher she wanted to conduct, she was told, “Girls can’t do that.” Deborah Borda, the head of La Maestra’s jury and CEO of the New York Philharmonic,...

Film scores £9,001 average from 644 sites.

Rank Film (distributor) Three-day gross (May 19-May 21) Total gross to date Week 1. Fast X (Universal) £5.9m £5.9m 1 2. Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3 (Disney) £2.8m £28.9m 3 3. The Super Mario Bros. Movie (Universal) £541,284 £51.8m 7 4. Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret (Lionsgate)

£287,209 £327,169 1 5. Beau Is Afraid (Sony) £202,254 £231,370 1

Universal’s action blockbuster Fast X took the chequered flag at the UK-Ireland box office with a £5.9m start – down on the previous five films from the car racing franchise.

The film took over £2m on both Friday and Saturday with over £1.5m on Sunday, with a location average of £9,001 across the full weekend.

Teatro Grattacielo presents a free performance of Mozart’s Don Giovanni at the Riverside Theater at 91 Claremont Avenue, NYC on June 17, 2023 at 7:30pm. Made possible thanks to generous support by the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation, the performance is open to schools and underprivileged & underserved communities in NYC.

One of Teatro Grattacielo’s most integral missions is to educate and introduce youth and young artists to opera and the arts through active participation, and to expand the audience for all opera through education and community outreach programs. This performance is part of Teatro Grattacielo’s educational intergenerational program called “Creative Tableux” and is part of Teatro Grattacielo’s production of Don Giovanni that will premiere on June 16.

“We are most grateful to the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation for their generous support and for the opportunity to pursue one of our core missions- to introduce new audiences to the life-transforming experience of opera and live performance,...

The French violinist presents a comprehensive tribute to the composer in 2023 with two concerts on Stage+ and no fewer than three new albums:

Mozart’s complete sonatas for violin and piano with Kit Armstrong

The five violin concertos with the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne

A recording to inaugurate Capuçon’s new “Beau Soir” imprint on Dg – Mozart’s two piano quartets with a trio of outstanding young artists

28 April 2023 — Renaud Capuçon’s exciting new Mozart project for Deutsche Grammophon comprises three albums and two Stage+ performances, all to come before the end of the year. Together they encompass the artist’s multi-faceted career as concerto soloist, chamber musician, artistic director and mentor to outstanding young talent.

Mozart: The Violin Concertos, recorded with the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne (Ocl), of which Capuçon is Artistic Director, is scheduled for release on 29 September 2023. Recorded with three of the emerging artists mentored by Capuçon,...

Maria Callas was one of the most influential singers of the 20th century.

Her powerful voice, powerful presence, and passionate performances have left an indelible mark on opera and classical music. To this day, her legacy continues to inspire young singers and aficionados alike.

Maria Callas brought a new level of emotion and intensity to the opera stage by combining brilliant technique with a deep expression of pathos. Her spellbinding performance of the famous opera Carmen stunned audiences across the world and made her a household name. She also collaborated with some of the most renowned conductors of her time, who praised her for her musical intelligence and faultless intonation.

This article will take a look at the legacy of Maria Callas and celebrate her influence on classical music. It will explore her life story, pivotal career moments, remarkable performances, and lasting impact on future generations.

Maria Callas: A Biography...

Teatro Grattacielo announces its 2022-23 Season, featuring Mozart’s Don Giovanni on June 16 & 17, 2023 at Riverside Theater and Spontini’s La Vestale starring Indra Thomas as Giulia and Tahanee Aluwihare as La Gran Vestale on October 28, 2023 at the Gerald Lynch Theater at John Jay College. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit grattacielo.org/season.

“On behalf of the Board of Directors and myself, we are excited to be bringing back to the US the historic Italian version of La Vestale, adding to yearlong celebrations of the 100th birth anniversary of Greek-American soprano Maria Callas,” said Stefanos Koroneos, General and Artistic Director, Teatro Grattacielo. “Maria was born in New York. She took her first steps around our great city. With our season, we are honoring her memory, her artistry, and her love for our great city and community. We are also happy to be presenting our production of Don Giovanni,...

With live performance venues subject to heavy admissions restrictions, U.K. fans of the Royal Shakespeare Company, Royal Opera, and Royal Ballet will soon be able to get their performance art fix thanks to a deal struck with BBC and ITV’s streaming platform Britbox, which will allow subscribers to tune in to their favorite productions starting July 23.

Falling under the service’s Centre Stage Collection — a showcase of concerts, documentaries and comedies celebrating British entertainment and performers — the new programming includes 25 Royal Shakespeare Company productions featuring film and TV stars such as Antony Sher in “King Lear,” David Tennant in “Richard II” and Christopher Eccleston in “Macbeth.”

Royal Ballet productions include Tchaikovsky’s “The Sleeping Beauty” and “The Nutcracker” as well as Talbot’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland,” while the Royal Opera will contribute Puccini’s “Madame Butterfly,” Gounod’s “Faust” and Mozart’s “Don Giovanni,” among others.

Several...

Gary Lewis also joins Danielle Macdonald and Joanna Lumley in romantic comedy.

Hugh Skinner, Shazad Latif, Rebecca Benson and Gary Lewis are joining Danielle Macdonald and Joanna Lumley in romantic comedy Falling For Figaro.

WestEnd Films is handling sales on the feature, which is directed by Ben Lewin (The Sessions) and set in the world of opera singing competitions.

Principal photography began in Scotland last week and will continue through January after which the filmmakers will travel to Melbourne to complete post-production.

Skinner is perhaps best-known for roles in TV series such as BBC comedy W1A, Hulu drama Harlots...

This past spring, Charles Gray was new to Backstage—and he ended up booking a principal role in the Mozart opera “Don Giovanni.” The gig pushed him as a performer.“I performed the role of the servant Leporello, [who] is sent running all over the place by his master, Don Giovanni. The role is challenging and requires various operatic techniques, from singing long lines to patter both high and low in range.” Honesty will elevate you.“Be honest about your strengths as a performer in your profile. [It’s important to have] really good audio and/or video clips of your work, [which] make you stand out to casting agents who know what they want.” Backstage has the most to offer.“I use Backstage as much as possible since it offers such a vast array of opportunities for the aspiring performer. I just joined in April and was [quickly] cast in ‘Don Giovanni’! There are so many different opportunities to apply to,...

Every week, IndieWire asks a select handful of film and TV critics two questions and publishes the results on Monday. (The answer to the second, “What is the best film in theaters right now?”, can be found at the end of this post.)

This week’s question: In honor of David Lowery’s “A Ghost Story,” what is the best movie about the afterlife?

Kate Erbland (@katerbland), IndieWire

It will come as no surprise to anyone that, as a child, I watched a lot of television. A lot. I was mostly obsessed with HBO — our single movie channel, number 2 on the dial; yes, my childhood TV had a dial, don’t ask — with intermittent deviations into mostly inappropriate mini-series (thus explaining my rarely disclosed expertise on “The Thornbirds”), and was pretty much given free range to watch whatever the hell I wanted, whenever I wanted. This is why my favorite...

Franco Zeffirelli once remarked that directors rarely staged Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” effectively, because they either emphasized the comedy or the drama and rarely got the right balance. The same could be said of almost any musical written by Stephen Sondheim. Back in the 1970s, director Hal Prince almost always got it right, from “Company” to “Sweeney Todd.” Broadway theatergoers didn’t know how lucky we were. In hindsight, we do, thanks to John Doyle. Doyle almost always gets it wrong, making Sondheim’s shows all about the angst. His most egregious failure was the 2006 Broadway revival of “Company,” which excised all.

On this day in showbiz history...

1719 Leopold Mozart, Amadeus's father is born in Augsburg Germany. In the 1984 movie phenomenon, one of the biggest hits of its year and the winner of 8 Oscars, he's played by Roy Dotrice and factors in heavily to the film's haunting imagery (and poster). Or to quote Salieri as played by F Murray Abraham:

So rose the dreadful ghost from his next and blackest opera. There, on the stage, stood the figure of a dead commander. And I knew, only I understood that the horrifying aparition was Leopold, raised from the dead! Wolfgang had actually summoned up his own father to accuse his son before all the world! It was terrifying and wonderful to watch. And now the madness began in me. The madness of the man splitting in half. Through my influence, I saw to it Don Giovanni was played only five times in Vienna.

Morfydd Clark, Ade Edmundson and Charlotte Peters have all joined the biographical drama about Mozart.

Interlude In Prague, which stars Aneurin Barnard as Mozart, has commenced a six-week shoot in the eponymous Czech capital.

Joining a cast that already includes James Purefoy (Solomon Kane) and Samantha Banks (Les Miserables) is Morfydd Clark (Love & Friendship), Ade Edmundson (War & Peace) and Charlotte Peters (Pound Of Flesh).

The story follows Mozart as he composes his operatic masterpiece Don Giovanni. While visiting Prague, the composer becomes embroiled in a turbulent narrative of lust and murder.

John Stephenson (Animal Farm) is directing from a script by debutant Brian Ashby. Huw Penallt Jones is producing for UK-based Productive International alongside Hannah Leader.

London-based Carnaby International are handling worldwide rights and, having introduced the title at Efm, will be commencing sales at Cannes in May.

James Purefoy, Aneurin Barnard and Samantha Barks have joined the cast of John Stephenson's "Interlude in Prague". Brian Ashby penned the screenplay

Set in the Czech capital in 1787, the true story tale follows a few turbulent months in the short life of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart which influenced the creation of his opera "Don Giovanni". Mozart is brought to the Bohemian city by the vain aristocrat Baron Saloka who is also a psycopath and serial rapist.

Mozart sets about creating a new opera at the Nostitz Theater, but his unconventional presence soon unleashes a series of dramatic and tragic events including a love affair with a beautiful soprano and ultimately murder.

Source: Variety...

John Stephenson’s Mozart drama will begin shooting in Prague in April.

Aneurin Barnard (Citadel) will star as Mozart alongside James Purefoy (Solomon Kane) and Samantha Banks (Les Miserables) in John Stephenson’s (Animal Farm) forthcoming drama Interlude In Prague, which is scheduled to shoot in Prague in April this year.

The plot follows Mozart as he composes his operatic masterpiece Don Giovanni. While visiting Prague, the composer becomes embroiled in a turbulent narrative of lust and murder.

London-based Carnaby International is handling worldwide sales rights and will be introducing the film to buyers at the Efm (Feb 11-19).

Huw Penallt Jones is producing the project for UK-based outfit Productive International alongside Hannah Leader.

Brian Ashby has penned the film’s screenplay, while Charlotte Truman will compose the film’s score.

Interlude In Prague will have cinematography from Michael Brewster and production design from Luciana Arrighi, who won an Oscar for her work on 1992 picture Howards End.

Music and Sex: Scenes from a life - A novel in progress by Roman AkLeff (first installment can be read here; second here; third here; fourth here; fifth here).

[Warning: the chapter below contains "adult situations." Seriously, this one's not for the faint-hearted.]

Walter’s new home, Carman Hall, was an utterly soulless pile of cinder blocks. No effort at all had been made, during its design and construction two decades earlier, to build in anything conveying the slightest sense of warmth. No carpeting in either the halls or in the suites, no wood anywhere except the doors, no decorative touches, nothing but bare straight lines. One imagined it had been designed so it could be hosed down with minimum effort between school years to as to be literally as well as aesthetically antiseptic. There was not even any accommodation made for cooking; not only were there no kitchen nooks, even hotplates were forbidden (though, given that they were horrific fire hazards, that made sense,...

Everyone knows Woody Allen. At least, everyone thinks they know Woody Allen. His plumage is easily identifiable: horn-rimmed glasses, baggy suit, wispy hair, kvetching demeanor, ironic sense of humor, acute fear of death. As is his habitat: New York City, though recently he has flown as far afield as London, Barcelona, and Paris. His likes are well known: Bergman, Dostoevsky, New Orleans jazz. So too his dislikes: spiders, cars, nature, Wagner records, the entire city of Los Angeles. Whether or not these traits represent the true Allen, who’s to say? It is impossible to tell, with Allen, where cinema ends and life begins, an obfuscation he readily encourages. In the late nineteen-seventies, disillusioned with the comedic success he’d found making such films as Sleeper (1973), Love and Death (1975), and Annie Hall (1977), he turned for darker territory with Stardust Memories (1980), a film in which, none too surprisingly, he plays a...

I used to work at a store where some of us employees liked to dress up for Halloween. One year the young woman I worked with that day dressed in her full Goth regalia (this is someone with a spiderweb tattoo), and when one customer said to her, "I love your costume," she replied, coldly and seriously, "It's not a costume." Ever since then I have thought of Halloween as the one day each year when Goths "fit in."

From whence does "Goth" come as a description of this subculture? Not from the original Goths, Germanic barbarians who sacked Rome and later founded the kingdom that eventually became Spain and Portugal. Rather, it comes from "Gothic fiction," an English literary movement (so called in reference to the architecture of castles) that dates from Horace Walpole's 1764 novel The Castle of Otranto.

Such famed literature as Bram Stoker's Dracula, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein,...

Lorin Maazel, who died at age 84 on Sunday, from complications of pneumonia, was a true Renaissance man of music: a child prodigy as a conductor and violinist, and later a composer as well.

Born in France in 1930 to American parents, he was raised in Los Angeles. His family was musical: one grandfather was a violinist in the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Lorin’s father taught voice and piano, and Lorin’s mother started the Pittsburgh Youth Symphony Orchestra. A child prodigy blessed with perfect pitch, Lorin was playing violin at age five and piano at age seven, but was especially captivated by conducting. Studying with Vladimir Bakaleinikov, the associate conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Maazel made his conducing debut at age eight with the University of Idaho Orchestra and quickly moved on to more prestigious ensembles. When Bakaleinikov became assistant conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra the same year, the Maazel family went with him.

Review Laura Akers 18 Mar 2014 - 14:02

The seams of Hannibal Lecter's "person suit" are unravelling in this week's episode. Here's Laura's review of Hassun...

This review contains spoilers.

2.3 Hassun

A bit of an emergency kept me from reviewing last week’s episode (Sakizuke), which established that not only is Will Graham quite clear now on who his adversary is but that he has geared up to fight him. We see him put on an act in front of Hannibal which seems to convince the not-so-good doctor that Will has accepted the argument that he likely committed the murders but that the pressure put on him by the FBI and his own bout with Nmda-Receptor Antibody Encephalitis are the root causes, and thus he is essentially innocent and looking to Lecter to help him. Dancy is finally delivering the kind of performance necessary to keep up with Mikkelsen, and the skill...

Opera is waking up to the power of video. For his new production of Don Giovanni, the Royal Opera House's Kasper Holten collaborated with a designer who turned U2 tours and the 2012 Olympics into visual spectaculars. Stuart Jeffries goes behind the screens

"Don Giovanni is called the director's graveyard," says Kasper Holten. "It's impossible to do a perfect production. The existential moral journey of the seducer to hell is hard enough to make convincing – without having to juggle all the farcical elements, too."

So why is Holten, the Royal Opera House's director of opera, returning to Mozart's work for the third time (he has already directed it on stage and on film)? And why is he ratcheting up the risk with some of the tricksiest, most perilous video design ever seen on the British opera stage?

"It makes sense marrying video technology and Mozart," he explains. "If he were alive,...

It was announced Monday that Pope Benedict XVI will be resigning on Feb. 28, citing health concerns for his need to step down. In looking back at his career as Pope, Buzzfeed dug up a 2009 Myspace playlist that the Vatican publicized as music from the Holy See.

The playlist was a part of a series of celebrity playlists, put together for the launch of Myspace's UK site. Most of the playlist features expected tracks such as Mozart's "Don Giovanni," but things get interesting with the inclusion of Tupac's "Changes," and Muse's "Uprising." The Vatican explained the choices at the time as “A perfect mix of classical, world and contemporary music. The genres are very different form each other, but all these artists share the aim to reach the heart of good minded people.”

Take a look at the full playlist below.

The Vatican Playlist

"Advocata Nostra" – Music From The Vatican...

My usual explanation in this space: I am especially interested in piano and choral music, plus symphonies, so that’s what I get the most promos of. Other stuff obviously gets through my filters, but the percentages of what comes in inevitably affect what comes out, i.e. this list. That said, in terms of number of centuries spanned, rather than genres or formats or whatever, I think I'm covering as much or more musical territory than most critics. By the way, look for a shorter list of my favorite classical reissues of 2012, to follow in a day or two.

1. Tokyo String Quartet, Jon Manasse, Jon Nakamatsu Brahms: Piano Quintet, Clarinet Quintet (Harmonia Mundi) There were recordings this year that were more important in terms of bringing new repertoire to light, or featuring young artists, or bringing classical into the 21st century, or being more controversially newsworthy. Examples of all of those follow.

Bengtsson/Futral/Maltman/Petrenko/Concerto Copenhagen/Mortensen

(Axiom Films)

Released on DVD under the opera's original title, this is actually Kasper Holten's film Juan, aimed at the European and Us arthouse circuit, though UK showings have been rare. Based on Don Giovanni rather than interpreting it, it's a striking, piece of work. It's not for purists: insisting on cinematic cogency, Holten cuts and reorders the score in ways no one would find acceptable in the theatre. Transforming the opera into an erotic thriller, the film was shot in Budapest, with the performers singing live on set rather than lip-synching to a pre-recorded soundtrack. There are acknowledged debts to the Bourne trilogy and Steven Soderbergh's Traffic. But hooded figures lurking in doorways remind us of Don't Look Now, and there are inevitable, if unintentional, parallels with Shame.

Holten offers variants on Mozart's narrative. Juan/Giovanni (Christopher Maltman) is an artist-pornographer,...

Swiss soprano renowned for her beauty and singing of Strauss

When the Swiss soprano Lisa Della Casa, who has died aged 93, made her Covent Garden debut in the title role of Richard Strauss's Arabella on the Bavarian State Opera's visit to London in 1953, she won all hearts with the beauty of her singing and of her appearance. This role became her trademark, and when the Royal Opera decided to stage its own production of the work in 1965, Della Casa was, of course, the Arabella, with Georg Solti in the pit.

The producer was Rudolf Hartmann, who had done much to launch Della Casa's career on an international level. That career had begun in 1941 in the Swiss town of Solothurn-Biel, where she made her debut in the title role of Madama Butterfly. She joined the Zurich Opera House in 1943, appearing as the First Boy in The Magic Flute, later ascending...

★★★☆☆ A word to the wise - this contemporary visualisation of Mozart's famous opera is unlike any version you are likely to have seen before. In fact it's unlike anything you are likely to have seen before, period. The debut feature film from Kasper Holten (Director of Opera at London's Royal Opera House), Don Giovanni (Juan, 2010) stars English baritone Christopher Maltman as the titular character with a one track mind, whose racy past eventually catches up with him in spectacular fashion.

Read more »...

Sex-crazed business man? Gay icon? Drug addict or anti-imperialist cipher? The many faces of Don Giovanni

In the Don Giovanni that has just opened in Paris, the eponymous hero has become an irredeemable sex pest of a businessman. Too much power and sex has corroded his soul. Perhaps you work with him. Perhaps you are him. At the end, in his nocturnal office, Giovanni is stabbed through the heart by the co-worker he sexually assaulted in act one, thrown through a window by a crowd of downtrodden cleaners, at least one of whom he tried to grope, and then accompanied to hell by the rotting corpse of the CEO he murdered at the outset. Twenty-first century moral? Don't stay late at the office.

The desperate Don's comeuppance, though, strikes me as unfair. As Kierkegaard noted in Either/Or, Don Giovanni is the opera's erotically animating presence. "His passion resonates everywhere...

One of the more anticipated classical concerts this season will take place on Wednesday, March 21, when the Prague Philharmonia and its founder and honorary artistic director, Czech conductor Jiri Belohlavek, bring an exceptionally interesting program to the Bohemian National Hall. They will be performing Mozart's Don Giovanni Overture, Janacek’s Suite for Strings, and Vorisek’s Symphony in D. The Mozart is well known, of course, but the Janacek is a relatively early work of his and the Vorisek -- the main work on the program -- is a masterpiece heard far too rarely in concert halls, especially in the U.S.

It’s worth remembering that most of what is now the Czech Republic, notably the regions Bohemia and Moravia, were for centuries part of the Habsburg Monarchy Aka the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Because of the region’s time behind the Iron Curtain, some Americans may mistakenly consider it...

David Shariatmadari continues our writers' favourite film series with Milos Forman's opulent tale of Mozart and his rival

Did this review hit the right note? Write your own review here or get composing in the comments below

There are films that take your breath away before they've even begun. The first four minutes of Milos Forman's Amadeus – the credits, in fact – contain more drama and pathos than many directors manage in 120. The scene is Vienna, a winter's night in the 1820s. From somewhere inside a grand apartment a man screams "Mozart!" as the snow billows outside. "Forgive your assassin!" He is answered, first by a great dismal chord from the last act of Don Giovanni, then by two servants, who are bringing the cream cakes they hope will shut him up, but end up breaking the down the door. Inside they find their master has slit his throat,...

Sherlock Holmes is transformed into a man of action in Guy Ritchie's latest reimagining of the Victorian sleuth

A crippled veteran, returning to London from Afghanistan and forced to live on a small pension, finds a flatmate who turns out to be a drug addict. They become close friends and this other man eventually tells the ex-soldier that Britain is heading for disaster but will emerge "a cleaner, better, stronger land" and suggests they rush to the bank to cash a cheque before its signatory reneges. The subject of this highly topical story is, as you've probably guessed, Dr John H Watson, narrator of the Sherlock Holmes stories. He's well played by Jude Law in Guy Ritchie's second Holmes movie as a sensible, intelligent, reliable chap, even if he too readily explodes or expostulates when confronted by his flatmate's outrageous behaviour.

But while the film's art director and...

Sidelined by a back injury just before the opening, Mariusz Kwiecien returned Tuesday night to take his rightful place at the center of the Metropolitan Opera's new production of Mozart's Don Giovanni.

It may have been too much to hope that the Polish baritone's appearance would jump-start the essentially stillborn staging by Michael Grandage. But with his dashing, dangerous presence and well-focused, insinuating sound, he did provide some welcome jolts of electricity.

Kwiecien (pronounced Kvee-tchen) has sung the title role to acclaim in many opera houses, but never before at the Met. The role suits him perfectly: His Errol Flynn-like good looks, dapper figure and athleticism make him uncommonly believable as the serial seducer. And as fate closes in on the Don in Act 2, the anger and cruelty behind his charming swagger become more apparent.

(Francesco Rosi, 1984, PG, Second Sight Films)

Though not as original in conception as Joseph Losey's Don Giovanni, which was also produced by Daniel Toscan du Plantier and conducted by Lorin Maazel, this wonderfully performed and staged version of Bizet's masterpiece is one of the great opera movies, the work of the distinguished Italian realist Francesco Rosi, director of Salvatore Giuliano and Three Brothers. Using the spoken dialogue of the original stage production, it is shot entirely on Andalucian locations with a magnificent central trio: the alluring, powerfully confident Julia Migenes, a sort of dark-haired Gypsy Streisand, as Carmen; Plácido Domingo, a painfully vulnerable (if perhaps slightly too old) Don José; and Ruggero Raimondo (Losey's Don Giovanni) as a wiry, proud Escamillo, who has the pained eyes of a man long used to facing death in the afternoon. Knowing that the ultimate emotional and psychological force comes from the music and singing,...

Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)

Directed by Robert Hamer

Written by Robert Hamer

UK – 1949

If you’ve never seen Kind Hearts and Coronets, I feel a little envious. I’m not so resentful that, like the film’s antihero Louis Mazzini, I’d actually go out and commit multiple murders. But first-time viewers are definitely in for a treat this year, with the UK cinematic re-release on 19 August and a new DVD and Blu-ray edition from Optimum to follow on 5 September.

The phrase “blackly comic” has been done to death by unimaginative critics. Too often these days it seems to be synonymous with bad taste, a fistful of “F” words and a total lack of restraint. But Robert Hamer’s film, originally released by Ealing Studios in 1949, is a reminder that dastardly behaviour can take place in the most genteel of surroundings, without so much as a hint of blood.

Set in Edwardian London,...

Keith Miller was headed for an enviable position in the NFL-until the velvet-voiced gridiron star was serenaded by the opera. He talks to Eve Conant about exchanging his helmet for tights.

Meeting Keith Miller for the first time backstage at the Washington National Opera, in a black kimono and Japanese Tabi slippers, he comes across as a gentle performer with a voice that impresses, even when just speaking quietly.

Related story on The Daily Beast: NFL Owners' Lockout Ego Trip

But if you were to look at his old driver's license? In that hulking mug shot is a man who weighs 265 pounds and sports a menacing Fu Manchu goatee. The photo barely resembles the now 220-pound budding opera star who will sing a commanding solo when Madame Butterfly opens in the nation's capital next week. If there is a disconnect, it's because Miller's rise in the rarified world of opera...

Mozart's tale of dissolution and retribution is brought to life in this engrossing Francesca Zambello production. Simon Keenlyside plays the philandering Don in the Royal Opera House’s lavish staging, which also stars Marina Poplavskaya. The story follows young, arrogant, and sexually prolific nobleman Don Giovanni as he abuses and outrages all those around him, until he encounters something he cannot kill, beat up, dodge, or outwit.

Sedona, Ariz. - Baritone Rod Gilfry has performed around the world in the greatest opera houses from Zurich to The Metropolitan Opera. He.s kept company with Plácido Domingo, Cecilia Bartoli, Renéee Fleming and Susan Graham among others. His seventy-four role repertoire ranges from Captain von Trapp to Mozart.s beloved Don Giovanni. His voice has brought shouts of bravo and encore around the world. Conductors André Previn, James Levine, John Elliott Gardner, Nicolaus Harnoncourt and many others have worked closely with the internationally acclaimed, two-time Grammy nominated baritone. Los Angeles Opera General Director Plácido Domingo said Gilfry embodies the best of contemporary opera, offering "superb vocalism and dramatic insights matched with the right looks for the roles he performs."...

American opera singer Richard T. Gill has died, aged 82. He passed away in Providence, Rhode Island on Monday, October 25 after suffering heart failure.

Gill, an economist and longtime faculty member at America's esteemed Harvard University, quit his tenured job after discovering his voice through formal vocal training, which he began as an anti-smoking regimen at age 40.

He went on to perform featured roles with the New York City Opera in the early 1970s after a few years of study and later joined the Met, where he sang alongside opera greats including Placido Domingo, Beverly Sills, Kiri Te Kanawa and Shirley Verrett, between 1973 and 1976.

Gill's roles included Panthus in "Les Troyens", Frere Laurent in Gounod's "Romeo et Juliette", the Commendatore in Mozart's "Don Giovanni" and the King in Verdi's "Aida". He retired from opera in the mid-1980s, and went on to publish several academic books, including "Our Changing Population", "Posterity Lost: Progress,...

On Monday night (June 28), Lady Gaga kicked off the latest leg of her epic Monster Ball tour at the Bell Centre in Montreal. In typical Gaga fashion, her worldwide trek started out intensely theatrical and has only gotten larger since, with new elements added all the time. While her production didn't include any corpses (as was rumored a few days ago), it did include the following: A new song (the piano ballad "You and I"), a flaming piano, an outfit that recalled Missy Elliott in the video for "The Rain," keytars, a fountain that gushed blood, an evil angler fish, a harpist, a leopard-print one-piece and an actual disco stick. (And that was just the stuff that MTV News' James Montgomery was able to keep up with.) It appears as though the latest leg of the Monster Ball is just as can't-miss as the previous iterations.

But what does Gaga do for an encore?...

Potential Films is offering our readers season passes for Carlos Saura’s I, Don Giovanni.

The film is a drama based on the life of 18th century Italian lyricist Lorenzo da Ponte, who collaborated with Mozart on his Don Giovanni opera.

Venice, 1763. Writer Lorenzo da Ponte is leading a very cavalier life. Originally a priest, his numerous affairs result in him being sent into exile in Vienna.

Supported by his friend and mentor Giacomo Casanova, da Ponte is introduced in Vienna to the King’s favourite composer, Salieri, and a newcomer named Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Seeing an opportunity to undermine his rival’s ascension, Salieri tricks Mozart into hiring this unknown libertine as his librettist. But da Ponte’s own nature and sentimental wanderings in Vienna only inspire the composer, and lead to one of Mozart’s most bold and powerful compositions: Don Giovanni.

I, Don Giovanni opens on May 6 (Melbourne,...

Flamboyant cult German director, belatedly appreciated

After a long, fallow period in German cinema, there emerged, in the late 1960s, a new wave of directors, including Werner Schroeter, who has died of cancer, aged 65. What separated Schroeter from most of his contemporaries, such as Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Wim Wenders and Werner Herzog, was his almost complete rejection of realism, social and political, and his espousal of high camp.

Schroeter lived by Oscar Wilde's dictum: "Moderation is a fatal thing. Nothing succeeds like excess." His mixture of flamboyant, gender-bending minimalism and stylised melodrama, inspired by 19th-century Italian bel canto opera and the music of German romanticism, often juxtaposed with popular song, blurred the distinction between art and kitsch. His eschewal of conventional narrative made him a marginal figure, but towards the end of his life, with several retropectives at festivals and cinematheques, he gained a wider audience of cinephiles. He kept a faithful,...

Madrid -- When the 13th Malaga Spanish Film Festival kicks off Saturday it signals the beginning of a new film season for Spain -- as the festival packs a powerful punch of premieres from edgy first-time directors and seasoned veterans in its lineup.

Spain's main showcase for homegrown talent, Malaga has firmly established itself as the debut of most of the local industry's solid product.

A parade of Spanish industry faces accompanies such a lineup every year and this year is no different. Aside from Culture Minister Angeles Gonzalez-Sinde and Film Institute director Ignasi Guardans, director Carlos Saura, Nacho Velillo and Juana Macias, producer Andres Vicente Gomez, actors Lorenzo Balducci and Javier Camara, among others, are expected.

And that's just the first weekend.

This year's official section is bookended by two of Spain's most international auteurs: Carlos Saura with his Mozart-driven "I, Don Giovanni" and Julio Medem with the sexy "Room in Rome.

Singer and Hollywood star best known for her roles in MGM musicals of the 1940s and 50s

When coloratura soprano Kathryn Grayson, who has died aged 88, sang five songs, including an aria from La Traviata, in MGM's all-star patriotic parade, Thousands Cheer (1943), she began her 10-year reign as the prima donna of Hollywood. With her china-doll features, little turned-up nose and patrician manner, Grayson raised the tone of more than a dozen musicals. Although opera managers did not beat a path to her door, her clear, slightly shrill, small voice carried well on film in popular classics and operatic scenes.

Her classical training led her not to the opera house, but to the radio, in particular The Eddie Cantor Show, on which she was discovered by an MGM talent scout at the age of 18 in 1940. In the same year, she married the minor film actor John Shelton.

In her first film,...

Hollywood star's sexual conquests said to have included Isabelle Adjani, Diane Keaton and Madonna

It may not be one of the great remaining mysteries, on a par with the nature of dark matter or the origins of the universe, but the question of how many women Warren Beatty, 72, has slept with certainly seems to have got New York's media-land in a froth.

Peter Biskind, Beatty's new biographer, estimates that the famously seductive star of Bonnie and Clyde and Reds has notched up 12,775 sexual conquests, including Isabelle Adjani, Diane Keaton and Madonna. If true, that is impressive. Don Giovanni could only claim a lacklustre 2,065, according to Mozart's librettist, Lorenzo Da Ponte.

Biskind writes in his book, Star: How Warren Beatty Seduced America, that he arrived at the figure by "simple arithmetic". He appears to have worked out the number of days between Beatty losing his virginity at 19 and the date...

A few weeks ago, a band called Casting Crowns stormed the Billboard album chart and outsold debuts by the likes of 50 Cent, Kris Allen, Them Crooked Vultures and Janet Jackson. It was another testament to the power of Christian rock, which is constantly spreading throughout the world and finding new mainstream audiences. They may be disappointed to find out that their influence perhaps doesn't extend to the Vatican — especially considering the likes of Tupac and Muse may be in heavy rotation there.

On Thursday (December 3), the Vatican released a playlist via MySpace Music that includes inspirational music and a selection from Mozart's "Don Giovanni," but it also features Tupac's 1998 hit "Changes," the latest single by Muse and a tune by Seattle folk-poppers Fleet Foxes. Curated by Father Giulio Neroni (who also produced an album called Alma Mater, which featured Pope Benedict XVI reading over liturgical music and also figures...

The Czech Republic welcomed the final four for a leg filled with trickier clues, feats of upper-body strength, bickering, failed alliances and transportation theft. The following travel tips were gleaned from watching the episode, which was more heated than last week’s elbow-gate. — Carrie Bell 1. Don’t mock your traveling companion. Especially if you don’t know what you’re talking about either. One brother inquired if they speak Spanish in Prague. The other laughed at his stupid question just before foolishly declaring Prague a country. 2. If you have time to lean, you have time to surf the net. Teams...