Theodora

George Frederic Handel's oratorio Theodora, in its first-ever staged version at the Salzburg Festival, was among the highlights of Handel Year 2009. Acclaimed director Christof Loy presented Theodora as the profoundly moving tale of a woman who prefers death to denying her faith, an interpretation captivated with bravura by world-renowned video director Hannes Rossacher. A luminous Christine Schaefer and countertenor Bejun Mehta formed a perfect leading couple altogether suited to conductor Ivor Bolton's vigorus reading.

Rigoletto

Live recording at Royal Opera House, 22 September, 2001. Television live relay. In one of the Royal Opera’s most celebrated and popular productions, director David McVicar mixes lavish historical costumes and dark stylized settings to highlight the savagery and excitement of Verdi’s tale of misdirected revenge. Paolo Gavanelli is vocally and theatrically electrifying as the hunchback anti-hero, acclaimed soprano Christine Schäfer is his doomed daughter, and superstar tenor Marcelo Alvarez is her fickle lover. With superb playing from the Or...

Lulu

Alban Berg's black, satirical opera is one of the masterpieces of the 20th Century. It charts the rise and fall of a femme fatale "created to make trouble", from life as a society hostess to prostitution and eventual bloody death at the hands of Jack the Ripper. Berg's score is intensely beautiful, and the rich characterisation brilliantly executed.

Don Giovanni

Don Giovanni's list of romantic conquests reaches into the hundreds. But his reputation as a lothario puts him in danger as the women he's betrayed -- and their suitors -- begin to seek revenge. A modern-day setting proves the timeless nature of Mozart's popular opera, performed with the Vienna Philharmonic as part of an epic presentation of all 22 of the composer's stage works at the 2006 Salzburg Festival, in honor of his 250th birthday.

The Metropolitan Opera: Hansel and Gretel

This deliciously dark take on the beloved Brothers Grimm fairy tale, appealing to audiences of all ages, was part of the Met’s popular English-language holiday series. Alice Coote and Christine Schäfer star as the famous siblings lost in the woods, who battle the ravenous Witch—a zany portrayal by tenor Philip Langridge—while the Met orchestra, under the baton of Vladimir Jurowski, glories in the rich, folk-inspired score.

Mozart: Die Entführung Aus Dem Serail

The celebrated three-act opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart comes to life in this dynamic performance at the world-famous Salzburg Festival. Director Francois Abou Salem brings a modern Middle Eastern sensibility to this journey into Arabian and Muslim culture, filtering the comic tale of abduction for today's audiences. Soprano Christine Schafer portrays Constanze, a woman whose heart is torn between her fiance, Belmonte (Paul Groves), and her new master, Pasha Selim (Akram Tillawi). A sensual and resoundingly modern experience, this new inte...

The Berliner Philharmoniker’s New Year’s Eve Concert: 1998

The annual New Year’s Eve Concert is one of the highlights in the calendar of every classical music fan in Berlin and beyond. On New Year‘s Eve, the Berliner Philharmoniker invite an exceptional soloist for a festive gala. Together, the musicians bid farewell to the old year and welcome the new. The 1998 concert was conducted by Claudio Abbado and featured Marcelo Álvarez (tenor), Mirella Freni (soprano), Simon Keenlyside (baritone), Christine Schäfer (soprano) performing: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro (Excerpts), Wolfgang Amad...

One Night, One Life

In the film One Night. One Life, based on the cycle Pierrot Lunaire, Arnold Schönberg’s opus 21, director Oliver Herrmann has created a surreal, at times grotesque dream world set in a modern city, through which Pierrot moves like a spirit. In each new number she passes through different scenes and levels of the world around us: such as an abattoir, a peep-show, a station or a supermarket.

Dichterliebe

In Dichterliebe (2000), a film by Oliver Herrmann based on Robert Schumann’s song-cycle of the same name, the boundaries between song recital and reality blur. The chosen setting – a night club in the centre of Berlin – creates the intimate, dark salon atmosphere in which the songs might also have been performed at the time they were written. Returning to origins in this way, the film departs from the concert atmosphere in which song-recitals are normally performed nowadays.