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This is Opera

This is Opera is a Spanish and German coproduction (Brutal Media, RTVE, Unitel) filmed in English and Spanish language which can be seen in numerous countries worldwide. It is a show meant for everyone who have sometime felt curious about the world of the opera and never knew how to approach to it. A show to find out that the opera is not only for an elite, but for everyone.

10 Votes (8.7)

2015 HD 50min Spanish Ended
Documentary
opera

Credits:

Ramon Gener

Presentador

S1E1 - Carmen 2015-03-08

In the first episode, Ramón Gener talks of the cultural setting of "Carmen" by Georges Bizet-the most frequently staged and the most popular French opera of all time. In relation to the opera, filming takes place in locations such as Seville and Paris where the viewer is "transported" back to 1875 at Pariss National Theatre for Comic Opera, and the scandal it caused at the time.

S1E2 - Turandot 2015-03-15

In this episode which is based out of two European cities, Milan and Munich, Gener looks into the opera of Turandot- a love story set in Imperial China. The host then explores the idea of how this opera represents much more than a simple love story. Its the story of an absolute success, but also a failure.

S1E3 - The Barber of Seville 2015-03-22

"The Barber of Seville" is the quintessential comic opera and irrefutable proof that opera is not just drama and tragedy, but also pure entertainment. In this episode, Ramón Gener explains the essential "ingredients" in Rossinis music: staccato, crescendo, patter song, the fifth interval and coloratura.

S1E4 - La Bohème 2015-03-29

At the height of his career, Puccini wrote this song to life, friendship and love. To illustrate it, Gener travels to bohemian Paris and enters some of its most characteristic locales such as the century-old book shop Shakespeare & Co. and Au Lapin Agile Cabaret, along with visiting a rehearsal of La Bohème at the Paris Opera House.

S1E5 - Parsifal 2015-04-05

"Parsifal" was Richard Wagners last opera. Its story centers on the search for the Holy Grail, although its actually a spiritual voyage into the protagonist. To learn more about the Holy Grail, Gener travels to three different locations: Montségur, Valencia, and Montserrat Monastery.

S1E6 - Pelléas et Mélisande 2015-04-12

Beauty for beautys sake. That is how Gener defines this opera by Debussy, an impressionist work with a simple argument, but one capable of giving rise to intense emotions in whoever succumbs to its magic. To talk about love, impressionism and Debussy himself, Gener visits two pivotal French cities: Rouen and Paris.

S1E7 - Bel Canto 2015-04-19

Gener explains why Bel Canto awakens so many emotions and why it is a favorite for lovers of opera. Despite bel canto being born in Italy and all its composers being Italian, the viewer discovers why many of its operas are written in French and why so many of its authors moved to France to premiere them.

S1E8 - The Ring of Nibelung 2015-04-26

Gener heads to Bayreuth, the hometown of Richard Wagner, the composer of the most ambitious operatic saga in all of musical history, "The Ring of the Nibelung". This tetralogy is made up of four operas: The Rhine Gold, The Valkyrie, Siegfried and Twilight of the Gods. Gener touches on all of them as he visits the Autostad automotive plant, walks the stage at the Bayreuther Festspielhaus (the theatre designed by Wagner himself), and converses with one of the most renowned experts on the composer.

S1E9 - Tosca 2015-05-03

Rome, the eternal city, is the setting for this episode. Its also the city where the action in "Tosca" unfolds, a thriller with all the elements of a genre film. To unveil what these elements are, Gener seeks out the help of students from the Rome Film School.

S1E10 - La Traviata 2015-05-10

To love and to be loved. This is the main theme in Verdis "La Traviata", based on "The Lady of the Camellias" by the younger Alexandre Dumas and inspired by the famous courtesan Marie Duplessis. Paris will be the backdrop for this episode. Out on its streets, Gener interviews random people who tell him about their experiences with love and how it has transformed their lives. Guest appearance: Diana Damrau, Ludovic Tézier, Boris Izaguirre

S1E11 - Tristan and Isolde 2015-05-17

Gener heads to Cadaques on the Costa Brava to talk about a great love story, of a love beyond death: what Tristan and Isolde felt for one another. Again, Gener interviews anonymous people who have experienced great love stories like the protagonists of this particular opera, and who act as a counterpoint to show that love is more powerful than death.

S1E12 - Don Giovanni 2015-05-24

To bring to light one of the most famous seducers in history, Gener delves into the world of the night, to get to know the techniques for hooking up used by todays Don Juans.

S1E13 - Rigoletto 2015-05-31

Rigoletto is not just the story of a curse. Its also a story of oppressors and the oppressed. Giuseppe Verdi wrote it at 40 years of age, a critical point for every human being: a time of changes, of maturity, midlife. To bring to light "Rigoletto" and its symbols, Gener travels to the island of Menorca. At 40-year-old Verdi places all his hopes, dreams and frustrations into one of the most popular and fascinating characters from the world of music.

S1E14 - Manon 2015-06-07

Manon is a young Parisian woman who dreams of fame and riches. One day, Des Grieux crosses her path, an attractive gentleman, but one with a small defect- hes not rich. This is the premise behind Massenets opera based on the novel of the same name by Abad Prévost which gives light to the inner conflict between the head and the heart.

S1E15 - The Freeshooter 2015-06-14

Over 24 hours, Gener roams about the picturesque village of Aichach in the federal state of Bavaria in order to talk about one of romanticisms first operas, "The Freeshooter". Written in 1820, The action of the opera takes place in an German village similar to Aichach, an opera through which the author tried to convey his love for a countrys roots, traditions, legends and culture.

S2E1 - Pagliacci 2015-09-20

"Theatre is life" is the verism motto behind this beautiful opera. Gener explores Pagliacci in which fiction and reality intermingle and where nothing is as it might appear.

S2E2 - Eugene Onegin 2015-09-27

Tchaikovsky and Pushkin- the greatest examples of Russian Romanticism-speak to us about impossible romances, homosexuality, dandies, love letters and duels of honor. Gener goes to the Liceu Conservatory to collaborate with some aspiring musicians.

S2E3 - Fidelio 2015-10-04

Gener discusses Beethoven and the composers main drives in life- love, injustice, and freedom.

S2E4 - Handel 2015-10-11

In London Gener reveals how Handel managed something which nobody had ever managed before: to make England love opera. This is an episode about a very competitive man who achieved everything he aimed for and converted opera into something which could be enjoyed by everyone in London.

S2E5 - Così fan tutte 2015-10-18

Così fan tutte by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is one of the leading examples of musical classicism, and its main topic, narrated as a comedy, is infidelity.

S2E6 - Salome 2015-10-25

Based on the timeless play by Oscar Wilde, Richard Strauss wrote a troubling, uneasy score which portrays very clearly mans basic instincts. It is a story about obsession, about curiosity and about our desire for the prohibited. And the score expresses these topics perfectly: music which arouses strong emotions. Gener walks the viewer through how Salome makes one face his own fears and conscience.

S2E7 - Nabucco 2015-11-01

Gener explains why Verdis other operas would never have existed if Nabucco had never come to be. Gener travels to Valencia where Nabucco is being put on at the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia. There, he speaks about one of the central themes in Verdis career- that of parent-child relationships.

S2E8 - Der Rosenkavalier 2015-11-08

"Der Rosenkavalier" by Richard Strauss, is a wonderful comedy of errors that reflects upon the passage of time. Set in eighteenth century imperial Vienna, it tells the story of the romance between an aristocratic woman at the gates of later life and a handsome boy of seventeen. Gener interviews psychologist Patricia Ramírez Loeffler, to discuss topics about the passage of time, about how it affects us all, about our fear of aging, about couples with a significant age difference, but also, about giving up and accepting.

S2E9 - The Magic Flute 2015-11-15

The Magic Flute is the ideal opera for all ages, from children to seniors. Gener goes to a Spanish school to interview 7 year olds and their parents about their reception to the opera. Later, he interviews a neuroscientist and a musicologist to understand more how Mozarts music is so captivating.

S2E10 - Vivaldi and Venice 2015-11-22

Gener explains the three reasons why opera came to Venice in the middle of the 17th century and became a true phenomenon for the masses. Then Gener heads to the wonderful Teatro Olimpico di Vicenza, the first enclosed theatre in the world, to understand what theatres were like before opera exploded on the scene as a fashionable spectacle and to see how theatres alla italiana were born and proliferated in Venice.

S2E11 - Lulu 2015-11-29

Lulu is an opera about our most basic instincts, starring an enigmatic, dangerous and spellbinding woman. Sex, death and psychoanalysis are the necessary ingredients for a story that will leave no one indifferent.

S2E12 - Madama Butterfly 2015-12-06

Madame Butterfly teaches us about hope, longing, unconditional love and the problems when two cultures collide. Gener visits a cherry tree plantation in full bloom and will discover more about the symbolism of this tree in Japanese culture in general, and in Madame Butterfly specifically.

S2E13 - Rusalka 2015-12-13

Written in the early 20th century by Antonin Dvorák, "Rusalka" is based on the Hans Christian Andersen story "The Little Mermaid". The heart of the story is accepting ones own identity. But it also explores one of the great mysteries of humankind: the fragility of love. Will giving up on being who we are bring us happiness or misery? Is "Rusalka" a metaphor for racism? Or is it simply an exaltation of difference?

S2E14 - The Birth of Opera 2015-12-20

Gener retells the origin of opera and compares it to a metaphoric pregnancy. He guides explaining a double journey: the life journey of a future baby and Operas "journey" to Florence and Mantua, through the history of music, of its evolution and gestation, until it gives birth to a genre as universal as the one of being human.

S2E15 - Opera Is Life 2015-12-27

Gener speaks about the most important operas in history and why, thanks to emotions (both positive and negative), human beings are capable of feeling.