In 2003, the world-famous conductor Claudio Abbado returns to the stage after battling cancer. He celebrates his return to life together with the very best instrumentalists and chamber music ensembles, comprising a who’s who of classical music. This emotional performance of Gustav Mahler’s 2nd symphony – “The Resurrection” – is set to become a magic moment of music.

In 2003, after a battle with cancer, Claudio Abbado feels strong enough to take up the orchestra baton once again. For his return to the stage, he chooses Gustav Mahler’s 2nd Symphony, also known as the “Resurrection Symphony” – a gigantic work fit for an orchestra of superlatives. On this occasion, the Lucerne Festival Orchestra is made up of specially selected soloists and orchestral and chamber musicians with whom Abbado has performed on all the world’s stages. It is a distinguished “orchestra of friends” that celebrate his return to life together with him.

This magic moment grapples with such questions as the meaning of life, love, freedom and suffering – themes that run through Mahler’s music as well as the life story and personality of Claudio Abbado. “I shall die in order to live” goes the text of the Resurrection Symphony. During the concert, the conductor Abbado – still unwell with cancer – sings along with the choir. It is a profoundly emotional moment, not just in the life of the conductor but in classical concert history.

For this episode, the orchestra musicians relive the poignant atmosphere of this magic moment: Renaud Capuçon, Emmanuel Pahud, Reinhold Friedrich and Antonello Manacorda share their memories of their collaboration with Abbado and the occasion of this unique interpretation of Mahler’s music.

Ballet history was made at the Vienna State Opera on 15 October, 1964. The event is a performance of Swan Lake choreographed by Russian dancer Rudolf Nureyev, who also took on the male lead role of the Prince – all at just 26 years of age. His partner is 45-year-old British prima ballerina Margot Fonteyn. His version of Tchaikovsky’s ballet classic story would go on to make Rudolf Nureyev the dance icon of the 20th century.

An incredible 89 curtain calls (and a corresponding entry in the Guinness Book of Records) is testament to the ballet history that was written at the Vienna State Opera on October 15, 1964. The event is a performance of Swan Lake choreographed by Russian dancer Rudolf Nureyev, who also took on the male lead role of the Prince – all at just 26 years of age.

His partner is 45-year-old British prima ballerina Margot Fonteyn. Less than two hours later, the world-famous love story ends not with the traditional happy ending but with the death of the Prince. His version of Tchaikovsky’s ballet classic story would go on to make Rudolf Nureyev the dance icon of the 20th century.

His choreography for the Vienna State Opera Ballet and the Vienna Symphony Orchestra under John Lanchbery is one of the most well received of all time and is still in the repertoire of the Vienna State Opera. To this day, the technically extremely demanding choreography is danced with reverence by the generations that followed Nureyev, who are inevitably measured against the legendary dream couple of classical pointe dance, Rudolf Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn.

In his novel interpretation of Swan Lake, Nureyev revolutionises the role of the male dancer: no longer content to be the mere porteur, a “hoist” for the prima ballerina, he seeks to be her equal counterpart. And so he places the male role – and thus himself – at the very heart of the dance fairy tale. He adapts the original production by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov to his own tastes and includes, among other things, an extremely melancholic solo, which is now standard in every contemporary production.

Nureyev’s reading of the ballet shows not only a deep understanding of Tchaikovsky, whose homosexuality alienated him from society, but also has autobiographical leanings. Nureyev had experienced himself the pain of rootlessness, loneliness, the loss of loved ones, and the revolt against social conventions, which spurred the homosexual dancer to become the first artist to flee the Soviet Union to the West in 1961, an act of courage that brought him instant international notoriety.

This great moment in music includes the painstakingly restored 4K version of the legendary ballet recording, while the documentary passages with Nureyev reveal and make tangible this exceptional and fascinating personality. In newly filmed conversations, former dancers and companions, including Charles Jude, French “Let’s Dance” jury member Marie-Claude Pietragalla and biographer Julie Kavanagh, all have their own personal memories of the iconic figure. Michael Birkmeyer and Gisela Cech, who danced alongside Nureyev at the premiere of Swan Lake, take stock of this unforgettable evening of dance, while young artists such as the principal dancer of the Berlin State Ballet, Polina Semionova, choreographer Eric Gauthier and director Kirill Serebrennikov, look back at Nureyev and his work from the perspective of today.

Franco Zeffirelli is acclaimed for his sets and backdrops of often stunning grandiosity. His spectacular productions are considered timeless and inspire lovers of music and film to this day. Franco Zeffirelli would have been 100 years old in 2023. In his lifetime, he worked with stars including Maria Callas, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. His La Bohème with Mirella Freni, conducted by Herbert von Karajan, made opera history.

This magic moment with music by Giacomo Puccini and artworks by Zeffirelli opens a window into the tender and melancholically intimate story of Mimì in bohemian Paris. The studio-made opera film was the first musical to be directed by Herbert von Karajan and was Franco Zeffirelli’s first opera film production. 

Zeffirelli’s production of La Bohème at La Scala in Milan was such a resounding success that Herbert von Karajan and Zeffirelli were compelled to turn it into an opera film. The soundtrack, featuring the choir and orchestra of the Milan Scala and the renowned ensemble of Mirella Freni, Gianni Raimondi, Rolando Panerai, Ivo Vinco, Gianni Maffeo, Adriana Martino, was recorded first.

The stage was recreated in a film studio and the  production was shot in Technicolor – the best film technology available at the time.  The young Mirella Freni, who sang the role of Mimì for over 50 years, gained fame the world over, not least because of her natural and pure voice.

The screen adaptation of Puccini’s masterpiece of La Bohème was a bold attempt to marry the art of film with the opera stage. Zeffirelli’s staging and the film’s international success have made La Bohème one of the most-performed operas of all time. The original production has been revived again and again and is still performed today.

South African soprano Pretty Yende, who was a student of Mirella Freni and later sang in Franco Zeffirelli’s production of La Bohème, recounts her experiences with her mentor. As a very young tenor, Franco-Italian singer Roberto Alagna sang alongside Mirella Freni in the Zeffirelli production and is grateful to count himself among the great tenors, alongside Pavarotti and Carreras – thanks in large part to this performance of La Bohème.

It took 38 years for Sergiu Celibidache to return to the podium of the Berlin Philharmonic. It went down in music history as the so-called ‘reconciliation concert’. Celibidache made it a condition that he would receive twice as many rehearsals as usual. The program included Anton Bruckner’s 7th Symphony. Before the musicians, Celibidache confessed that the Berlin Philharmonic had played a “determinant role” in his life, and he had the opportunity to make his “first musical and human experiences” there.

In addition to rehearsal and concert excerpts, the film features Celibidache’s son, Serge Ioan Celebidachi, contemporary witnesses from the Berlin Philharmonic, the orchestra’s horn player Sarah Willis, the young French conductor Marie Jacquot, his last conducting student Rémy Ballot, and the Romanian conductor Cristian Măcelaru. They provide insight into Sergiu Celibidache’s personality, working methods, and understanding of music.