Program Mezzo

Rivalry in Music – Furtwängler vs. Toscanini Two men without whom the profession of conductor would not be what it is today. Two men who couldn't be more different from each other: Arturo Toscanini and Wilhelm Furtwängler. The former was rigorously faithful to the musical score, the latter conducted with radical subjectivity. In 1931 they both conducted at the Bayreuth Festival – for the first and last time. Soon the polite rivalry turned into bitter enmity. Both men were forced to take a stand on the regimes in their respective countries – and chose radically different paths. Toscanini, "the dictator", bravely challenged Mussolini; Furtwängler, a conservative, meanwhile proclaimed that art is always apolitical and reluctantly made a pact with the Nazis. The documentary not only opens up the different musical universes of the two great conductors by retracing their careers in Milan, Bayreuth and New York, but also raises a question that is more topical than ever: what has art to do with politics? Directed by Thomas von Steinaecker 2020

Rivalry in Music – Callas vs. Tebaldi Maria Callas and Renata Tebaldi were the two most famous sopranos of the second half of the last century. Turned into hostile enemies by their admirers, the two became untouchable goddesses of opera. For their fans, Callas was known as "the tigress", Tebaldi as "the voice of an angel": the two singers could hardly have been more different, whether in their professional or private lives. To this day, Callas remains perhaps the greatest soprano of all time. Her rival, Tebaldi, is best known to opera lovers. Why is the posthumous fame of the two prima donnas so different? Directed by Andreas Morell 2020