Christian Schmidt Movies

This release captures a live performance of Handel's Messiah at Vienna's Theater an der Wien, staged with a unique combination of costuming, sets, and narrative, lending an overall operatic feel to the performance. The concert includes such vocalists as Susan Gritton, Cornelia Horak and Martin Pollmann in the leading roles. ~ Cammila Collar, Rovi

The Salzburg Festival mounted this 2008 production of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's most famous and acclaimed opera, Don Giovanni, with a cast that includes Christopher Maltman in the title role, Anatoly Kocherga as Il commandatore, Annette Dasch as Donna Anna and Matthew Polenzani as Don Ottavio. Claus Guth directs for the stage; Christian Schmidt designed the sets and costumes; Ramses Sigl choreographs; and the Vienna Philharmonic, under the baton of Bertrand de Billy, lends symphonic accompaniment. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

With his bittersweet, German-language tragicomedy The Elementary Particles, writer-director Oskar Roehler brings to the screen Michel Houellebecq's popular seriocomic novel of two ill-adjusted siblings. Christian Ullmen and Moritz Bleibtreu portray, respectively, Michael and Bruno, half brothers who have each adjusted poorly to adult life, thanks in no small part to a cracked upbringing by their eccentric, social dropout mother. As the story opens, each brother experiences a personal crisis. Geneticist Michael returns to his work in cloning after an extended period away from his Irish laboratory, but suffers in quiet desperation from his intense inner loneliness; he must soon leave the lab once again and head back to his hometown, where his grandmother's corpse is being disinterred from a cemetery. Upon arrival, he reencounters Annabelle (Franka Potente of Run Lola Run), an adolescent crush to whom he was never before able to express his romantic yearnings; they consummate an intense erotic affair, and remain together, but a troubled pregnancy renders her infertile and makes family conception an utter impossibility. Meanwhile, high school teacher Bruno (a married husband and father) is driven completely around the bend by sexual yearnings for his female students, and consequently suffers from a nervous breakdown; he checks himself into a sanitarium, then heads off on a bender at a swingers' retreat with a new lover, Christiane (Martina Gedeck) - but their pleasure is all too short-lived. Nina Hoss and Uwe Ochsenknecht co-star. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

The eighteenth century German composer Christoph Willibald Gluck strove for the ideal of pairing poetry - in its purest form - with operatic score, an end he came closest to achieving with his 1779 opera Iphigeneia in Tauris (Iphigénie en Tauride). The work boasts a French libretto by Nicolas-François Guillard and borrows from Greek myth to weave the tale of Iphigenia, sister of Orestes and high priestess of Diana - plagued by visions of her family members slaughtering each other, and by dark thoughts of murdering Orestes herself. The story recounts the nearly fatal brother-sister relationship, its ultimate reconciliation, and the eventual Scythian-Greek truce as achieved by the intervening hand of the goddess Diana. The home video release Iphigenie en Tauride contains a film of a live performance of the work, as mounted by the Opernhaus Zurich in 2001. Claus Guth directs for the stage, with a cast that includes Juliette Galstian as Iphigenia, Rodney Gilfry as Orestes and Martina Janková as Diana. The Zurich Opera's Orchestra La Scintilla and the Chorus of the Opernhaus Zurich provide musical accompaniment. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

Mozart's witty opera of romance, melodrama and misunderstanding, gets an unusual staging in this production, as director Hans Neuenfels casts two performers in each leading role -- an actor and a vocalist, who not only split the onstage duties but interact with one another through the performance. Emanuela Von Frankenberg, Carola Freiwald, and Alexander Bogner head up the vocal cast, while Catherine Naglestad, Kate Ladner, and Matthias Klink are the dramatic leads. Mozart: Die Entfuhrung Aus Dem Serail also features Lothar Zagrosek leading the Chorus and Orchestra of the Staatsoper Stuttgart. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

In this zany send-up of European television's many cheesy variety shows, a handsome emcee has been demoted to a job hosting a local show for a very tiny village. Frequent shots of the audience reveal the antics of the beer-swilling and lederhosen-clad yokels whom he is trying to appeal to. Onstage, goofy performances are interspersed with ever-stranger monologues by the desperate host. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

In this documentary, filmmaker Niki List follows Christian, a teenager with Down's Syndrome, as he spends his usual weekend at home with his family after spending the rest of the week in a special school. Carefully observing Christian as he goes through everyday routines, including small chores around the house, List illustrates how important the family relationships are to him and what his world is like. Never obtrusive, clichéd, or condescending, these views of Christian and his family are a quiet and humane statement on the nature of special relationships. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

The Zurich Opera mounts this production of Franz Schubert's opera Fierrabras, starring Jonas Kaufmann and Julianne Banse. The Chorus and Orchestra of the Zurich Opera House provide musical accompaniment under the baton of Franz Welser-Möst. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi