The way of the sound

Der Weg des Sounds

La voie du son

40 microphones for the orchestra, 20 microphones for the choir, one camera for the conductor and 1000 meters of 10 gigabit fiber optic cable: This is how the "sound transmission from next door" of the Zurich Opera works. The orchestra and choir broadcast live from the rehearsal room on Kreuzplatz to the auditorium of the opera house.

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Zurich, Switzerland

Zurich Opera House

We're Still Open

The European opera season

ARTE Opera Season

40 microphones for the orchestra, 20 microphones for the choir, one camera for the conductor and 1000 meters of fiber optic cable.

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The year is 1830 and the ruling Zurich pastor doesn’t want a theatre in his city. The citizenry find this situation intolerable and decide to establish a “TheaterAktiengesellschaft” – an ingenious move involving the creation of a joint-stock company that enabled the inhabitants of the city to build a theatre. Sixty years later, the building burns down and everyone is happy. How can that be?

What you’ve always wanted to know about the Zurich Opera House but never dared to ask: time to take stock...

Let’s take stock

What happens to all the costumes at the end of the season?The nimble-fingered ladies of the Costume Shop unlock the ozone closet and demonstrate vodka spray.What you always wanted to know about the Opernhaus, but were afraid to ask:The team of Opernhaus Zürich reveals all.

What you always wanted to know about the Opernhaus, but were afraid to ask:The Repertoire Costume Shop.

The Ladies of the Repertoire Costume Shop

New shoes should be taken good care of. “Certainly not!” screams the pointe shoe.Because the pointe shoe is tough – having been cut, kneaded, beaten, and stitched.All for its own good of course.What you always wanted to know about the Opernhaus, but were afraid to ask:the team of Opernhaus Zürich reveals all.

What you always wanted to know about the Opernhaus, but were afraid to ask: The Pointe Shoe.

The Life of a Pointe Shoe

Not only in the auditorium, there are many seats in an opera house. Who takes a seat where when any why in the opera house during the course of a working day? The Zurich Opera House answers in a new episode of: What you always wanted to know about the opera house, but never dared to ask.

What you always wanted to know about the opera house, but never dared to ask.

Chairs, Stools, and other Seats

A lyrical mezzo-soprano and sonorous baritone sing a musical in an opera house.Or is it an operetta? Categorizing works according to genre is not always easy, but it can be extremely important.What are the different disciplines for singers and how are they assigned? What you always wanted to know about the Opernhaus, but were afraid to ask:The team of Opernhaus Zürich reveals all.

What you always wanted to know about the Opernhaus, but were afraid to ask: The Voice.

The voice

In six minutes, the curtain rises - a stressful moment for every opera singer. Tenor Benjamin Bernheim, baritone Huw Montague Rendall and conductor Speranza Scappucci explain how they deal with their stage fright. What you always wanted to know about an opera house, but never dared to ask: employees of the Zurich Opera House answer.

What you always wanted to know about an opera house, but never dared to ask.

Stage fright

Over a ton of artificial fir trees must go on the stage of the Zurich Opera House. They are needed for "La bohème". But not every person in Zurich understands why day in and day out there’s an opera truck driving through the city. What you always wanted to know about an opera house, but never dared to ask: employees of the Zurich Opera House answer.

What you always wanted to know about an opera house but never dared to ask.

Scenography

Puking geese, gutted pigs and almost real crows - Andreas Gatzka is the "Gyro Gearloose" at the studios of the Zurich Opera House. He creates illusions on stage that put the visions of the directors to life. What you always wanted to know about an opera house, but never dared to ask: employees of the Zurich Opera House answer.

Theatre Magic

Andreas Homoki, Director of the Zurich Opera House, will remain in office until 2025. The contract extension was announced by the Board of Directors of the Zurich Opera House on 2 July 2018. The contract renewal of ballet director Christian Spuck was also announced. Gianandrea Noseda succeeds Fabio Luisi as General Music Director from 2021.

Director Andreas Homoki and ballet director Christian Spuck have extended their contracts.

Zurich Opera House: Team 2021

Zurich Opera House - Zurich, Switzerland

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Conductor Raphaël Pichon and director Cyril Teste team up to bring Beethoven’s Fidelio to the stage of the Opéra Comique.

Beethoven’s only opera conducted by Raphaël Pichon.

Beethoven's "Fidelio" at the Opéra Comique

Long-neglected works from several centuries of operatic history have long been a staple of the internationally acclaimed annual opera festival in the little Irish coastal town of Wexford.Having been forced to take a break last year, the festival has a rediscovered work by the important Italian composer Alfredo Catalani on this year’s programme: Edmea.

Wexford Festival Opera 2021

Wexford Opera Festival proudly presents a rediscovered, long forgotten work by Alfredo Catalani.

Alfredo Catalani: Edmea

This telling of the Bluebeard story features a libretto by Maeterlinck inspired by Perrault’s famous fairy tale. It is an opera that gives pride of place to female characters and beguiles audiences with the evocative music of Paul Dukas.

From the Lyon Opera

This telling of the Bluebeard story gives pride of place to female characters and beguiles audiences with the evocative music of Paul Dukas.

Dukas: Ariane et Barbe-Bleue

Pippi Longstocking, the superhumanly strong redhead with pigtails and freckles, conquers the world of classical ballet. The Swedish dancer and choreographer Pär Isberg stages Astrid Lindgren’s favourite character from the Villa Villekulla for the Helsinki opera house. The ballet music is the work of Georg Riedel and Stefan Nilsson.

From the Helsinki Opera

The Swedish dancer and choreographer Pär Isberg stages Astrid Lindgren’s favourite character for the Helsinki opera house.

Pippi Longstocking

A special gala concert to celebrate five years of Hamburg’s fantastic new concert hall, the Elbphilharmonie, opened on January 11 2017. The NDR Elbphilharmonie orchestra performs works by Adams, Adès and Salonen with conductor Alan Gilbert and pianist Kiril Gerstein.

With Kirill Gerstein, Alan Gilbert and the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra

A special gala concert to celebrate five years of Hamburg’s fantastic new concert hall, the Elbphilharmonie.

5 Years of the Elbphilharmonie

To celebrate 50 years of French radio station FIP, Sting gives a special performance in the monumental surroundings of the Pantheon in Paris.

50 Years of FIP Radio

Sting at the Pantheon in Paris

Stuttgart Ballet performs ‘Onegin’, John Cranko’s acclaimed 1965 choreography of Alexander Pushkin’s novel. Classical ballet at its best in a version created for the cinema.

A Ballet by John Cranko

Stuttgart Ballet performs ‘Onegin’, John Cranko’s acclaimed 1965 choreography of Alexander Pushkin’s novel.

Onegin

On the opening weekend of the Salzburg festival Latvian star conductor Andris Nelsons conducts the Vienna Philharmonic in Gustav Mahler’s monumental second symphony. Nicknamed ‘the resurrection’ the works is one of the composers most enduringly popular.

Vienna Philharmonic - Salzburg Festival 2018

Latvian star conductor Andris Nelsons conducts the Vienna Philharmonic in Gustav Mahler’s monumental second symphony, ‘the resurrection’.

Andris Nelsons Conducts Mahler

Jamie Cullum, Britain’s best-selling jazz artist, natural showman and fearless performer, made his mark with covers of Rihanna’s “Don't Stop the Music” and “Frontin'” by Pharrell Williams. This special live performance comes from Versailles’s old royal hospital, the Espace Richaud.

Jamie Cullum: piano solo

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Faced with more frequent and violent natural disasters caused by climate change, animals and plants are adapting. Some species, such as sharks, which are able to sense the change in atmospheric pressure of a coming hurricane, move away from danger. Others learn to live with it, such as curlews, which use the hot ash from erupting volcanoes in Papua New Guinea to incubate their eggs. A surprising and inspiring documentary about nature's survivors.

How Animals and Plants Survive

Faced with more frequent and violent natural disasters caused by climate change, animals and plants are adapting. A surprising and inspiring documentary about nature's survivors.

Natural Disasters

Behind his polite exterior lies a formidable leader with a ruthless character, ready to do anything to make China the world's leading power by the People’s Republic’s centenary in 2049. This well-documented portrait of the Chinese president gives an unprecedented insight into his politics and shows how Xi Jinping's personal journey has shaped his choices as he steers China towards world domination.

A portrait of the Chinese president giving an unprecedented insight into his politics and showing how Xi Jinping's personal journey has shaped his choices as he steers China towards world domination.

The New World of Xi Jinping

Lowriding is a passion for cars where owners customise their vintage vehicles to look cool gliding along the Los Angeles boulevards. For long a male-only pursuit, more and more women are getting into it lowriding.

Geo Reportage

Lowriders of Los Angeles

A region of Europe with a shared experience of communism and USSR dominance, Eastern Europe today is characterised by nations with diverse cultural and political identities.

Mapping the World

How many Eastern Europes?

Present on the coast but also inland, dunes are shaped by the wind and are in perpetual movement. These extraordinary landscapes made of infinite grains of sand are ephemeral and inhospitable. Yet the environment they offer is astonishingly diverse.

Present on the coast but also inland, dunes are in perpetual movement, creating extraordinary ephemeral landscapes.

Dunes: Europe's Moving Landscapes

A journey through Middle-earth, or rather New Zealand. Peter Jackson used the natural beauty of his native land to great effect in his film adaptation of J.R.R Tolkien’s classic trilogy. A tour through locations for the Shire, the Misty Mountains and Mordor… 

Cult Film Locations

A journey through New Zealand used to great effect in the film adaptation of Tolkien’s classic.

Looking for the Lord of the Rings

Vadum Minsyuk and Yuri Andreyev fled the war in eastern Ukraine in 2014. In search of a new beginning, they decided to start a new life in the Chernobyl region, close to the exclusion zone from the 1986 nuclear disaster. The dangers of radiation are better than the rockets of war.

Vadum Minsyuk and Yuri Andreyev fled the war in eastern Ukraine to start a new life in the Chernobyl region,  The dangers of radiation are better than the rockets of war for them.

Re: New Beginning in Chernobyl

Iraq in 2022: Will the emerging nation succeed in resisting foreign influence and from Iran in particular? What does the future hold for the Kurdish autonomous region? And will the USA ever really leave?

Iraq in 2022: Will the emerging nation succeed in resisting influence from foreign powers, and from Iran in particular? 

Iraq - A Sovereign Country?

It's big business: in summer, hundreds of kilos of mushrooms are illegally picked every day in Romanian forests. They are then transported to Italy by intermediaries where they are sold at astronomical prices. Romanian authorities do nothing as the forests are looted unsustainably for their grey gold.

It's big business: in summer, hundreds of kilos of mushrooms are illegally picked every day in Romanian forests

Re: Truffle Traffick in Romania

Mohamed Ali was aware of the power of image. A genius boxer and king of communication, he surrounded himself with the best photographers of his time and attracted the interest of the press, shaping his own iconography. So how did Muhammad Ali win the fight to control his image?

Gymnastics

Mohamed Ali wasn't just a genius boxer, but a king of communication

Mohamed Ali: The Legend of a Fighter

Reinhold Messner is a mountaineering legend. From an early age he climbed the breathtaking Dolomites in his native South-Tyrol before conquering the highest peaks in the world. He shares his passion for mountaineering and his life philosophy.

Man of the Peaks

Reinhold Messner

The Indian state of Sikkim has banned pesticides completely, allowing only organic farming. The results: healthy food and healthy soils.

ARTE Reportage

India: Sikkim - A Green New World

Venezuelans have been living through a deep economic crisis for several years with food shortages coupled with hyperinflation. Press freedom is also in peril as the government cracks down on independent media. But some young journalists are going offline, giving news reports live from city buses.

Desperate to provide independent news, some young journalists are giving news bulletins offline on board city buses.

Venezuela: Desperate for News

This documentary tells the story of German Expressionism in the context of colonial exploitation for the first time. When German artists Emil Nolde and Max Pechstein travelled to what was then the colony of German New Guinea and the Palau Islands in 1910, they wanted to revolutionise painting through inspiration from indigenous art and peoples. But their "South Sea paradise" had already been destroyed by the European colonial masters and their art would reveal the ideals and prejudice of early twentieth century Europe.

Expressionism and Colonialism

This documentary tells the story of German Expressionist art for the first time in the context of colonial exploitation. 

The White Gaze

Aquile di San Martino is the oldest mountaineering association in the Dolomites. Rocco is the oldest and most experienced active guide, and young Livio is in his last phase of mountain guide training. They are out on their last expedition before Livio is a fully-fledged 'aquile' - an eagle of the mountains. 

GEO Reportage

Young Livio is in his last phase of mountain guide training, and has just one last expedition to complete

Mountaineering in the Dolomites

Every year around 8,000 ethnic Germans from Russia emigrate to Germany, like the Kotchevnikov family from near Kaliningrad. Fitting in is not always easy for these Germans who may not speak the language.

Migrating to your Own Country

Every year around 8,000 ethnic Germans from Russia emigrate to Germany, like the Kotchevnikov family from near Kaliningrad.

Zurich Opera House

Zurich Opera House - Zurich, Switzerland

Let’s take stock

The Ladies of the Repertoire Costume Shop

The Life of a Pointe Shoe

Chairs, Stools, and other Seats

The voice

Stage fright

Scenography

The way of the soundZurich Opera House

In partnership with

Zurich Opera House

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