Music - My Kingdom for a Movie

Queen: Days of our Lives

aurelien.billot — Mon, 11 Oct 2021 22:15:27 +0000

If you like Queen, you should watch this. If you like documentaries, you should watch this too.

From the musical debuts of four guys as ‘Smile’ to Queen’s impressive list of hits, this great documentary takes you through the full artistic story of a legendary band. As their relationship with the press was notoriously shaky, there are relatively few archive videos of Queen, and Queen: Days of our Lives is a small gem: two hours of music, anecdotes, May and Taylor interviews, and archive videos.

Priceless!

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Le Nozze di Figaro

aurelien.billot — Sat, 18 Sep 2021 15:37:23 +0000

Set in Sevilla a few years after Beaumarchais’ The Barber of Seville, the Marriage of Figaro focuses on a single day, but what a day! As Count Almaviva, madly in love with Susanna, the Countess’ maid, delays her wedding with Figaro long enough for him to seduce her, Figaro, Susanna and the Countess try to expose the Count’s scheming.

The libretto was written by Lorenzo da Ponte, whose later collaboration with Mozart gave us Don Giovanni and Così fan tutte: it’s full of wit, of surprises, of hidden husbans, lovers and parents, and (in this case) ends for the better.

As for music, Mozart is at his best, with a dozen of great arias, including “Voi che sapete…”, “So vuol ballar…” and so many others!

Recorded in the 2021 Aix en Provence Festival, this performance features soprano Julie Fuchs (Susanna), baritone Andrè Schuen (Figaro) and mezzo-soprano Lea Desandre (Cherubino) among other great singers.

Subtitles are available in the following langages: Italian, English, French, German, Spanish, and Polish.

Mozart, Music, Opera

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Let’s Get Lost

aurelien.billot — Sun, 12 Sep 2021 11:08:07 +0000

Shot one year before Chet Baker’s death, this is one of the best documentaries on jazz. With a mix of interviews with family, friends and fellow musicians, of shootages of Baker’s life, and of jazz performances,

Fashion photographer Bruce Weber draws an atmospheric black-and-white portrait of the life and contradictions of Chet Baker: the greatest ‘cool jazz’ trumpet player, an angel face, but also an ugly little drug addict.

Biography, Chet Baker, Documentary, Music

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