Documentary

Maestro or Mephisto – The Real Sir Georg Solti

A film by Andy King Dabbs

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Cast

Sir Georg Solti

Featuring exclusive interviews of:

Valery Gergiev

Plácido Domingo

Kiri Te Kanawa

Angela Gheorghiu

Murray Perahia

Program notes

The story of one of the greatest and most controversial conductors of the 20th century, Sir Georg Solti.

The Hungarian born conductor Georg Solti had huge drive, energy and ambition. A combination of willpower and extraordinary talent took him to the peak of musical power and prestige. The film shows how Solti took music making in opera houses and orchestras to new levels, how he harnessed recording, and later television, to reach out to new audiences and how he nurtured remarkable new talent through a winning, if not always endearing, combination of ambition, technique, charm, sheer-bloody mindedness and genius.

The film includes remarkably candid interviews which Solti gave just before his death, in which he talked with great honesty about his life, his challenges and achievements. It also includes new interviews with artists and musicians who worked closely with him. It also looks at his remarkable legacy which is still shaping classical music today – the World Orchestra for Peace, born of his personal experience of a Europe fractured by war, the Solti Academy for Singers and the Solti conducting prize.

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