Ralf Pleger

Ralf Pleger (* 1967 in Rathenow ) is a German filmmaker and director .

Life

Ralf Pleger grew up in Havelland and has lived in Berlin since 1989. He studied musicology and art history at the Free University of Berlin and at the University of Milan . He was involved as a dramaturge in numerous international opera productions, including the Berlin State Opera Unter den Linden and the Innsbruck Festival Weeks .

Music films and artist portraits form a focus of his work as a filmmaker . In films such as Wagnerwahn and The Tchaikovsky Files , Pleger combines classical music themes with unorthodox narrative styles. A characteristic of his works is the use of stylistic devices that span genres.

In 2009 he made Cape of Good Voices , a documentary film about a tour of Cape Town Opera for Norddeutscher Rundfunk / Arte , which was also shown on the BBC in Scotland and ABC in Australia.

Pleger's feature documentary The Florence Foster Jenkins Story with Joyce DiDonato in the title role was released in November 2016.

In 2016 Ralf Pleger directed In War & Peace - Harmony Through Music , a concert show with Joyce DiDonato , Manuel Palazzo, Maxim Emelyanychev and the orchestra Il pomo d'oro . The show with lighting design by Henning Blum, videos by Yousef Iskandar and costumes by Vivienne Westwood will be presented as a tour project around the world and has made its debut at over 30 concert halls and theaters, including New York's Carnegie Hall, the Teatro Real Madrid and the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées Paris, at the Wiener Konzerthaus, at the Berlin Philharmonie and at the National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing. In War & Peace is scheduled to tour South America in October 2019 .

In artistic collaboration with the sculptor and set designer Alexander Polzin , Ralf Pleger will stage the opera Tristan und Isolde by Richard Wagner at the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels in spring 2019 .

Awards and nominations

Nomination for the International Emmy Award 2014 for Wagner madness
Public Award at the Montreal World Film Festival 2013 for Wagner madness
Czech Crystal “Best Music Documentation” at the Golden Prague 2008 TV Festival for The Maestro Maker - Jorma Panula and his Finnish Conducting School
ECHO Klassik Award 2016 for The Tchaikovsky Files
Jury Prize for Originality at the TV Festival Golden Prague 2017 for The Florence Foster Jenkins Story

Filmography (selection)

1996: Saint Petersburg, City of Music (music film / documentary)
1999: Foray through the musical Krakow (music film / documentary)
2000: The Berlin Philharmonic and its City (music film)
2001: Music in Istanbul - Between Orient and Occident (music film / documentary)
2002: City of Music Palermo (music film / documentary)
2003: Fado comes from destiny - A musical foray through Lisbon (music film / documentary)
2005: The conductor Simone Young - From Australia to the Alster (music portrait)
2006: With crown and camera - The home theater of the Guelphs (documentation)
2007: The Maestro Maker - Jorma Panula and his Finnish Conducting School (film portrait)
2007: Anne-Sophie Mutter - Dynamic of a World Success (Music Portrait)
2008: Handel - The Film (music film / documentary fiction)
2009: Donna Leon - Adventure of a Crime Lady (film portrait)
2009: Cape of Good Voices - Cape Town Opera tour (documentary)
2010: Cape of Good Voices - South Africa in the rush of operas (music film / documentary)
2010: Concert tour with 4 hp - The time travel of pianist Markus Groh (music film / documentation)
2012: Salut Salon : The Film. (Music film)
2012: Joyce DiDonato : Drama Queens (music portrait)
2012: China's New Temple of the Muses (Documentation)
2013: Singers' war on the high seas. A film in four parts (music film / documentary)
2013: The Beethoven Files (documentary play)
2013: Wagnerwahn (documentary play)
2014: The Tchaikovsky Files - Confessions of a Composer (documentary play)
2015: Beauty Is a Crime - Beauty is a crime (concert film)
2016: The Florence Foster Jenkins Story (feature documentary)