The Berlin Kroll Opera House: Middle of Germany

Visiting Berlin's Kroll Opera House
The ideal viewer for this German documentary is either someone quite familiar with Berlin today OR someone with a keen interest in the city's history. And that ideal viewer would also need to know (and to care about) the history of operatic staging in the 1920s. The film benefits from a trove of remarkable old newsreels, stills, and architectural renderings, as well as from several stunning production designs from the Kroll's glory days, in the late-1920s, when Otto Klemperer led performances staged with stark and uncompromisingly avant-garde sets.

Understandably but regrettably, the documentary all-but-skips-over the Kroll's use as Hitler's Reichstag, in the years following that parliament building's destruction by fire. This is doubly unfortunate if only because Hitler's speeches from the Kroll podium commanded world-wide attention, at the time -- indeed, Time-Life now owns several dramatic COLOR slides of those grim-but-compelling occasions. It's a pity those weren't...

Interesting documentary on the Kroll Opera House
This DVD is about the famous Berlin Kroll Opera House - a building no longer in existence that nevertheless left its mark in the history of Germany. The documentary covers the founding of the opera house, concentrates on the time during the years that Adolf Hitler was in power, and continues on through until 1990 when there are no traces left of the building. A great deal of historical footage is present, the most powerful being that of Hitler when the structure was an alternative seat of the Reichstag. A number of interviews from people and performers that were in the opera house enhance the documentary, but overall the piece as a whole is primarily of historical interest rather than feeling as if it was telling the story of a vital piece of musical history.

The program is well presented, and if you like such documentaries then you will definitely enjoy this one. But if you are looking for something with more of a musical focus then the fact that this was a famous...



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