I follow a voice within me

"I follow a voice within me"
A portrait of the singer Waltraud Meier

A film by Annette Schreier

WALTRAUD MEIER is one of the most popular and sought-after classical vocalists today. She is “La Wagnerissima”, the queen of Wagner’s repertoire.

With her triumphant success as Kundry in Wagner's "Parsifal" at the 1983 Bayreuth Festival, she launched her international career, which took Waltraud Meier to regular appearances at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London, the Metropolitan Opera in New York, La Scala in Milan, the Opéra National in Paris, the Vienna State Opera and the Bavarian State Opera in Munich.
After further stirring performances of Kundry in Bayreuth from 1983 to 1993, the singer moved into the dramatic soprano repertoire, in which she made an equally profound impression on both press and public from 1993 as Isolde in Heiner Müller's legendary "Tristan und Isolde" production under the musical direction of Daniel Barenboim. In Bayreuth as well, she performed the role of Sieglinde in "Die Walküre" in the "Millennium Ring" at the 2000 festival staged by Jürgen Flimm and conducted by Giuseppe Sinopoli with Plácido Domingo as her partner.
Enthusiastically applauded today as Kundry, Isolde, Ortrud, Venus and Sieglinde, Waltraud Meier has become one of the most internationally significant Wagner singers of our time.

In the Italian and French repertory as well she is recognized world-wide as a highly expressive interpreter, both vocally and dramatically, and much sought-after for such roles as Eboli, Amneris, Didon, Carmen and Santuzza.

The singer collaborated with such important stage directors as Jean-Pierre Ponnelle, Luc Bondy, Harry Kupfer, Götz Friedrich, Klaus-Michael Grüber and Patrice Chéreau, in whose breathtaking "Wozzeck" production she portrayed Marie with captivating intensity and passion.
Great conductors like Daniel Barenboim, Riccardo Muti, Claudio Abbado, James Levine, Zubin Mehta and, in the younger generation, Christian Thielemann, Sir Simon Rattle, Riccardo Chailly, Antonio Pappano, but also new talents like Paavo Järvi, are enthusiastic about Waltraud Meier's musical personality, in which passion, creativity and incisive intellect come eloquently together.

The artist who has been honoured with a number of prizes and awards is "Kammersängerin" of the Bavarian State Opera in Munich and of the Vienna State Opera. She lives in Munich.

Waltraud Meier's fascinating life and career has been captured in a video biography. This film profiles the artist's remarkable career in a variety of venues, worldwide, and includes an intriguing glimpse of her personal life.
Not only does this present film document her in a wide variety of roles but we also experience her in conversation backstage, a fascinating personality who enjoys her professional life and takes an active part in planning it.
In her personal account “I follow a voice within me”, we enter her world and learn about her motivations, aspirations, and her joyful way of pursuing them.

In addition to personal insights, this truly ingenious portrait presents Waltraud Meier on stage and in rehearsal. It becomes clear how she coined today’s musical world when other great musicians such as Daniel Barenboim or Plácido Domingo speak about her and her work.
For the first time Waltraud Meier has been profiled in detail during her rehearsals and performances of:
* studying a new music score
* during practice and rehearsal
* in the pre-show make-up
* in her dressing room and in the aisles of Bayreuth
* during a CD recording session
* in the Chicago Symphony Hall with Daniel Barenboïm at the piano

The film also shows the world-star outside of the grand opera stages, for example in the Vienna Prater, in her favorite restaurant nearby Bayreuth as well as in Munich on the Viktualien market and in a beer garden.
Waltraud Meier addresses issues, which are important to her, and gives a retrospective on her first years of profession.
Included are the impressions of the artist by Hans Sotin, Angela Zabrsa, Daniel Barenboïm, Jürgen Flimm, Ioan Holender, Plácido Domingo, Stephan Suschke, and Siegfried Jerusalem.

Bonus:
This portrait of an outstanding singer is rounded off by a live recording
of the concert
Gustav Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde (The song of the earth)
Waltraud Meier, mezzo-soprano
Torsten Kerl, tenor
Cologne Philharmonie,
conducted by Semyon Bychkov

Kamera	Günter Handwerker bvk

	Frank Amann bvk
	Peter Beringhoff
	Nyika Jancso
	Andreas Ludwig
	Busso von Müller
	Wulf Sager

Ton	Bernd von Bassewitz
	Wilm Brucker
	Peter Carstens
	Ralf Hamann
	Toine Mertens
	Bruno Pisek
	Alfred Zavrel

Ton-Assistenz	Markus Messner
	Helmut Rommer

Schnitt	Nicole Hussy

Ton-Mischung	Hans Dreijer

Colour Timing	Andreas Reuber

Produktionsleitung	Olav Mann