Best movies like Confession of the Vanished

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is a remarkably talented young Viennese composer who unwittingly finds a fierce rival in the disciplined and determined Antonio Salieri. Resenting Mozart for both his hedonistic lifestyle and his undeniable talent, the highly religious Salieri is gradually consumed by his jealousy and becomes obsessed with Mozart's downfall, leading to a devious scheme that has dire consequences for both men.

Based on an opera by Rossini and an opera by Mozart, taken from the work of Beaumarchais.

Farinelli is a 1994 biopic film about the life and career of Italian opera singer Farinelli, considered one of the greatest castrato singers of all time.

An opera troupe in a small town decides to perform Mozart's Don Giovanni. The view behind the scenes uncovers the world of opera without the glitter. A tale of love and disappointment, about music and passionate love-making and about people that live their lives in spite of the opera.

The incredible tale of Mozart's Prague years.

A chronicle of the life of infamous classical composer Ludwig van Beethoven and his painful struggle with hearing loss. Following Beethoven's death in 1827, his assistant, Schindler, searches for an elusive woman referred to in the composer's love letters as "immortal beloved." As Schindler solves the mystery, a series of flashbacks reveal Beethoven's transformation from passionate young man to troubled musical genius.

Director William Dieterle's 1956 film biography of classical composer Richard Wagner stars Carlos Thompson, Yvonne De Carlo, Rita Gam, Alan Badel and Valentina Cortese.

A re-imagined account of the early life of Maria Anna 'Nannerl' Mozart, five years older than Wolfgang and a musical prodigy in her own right.

What was it about opera diva Grace Moore that attracted the attention of filmdom's top directors? Moore's 1937 American movie vehicle When You're in Love had been directed by Josef Von Sternberg; two years later, her French starrer Louise was helmed by no less than Abel Gance, who a decade earlier had revolutionized the "historical epic" genre with the awesome Napoleon. There was, however, little that was revolutionary in this cinemadaption of Gustave Charpentier's opera. Moore plays Louise, a poor seamstress who is led astray by the rakish Julien (Georges Thill). After falling from grace (no pun intended), our heroine is rescued by her understanding father (Andre Pernet), who demonstrates his forgiveness by singing to her (it is, after all, an opera). Though it played to enthusiastic crowds in both London and Paris, Louise turned out to be Grace Moore's final film; conversely, Abel Gance continued to make commercial potboilers well into the 1970s.

On the keyboard, the young hands fly rapidly and the melody rises. For the child, nothing is easier; he hears the sounds in his head. These hands belong to 6 years old André Mathieu. He won his audiences and fired up concerts halls in London, New York, Paris and around the world. Adulated, hailed, praised, the child prodigy seemed to have everything to succeed. From the top of his vertiginous successes, to depths of torment, the life of the "Little Canadian Mozart" blends into his music. A romantic and passionate composer wishing for happiness, his story is nevertheless played on tragic notes.

Composer Johann Strauss risks his marriage over his infatuation with a beautiful singer.

1779. Eight-year-old Ludwig van Beethoven, called "Louis", is already known as a musical prodigy. He learns to go his own way - much to the dismay of the people around him. Some years later, he meets Mozart during times of political upheaval. The unconventional genius and French Revolution are sparking a fire in Louis' heart; he doesn't want to serve a master - only the arts. Facing times of family tragedies and unrequited love, he almost gives up. However, Louis makes it to Vienna to study under Haydn in 1792, and the rest is history. Who was this man, whose music has since touched countless hearts and minds? At the end of his life, the master is isolated by loss of loved ones and hearing. Surely though, he was way ahead of his times.

The year is 1764. For over a year, Josef has been leading a precarious life in Venice. He hopes to become an opera composer. The city, full of talented and already-established composers, seems closed to him. Looking for work as a violinist, he comes into the orbit of a rich young woman. Thanks to her, he gets the opportunity to play at salons. But his real opportunity arises when he becomes the lover of a libertine marquise. She teaches him worldly manners, rids him of signs of a provincial upbringing and introduces him to a hedonistic existence free from religious intolerance. Thus transformed, Josef gets an incan incredible commission: to write an opera for the San Carlo, Europe's largest theatre.

An irreverent take on Mozart's relations with the three Weber sisters: Louisa, whom he loved, but who didn't love him; Constanza, whom he loved and married; and Sophie, who loved him but whom he didn't love. An anthology of arias from Mozart's operas, in which art comments on life through a cheeky use of back-projection and miming to records.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, a rowdy young prodigy, arrives in Vienna, the music capital of the world – and he’s determined to make a splash. Awestruck by his genius, court composer Antonio Salieri has the power to promote his talent or destroy his name. Seized by obsessive jealousy he begins a war with Mozart, with music, and ultimately, with God.

Chorus, Corpse de Ballet, Orchestra of the Minnisota Opera, the Whole Schmeer, under the direction of Professor Peter Schickele Based on several of Mozart's most famous Operas including The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, Cosi Fan Tutti and making fun of everything from Star Wars to the Maltese Falcon this is an Opera only PDQ Bach could have written.

David McVicar's spellbinding production of LE NOZZE DI FIGARO is set in 1830s post-revolution France, where the inexorable unravelling of an old order has produced acute feelings of loss. In the relationship between Finley's suave, dashingly self-absorbed Count and Röschmann's passionately dignified Countess, which lies at the tragic heart of the opera, the sexy ease between a feisty Figaro (Erwin Schrott) and a sassy Susanna (Miah Persson) is starkly absent, the tenacious spark between Marcellina (Graciela Araya) and Bartolo (Jonathan Veira) suggesting what might be rekindled. The production is superbly complemented by the beauty of Paule Constable's lighting and Tanya McCallin's evocative sets. Antonio Pappano conducts (and accompanies the recitatives) with invigorating wit and emotional depth.

Lucy Worsley traces the forgotten and fascinating story of the young Mozart's adventures in Georgian London. Arriving in 1764 as an eight-year-old boy, London held the promise of unrivalled musical opportunity. But in telling the telling the tale of Mozart's strange and unexpected encounters, Lucy reveals how life wasn't easy for the little boy in a big bustling city. With the demands of a royal performance, the humiliation of playing keyboard tricks in a London pub, a near fatal illness and finding himself heckled on the streets, it was a lot for a child to take. But London would prove pivotal, for it was here that the young Mozart made his musical breakthrough, blossoming from a precocious performer into a powerful new composer.

A drama based on the life of 18th century Italian lyricist Lorenzo da Ponte, who collaborated with Mozart on his "Don Giovanni" opera.

A dramatic exploration of the life and struggles of the great composer, J.S. Bach, from his orphaning at the age of nine, through his struggles for the freedom to compose music in a restrictive society, to his eventual recognition after death.

The Queen of the Night enlists a handsome prince named Tamino to rescue her beautiful kidnapped daughter, Princess Pamina. Aided by the lovelorn bird hunter Papageno and a magical flute that holds the power to change the hearts of men, young Tamino embarks on a quest for true love, leading to the evil Sarastro's temple where Pamina is held captive. The internationally renowned Mozart interpreter Sir Colin Davis conducts the chorus and orchestra of the Royal Opera House and a glittering cast in David McVicar's 2003 production of the opera Mozart wrote in the final year of his life, recorded live at Covent Garden.

Live production of the Mozart opera Die Zauberflöte.

A delightful fairy tale, Mozart's final operatic legacy remains a great work in the spirit of the Enlightenment. Intertwining music of awesome purity and beauty with the conventions of musical comedy, it explores Man's search for truth and his confusion between the forces of light and dark. This production from The Drottningholm Court Theatre is conducted by Arnold Ostman and played on authentic period instruments.

A Jewish resort hotel celebrates a pair of longtime customers' fiftieth wedding anniversary by staging an old-fashioned Borscht Belt show replete with singers, dancers, comedians, and impressionists.

The Artist proposes to the distrustful and skeptical Producer the staging of a new ballet starring… swans? What is the story? That of Prince Siegfried and his love for the beautiful Odette, victim of the spell cast by the evil sorcerer Rothbart, an enchantment that turns her and her friends into swans when the light of day tears the dark shadows of night. (The Norwegian National Opera and Ballet, April 26th, 2014.)

Mozart's La Clemenza Di Tito was originally commissioned to celebrate the coronation of the Emperor Leopold II as King of Bohemia in 1791. This rarely-seen masterpiece was Mozart's last opera. Nicholas Hytner's elegant staging for the Glyndebourne Festival Opera sheds new light on the compelling story of passion that overrides loyalty and integrity that is tested to the extreme.

DON GIOVANNI is one of the timeless classics of all opera. Mozart’s music, and the words of his great collaborator Da Ponte, are brought to life in Francesca Zambello’s engrossing production with its rich and colourful designs by Maria Bjornson. The music is memorable, dramatic and enjoyable: from the seductive solo voices of the famous ‘La ci darem la mano’ to the fabulous ensemble as Don Giovanni’s infatuated conquests, vengeful victims and their outraged relatives join forces for justice. And retribution does finally come to Don Giovanni, a serial womanizer and a murderer, with the searing flames of Hell ready to engulf him. Simon Keenlyside heads the outstanding cast at the Covent Garden Royal Opera House, conducted by renowned Mozart expert Charles Mackerras.

Mozart opera.

"William Christie and Les Arts Florissants propel this exuberant production of Jean-Philippe Rameau's second opera to great heights. Andrei Serban's extravagant, highly baroque staging presents the four exotic love stories vibrantly. In 'Le Turc généreux' Osman sets free his captive, Emilie, whom he loves, so that she may be reunited with her former lover, Valère; 'Les Incas de Pérou' is all about the rivalry of the Inca Huascar and the Spaniard Don Carlos, both in pursuit of Princess Phani; 'Les Fleurs' offers a Persian love intrigue, as the Sultana Fatime tries to detect whether her husband Tacmas has his eye on the lovely Atalide; and 'Les Sauvages' takes us to North America, where a Spaniard and a Frenchman compete for the love of Zima, daughter of a native chief, who prefers one of her own people." — from the DVD cover

Since its debut in 1934 the Glyndebourne Festival has put a focus on Mozart operas and developed a great competence in staging them. Mozart s operas seem to be made for the small but fine opera house in Glyndebourne and it's not surprising that the 1977 Don Giovanni, one of Mozart's great masterpieces, was a huge success. This production is conducted by Bernard Haitink, who holds the opinion, that no other composer had more opera in his blood than Mozart. It has been proven, for example, that Mozart had no overture for Don Giovanni until the evening before the premiere in Prague and wrote it down in just one night. Like the premiere's success of the opera in Prague in 1787 the Glyndebourne's version staged by Peter Hall was praised by audience and critics alike: We witness a lively and wide-awake ensemble piece that has easily survived all these decades, and still manages to teach many directors the art of playing theatre.

Recorded live at the Royal Opera House, December 2012. Daniel Oren conducting Royal Opera House Orchestra and Chorus. A grand opera that dominated the stages of Europe for most of the 19th century, Robert le diable is a masterpiece. Director Laurent Pelly breathes new life into Giacomo Meyerbeer's great spectacle and audaciously entertaining moral fable, in this colourful new staging for The Royal Opera.

What happened to Figaro and his friends after the events told in Rossini’s and Mozart’s operas? One possible sequel is told in John Corigliano’s “grand opera buffa” The Ghosts of Versailles—an uproariously funny and deeply moving work inspired by Beaumarchais’s third Figaro play, La Mère Coupable, and commissioned by the Met to celebrate its 100th anniversary. This telecast captures its world premiere run, conducted by James Levine. Håkan Hagegård is Beaumarchais, Figaro’s creator, who is deeply in love with Marie Antoinette (Teresa Stratas in a heart-searing performance) and determined to rewrite history and save her from the guillotine. A young Renée Fleming, at the beginning of her international career, sings the unfaithful Rosina. Gino Quilico is the wily Figaro who tries to take matters in his own hands, and Marilyn Horne stops the show as the exotic entertainer Samira.

The show starts when Colloredo is named successor to the Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg. The new king is an austere authoritarian man which is insensitive to the music of Mozart and allergic to the enthusiasm and the impertinence of the character. For Mozart, Salzburg's life quickly becomes untenable. He was 20 when he decided to leave his hometown with his mother in search of a better future in a European capital. The journey of the composer will be made of failures and cruel disappointments. But at the end, Mozart will experience glory, love, rivalry before its ultimate fall and misery. He left his best work, the Requiem, unfinished.

Live performance from the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, 23 July 2005.

In 2009, Frédéric Mistral’s tale of love and loss in Provence came to the Opéra de Paris with a new production of Gounod’s 1864 opera Mireille. Nicolas Joel’s naturalistic staging frames the accomplished performances of Albanian soprano Inva Mula as Mireille and American tenor Charles Castronovo as her ardent country lover Vincent.