Theater director Falke, dressed as a bat, ends up in prison after a merry carnival night. Director Frank only releases him after some time. Falke decides to take revenge on his friend Gabriel von Eisenstein, to whom he owes the whole affair. The annual masked ball at Prince Orlofsky's provides the opportunity. Falke stages a game of mistaken identity in which Eisenstein does not recognize his own wife and courts her, while maid Adele appears as the countess. Eisenstein is duped, Falke has taken his revenge.
René and his two artist friends lead a meager but careless life in a Parisian small apartment, their main worry being to avoid the housekeeper. Whenever they get some money they call more friends in and celebrate. This is how he meets beautiful but fragile Denise, who wants to be a singer as himself, and they fall in love. Yet when she finds out her real condition she takes a drastic decision which will determine their fates. La Bohème arias, and more.
Vera Meiners' life was sweet but unfortunately for her, it was not to last. Her husband, Jan, left her after she met a former lover in a harmless friendly meeting. Forced to resume her disrupted medical career, she worked in a Swiss clinic but, without the knowledge of the chief surgeon, Vera ordered a risky operation to be performed and was thereafter fired. Penniless, she then works in Spanish nightclubs in order to provide for herself and her child. After many years, she runs into her friend Frank again in one of these nightclubs...
A traditional chinese story about a girl, Zhu Yingtai, daughter of the noble Mr. Zhu, who goes to Hangzhou to study, dressed as a boy. There, she meets a student, Liang Shanbo, with whom she becomes good friends. They go to school together for the following years, and Zhu gradually falls in love with Liang.
Non-musical account of Puccini's opera: Tosca and Cavaradossi are in love, but the tyrant Scarpia desires Tosca and oppresses Cavaradossi who is fighting for freedom.
A musical film based on biographical facts about Clara Wieck's love for composer Robert Schumann (1810-1856), her marriage against her will, Schumann's triumph, and his tragic end due to mental illness. The film is beautiful and entertaining, full of noble spirit and beautiful words about art and love, which only conflict in a theoretical context; not least thanks to its solid cast, this film is quite serious and far from kitsch. Completed in 1944, during World War II, the film was rejected by the Nazi leadership, but was eventually released and enjoyed success with an audience already weary of war.
Lyrical biography of the classical composer, depicted as a romantic hero, an accursed artist.
Biographical film about the life of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
A petty thief is put on trial for the attempted murder of a lawyer. Through a series of flashbacks, the intertwining lives of the thief, the lawyer, and the thief's defense lawyer are illustrated.
Athletes secretly rehearse a water show in the pool at night to prevent the pool from being demolished and to get more people interested in swimming.
The two pigs building houses of hay and sticks scoff at their brother, building the brick house. But when the wolf comes around and blows their houses down (after trickery like dressing as a foundling sheep fails), they run to their brother's house. And throughout, they sing the classic song, "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?".
Shortly after WWII, the DEFA Studios produced a series of operas and operettas which belonged to the classical German musical heritage. This enchanting film, the very first opera production of DEFA, stands out because of its lavish decor and costumes, its outstanding actors and their masterful voices of that time.
Sándor Barinkay joins the gypsies en route to his home village hiding his real identity as an Hungarian nobleman, whose parents were sent to exile. He claims his former properties, now taken by a pig merchant who plays the fool to the villagers' delight. Yet this man has an interesting daughter, and there's also the beautiful gypsy Saffi to consider. And a family hidden treasure to be found.
A young man asks a hat check girl to pose as his fiancée in order to make his dying father's last moments happy. However, the old man's health takes a turn for the better and now his son doesn't know how to break the news that he's engaged to someone else, especially since his father is so taken with the impostor.
Without his brother's knowledge, Joseph Schrammel popularizes his songs in Vienna. When Johann learns of this, a dispute breaks out between the siblings and their two fellow musicians, which can only be resolved with the help of the singer Fiakermilli. The reconciled quartet then performs under the name "Die Schrammeln" and becomes famous. But another dispute is already looming.
A marching band of Germans, Italians, and Japanese march through the streets of swastika-motif Nutziland, serenading "Der Fuehrer's Face." Donald Duck, not living in the region by choice, struggles to make do with disgusting Nazi food rations and then with his day of toil at a Nazi artillery factory. After a nervous breakdown, Donald awakens to find that his experience was in fact a nightmare.
This music filled biopic follows the life of the legendary tenor Enrico Caruso from childhood poverty in Naples to the beginning of his rise to fame.
Based on the operetta of the same name by Carl Milöcker. The residents of an Austrian town decide to teach their eccentric mayor a lesson. A young fisherman dresses up as the famous bandit Gaspare and goes to see the mayor. The mayor, terrified, flees from "Gaspare" and commits a series of ridiculous acts, becoming the laughing stock of the whole town.
Johann Strauss firmly established himself as the leader of a dance orchestra in Vienna in the 1840s. His sons Johann junior and Josef have clearly inherited their father's talent. Nevertheless, father Johann is strictly opposed to both of them training as composers.
When Phil Corey's band arrives at the Idaho ski resort its pianist Ted Scott is smitten with a Norwegian refugee he has sponsored, Karen Benson. When soloist Vivian Dawn quits, Karen stages an ice show as a substitute.