Simone Young - To Hamburg From Downunder (DVD)

The Australian conductor, Simone Young, is one of the highest profile artists on the international music scene. She studied composition and piano from the early age of 15 and later travelled to Germany on a scholarship to work with the Cologne Opera. In Berlin, Bayreuth and Paris, she was an assistant to Daniel Barenboim, who helped her make her artistic breakthrough. In recent times, Simone Young has debuted at most of the great opera houses in Europe and America. She was appointed General Director of Music at Sydney Opera House and since the 2005/2006 season she has been the Artistic Director and General Music Director of the Hamburg State Opera and Chief Conductor of the Hamburg Philharmonic.

The film follows Simone Young on a journey from Europe to Australia and back again, through great cities and the Australian bush, to famous opera houses like the Vienna State Opera and the Sydney Opera House. Simone Young is aware of her artistic and political responsibilities as General Music Director and Artistic Director, but more than that she has a vibrant personality full of wit and irony. And it is thus that we discover why a Beatles melody suddenly appears in the middle of her Mozart interpretation and that the Australian bush reveals a fascinating relationship between landscape and music.