Opera on DVD

[kaergaard]

It's this one at Arkiv on sale. Amazon doesn't have it listed yet:

http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/Drilldown?name_id1=12732&name_role1=1&comp_id=3419&genre=33&bcorder=195&name_id=21499&name_role=3

[Guido]

It is on Amazon. People hate it!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wagner-Die-Meistersinger-Nurnberg-Blu-ray/dp/B0046HCONY/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1295825593&sr=8-2
http://www.amazon.com/Die-Meistersinger-Blu-ray-Wagner/dp/B0046HCONY/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1295825352&sr=8-9

Ms. Wagner got heavily bood when she came on stage at the end.

[DavidRoss]

It is on Amazon. People hate it!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wagner-Die-Meistersinger-Nurnberg-Blu-ray/dp/B0046HCONY/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1295825593&sr=8-2
http://www.amazon.com/Die-Meistersinger-Blu-ray-Wagner/dp/B0046HCONY/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1295825352&sr=8-9

Ms. Wagner got eavily bood when she came on stage at the end.

The Amazon US review could have been penned about about Sofia Coppola.  Lis makes it sound much more entertaining. 

[Guido]

Here's an in depth review:
http://www.operatoday.com/content/2007/08/katharina_wagne.php

I wonder if they cut all the booing out of the DVD or not?

[kaergaard]

Here's an in depth review:
http://www.operatoday.com/content/2007/08/katharina_wagne.php

I wonder if they cut all the booing out of the DVD or not?

It amazes me how many persons accept the opinion of professional, paid, critics - and single amateur posters at music fora - instead of using their own intelligence to make a judgement, buying the recordings of discussed opera, concert, et al,.

It would also stop the wondering about booing in the DVD issue.   

[Guido]

Not oall of us have unlimited funds and can't buy every DVD that takes our whim. The idea is that you listen to people who you know have similar tastes and sensibilities.

Additionally, if something is pure schlock, it would pain me to support it by giving the people responsible  money for it.

Also, sometimes, these things are just fun to read.

[abidoful]

Not oall of us have unlimited funds and can't buy every DVD that takes our whim. The idea is that you listen to people who you know have similar tastes and sensibilities.

Additionally, if something is pure schlock, it would pain me to support it by giving the people responsible  money for it.

Also, sometimes, these things are just fun to read.

QFT

[knight66]

Quoted from the in-depth review:

'And therein lies my problem. For all of the eccentricities of the production, and my cheeky comments aside, it mostly "worked" okay. Save a couple of bad choices, the focus was where it needed to be. The concept was consistent, clear, and controlled. And I thought The Beck's Adam and Eve performance art debacle to actually be a comment on the sort of "Konzept" that can derail a production just like this very one we were seeing. In short, I think the woman not only has some creative ability and directorial skill, but also perhaps, considerable wit.'

Mike

[bigshot]

Perhaps considerable wit... I like the "perhaps".

[kaergaard]

Perhaps considerable wit... I like the "perhaps".

I change the "perhaps" to "for sure". Katharina Wagner displays her sense of humour on more than one occasion, directing this Die Meistersinger but always with a purpose, with a meaning, not just humour for humour's sake.

I appreciate 'knight's recognition of KW's talent. 

[knight66]

I have read quite a bit on this production and it seems that it does leave people thinking. Rather than being subversive for the sake of notoriety; it has quite a bit to say about art and how the iconoclast can be absorbed int the establishment. Clearly from what has been written the director has ability and insight.

At some point I will get around to buying it.

Mike

[MishaK]

Not oall of us have unlimited funds and can't buy every DVD that takes our whim. The idea is that you listen to people who you know have similar tastes and sensibilities.

Ideally, you don't have to rely on similarity of taste. A good reviewer ought to be able to describe the characteristics of an individual interpretation and production in value-free terms, such that you know what you are getting if you buy the disc and can ascertain in advance the likelihood of your enjoying the performance, whether or not the reviewer shares your aesthetics or not. It's the bad reviewer who faults performers for not adhering to his own personal preferences without giving the reader (at least first) a description of what is actually going on.

[kaergaard]

Finally we'll have another one of Philip Glass's operas on DVD and we sagebrush hermits can enjoy his stunning creation without envying you metropolitans!

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004JX8UB0?ie=UTF8&tag=thopdvli-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B004JX8UB0

[bigshot]

I'm finally getting around to ballet, and I bought a few blurays to dip a toe in the water. Watched the first one tonight- Prokofiev Romeo and Juliet by the Royal Ballet. I'm hooked. Amazing choreography and even more amazing acting. The sword fight at the end of act two was spectacular!

[Tsaraslondon]

I'm finally getting around to ballet, and I bought a few blurays to dip a toe in the water. Watched the first one tonight- Prokofiev Romeo and Juliet by the Royal Ballet. I'm hooked. Amazing choreography and even more amazing acting. The sword fight at the end of act two was spectacular!

Of all versions of Prokoviev's ballet, I love Kenneth MacMillan's choreography for the Royal Ballet the most. It has been filmed at least 3 times, but all are excellent. The most recent has Carlos Acosta and Tamara Rioja as the star crossed lovers. There are also earlier versions with respectively Wayne Eagling and Alessandra Ferri and with Fonteyn and Nureyev. My affections remain with the Fonteyn/Nureyev, who danced the premiere (though it had originally been conceived for Lynne Seymour and Christopher Gable), but all three versions are excellent. And of course the most recent benefits from better recording techniques.

As an alternative, you might like to see the Lyon Opera Ballet's updated version of the piece, which I found riveting viewing. This is modern ballet, with liberties taken with the score (it is truncated to a mere 85 minutes), but what is left is brilliantly conducted by Kent Nagano. If you can forget traditional preconceptions about the ballet, it is well worth a visit.

[Guido]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4E3gX6L7z8&feature=fvst

That is all.

[yashin]

Looking forwards to getting hold of the following DVDs at somepoint.

Britten's Death in Venice -from La Fenice released on the Dynamic label. This is an opera i have never seen but i do have a cd with philip Langridge and conducted by the late Richard Hickox.  Has anyone seen this production?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXjuprJb9w8

The La Sonnambula with Eglise Gutierrez looks like it might be worth looking at. Check it out here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUZYh4e6qwU

I bet you will play it over and over.

[cassandra]

Looking forwards to getting hold of the following DVDs at somepoint.

Britten's Death in Venice -from La Fenice released on the Dynamic label. This is an opera i have never seen but i do have a cd with philip Langridge and conducted by the late Richard Hickox.  Has anyone seen this production?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXjuprJb9w8

I saw the production in Venice. I had (still do) loads of reservations about the production. The world is now so hung up on paedophilia that impacted on this production. There is a confusion between satiated lust and unrequited love for an underage person. Consequently Tadzio was one hell of a muscled young man. There was no confusion between childhood and adulthood (I recommend Germaine Greer's book "Mad About the Boy"), where the young male is almost androgynous. However, I found the dancer was wonderfully aloof. He inhabited his world brilliantly.

That apart, we go to the production itself. The multiple roles were all overtly or uncomfortably hinted at gay personages. The production seemed to have an agenda of homosexuality as a canker, certainly not something I remember when I read Thomas Mann (in German, though I'm buggered if I could do it now) at school. There was more ambivalence there, and I am sure the Aldeburgh production I saw at Covent Garden was also ambivalent. There's enough symbolism at work without getting out a trowel.

I assume the audience at La Fenice were not, on the whole, Venetians. I have experienced some aqua alta in Venice, but not so much that a gondola could float by the front of San Marco. I had to restrain my giggles at that point.

Some positives. The singing and dancing was good. Although the orchestra seemed unfamiliar with Britten's later idiom, there was good ensemble work. Most of the sets were excellent, giving a period feel of the 20s or 30s (later than in the movie).

I know I will never see a perfect production of Death in Venice, the right singers are retired or dead or yet to be born. As long as there is the burdensome phobia about adult and child relationships (even where it is unrequited) we will not see the cleverness of the original production. (A small digression, why is it OK for Madam Butterfly to have sex while underage?).

Quite honestly, although the Glyndebourne production with Robert Tear is older, misses a few tricks and the format is 4:3, it is better. Also it has the second best baritone I have heard or seen in the multiple roles, Alan Opie. Do you really need to ask who is the best?

Deborah Warner's ENO production should (despite some shortcomings) go to DVD.

And just for the record, Death in Venice is one of my favourite works of all, though you might have got a sneaking suspicion that is the case.

[Wendell_E]

 I see that the Met DVDs of Lulu (Migenes/Mazura/Riegel/Lear), Cav & Pag (Domingo/Troyanos/Stratas/Milnes), Otello (Scotto/Vickers/Macneil),  and the "family" version of The Magic Flute (Matthew Polenzani, Ying Huang, Nathan Gunn, Erika Miklosa, Rene Pape), all conducted by Levine, which have only been available from the Met Opera Shop, are being released by Sony Classical.  mdt.co.uk lists them at £14.40 (£12.00 ex.vat) with an August 15 "predicted release date".  Amazon.com lists them without a price or release date, but you can "sign up to be notified when this item becomes available".  Perhaps they'll evenutally release the marterial from the Levine box?

[knight66]

Christmas is a time I can catch up and take some time to watch full performances rather than dip in and out. For a number of months I have had a Traviata waiting in the wings. This one has Fleming, Villazon and Conlon coming from Los Angeles. The Video direction is in the safe hands of Brian Large. The recording comes from 2006.

It is a traditional production, sufficiently sumptuous that the show is all but stopped by applause for the scenery. I enjoyed the performance with the exception of Renato Bruson whose wobble almost ruins what is one of the emotional hearts; when Violetta is convinced to act against her own interests. His dried out tone left me wondering how he then was still getting high profile bookings.

Villazon was in fine committed form, this was recorded before his vocal problems became an issue.

The rest of the singing and acting was very good indeed. Act 1 did initially seem to find Fleming with less facility in getting round the notes than expected; though she warmed up and gave the set pieces meaning as well as reaching the written notes. Her act 2 was moving and act 3 was good, but hardly heartbreaking. She still looked and sounded healthy. As in Thais, Fleming was made to look like the most beautiful of dying heroines. It must be all but impossible for a singer to manage to sound ill, yet not lacking in technique. Callas did it and I guess that imprint is one most sopranos will shy away from.

In that last act the stage was dominated not by the singers but by the highest and largest bed you can conceive of. The death itself looked fumbled. But there was a lot to enjoy. Conlon is sensitive and really is first rate in shaping and supporting. There was no dragging, the music flowed beautifully.

Mike