Appreciating Italian
Opera and Music, Favorite Italian Operas, Favorite Opera Singers,
Music from the Renaissance,
Music Favorite Ancient and Mediaeval Italian, Music Favorite Italian Baroque
Puccini
- La Boheme
/ Baz Luhrmann,
The Australian Opera (2002 Edition) (1994)
It might be possible to know this La Bohème and not love it,
but I have never met anyone who felt that way. "Oh yes," said
a friend, "that's the good one where everybody is the right age."
The youth and freshness of the singers are, in fact, major assets in
this production. Youthful high spirits and vulnerability are delicately
portrayed, with sharp contrasts between the Parisian bohemians' abject
poverty and their carefree lifestyle. On DVD, La Bohème is the
work where the competition is strongest. Solid arguments can be made
for the staging of the Metropolitan Opera production or the vocal quality
of the San Francisco production, but the Australian Opera offers the
closest identification of performers with the characters they represent.
The effect is usually touching, sometimes downright electrifying.
For this production, the story is moved up to Paris in the 1950s. A
veneer of existentialism, a sense of the absurd, can be detected in
the young men's lifestyle, but the implicit message is that, even with
electricity (e.g., a massive neon sign celebrating "L'Amour"),
bohemian life in the 1950s was essentially unchanged from the 1830s.
There are good performances throughout, particularly by David Hobson
(Rodolfo) and Cheryl Barker (Mimi), and the direction of Baz Luhrmann
(Strictly Ballroom, Moulin Rouge) is outstanding. --Joe McLellan
Puccini
- Madame Butterfly
/ James Conlon - Huang, Troxell, Liang, Cowan (1995)
Like the finest
of film scores with its fluid beauty and succession of intensely romantic
tunes, Puccini's opera Madame Butterfly has a surprisingly cinematic
feel. In 1995 director Frederic Mitterand exploited this quality of
the story, exposing a young woman's disillusionment against a backdrop
of cultural chasms. Shot on location, with Tunisia doubling convincingly
as a turn-of-the-century Nagasaki, this Butterfly shines with fragile
beauty. The house becomes a brilliantly used set, at once airy and full
of the scent of flowers and at the same time a cage for the trapped
woman. Archive footage of bygone Nagasaki is used skillfully to underline
the distance between the 15-year-old bride and Pinkerton.
Purists may prefer a more traditionally robust, stage-bound Butterfly,
but you'd be hard-pressed to find a more visually heartbreaking interpretation.
Chinese soprano Ying Huang doesn't rock the rafters with her vocal power;
hers is a tender, delicately observed performance. Tenor Richard Troxell's
self-seeking Pinkerton is well sung. Overall, this is a haunting cinematic
treatment of an enduringly popular opera. --Piers Ford
Description
Madame Butterfly is the heartwrenching story of a beautiful young geisha
who sacrifices her family, her religion and, ultimately, her life for
her American husband. Butterfly is the young bride of Lieutenant Pinkerton,
who buys Butterfly's love while stationed in Japan and with no intention
of ever taking her home to America. Martin Scorsese presents this award-winning
film based on the popular opera. 133 minutes. Cast:
Ying Huang: Cio-Cio-San
Richard Troxell: Pinkerton
Ning Liang: Suzuki
Giacomo
Puccini - Tosca
/ Bruno Bartoletti, Raina Kabaivanska, Placido Domingo, Sherrill Milnes
Opera is an inherently
theatrical medium that does not lend itself readily to the realism of
film treatment. The shining exception is Puccini's Tosca, an action-packed
melodrama that unfolds in three taught and gripping acts like the meatiest
of Hollywood films noir. And unlike most operas, these three acts are
set in three very specific Roman locales. Thus this 1976 film takes
place in the church of Sant'Andrea della Valle (Act 1), the Palazzo
Farnese (Act 2), and the Castel Sant'Angelo (Act 3). The evocative settings,
however, would be mere window-dressing if the cast wasn't just right.
Fortunately Plácido Domingo is at his virile peak in the heroic
tenor role of Cavaradossi; Raina Kabaivanska is a sultry, vocally beautiful
Tosca; and a more infamous and domineering Scarpia than that of Sherrill
Milnes can hardly be imagined. Bruno Bartoletti and the New Philharmonia
Orchestra give lustily dramatic support.
Here the music and vocals are prerecorded and the singers mime to the
playback. Occasionally the result is a little unnatural, but overall
the cast members are good enough actors to bring off the conceit even
in the close-ups. It all pays off triumphantly with the gripping realism
of the rooftop finale, the one place where film can improve on stage.
With the authenticity of the settings assured and such distinguished
leads singing so well, this is an almost ideal filmed Tosca. --Mark
Walker
Description
In this classic production of Tosca, Placido Domingo is joined by dramatically
gifted Bulgarian soprano Raina Kabaivanska. The opera's celebrated love
triangle is completed by the imposing American baritone Sherrill Milnes.
Also includes a rare scene of Domingo's young son, Placido Domingo Jr.
in the role of the shepherd boy, Pastore. Beautifully shot on location
in Rome by Gianfranco de Bosio, it features the very buildings and interiors
specified in Puccini's libretto.
Rossini
- Il barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville)
/ Dario Fo, Zedda, Larmore, Croft, Netherlands Opera (1992)
In an audio recording,
the distinctive quality of this Netherlands Opera production would go
unnoticed, and a lot of people might like it better without pictures.
The singing is first-class, with a pert, smart, visually appealing Rosina
(Jennifer Larmore), a Count Almaviva who can spin out bel canto melodies
and also do a good drunk scene (Richard Croft), a Figaro with lots of
personality (David Malis). And conductor Alberto Zedda is an expert
in the music of Rossini. But video brings out the fact that, for better
or for worse, this Barber of Seville differs radically from other treatments
of Rossini's comic masterpiece.
Usually The Barber of Seville is an intimate little comedy with a half-dozen
solo roles and a small, all-male chorus. Except for a few ensemble numbers,
there are usually only two or three people on stage at any given moment,
often conversing in stage whispers. Sometimes, in a plot full of secrets
and deceptions, supernumeraries are out of place.
Dario Fo's staging
ignores this stylistic tradition. He gives the solo singers a crowd
of artfully choreographed silent partners (including acrobats, dancers,
and two men rigged to imitate a donkey), who scamper around the stage
carrying ladders and sheets, pushing platforms, waving banners, and
making sure that there is always something to amuse the eyes as well
as the ears. This staging gives a solid visual embodiment to the comic
spirit of the words and music, but it wipes out any pretense of dramatic
realism. The Barber of Seville does not pretend to be "a slice
of life" and many patrons will find that the energy of these added
participants is its own justification. But those who treasure traditional
staging and the conventions of realism should be ready for a lively
but unconventional production. Perhaps they can listen with their eyes
closed and enjoy a first-class sound recording. --Joe McLellan
Andrea
Bocelli - A Night in Tuscany
Part concert, part
documentary, part travelogue, this video hit duplicates the sleeper
success of Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli's album compilations and underscores
his unique crossover appeal. In the U.S., Bocelli's critical response
has been confined to fusillades of scorn from classical and opera writers,
but the bulletproof superstar is better understood in the context of
Europe's more established tradition of pop-classical fusions. Ironically,
fans abroad are less prickly than stateside arbiters about the need
for a discreet wall between high (classical) art and low (pop) kitsch,
which Bocelli cheerfully ignores with his mix of operatic chestnuts,
soft pop, and traditional Italian songs.
Indeed, despite interview segments in which he proclaims his love of
opera or proudly recalls an apprenticeship to operatic veteran Franco
Corelli, Bocelli comes across as more fan than virtuoso. But if his
voice can prompt technical cavils from hard-core opera buffs, the blind
singer's emotional directness and relative lack of onstage preening
explain much of his populist appeal. Featured songs include warhorse
arias, leading off with the "Louie, Louie" of tenor showpieces,
Turandot's "Nessun Dorma," and duets with gruff Italian pop-rocker
Zucchero and sopranos Nuccia Focile and Sarah Brightman (who buddies
up for the tear-jerking closer, "Time to Say Goodbye").
Even with the marquee
bonus of those guests, however, A Night in Tuscany gets its biggest
boost from the seductive Italian countryside, prominently featured in
between-song segments, and in the romantic concert setting, Pisa's Piazza
dei Cavalieri. --Sam Sutherland --This text refers to the VHS Tape edition.
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