Category Archives: DVD review

Kupfer/Barenboim Ring – 4. Götterdämmerung

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I think it’s only with the final instalment of the Kupfer/Barenboim Ring that its true power is apparent.  The first three instalments are very fine but Götterdämmerung is devastating.  All the elements that have been progressively introduced are seamlessly combined.  Add to that extraordinarily intense performances from Siegfried Jerusalem (Siegfried), Philip Kang (Hagen) and, above all, Anne Evans (Brünnhilde) and one has something very special indeed.

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O namenlose Freude

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Katharina Thalbach sets her Fidelio, filmed at Zürich in 2008, somewhere in the early 20th century.  Most of the costuming suggests very early but Don Pizzaro’s suit suggests 20s/30s gangster.  Maybe he’s just fashion forward. The story telling is fairly straightforward and there’s no big concept.  There are a few, smallish, touches.  For example, the prisoners seem to be playing basketball with Don Pizarro’s head in the conclusion.  The sets are literal but evocatively lit and rather effective.

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Kupfer/Barenboim Ring – 3. Siegfried

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We seem to be in some kind of post apocalyptic wasteland.  Mime’s hut looks like a re-purposed storage tank but the bear and the forest are more or less realistic.  It’s all very dark and there’s quite a lot of use of pyrotechnics.  This is also our first look at Siegfried Jerusalem’s Siegfried and he is very good indeed.  He captures the hero’s youthful vigour and arrogance extremely well.  There is a strong performance too from a rather manic Graham Clark as Mime and John Tomlinson continues as a reckless and wild Wanderer.

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Intense, if a bit weird, Onegin

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Mariusz Treliński’s Eugene Onegin originated in Warsaw but was filmed in Valencia.  It’s distinctly on the Regietheater end of the spectrum but it’s intense and oddly compelling.  The sets are spare and almost abstract.  A silent character, O***, is interpolated.  He’s a sort of Commendatore’s ghost who comments on the action and interacts with characters at key moments; with Tatiana during the letter scene and with Lensky before the duel for example.  A lot of action takes place in front of the pit, usually simultaneously with action further back on stage making for quite complex (and hard to film) visuals.

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Adelaide di Borgogna

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Adelaide di Borgogna is one of those rather odd “serious” Rossini works where bel canto collides with opera seria.  The plot is fairly accurately based on an episode from 10th century history and is most definitely not a comedy.  The form has progressed well beyond a succession of da capo arias with multiple ensemble numbers and quite a few choruses.  But there’s a throwback to an earlier tradition in the use of high voices for heroic male roles though it seems that by 1817 castrati were rather rare and the crucial role of Ottone, the German emperor, was from the beginning sung by a female contralto.

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Dove è Amore è Gelosia

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Dove è Amore è Gelosia is a 1768 comic opera by Giuseppe Scarlatti, probably the nephew of the more famous Domenico.  It was written for wedding celebrations at Krumlov Castle where Scarlatti was music teacher to the children of the Duke of Krumlov.  It was performed and recorded in the newly restored theatre at Krumlov using the original stage machinery and lighting.  Krumlov is, along with Drottningholm, one of only two baroque theatres preserved as they were in the 18th century.

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Grimes on the Beach

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A performance of Peter Grimes in Aldeburgh to celebrate the Britten centenary seems loike one of those things that had to happen. The snag, of course, being that none of the performance venues there is remotely suitable.  The idea of staging it on the beach was a brilliant, if problematic, idea and it’s good that it was captured on film and is now available on DVD and Blu-ray.
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The Scottish opera

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Verdi’s Macbeth is one of those early works where he seems to be trying to grow out of bel canto but not quite making it.  There is some splendidly dramatic music and some that just seems completely incongruous given the subject matter.  The witches’ chorus at the beginning of Act 3 is a case in point.  That said Phyllida Lloyd’s production for the Royal Opera House takes the piece seriously and does a pretty good job of presenting the drama in a straightforward but visually attractive way.

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Le Roi d’Ys

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It’s perhaps surprising that Lalo’s Le Roi d’Ys isn’t performed much more often than it is.  Most people probably only know it for the tenor aria Vainement, ma bien-aimée which crops up from time to time in recitals and competitions.  Sure, it’s not strikingly original.  The plot is a love triangle with overlays of revenge and divine retribution and the music is, with the exception of the rather fine overture, a bit on the rumpty tumpty side.  But, let’s face it, there are plenty of standard repertoire works with implausible romantic plots and banal, if tuneful, music.  I think there’s a large section of the opera audience that would very much enjoy this piece.

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Kupfer/Barenboim Ring – 2. Die Walküre

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The Kupfer/Barenboim Ring continues very strongly with the second instalment, Die Walküre.  It opens in quite a straightforward, more or less realistic way.  Hunding’s hall is slightly abstracted with a recognizable tree.  It’s quite spare though which creates space for the strong interpersonal dynamics between Siegmund and Sieglinde.  Poul Elming is a very physical, almost manic Siegmund and Nadine Secunde’s Sieglinde is almost as physical.  It’s all very intense and beautifully sung.  Matthias Hölle as Hunding is no slouch either.

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