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DVD Verdi - La Traviata / Haitink, McLaughlin, MacNeil, Ellis, Glyndebourne Festival Opera
Performances of La Traviata stand or fall to an unusual extent on their principal soprano; the first thing that needs saying about this Glyndebourne performance is that Marie McLaughlin has all of the attributes needed for a role that is fundamentally a virtuoso one, no matter how emotionally involving it is as well. The point about Violetta is that she is, with absolute authenticity, all of the things she becomes in the course of the opera--the febrile socialite and yearning love of Act One, the quiet domesticated woman of Act Two who sacrifices her love for Alfredo to precisely the family values he has talked her into espousing, the dying penitent of Act Three. Walter McNeil is an impressive poetic Alfredo in whose successful courtship we can believe. He is also unusually good in Act Two, Scene Two where for once his public humiliation of Violetta is actually painful, which makes his repentance at her deathbed far more moving. Brent Ellis is solid and powerful as his father Germont--the duet in which he talks Violetta into renouncing Alfredo and yet comes to value what he is destroying is one of the high points here, as it should be. Bernard Haitink conducts impressively. --Roz Kaveney
Review(s): DVD Verdi - La Traviata / Haitink, McLaughlin, MacNeil, Ellis, Glyndebourne Festival Opera
VG Picture-No Subtitles
I had the old VHS Version of this Glyndenbourne performance. compare to that the picture quality of the Dvd is a huge improvement. However the VHS Version had English subtitles; the DVD does not. In these days of everything in Opera having subtitles it seems very strange thatthis DVD does not. Maybe Image would have to pay extra. I do not see in the Opera listings in Amazon any consistent listing for subtitles. For me I would not want to have this if without subtitles so I seek some way of getting a refund. I do not want DVD with no subtitles
Related DVD's Verdi - La Traviata / Haitink, McLaughlin, MacNeil, Ellis, Glyndebourne Festival Opera
Puccini's trio of one-act operas is carefully balanced to contrast three moods: dark, violent jealousy in Il Tabarro, tearful sentimentality in Suor Angelica, and satirical wit in Gianni Schicchi. All three flavors are precisely conveyed by La Scala's carefully chosen cast, with finely nuanced conducting by Gianandrea Gavazzeni.
This production is particularly treasurable because most companies today avoid presenting all three pieces together, and the interaction of contrasting motifs is part of what Puccini had in mind. Gianni Schicchi is deservedly the most popular, and La Scala fills the stage with vivid character performers to convey its full flavor. Juan Pons sings the title role with fine comic flair and rich, flexibly used tone. Sylvia... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Brian Large DVD Release Date: Released the 10 February 2004 Usually ships within 24 hours
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One of the most unjustly underrated Italian operas receives a production that should help correct that attitude. Andrea Chenier is based on the true story of a poet who was caught up and destroyed by the blind fury of the French Revolution. Giordano's music captures the acrid flavor of that movement, the cynicism of some of its leaders, and Chenier's integrity and tragic fate. This production's value has probably increased since Plácido Domingo, the leading Chenier of his generation, has dropped the role from his repertoire.
All three principals sing eloquently and with a fine sense of the opera's structure and context. Anna Tomowa-Sintow is in even better voice than Domingo, and Giorgio Zancanaro heads an expert supporting cast. The Covent Garden Chorus,... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Placido Domingo DVD Release Date: Released the 11 November 2003 Usually ships within 24 hours
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Alban Berg's second and last opera Lulu is one of the monuments of modernism, constructed around serial technique and containing scenes conceived of as Sonata-form, Suite, and so on. The bliss of Andrew Davis's conducting in this classic Glyndebourne production is that we forget all of this--Davis doesn't gloss over the music's intellectual content, but that's not what we think about as we watch and listen. Part of the production's strength is the prodigious performance by Christine Schafer as Lulu--for once we believe in the character's sexual energy and power; and Schafer makes her real enough as a person that we largely forget the work's intrinsic misogyny. The rest of the cast is admirable too: Norman Bailey brings something perversely sweet to the disreputable painter... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Humphrey Burton DVD Release Date: Released the 13 January 2004 Usually ships within 24 hours
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This is already a classic!! To the reviewer below, Mattila and Pape are not only the future, they are the present. Look at Mattila's growing list of towering achievements - Countess (Mozart - Figaro), Fiordiligi (Mozart - Cosi Fan Tutte), Donna Elvira & Donna Anna (Mozart - Don Giovanni) Eva (Wagner - Die Meistersingers), Chrysothemis (Strauss - Elektra), Elisabeth (Verdi - Don Carlo), Jenufa (Janacek), Leonore (Beethoven - Fidelio), Salome (Strauss)... many more not included here. Plus she is slated to do Isolde at Convent garden in 2007/08....
So yes, Mattila is the present AND the future. So is Pape who is one of those consistently great bass-baritones around. Heppner is the greatest Tristan alive today.
The recently released Tristan Und Isolde of 1999 featuring Jane Eaglen & Ben... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Brian Large DVD Release Date: Released the 25 November 2003 Usually ships within 24 hours
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All the ingredients for Rossini's prime comedy are present and expertly mixed in this 1987 Glyndebourne Festival Opera production: a Figaro (John Rawnsley) extroverted, ingenious, energetic, and vocally resplendent; a Rosina (Maria Ewing) fresh and sweet but steel-sinewed in her determination to have her own way; a Count Almaviva (Max-Rene Cosotti) who has not only the vocal lightness and agility his bel canto music requires, but a fine sense of humor and the ability to perform a good drunk scene. Ferruccio Furlanetto and Claudio Desderi are equally adept in their supporting buffo roles.
This production is a joy to the eye as well as the ear. Everybody looks right for his or her part; the costumes are elegant and evocative of the story's time and place; the scenery,... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Dave Heather DVD Release Date: Released the 10 February 2004 Usually ships within 24 hours
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