Walter Felsenstein Edition

Mozart: Don Giovanni (1966), Die Hochzeit des Figaro (1976), Beethoven: Fidelio (1956), Offenbach: Hoffmanns Erzählungen (1970), Ritter Blaubart (1973), Verdi: Otello (1969), Janáček: Das schlaue Füchslein (1965)
Various soloists; Vienna Symphony Orchestra (Fidelio); Chorus and Orchestra of the Komische Oper Berlin
Stage Director: Walter Felsenstein
Arthaus Musik 101 345 (10 DVD – 911 min)
**** $$$$

What a difference a year can make. The deluxe version of this box was released early in 2008 at a suggested retail price in excess of $500. The bargain version reviewed here may be had for as little as $200. It offers essentially the same exquisitely restored contents as the original and is worth every penny. A cornucopia of supporting documentary material has been retained. Interviews with Felsenstein, production notes and film clips from other performances during the period 1945-1961 enrich the experience of a ‘festival in a box’.

As LP Hartley noted, “The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.” Arthaus has served the cause of proto-historical opera on film admirably with vintage collections from the Glyndebourne Festival and Hamburg State Opera. The Walter Felsenstein Edition is doubly foreign because Felsenstein plied his trade from 1947 in the other Berlin: the Soviet zone of occupation. Communists exploited and manipulated the arts, and opera was no exception. Felsenstein toiled away for the greater glory of socialism despite the wretched living conditions of East Germany, the bloody suppression of the workers’ revolt of 1953 and the subsequent erection of the Berlin Wall. Violent enforcement of confinement made the place a mockery of the last scene of Fidelio. Felsenstein’s opera house would have been infested with KGB and Stasi informers. That said, the productions on view here reflect a high standard of artistic integrity – at what personal cost to the director, we can only guess.

The Felsenstein Edition bookends the Hamburg State Opera collection (Arthaus 101261) to yield a theatrical ‘Tale of Two Cities’. From the perpetual post-war squalor of East Berlin to the industrial and creative powerhouse of Hamburg in the 1960s was quite a stretch. Felsenstein produced superb interpretations of established fare while Hamburg (under the artistic leadership of Rolf Liebermann) experimented with world premieres of Menotti and Penderecki and may even have produced the definitive Wozzeck on film. The two houses meet head-on with Figaro and it must be said that Hamburg in 1967 prevails, with better singers and a superior conductor (Hans Schmitt-Isserstedt). The Hamburg gaiety comes across as genuine while Felsenstein’s principals are less forthcoming (or perhaps over-rehearsed). It is nevertheless worth watching. The drama of Don Giovanni seems to be intensified by the director’s discomfort with the subject. At 85 minutes, Felsenstein’s treatment of Fidelio may be more like a ‘film based on’ Beethoven’s opera, with plenty of thundering hooves for emphasis but it reveals the roots of his cinematic inspiration. Otello was the first production in colour made by Felsenstein, and it succeeds in no small part thanks to the alert conducting of Kurt Masur. The real gems of the set are the Janáček and the brace of Offenbachs. Cunning Little Vixen receives an ultra-naturalistic approach. The spellbinding score is superbly executed by Václav Neumann in the pit. Tales of Hoffmann and Bluebeard show that the operetta troupe of the Komische Oper included some brilliant comic actors. Names such as Hanns Nocker, Werner Enders and Melitta Muszely may be unknown to us but they were unbeatable in their specialty.

Arthaus lavished extraordinary care on the set and all items were provided with PCM stereo soundtracks. Felsenstein followed the quaint custom of rendering French and Italian librettos into German for the stage. To give him credit, he personally prepared every translation. The set provides an overview of the life’s work of a legendary stage director. It demonstrates that the past is worth revisiting and reminds us of how Felsenstein inspired the following generation of directors on both sides of the inner border.

- Stephen Habington

Buy this CD at amazon.com

W.A. Mozart: Così fan tutte

Barbara Frittoli (Fiordigili), Angelika Kirchschlager, Bo Skovhus (Guglielmo), Michael Schade (Ferrando), Monica Bacelli (Despina), Allesandro Corbelli (Don Alfonso)
Vienna State Opera Chorus and Orchestra / Riccardo Muti
Stage Director: Roberto de Simone
Video Director: Brian Large
Medici Arts 2072368 (2 DVD – 187 min)
***** $$$$

Opera on DVD went from strength to strength during the past year. There have been a number of sensational new works on the medium and chart-topping productions of standard repertory. This 1996 staging from Vienna’s historic Theater an der Wien can be safely recommended as a first choice for both seasoned collectors and newcomers to the work. With an excellent cast of motivated soloists, superb conducting from Muti, marvelous sets (Mauro Carosi), gorgeous costumes (Odette Nicoletti) and musically informed stage direction, this is the version to have and to return to. In every respect it surpasses Muti’s 1989 Milan performance (Opus Arte/Scala).

Così fan tutte was the third Mozart collaboration with Lorenzo da Ponte. Like Don Giovanni, it is designated as a Dramma giocoso but the opening credits proclaim ‘Opera buffa’ in the manner of Figaro. Buffa is presumably what director Roberto de Simone had in mind for this production. His Così presents split-second comic timing fully integrated with the score. The hapless couples (Barbara Frittoli, Angelika Kirchschlager, Bo Skovhus and our own Michael Schade) enter the fray with enthusiasm while the fulcrum of trickery and deceit is provided by Monica Bocelli and Allesandro Corbelli. The director exploits the intimate stage-frame of the Theater an der Wien while the 18th century Neapolitan landscapes of Jacob Philipp Hackert are adapted very effectively to provide sumptuous backdrops. Swift, stylish and constantly amusing, this production exemplifies the definition of opera as, “The ultimate art.”

- Stephen Habington

Zubin Mehta Los Angeles Philharmonic: Dvořák/Mozart/Bartók

Los Angeles Philharmonic / Zubin Mehta
Euroarts DVD 2072248 (110 min)
**** $

This is another release from the vaults of Unitel, the Munich-based company that spent a small fortune making classical music films in the 1970s. Karajan and Bernstein were featured in dozens of films but other conductors such as Böhm, Abbado and Solti also appeared. Most of these productions were initially released on VHS years ago but only recently have they made their way to DVD. Deutsche Grammophon has been issuing the bulk of the Unitel catalogue but other companies are issuing those passed on.

The Mehta release documents an important stage in this conductor’s career. Mehta was twenty-six when he became conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and he stayed for seventeen years, growing into a major conductor. These performances were recorded in 1977 in concert at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. Mehta left the following year to take over the New York Philharmonic. Kirk Browning of Live from Lincoln Center was the producer and RCA veteran Max Wilcox was the sound engineer and their work is first-rate.

There are two major works: Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra and Dvořák’s Symphony No. 8. The orchestra plays superbly and Mehta is at his charismatic best. He could pass for either a Hollywood or a Bollywood film star playing a great conductor. Fortunately, he was also a great musician. From these same concerts there are two shorter Dvořák pieces and Mozart’s Bassoon Concerto with the LAPO’s principal bassoonist as soloist.

- Paul E. Robinson



Buy this CD at amazon.com

A Mozart Gala

Anna Netrebko, Magdalena Kožená, Patricia Petibon, Ekaterina Siurina, Michael Schade, Thomas Hampson, René Pape
Wiener Philharmoniker / Daniel Harding
Deutsche Grammophon DVD 00440 073 4430 (93 min)
***** $$$

Filmed live at the Salzburg Felsenreitschule July 2006 as part of the Mozart at 250 festivities, this gala concert has finally made it to the record stores. A two-year turn-around time is now considered slow, given that record companies rush everything to market – strike while the iron is hot, as they say. But Mozart never goes out of style, so this release is very welcome. Five operas are featured – Don Giovanni, Mitridate, re di Ponto, La Clemenza di Tito, Così fan tutte, and Idomeneo, starring seven big-name singers, all Mozart “specialists” to varying degrees. Filmed in HD, viewers are given a brief glimpse of the breathtaking scenery of Salzburg before the concert. Rene Pape kicks off the proceedings with a rich-voiced “Catalogue Aria”, followed by Canada's Michael Schade in “Dalla sua pace”, arguably his calling-card. French soprano Patricia Petibon is an exquisite soubrette, and she sings Aspasia's aria very well, except for a totally unexpected shout right in the middle – in the name of expressivity to be sure, but this is Mozart, not verismo! A highlight is the Idamante-Ilia duet with Kožená and Siurina, their voices blending beautifully. Anna Netrebko, arguably the biggest star on the program, contributes a fiery “D'Oreste, d'Ajace” singing with opulent tone but also some pitch problems and smudged coloratura. The weakest singing, surprisingly, comes from Thomas Hampson, in his single contribution – Guglielmo's aria from Così. He has all the notes, but the voice sounds strained and thin. Daniel Harding conducts the Vienna forces stylishly, with all the requisite élan and incisiveness. The picture quality is perfect, as is the 5.0 DTS Surround Sound. A great choice for Mozart devotees and aficionados of the gala genre.

- Joseph K. So

Massenet: Werther

Keith Ikaia-Purdy, Silvia Hablowetz, Armin Kolarczyk, Ina Schlingensiepen Badische Staatskapelle / Daniel Carlberg
Arthaus Musik DVD 101 317 (140m)
*** $$$

With the decline of the studio opera recording, we have witnessed a concomitant rise of live performances, particularly on DVD. This Werther from Karlsruhe, a German regional house, would not have been released even a few short years ago. There are no starry principals, just typical “house singers” on fest contracts – competent, occasionally very fine artists as members of an ensemble. Updated to modern day, this Regietheater Werther is par for the course in Germany. There are lots of little touches – some work better than others: a physically handicapped Sophie, the Bailiff, Johann and Schmidt as major drunks, a Charlotte completely unhinged at the end, and the addition of a flashback in the beginning, with Charlotte sobbing at Werther’s newly dug grave. Director Robert Tannenbaum’s vision is unrelentingly dark. Practically everyone has a long face, including Sophie. Musically it is uneven, the major liability being Hawaiian tenor Keith Ikaia-Purdy as Werther. He sang a fine Nemorino for Opera Ontario some years ago, but his lyric tenor has become darker and heavier, and afflicted with a slow vibrato. His singing is effortful, resorting to a constant mezzo forte that becomes monochromatic and dull very quickly. There isn’t much chemistry between him and the quite well-sung Charlotte of Silvia Hablowetz – his being quite a bit shorter than her doesn’t help matters. The sets and costumes aim for realism at the expense of Romanticism – frankly, watching Werther in a raincoat the whole opera is not my idea of good costuming. The conducting of Daniel Carlberg and the playing of the Badische Staatskapelle save this show. This is a curiosity at best, as there are better updated versions around, such as the Alvarez-Garanca-Wiener Staatsoper version.

- Joseph K. So

Tan Dun : The First Emperor

Plácido Domingo, Elizabeth Futral, Michelle De Young, Paul Groves, Hao Jiang Tian, Wu Hsing-Kuo; The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Chorus, and Ballet / Tan Dun
Production : Zhang Yimou
Director : Brian Large
EMI Classics 50999 2 151299 5 (2 DVD : 177 min)
**** $$$$

Cette production du Met est d’abord un spectacle, et vaut plus par ce que l’on voit que par ce que l’on entend. Les costumes sont somptueux et la scénographie impressionne par son caractère monumental ; il n’en fallait pas moins pour accueillir plus d’une centaine de choristes et de figurants dont les déplacements sont chorégraphiés comme une liturgie. Le sujet de ce quatrième opéra de Tan Dun, créé en 2006, est plutôt mince : le premier empereur chinois, celui-là même qui fit édifier la première Grande Muraille et mit fin au belliqueux régime féodal, exige d’un compositeur ennemi qu’il lui écrive un hymne national. Le compositeur tombe amoureux de la fille de l’empereur, laquelle est déjà promise à l’un des fidèles généraux du royaume Qin... La fusion entre l’art musical de la Chine et celui de l’Occident dont Tan Dun s’est fait le champion n'est pas consommée. Si l’écriture orchestrale est souvent séduisante, les chanteurs ont du mal à rendre des lignes vocales rendues périlleuses par des sauts incessants de l’aigu au grave propres à l’opéra chinois. Plácido Domingo ne semble pas à l'aise en premier empereur; les autres chanteurs ne le sont pas davantage.

- Alexandre Lazaridès

Strauss: Arabella

Renée Fleming, Julia Kleiter, Morten Frank Larsen, Johan Weigel
Chorus and Orchestra of the Opernhaus Zürich / Franz Welser-Möst
Decca 074 3263 (147 min)
*** $$$
I had the pleasure of being present at Renée Fleming’s first performance of Arabella with the Houston Grand Opera in 1998. She was splendid and consolidated her position as one of the great Straussians of her generation. She went on to repeat this triumph at the Met in 2001, again with Christoph Eschenbach conducting. Now comes a DVD of a 2007 performance in Zürich. Fleming is better than ever but she is part of a production by Götz Friedrich that sucks most of the charm and magic right out of the piece.

The opera is essentially a lightweight, operetta-style love story set in 1860s Vienna. Strauss and his librettist Hugo von Hofmanstahl were very specific as to time and place and the peculiarities of social etiquette and entertainment. But Friedrich chose to move the story to some vaguely 1920s place and offered no apparent imaginative concept to replace the Viennese original. What’s more, the sets suggest not so much a new vision but simply lack of time or money or both. The Act I set is so bare it looks less like a Viennese hotel room than a hospital waiting room. The critical staircase in the last scene has as much character as a neon sign. Worst of all, the orchestra appears to have been recorded in a closet and a very small one at that; the sound is dry and boxy in the extreme.

- Paul E. Robinson

Puccini: Manon Lescaut

Karita Mattila, Marcello Giordani, Dwayne Croft, Dale Travis
Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus / James Levine
EMI Classics 50999 2 17420 9 5 DVD (137 min)
***** $$$

This Manon Lescaut is Puccini at his verismo best. If you are a tenor fan, you’ll love Des Grieux’s four arias and the extended Art Two duet. But the centerpiece here is the great Karita Mattila as Manon Lescaut. A great Eva, Elsa, Jenufa, Katya, Elisabetta, Lisa, Tatyana, Arabella, Salome, and Leonore, Mattila is not an ideal Puccini singer, since her Nordic sound with its cool timbre and relatively "straight tone" is not suited to the "blood and guts" verismo genre. But she is quite wonderful here. Partnering her is Italian tenor Marcello Giordani as Des Grieux. Baritone Dwayne Croft is the callous brother Lescaut and character baritone Dale Travis is Geronte. This quarter-century-old production looks handsome if rather old fashioned. Large gestures in the theatre enable those sitting in the gallery to see what’s going on and heavy make-up prevents the singers' faces from looking washed out. However, such exaggerated acting and heavy make-up have been toned down for the telecast. At 47, Mattila still looks youthful, but there is no point in pretending that she is the embodiment of the teenage Manon, especially when closeups are so unforgiving. Her two high Cs and loads of Bs are thrilling; less attractive are her weak middle and lower registers. Her Manon is dramatically nuanced, vulnerable and sympathetic. As Des Grieux, Giordani sings with a secure top and is suitably ardent, but he looks a bit mature. Act One is always a bit slow, but by the last two acts, Mattila and Giordani burn up the stage. American baritone Dwyane Croft is good if a little anonymous in the rather thankless role of Lescaut. Dale Travis is excellent as Geronte. Not exactly a Puccini conductor, James Levine surprises everyone with his passionate and involved conducting in an opera he has not touched in twenty years, drawing torrents of sound from the orchestra at the climaxes. Perhaps not a Manon Lescaut for the ages, but overall a satisfying performance.

- Joseph K. So

Zubin Mehta Los Angeles Philharmonic: Dvořák/Mozart/Bartók

Los Angeles Philharmonic / Zubin Mehta
Euroarts DVD 2072248 (110 min)
**** $
This is another release from the vaults of Unitel, the Munich-based company that spent a small fortune making classical music films in the 1970s. Karajan and Bernstein were featured in dozens of films but other conductors such as Böhm, Abbado and Solti also appeared. Most of these productions were initially released on VHS years ago but only recently have they made their way to DVD. Deutsche Grammophon has been issuing the bulk of the Unitel catalogue but other companies are issuing those passed on.

The Mehta release documents an important stage in this conductor’s career. Mehta was twenty-six when he became conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and he stayed for seventeen years, growing into a major conductor. These performances were recorded in 1977 in concert at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. Mehta left the following year to take over the New York Philharmonic. Kirk Browning of Live from Lincoln Center was the producer and RCA veteran Max Wilcox was the sound engineer and their work is first-rate.

There are two major works: Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra and Dvořák’s Symphony No. 8. The orchestra plays superbly and Mehta is at his charismatic best. He could pass for either a Hollywood or a Bollywood film star playing a great conductor. Fortunately, he was also a great musician. From these same concerts there are two shorter Dvořák pieces and Mozart’s Bassoon Concerto with the LAPO’s principal bassoonist as soloist.

- Paul E. Robinson

Deshevov: Ice and Steel

Yevgeny Taruntsov, Anna Toneeva, Hiroshi Marsui, Algirdas Drevinskas, Oxana Arkaeva, Otto Daubner, Stefan Röttig, Patrick Simper, Rupprecht Braun
Saarländisches Staatsorchester / Will Humberg
Stage Director: Immo Karaman
Video Director: Brooks Riley
Arthaus Musik 101 323 (96 min)
*** $$$

You will search in vain for an entry on Vladimir Deshevov (1889-1955) in the standard musical dictionaries. Ice and Steel of 1929 was his best known composition. It did not enjoy a long run in the People’s theatres and its revival in our time represents the triumph of curiosity over good sense. It requires a huge cast and, all things considered, Ice and Steel is a pretty miserable excuse for an opera. Nevertheless, in cooperation with the Stanislavski and Nemirovitch-Danshenko Musictheater, Moscow, it was staged in Saarbrücken in 2007. Deshevov’s score is far from negligible and sternly modern (a last hurrah for the avant-garde before the imposition of ‘socialist realism’) but the libretto by Boris Lavrenjov is an awful concoction of one-dimensional class struggle stereotypes and agit-prop rhetoric. The plot cynically conceals the truth about the brutal Bolshevik suppression of the Kronstadt Mutiny in 1921. What makes this production useful (and probably essential for Soviet music fans) is the prodigious imagination of the staging. It is dreadful but fascinating; offensive yet authentic. Proceed with caution.

- Stephen Habington

Martha Argerich: Evening Talks

Un film de Georges Gachot
Excerpts by Beethoven, Piazzola/Hubert, Liszt, Chopin, Ravel, Prokofiev, Bach, Schumann, Saint-Saëns, Dvořák, Lutoslawski
Medici arts 3073428 (101 min)

***** $$$$
Incandescente, imprévisible, insaisissable, Martha Argerich se révèle très rarement autrement que dans ses interprétations. Georges Gachot propose ici un rare portrait, où la pianiste argentine se confie avec une candeur saisissante. On voit sa main s’attarder sur sa chevelure mythique, son regard de braise brûler la pellicule pendant qu’elle évoque, en phrases elliptiques, son premier choc musical à six ans (le Quatrième Concerto de Beethoven par Arrau), ses mois d’apprentissage avec l’iconoclaste Friedrich Gulda, ses succès en concours, son premier refus de jouer en concert (à 17 ans !), sa volonté d’être continuellement surprise par la musique. Elle transmet son amour pour Ravel, Prokofiev, Schumann – « Je crois qu’il m’aime bien », avance-t-elle avec un sourire désarmant. Argerich dévoile aussi pendant quelques instants troublants sa vulnérabilité envers l’expérience de concert, l’intensité de sa panique, sa terreur des récitals en solo (d'où sa préférence pour les collaborations en tant que chambriste).

On reste fasciné par l'ampleur de ce qu’elle ose révéler dans le quasi-soliloque, capté en une seule soirée post-concert par Gachot en 2001, qui sert de fil conducteur au film. L’émotion du specateur est encore plus vive quand il la (re)découvre grâce à des documents d’archives, dans une Rhapsodie hongroise de Liszt interprétée adolescente, un sublime Concerto en mi mineur de Chopin à Paris en 1969, un électrisant Troisième de Prokofiev en 1977 ou même en répétition avec l’Orchestre de chambre de Wurtemberg dans un Concerto de Schumann tout en fluidité. Comme a dit d’elle Daniel Barenboïm : « Un très beau tableau, mais sans le cadre ».

- Lucie Renaud

John Adams: Doctor Atomic

Gerald Finley (Oppenheimer), Jessica Rivera (Kitty Oppenheimer), Eric Owens (General Groves), Richard Paul Fink (Teller), James Maddalena (Hubbard), Thomas Glenn (Wilson), Jay Hunter Morris (Nolan), Ellen Rabiner (Pasqualita), Ruud van Eijk (Bush); Chorus of De Nederlandse Opera, Netherland Philharmonic Orchestra / Lawrence Renes
Stage and Video Director: Peter Sellars
Opus Arte OA 0998 D (2 DVD – 168 min 9 s)
***** $$$
This is a very timely release from Opus Arte because it allows us to catch an American epic on the rise. Doctor Atomic was commissioned by the San Francisco Opera and was first staged there in 2005. This performance, a San Francisco/Chicago/Amsterdam co-production, was recorded in June 2007. The debut of Doctor Atomic at New York’s Metropolitan Opera is imminent and an international live cinema relay from that venue has been announced for November 8. There is a tendency to approach contemporary music with caution, if not downright suspicion. Fear not, because this is opera on a grand scale: an intense music drama with cumulative individual and collective emotional impact.

John Adams has set a blank-verse (with poetic augmentation) libretto by Peter Sellars. Most of the text was extracted verbatim from primary sources, which entails the presentation of far more information than is customary on the opera stage. It is a tribute to the collaboration of Adams and Sellars that this material emerges with impressive clarity in operatic English. The overture plays to a sequence of black and white newsreel footage displaying the ravages of total war and fully mobilized societies. The first scene introduces frenzied activity at the Los Alamos, New Mexico, setting of the Manhattan Project (the codeword for the development of the atomic bomb). It features turba-like choral delivery with dancers in support. The principals exchange lengthy pronouncements in the manner of sprechgesang, conveying their concerns about moral issues, the practical application of new science and the terrifying risks at hand on the eve of the first actual test of the weapon. The libretto is a serious challenge, which could not possibly work without the composer’s valiant-for-truth, rhythmically vital music. This first scene is a 27-minute barrage of tension, which dissolves in the harmony of the second. Away from the crowd, in the Oppenheimer bed chamber, the chief scientist and his wife find consolation in a sequence of achingly beautiful and loving songs. The pattern is maintained through both acts with scenes of buzzing ensembles alternating with intimacy and introspection.

Doctor Atomic further demonstrates the pre-eminence of Gerald Finley in the baritone opera repertory. His range and articulation are truly inspiring. Jessica Rivera is equally impressive as Kitty Oppenheimer. The remainder of the cast is fully committed with not a single weak link. Peter Sellars achieves period authenticity to a remarkable degree and in line with his determination to present the unvarnished facts of the situation. No embellishment is required to reenact a supreme drama, which continues to influence all of our lives. Adams and Sellars render great art at the service of humanity.

- Stephen Habington

Maazel: 1984

Keenlyside, Gustafson, Margison, Damrau, Brownlee
Orchestra & Chorus of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden / Lorin Maazel
Decca DVD 074 3289 (2CD: 147 min)
$$$$ ****
Based on George Orwell's dystopian novel, conductor/composer Lorin Maazel’s operatic adaptation of 1984 attracted a great deal of attention when it premiered at Covent Garden in 2005, but unfortunately for Maazel it was mostly of the wrong kind. Although the singers were praised, the British press was hostile. The score was deemed banal and derivative; and there was much nasty snickering that Covent Garden had “sold out” by mounting a vanity project heavily subsidised by the wealthy composer. In 2007, performances in Valencia fell through due to severe flooding of the opera house, but a revival subsequently took place at La Scala in early 2008, again to mixed reviews. This DVD release captures the Covent Garden production.

Contemporary classical music, and opera is no exception, faces the challenge of balancing musical and compositional merit with accessibility to the public. In terms of box office, the Covent Garden performances were sold out and the La Scala revival was said to be profitable – not many works can claim to have achieved that. But upon careful listening, it must be said that some of the criticisms levelled at 1984 are not without foundation. Maazel's score lacks a single musical language – the piece is a patchwork of many different styles. He writes more gratefully for the voice than many modern day composers, but the vocal line tends to dominate at the expense of the orchestration, which isn't so complex or interesting. A more unfair criticism has to do with the straightforward adherence of the libretto to the book. It is felt in some circles that, given the recent UK responses to terrorism in London through mass surveillance, the composer and librettist should have updated the story to reflect this. In any case, if one were to consider this work as a sort of “cross-over opera” along the lines of a musical, 1984 works well – I find it gripping theatre. The sets by Carl Fillion, the costumes by Yasmina Gigeure and the direction by Canadian Robert Lepage are effective. The opera works well on the home screen, expertly executed by veteran Brian Large.

The singers, led by the magnificent Winston of Simon Keenlyside, are uniformly excellent. Keenlyside is well partnered by Nancy Gustafson’s Julia. As O'Brien, Richard Margison gets a rare chance to play the bad guy. Diana Damrau must have relished the chance of doing the split – not to mention her stratospheric high notes – as the Gym Instructor, and Lawrence Brownlee (Syme) also gets to show off his high register. Included in the release is a 27-minute introduction to the opera by Maazel, illustrating at the piano – he is not shy about showing off his singing voice either! On balance, this work is effective and provocative theatre and well worth experiencing.

- Joseph K. So

MARIA: The Barcelona Concert & Malibran Rediscovered

Cecilia Bartoli, mezzo-soprano
Decca DVD 0743252 (CD1: 79 min; CD2: 68 min)
****** $$$$
Now twenty years into an exceptional career, the mature Cecilia Bartoli remains a unique artist at the height of her powers. This latest venture focusing on Maria Malibran finds Bartoli in superb form, her charismatic personality as fresh and spontaneous as ever. With her wide-ranging voice and stunning technique, it's natural for Bartoli to gravitate towards the legendary Malibran. As in her previous projects, a tremendous amount of research has gone into this as evidenced by the film included in this release, Malibran Rediscovered – The Romantic Revolution. This documentary gives us a fascinating glimpse into Bartoli the singer, the artist, the scholar, and the person. Like Malibran, Bartoli is the daughter of singers, and both made their debuts as Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia – if you don't count Bartoli's Shepherd Boy in Tosca at the age of 8! Her technique, with its remarkable range and incredible flexibility, is said to resemble Malibran’s, though of course no sound record of that exists. The camera captures Bartoli and filmmaker Sturminger to the museums, examining historical documents on Malibran, to a coaching session with Christopher Raeburn, to meetings with Bartoli's remarkable parents, and to Malibran’s grave. Extremely interesting are snippets of Bartoli singing “Casta diva” from Norma; even more amazing is her “Sempre libera” (!) from La traviata, albeit with a B natural in lieu of the interpolated E-flat at the end.

The centerpiece of this release is the Barcelona concert, in which Bartoli sings an intriguing program combining rarities of Garcia, Persiani and Hummel with bel canto standards like the Willow Song and Prayer from Rossini's Otello, and “Ah! Non giunge” from Bellini's La sonnambula. (Sadly missing is “Casta diva”) Everything is performed with her unique brand of stupendous technique and singular artistry. The camera work is exemplary throughout, with the possible exception of the grainy, home movie-like short glimpses backstage, but even that has a cinema verité fascination. A desert-island disc that I will return to again and again, this is an absolute “must-have” release, not just for admirers of Cecilia Bartoli but for lovers of great singing.

- Joseph K. So

Olivier Messiaen – La liturgie de cristal

Un film d’Olivier Mille
Juxtapositions (107 min plus bonus)
***** $$$$

Musicien de la couleur, rythmicien maîtrisant les moindres inflexions d’une pulsation, ornithologue fasciné par ses « petits serviteurs de l’immortelle joie », pédagogue captivant qui a inspiré toute une génération de compositeurs, Olivier Messiaen reste l’une des figures musicales dominantes du XXe siècle. Ce film d’Olivier Mille, produit en 2002 pour Arté, trace un portrait de Messiaen en trois segments. Dans « Les oiseaux et la nature », on voit Messiaen à l’œuvre alors qu’il retranscrit des chants d’oiseaux et explique, fort éloquemment, comment il les « adapte » pour être perçus par l’oreille humaine. Dans « Les couleurs, les rythmes et l’enseignement », on se glisse dans sa classe de composition, où ses propos clairs et nuancés (on aura rarement perçu Debussy avec autant de justesse) fascinent autant que la profonde connivence qui unit maître et élèves. Le dernier segment, « La foi, la religion », permet de mieux apprécier l’œuvre pour orgue, mais aussi l'immense opéra Saint François d’Assise (qui sera présenté par l’OSM en décembre), somme d’une vie de travail, de dévotion. Des images magnifiques prises au mont Messiaen en Utah se mêlent à des documents d’archives, assurant une narration cohérente, sinon linéaire, soutenue par de nombreux extraits musicaux. (On aurait toutefois souhaité que les pièces et les interprètes ne soient pas identifiés seulement au générique final.) Les bonus comprennent des entrevues avec des compositeurs (dont Pierre Boulez, Gilbert Amy et George Benjamin) et des musiciens qui permettent de mieux mesurer l’influence de Messiaen. À noter que le film sera présenté à l’Auditorium Maxwell-Cummings du MBAM le 30 novembre (entrée libre).

- Lucie Renaud

Richard Wagner: Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Copenhagen Ring)

Johan Reuter (Wotan I), James Johnson (Wotan II, Wanderer), Michael Kristensen (Loge), Stephen Milling (Fasolt/Hunding), Christian Christensen (Fafner), Sten Byriel (Alberich), Bengi-Ola Morguy (Mime), Randi Stene (Fricka), Anne Magarethe Dahl (Freia), Susanne Resmark (Erda), Stig Andersen (Siegmund/Siegfried), Gitta-Maria Sjöberg (Sieglinde), Iréne Theorin (Brünnhilde), Gisela Stille (Waldvogel), Guido Paevatalu (Gunther), Peter Klaneness (Hagen), Ylva Kihlberg (Guntrune), et al; Royal Danish Opera Chorus / Philip White; Royal Danish Orchestra / Michael Schønwandt
Stage Director: Kasper Bech Holten
Video Direction: Uffe Bogwartd, Peter Bogwartd
Decca 074 3264 (7 DVDs – 920 min)
*** $$$
Perchance, the numerical rating above reflects a split decision. As a performance of the towering central works of Richard Wagner, this production (box-titled as The Copenhagen Ring) might earn a charitable two stars based on orchestral performance and the energy displayed on stage. But, as a succession of evenings of riveting musical drama it is plainly worth double that. Billed as the first feminist Ring, Kasper Bech Holten focuses on Brünnhilde and stretches the cycle over a 20th-century framework – the entire 20th century. Wagner’s music is essentially complete (and performed well) and we hear most of the text but Holten radically revises character depiction and plot details and introduces a new layer of symbolism from end to end. As a Wagner performance, this can only enhance our admiration for the monumental artistic achievements of Barenboim/Kupfer (Warner) and Boulez/Chéreau (DG) in Bayreuth.

The composer’s meticulous (and often impractical) stage directions have been under constant modification since the 1950s. Holten’s is the most radical revision to date and he pulls up just short of parody. And yet he succeeds in realizing his artistic vision. The scene-setting Das Rheingold is typically the weak link in any performance of the cycle. This one exploits our curiosity and grips the attention throughout. To ring in some conspicuous changes to the ‘preliminary’ evening: 1) The opening scene is set in a drinking lounge where Alberich is getting hammered. The Rhine Maidens are bargirls who tease their way to catastrophe. Instead of mineral deposits, the Rhinegold is physically personified as a naked youth swimming languidly in the aquarium window of the bar. In a drunken jealous rage, Alberich slays him and cuts out his heart with a broken bottle. This is the ‘gold’ that is stolen to cast the spell in forging the ring. 2) John Reuter’s performance as Wotan (in Rheingold only) inspires an instant cautionary dictum: “Beware of an aroused, debt-ridden Wilhelminian dude with a spear in his hands.” He removes the ring from Alberich along with a forearm causing bloodshed of Texas Chainsaw Massacre dimensions. More gore follows… 3) Loge is depicted as a chain smoking yellow-press journalist who ends up knowing too much. Wotan slaughters him before he gets a chance to deliver his crucial, prophetic valedictory.

And so it goes. In Die Walkure, it is Sieglinde who draws the sword out of the tree and Wotan allows Hunding to scuttle away from the duel unharmed. Götterdämerung opens with ropeless Norns singing from the audience and the Gibichung are depicted as ruthless masked gunmen from the Serbian corner of the Balkan triangle. In the end, Brünnhilde declines to submit to immolation and departs with her off-stage newborn child (Yikes! The Wälsung walk among us! Well, maybe in Denmark.)

The production is of variable vocal quality. Stunning performances from James Johnson and Stig Andersen really carry the show in Die Walküre and Siegfried. Also notable are The Alberich of Sten Byriel, Stephen Milling as Hunding, Guido Paevatalu (Gunther) and Peter Klaveness, who presents an unforgettable psychopathic portrayal of Hagen.

Mostly Wagner, part scary movie, this set is not recommended for those approaching the Ring for the first time. It offers terrific entertainment value but other productions remain closer to the spirit and intent of the composer. According to taste and inclination, viewers may regard it as corruption of the highest operatic art. But it deserves to be viewed.

- Stephen Habington

To Russia with Love

Dmitri Hvorostovsky, baritone
Moscow Chamber Orchestra; Style of Five Folk Ensemble / Constantine Orbelian
Delos DV 7005
***** $$$$

Recorded live in St. Petersburg, Russia on September 15, 2006, this DVD consists of a program of Russian folk and contemporary songs which Dmitri Hvorostovsky has since taken on tour all over the world, including a concert in Toronto last season. To my eyes and ears, Hvorostovsky is the most significant baritone today, pace Bryn Terfel and a number of other wonderful singers. Others may have a more varied repertoire or an even more powerful stage persona, but none can beat the Siberian for his resplendent quality of tone and rock-solid technique with its amazingly long breath line. When DH came to Toronto’s Roy Thomson Hall, the audience was heavily Russian, and as in this video, the singer was offered bouquets galore from his adoring female fans. The soulful romances on the program were archetypically Russian, pretty much all written in the minor key, on the joys and pains of love and love lost. The baritone was his usual spectacular self, offering up volleys of refulgent tone. In no time the audience was eating out of his hand. If one were to nitpick, there was a stylistic sameness to it all – experiencing them in a single sitting is like eating a whole box of marzipan. Leading the Moscow Chamber Orchestra was DH’s frequent collaborator and conductor of choice, Constantine Orbelian. The Style of Five Folk Ensemble contributed several terrific instrumental arrangements of folk tunes, allowing the baritone brief rests between numbers. Three encores were given, including “O Sole Mio”, and of course the obligatory “Dark Eyes”, a showstopper that is indelibly linked to Hvorostovsky. His fans will want it all, as will any lover of great singing.

- Joseph K. So

Jiří Kylián’s Car Men

Un film de Boris Paval Conen et Jiří Kylián
Nederlands Dans Theater; Concertgebouworkest / Bernard Haitink
Musique de Bizet / Han Otten, Debussy
Arthaus 102 101 (61 min)
***** $$$$

Trois ballets du grand chorégraphe néerlandais Jiří Kylián. Le plus ancien, La Cathédrale engloutie (1983), tire son nom du Prélude no 10 pour piano de Debussy. La pièce se trouve bel et bien sur la trame sonore, mais c’est le bruit des vagues qui domine, un leitmotiv tumultueux entraînant un quatuor de jeunes danseurs dans une suite de roulades, de figures au sol qui rendent bien les mouvances de la mer et exploitent habilement les interactions possibles avec un, deux, ou trois partenaire. Silent Cries (1987) est un spectacle solo où la ballerine (Kupferberg) pratique une forme d’introspection pantomimique en se servant d’une vitre maculée – reflet de sa psyché –, qu’elle touche, essuie, se réappropriant par là son identité. Cela sur la musique du Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune de Debussy. Mais le moment fort de ce DVD est Car Men (2006), un dérivé de l'opéra en quelque sorte. Ce film en noir et blanc de 26 minutes tourné dans une mine désaffectée en République tchèque a été réalisé en collaboration avec le cinéaste Boris Paval Conen. Il met en scène quatre artistes du NDTIII (une division du Nederlands Dans Theater formée de danseurs de plus de 40 ans) personnifiant Carmen, Don José, Escamillo et Micaëla. Le résultat est fascinant. Il rappelle Fellini pour la faune bizarre et le ton clownesque; Cocteau pour la poétique de l’image et les séquences inversées; Mack Sennett pour le slapstick et les poursuites folles du temps du muet. On reconnaît des bribes de la musique de Bizet, transformée électroniquement par Han Otten. La corrida est de la partie, mais c’est Carmen qui incarne le torero pendant qu'une voiture remplace le taureau. Les raccords mouvements-musique sont d’une précision inouïe. Pour ceux qui apprécieront, nous recommandons aussi Black & White Ballets (Image ID9251RADVD), six autres chorégraphies signées Kylián.

-Pierre Demers

Puccini : Tosca

Catherine Malfitano (Floria Tosca), Richard Margison (Mario Cavaradossi), Bryn Terfel (Scarpia), Mario Luperi (Cesare Angelotti), Enrico Fissore (le Sacristain), John Graham-Hall (Spoletta), Jef Van Wersch (Sciarrone), Tom Kemperman (un geôlier), Andreas Burkhart (un berger)
Chœurs du Nederlandse Opera et Utrecht Cathedral Choirschool
Orchestre du Royal Concertgebouw / Riccardo Chailly
Mise en scène : Nikolaus Lehnhoff
Decca 0743201 (137 min)
**** $$$$

En 1953, une Maria Callas à son zénith – entourée de l'incomparable Giuseppe Di Stefano et d'un Tito Gobbi envoûtant – enregistrait la version définitive de Tosca, insurpassée depuis au plan musical, un miracle discographique (Naxos 8.110256-57). Mais depuis l'avènement de la vidéo, l'amateur qui tient l’opéra pour une œuvre d’art totale (Gesamtkunstwerk disait Wagner) et qui en demande autant pour charmer l’œil que pour ravir l’oreille, peut satisfaire ce désir. Il a le choix entre une captation de spectacle monté par une maison d’opéra, et une version purement cinématographique. À cette dernière catégorie appartiennent deux excellents films : celui de Benoît Jacquot, mettant en vedette le trio Gheorghiu-Alagna-Raimondi (DVD Kultur D4010, 2001), et celui de Brian Large, tourné à Rome sur les lieux mêmes de l’action: église Sant'Andrea della Valle, Palais Farnese, château Saint-Ange (VHS Teldec Video, 1992). Si l'on préfère la représentation en salle, le présent DVD, gravé en 1998, est une acquisition intéressante. Malfitano y incarne un personnage qu’elle a beaucoup joué (y compris dans le film de Brian Large). Elle dégage le mélange de sensualité et de fragilité qu'on associe à Tosca. Moins charismatique que sa partenaire, Margison fait entendre une voix puissante qui insuffle de l'ardeur à Cavaradossi. Terfel, de son côté, campe un Scarpia de luxe, conjuguant le talent de comédien des Gobbi et Raimondi à une technique vocale supérieure. Ses altercations avec Malfitano laissent deviner une profonde connivence entre les deux comédiens-chanteurs (encore plus remarquable toutefois dans la Salomé mise en scène par Luc Bondy en 1997). Terfel incarne un vilain machiavélique, en parfaite adéquation avec l'oppressante scénographie. Lehnhoff opte pour des décors carcéraux presque kafkaïens qui ménagent peu d’issues; ainsi, l’escalier du deuxième acte se volatilise, forçant le saut final dans le vide. Et puis il y a cette immense hélice, dont le tranchant symbolise l'impitoyable cruauté du chef de la police de Rome… Il manque à cette production l’énergie qu'assure habituellement la présence du public (où est-il ?). Mais si la foule est silencieuse, l’orchestre du Royal Concertgebouw lui est éloquent, soulignant en un chatoiement de couleurs et de nuances les multiples états d'âme des protagonistes.

- Pierre Demers

Richter : Mozart & Chopin

Sviatoslav Richter, piano
Medici Arts 3085208 (90 min)
****** $$$$

When Richter arrived at the Barbican Centre in London on March, 29 1989, he was unaware the concert was going to be filmed. He disliked video and refused to perform for the cameras unless the only lighting in the auditorium was a 40-watt light bulb. The result is a dark, grainy image of Richter masterfully performing Mozart’s Piano Sonatas No .4, 16, and 8, and Chopin’s Etudes. The darkness creates a surreal, yet intimate, concert experience on DVD. Richter and his keyboard are half illuminated by a floor lamp. His sheet music is the only object fully lit. The best part of the DVD is two clips of bonus footage from 1969. Rachmaninov’s Etude-Tableau Op. 39, No. 3 is a beautiful black and white performance of a young Richter effortlessly playing the complex passages. The second video is a performance of Chopin’s Etudes Op.10, No.4 and No.2. The video quality from both performances is much better than the 1989 footage and allows the viewer to see his true mastery of technique. Richter’s performance adds another fascinating DVD to the Classical Archive series.

- Andrew Buziak

Stefano Landi : Il Sant’Alessio

Les Arts Florissants, William Christie
Virgin Classics 50999 51899999 8 (2 DVD : 162 m)
***** $$$$

À coup sûr, voilà du jamais vu en DVD : un oratorio baroque éclairé à la bougie, avec décors, costumes et gestuelle inspirés de traditions anciennes, et une distribution entièrement masculine (choeur d’enfants, trois basses, neuf contre-ténors…!) comme l'imposait l'usage en 1632 à Rome, où l’oeuvre fut créée. À l'origine de ce projet, le jeune metteur en scène Benjamin Lazar, dont le Bourgeois gentilhomme de Lully et Molière, restitué lui aussi au plus près de l’original, a remporté récemment un grand succès européen (le DVD, paru chez Alpha, n’a hélas jamais été distribué chez nous). Rejoué ici pour la première fois, Il Sant’Alessio raconte l’histoire d’Alexis (chanté par Philippe Jaroussky), un pseudo-saint aujourd’hui retiré du calendrier, réputé avoir vécu de longues années après un séjour en Terre Sainte en mendiant incognito parmi les siens dans la discrétion et l’humilité! Pour rendre hommage à cet étrange anti-héros, Landi et son librettiste ont imaginé un spectacle paradoxalement fastueux et contrasté, où le pathétique côtoie le comique : carnaval romain, choeur et danses des démons, déploration des anges, interventions d’allégories, le tout sur une musique ample et inspirée, proche de Monteverdi. Si le Diable n’a pas les graves abyssaux que son rôle requiert à tout moment, le plateau de contre-ténors en revanche est très satisfaisant, présentant des voix aux couleurs différentes mais homogènes par le style. Les rôles travestis sérieux (la mère et la fiancée d’Alexis) surprennent il est vrai, et pourront sembler peu crédibles au public d’aujourd’hui, qui pourtant fait un triomphe à ce spectacle d’une beauté et d’une cohérence incomparables.

- Philippe Gervais

Karlheinz Stockhausen: Helicopter String Quartet

Arditti String Quartet
Frank Scheffer, réalisation
Medici Arts 3077508 (77 min)
*** $$$$

Stockhausen le mythomane a voulu contrôler jusqu'au moindre aspect de la diffusion de sa musique, incluant l’édition et la distribution - ce qui rend la plupart de ses œuvres, déjà fort chères, extrêmement difficiles à obtenir hors d’Europe. On comprendra donc que ce DVD est toute une aubaine. Ceux qui ont apprécié le Helikopter Streichquartett sur disque (Montaigne 782097) voudront assurément enrichir leur expérience de ce documentaire, où le complément visuel est important. Par contre, les effets exagérés de « caméra à la main » (pensez à la chaîne MusiquePlus) deviennent exaspérants à la longue, tant par leur nombre que par leur opacité. On appréciera le moment où Stockhausen parle de sa conception de l’espace sonore, reliant le Quatuor à son travail antérieur, et montrant bien qu’il n’est pas aussi fou qu’on tend, lui inclus peut-être, à le croire.

- René Bricault

Richard Wagner: Tristan und Isolde

Siegfried Jerusalem (Tristan), Waltraud Meier (Isolde), Mathias Hölle (King Marke), Uta Priew (Brangäne), Poul Elming (Melot)
Bayreuth Festival Orchestra and Chorus / Daniel Barenboim
Stage Director: Heiner Müller; Video Director: Horant H. Hohlfeld
DG 00440 073 3349 (2 DVD: 235 min)
***** $$$$

Late last year, DG released the 1983 Bayreuth performance of Tristan und Isolde, an exquisite Jean-Pierre Ponnelle production conducted by Daniel Barenboim with René Kollo and Johanna Meier in the title roles. A 2007 Glyndebourne staging directed by Nikolaus Lehnhoff with Jiřỉ Bělohlávek in the pit with the LPO soon narrowly surpassed this. Now, Barenboim can reclaim the benchmark for the opera on DVD in this 1995 Bayreuth collaboration with stage director Heiner Müller. Müller was the conductor’s personal choice after Patrice Chéreau pulled out of the new production planned for 1993. In the revision of his autobiography, A Life in Music (London 2002), Barenboim recalls, “He thought I was crazy since he had no experience of staging opera, little knowledge of music in general and of Wagner in particular… he was much more of a visual person than I had expected, and together with Erich Wonder, he developed a presentation of the work which heightened the claustrophobic nature of the drama to a remarkable level. Muller’s realization gave the impression that there was no way out… no way to escape the chromaticism of the score, itself a musical maze of half resolutions ad infinitum.”

What Müller and Wonder did was to erect a giant, open-ended shoe box of a set in the middle third of the stage. With adjustments of slope, a few props and colour variations, this structure serves throughout the performance. The second act is set in King Marke’s armoury with the characters knee-deep in a geometric maze of breastplates. Their movement and interaction is purposely contrived. Like the stage action, the costumes (by fashion designer Yamamoto of Paris) convey a fascinating oriental mystique.

None of this would be of any significance without musical excellence. Siegfried Jerusalem and Waltraud Meier were new to the roles when this production was first staged in 1991. Their portrayals of the doomed couple might well be considered definitive. The Act II marathon duo is truly miraculous to behold. Barenboim displays great sensitivity in the accompaniment and the principals never need to strain their voices to be heard above the orchestra. Compared to the splendid 1983 performance, the orchestra sounds even better. This is not entirely due to the conductor’s greater experience and sagacity. The collapse of the GDR a few years earlier allowed many gifted musicians (along with stage director Müller) to travel from East Germany to join the festival orchestra.

We can now claim to be afflicted with an embarrassment of choices for Tristan und Isolde. The 1983 Ponnelle version is still competitive although the picture aspect ratio is 4:3. Making a selection of a single version for a personal collection really boils down to Barenboim II vs Glyndebourne. Hardcore Wagnerians will need all three of these superb performances. And for more of Barenboim at the top of his form in Bayreuth, don’t miss the EuroArts DVD issue of the 1999 performance of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg.

- Stephen Habington

Mademoiselle: Nadia Boulanger

A film by Bruno Monsaingeon
Ideale Audience International DVD5DM41 (79 min, B&W)
****** $$$$

Nadia Boulanger (1887-1979) is arguably the most celebrated teacher of composition - and certainly the best known – of the 20^th century. Her list of students, running into the thousands, reads like the Who’s Who of classical music, among them Aaron Copland, Elliot Carter, Roger Sessions, Phillip Glass, Virgil Thompson, Ned Rorem, Marc Blitzstein, Thea Mugrave, and Leonard Bernstein – although in the film, Bernstein claims he never had formal studies with her. Boulanger’s influence on the development of 20^th-century classical music was profound, though with the rise of serialism in the 1950’s, her adherence to tonal style was considered passé. This documentary was made in 1977 by filmmaker Bruno Monsaingeon, when Boulanger was already 90. It was Monsaingeon’s first film, and he has since gone on to make numerous important documentaries on musicians the likes of Menuhin, Gould, Richter, Perahia, Oistrakh, Tortelier and Fischer-Dieskau.

Titled Mademoiselle (as she liked to be addressed), Monsaingeon focuses entirely on Boulanger the teacher. Even at such a grand age, with her voice shaking and hands gnarled by age and arthritis, Boulanger remains in full possession of her faculties. She comes across as quite formidable but not unkind. The extended footage of her weekly composition lessons held in her salon, with dozens of students, famous and obscure, crammed into every nook and cranny, is fascinating. This footage is interspersed with interviews by Monsaingeon of Igor Markevitch, Bernstein, and Boulanger herself, where she goes into detail about her pedagogical style and her philosophy on music in general.

Astoundingly, in one of her group classes, she has her students sing the opening lines of Schumann’s “Davidsbünder”, with pianist Charles Fisk at the keyboard, all the while adding her pearls of wisdom. One also gets to see Bulgarian child prodigy Emile Naumoff demonstrating at the piano. Both students went on to significant performing, teaching and composing careers. The most poignant moment for me is not in the film, but rather in the accompanying booklet, wherein Bernstein recounts his last visit to the dying Boulanger. Gravely ill and in a coma, Boulanger miraculously responded to Bernstein and the two actually had a brief exchange that absolutely gives me the shivers. At 54 minutes, the film itself is lamentably short, so a performance of Mozart’s Prague Symphony conducted by Markevitch is tagged on, but for no good reason. The picture quality is vintage black and white, and the sound only so-so. Despite these limitations, Mademoiselle is an indispensable historical document and a must-see for students of music theory and composition.

-Joseph K. So

Buy this DVD at amazon.com

Die Zauberflöte

Piotr Beczala (Tamino), Dorothea Röschmann (Pamina), Detlef Roth (Papageno), Matti Salminen (Sarastro), Désirée Rancatore (Reine de la Nuit), Gaële Le Roi (Papagena), Uwe Peper (Monastatos)

Orchestre et Choeurs de l'Opéra national de Paris; Ivan Fischer, dir.
Mise en scène : Benno Besson
TDK DVWW-OPMFP (158 min)
*****$$$$

Une Flûte enchantée...enchanteresse ! On n'a pas assez d'yeux pour apprécier toute la richesse des costumes, toutes les effervescences scéniques. En un tour de main, peut apparaître une jungle luxuriante peuplée d'animaux sauvages. Une autre fois, c'est la Reine de la Nuit qui surgit du sol et s'envole dans les airs, habillée d'une robe démesurée qui meuble toute la scène. Il y a plein de ces trouvailles visuelles qui tiennent de la magie. Côté chant aussi, nous sommes choyés. Le personnage de Pamina est très bien rendu par Röschmann, une mozartienne accomplie - on se remémorera avec plaisir sa Susanna des Noces de Figaro (DVD Arthaus 100 017). Roth insuffle dynamisme et justesse vocale à son Papageno. Rancatore interprète à merveille le fameux air Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen. Salminen, avec sa superbe voix de basse, brille là comme il le fait dans tant d'autres productions DVD...Question mise en scène et tournage, la référence absolue pour cet opéra demeure l'adaptation d'Ingmar Bergman, de 1975 (DVD Criterion 71), mais le célèbre cinéaste n'avait pas la contrainte du direct, et ses chanteurs - crime de lèse-majesté - s'exprimaient en suédois.

-Pierre Demers

Buy this DVD at amazon.com