Derek Bailey Music

Here we have yet another Asian Madama Butterfly, with Yasuko Hayashi in the title role and Hak-Nam Kim as Suzuki. Peter Dvorsky's Pinkerton is a little brash, but then he is no prince charming. Giorgio Zancanaro is superb as Sharpless, this man has one of the best baritone voices on the planet. This production from La Scala is of the traditional Kabuki theatre style of Japan. Who better to stage an opera set in Japan, than the Japanese. For those who are not familiar with Kabuki, the basic rules are thus: Any persons dressed in black are NOT actually there. Your minds eye is not meant to see them as they work the sets etc. In other words they are the visible- invisible mechanics of the production. Hard for us Westerners to comprehend, but that is what it is. I actually feel sorry for the child. With all the man or woman handling he has to put up with and to be sung at fondled and squeezed, I'm surprised he made it though the opera, but he behaved exceptionally well and deserves a mention.
The Kabuki style finale is about the most breath-taking I have ever witnessed. Entering in a pure white kimono and seating herself on a pure white mat with a supernumerary at each corner, in black (so they are not there) and using the fan to symbolize the sword to stab herself with. As she stabs herself, she slowly opens the fan revealing a blood-red fan giving the elusion of blood spreading across the white kimono and as this is happening the four supernumeraries are slowing pulling the corners of the white mat towards themselves slowly revealing a blood red matt underneath, symbolizing the flow of blood. A very effective and quite a dramatic way to conclude such a wonderful opera. I have had this version on Video for many years now and I am pleased it made it onto DVD. I hope you get as much enjoyment as I have from this production.

Yes, Cio-cio San is supposed to be a delicate Japanese teenage girl, but the music Puccini wrote for her to sing would be impossible for any teenage soprano to sing. This is heavy, loud singing that Puccini demands from the soprano. Only sopranos with mature, big voices can, and should, sing this role. So, stop carping about fat sopranos singing Cio-cio San. Most sopranos with mature, big voices have big bodies. Get over it!

If one can get over a need for superstars in this opera, here is the DVD to have. Directed by a Japanese director for La Scala, it is totally convincing. Butterfly and Susuki don't have to pretend that they are small Oriental women because they ARE small Oriental women. Hayashi, who sings the title role, does not have as much strength in her lower register as a western soprano but she embodies the role completely. Susuki is excellent in voice and appearance. Dvorsky's Pinkerton is one dimensional...but that's the kind of person who would marry a Butterfly and then forget about her. One cannot say enough good about Zancanaro's Sharpless. Here is a singer whose every line is beatifully shaped. His voice is effortlessly and evenly produced from top to bottom. Having no musical or techincal problems to deal with he is free to act with great sensitivity to the text. Though rarely in leading roles, his presence on a DVD is enough to make me consider owning it.

My only quibbles with this performance are 1) the distraction provided by the hooded "zombies" who enter to push the scenery around when it is required, 2) the English translation is not that faithful to the text of the libretto and 3) there are not nearly enough blossoms in the flower duet.

Aside from that...highly recommended.

I thought this performance was cold. I thought Butterfly's voice was weak in her entrance and in Un bel di, though strong during the love duet and adequate the rest of the time. I was stunned to find out at last (I never read librettos) what Butterfly and Pinkerton are saying to each other during the duet. She is rhapsodizing about flowers and oceans and stars, and he's pleading vehemently with her to shut up and come to bed! It's their wedding night. From the professional Amazon reviewer I learned that the staging was Japanese. I thought it was beautiful, perfectly and artfully done, but I also thought it was inappropriate for the deeply emotional music and story, it is after all an Italian opera. The artifice that impressed me the most was the symbolism of the suicide scene. That was fantastic. No blood or guts, of course. I thought overall it was a mediocre show, maybe subdued or low-key are the words I should use, maybe this is typically Japanese. I thought everyone did a good job, expecially Sharpless, who was very kind and warm and with that warm baritone. As for the plot, I want to mention that Butterfly got a little of her own back (though it cost her her life) by telling Pinkerton he'd have to come back in half an hour if he wanted his son. Just time enough for him to find her dead. The subtitles were in white letters frequently on white backgrounds, which made them hard to read. Also, as for the subtitles, why did they have "'neath" instead of "beneath"? Was it supposed to have been a literal translation or something? The music was lush and rich. The staging was cold (albeit clever) and spare. Sigh. It did not to me make a good combination. I wish I'd bought a conventional performance. I have Tebaldi and Callas on CD. Neither of them is 15 years old, but both have stronger voices. I would see this performance for INTEREST, not to be wrapped in Puccini's music or to get involved in the story, opera. Butterfly, I should add, which may qualify all I've said, is not my favorite opera anyway, by Puccini or anyone else.

It's easy to come to this opera with a lot of expectations and if you are looking for a conventional approach this somewhat low-keyed version may not appeal to you. But if you are in the mood for something different then this stylish and skillful production could be just your cup of tea. The show has been directed attentively in oriental style. The stylized movement and the dramaturgy, costumes and settings all reflect an eastern approach and give the opera a rare sense of authenticity. The cherry blossoms are in full bloom here and you might actually think you were in Japan for a few hours. All the power and glory of Puccini's masterpiece are here in abundance. There are no doubt more melodramatic versions but I found this one to be far easier to swallow dramatically than ... say, the filmed Karajan (Ponnelle)--- which struck me as false through and through. I thought Hayashi Yasuko's ability to convey a range of emotions in her aria Un Bel Di was very impressive. The sense of hope, despair, doubt she was able to convey at the same time was just heart-breaking. The ending, too, is quite effective as the stage turns bright red in a sea of blood. A very oriental effect-- and a mighty powerful way to end this striking production.

Glad to have bought. The only thing I wasn't aware about was the setting up scene, it is too modern for Don Giovanni's time. Anyway not bad.

DON GIOVANNI is such a masterpiece that it takes poor conducting, very poor singers, or extremely poor direction to screw it up. It's the last that is the downfall of this production, with the combined lack of a adequate performance in the title role.
In concept, the staging could work: the production strips the Don of whatever shred of nobility he has, and he is shown as a brutal rapist and murderer who is still somehow strangely compelling to the fairer sex. I'd go see that GIOVANNI. But the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry, and what we are left with is a bit of a mess.
To start at the end, the final scene is deprived of any terror, full of cheesy fire floating in the background. The Commandatore appears to be a businessman in grey makeup, without a notion of the frightening specter that drags the dirty Don to hell. Before we get to the climax, there is some very uneven direction. Elvira is a valium-popping neurotic, which works. She tries to attack Leporello during their love duet, which doesn't. Masetto's beating is really brutal, which works. Masetto offers the Don a Heinekin when he crashes the wedding, which doesn't. Anna is clearly reliving her near-rape during her first act aria, which works tremendously well. During said rape, The Commandatore is strangled, which doesn't work at all, for not only must he sing after he receives his wound, but the music calls for a sword fight and the libretto depicts him lying in a pool of blood. Worst of all, the Don gropes a statue of the Madonna during the graveyard scene and the banquet, a clear-cut case of directorial silliness.
This is also a Don Giovanni without a real Don Giovanni. Elsewhere, Gilles Cachemaille has done fine work as Lepporello and Masetto on CD, but the Canadian Bass-Baritone is a lost cause as the Don. He's compitant enoungh, but he doesn't make much of a vocal impression when compared with his rivals on dvd: Siepi, Ramey, Allen, Luxon, and Terfel are playing a whole different ballgame. The serenade is completely unmemorable, the Champagne Aria rushed and uncomfortable. Cachemaille is usually a fine actor, but has been left to wallow here. (The Final scream as he is dragged to hell is comical, nothing more than a kind of yelp.) With the concept of a brutal Don, we must be offered another reason why women are so attracted to him, a magnetism or a zest for life. Cachemaille offers us nothing by way of compensation. Why does Elvira follow him, why does Anna feel at the same time repulsed and attracted to him, why does Zerlina nearly leave Masetto for him? Cachemaille gives us nothing in return, and we have no clue.
The production's saving graces come in the supporting cast. Steven Page is a wonderful Leporello who makes me wonder if the production would have been more successful if Master and Servant had switched roles, and both Donna Anna and Donna Elvira (Hellivi Martinpelto and Adrianne Pieczonka, respectively) are superb. Roberto Scaltriti's angry young Masetto is one of the best I've ever seen, and Julianne Banse is a sweetly-sung Zerlina. John Mark Ainsley is a noble Ottavio, for once worthy of both Donna Anna's hand and the divine Music he is given. Gudjon Oskarsson is an unobjectionable but unmemorable Commandatore. Yakov Kreizberg's conducting is workmanlike and brisk, video direction is fine, sound a bit weak in certain areas (The opera starts off with a very bad echo.) I'll give this two out of five stars for the excellent supporting cast.

The trouble with this bleakly modern staging of Don Giovanni isn't that it fails but that it works all too well. Instead of the Faustian Giovanni of traditional productions, whose defiance is so appealing that one almost wishes him a better fate, Gilles Cachemaille portrays a sex-crazed psychopath who unquestionably deserves the psychological hell he's created for himself. Instead of the stock commedia Donna Elvira, we get a hopeless co-dependent. The cocky survivor Leoporello, traditionally a double of Figaro but less lucky in his master, becomes a self-hating neurotic with just a hint of masochistic homoeroticism. Don Ottavio, traditionally a satiric role, in the Glyndebourne production becomes the most stable character, the "therapist" for Donna Anna. And so on. All the roles are well conceived in this dark, Bergmanesque psychodrama. It's a good piece of theater!

Oh, but what about the music? Unfortunately, it's not well-suited to the action, and perhaps should be replaced.

The production is stark, the costumes modern, the acting dramatic and exciting, the singing for the most part is superb, the orchestral sound is incisive, sharp and compelling. Altogether a gripping and committed performance of an old war horse. Also great video mix of close-ups and more distant shots.

The only time I am bothered by "updated" or "unusual" versions of an opera is when the opera itself is altered in order to fit the production. I am not disturbed by the fact that Elvira takes Prozac halfway into "Ah chi mi dice mai" with a bottle of water, or the fact that Don Giovanni drinks a can of Diet Coke at the wedding party. I even think Leporello's little bag of potato chips is a neat idea; Don Giovanni keeps snitching from it throughout the scene. However, I do not appreciate how brutish the men tend to be, nor how victimized the women are.

It has been called a feminist production for a reason--even the mild-mannered Leporello puts on a display of physical brutality during his catalogue aria--an aria which, while being in content shocking, is delivered with only the most polite language. Only Don Ottavio restrains himself, but they nevertheless manage to portray him as something of a jerk in the "Non mi dir" scene. Masetto looks disappointed with himself for being too weak to beat Zerlina, who appears to be perfectly sincere in her normally teasing aria "Batti, batti." The feminism isn't what bothers me--it's the fact that they take away from the integrity of the characters, making them, for the most part, less interesting. There is little distinction between Donna Anna and Zerlina in regards to personality, and Donna Elvira is only slightly different from them.

Don Giovanni is really gross. There is nothing appealing about this man, not simply in the way he acts, but in his state of dress, and in his appearance in general. There is nothing seductive about him. He is so disgusting that it seems like the women are falling for him purely out of tradition. He does have a wonderful playfulness to him at times, suggesting that he takes nothing seriously, certainly not the things he should take seriously, and especially not his servant, whom he abuses to no end. Actually, I thought the amount of abuse Leporello received was a little too much; when Don Giovanni is constantly strangling him and throwing him across the stage until one thinks the servant will break in half, the moment when the Don is actually prepared to kill him (the end of the first act) is nothing new at all. In fact, I wondered why Leporello was so upset over it--Don Giovanni "almost kills" him roughly five times a day, so why should this time be any different?

Leporello is beautifully sung and well-acted. The character in this production is quite a clown, more so than I generally like, but less so than many Leporellos. His look upon seeing Donna Elvira for the first time is priceless; he looks ready to spew potato chip crumbs everywhere.

Donna Anna is sympathetically played and sung wonderfully well, making her the first Donna Anna I can remember not hating. Don Ottavio is a little wooden, but a fine tenor nonetheless. Masetto is slightly frightening, whereas Zerlina is a complete wimp. Donna Elvira is probably the best of all of them, strong even as she crumples beneath the weight of all that's happening to her. Vocally, she is nearly perfect for the role, with a nice weight to her voice so essential for her wonderful aria "Mi tradi quell'alma ingrata."

The production is very minimalistic, which creates a dark, modern atmosphere. I actually find it very clever. There is a slightly different take on the "Don Giovanni a cenar teco m'invitasti scene" in this production; Don Giovanni opens the door, only to find nothing. Looking back to the table, he sees the Commendatore standing there already.

The Commendatore was done in a commendably low-tech fashion; he was essentially presented as a ghost rather than a statue. During "O statua gentilissima," Don Giovanni and Leporello sing to a real statue, while the ghost moves slowly about the stage, watching them. It is the ghost which nods and sings "si." Very well done for a low-budget production.

Altogether, not terrible, but not so great. It balances out to an average. Three stars seems right.

Glad to have bought. The only thing I wasn't aware about was the setting up scene, it is too modern for Don Giovanni's time. Anyway not bad.

DON GIOVANNI is such a masterpiece that it takes poor conducting, very poor singers, or extremely poor direction to screw it up. It's the last that is the downfall of this production, with the combined lack of a adequate performance in the title role.
In concept, the staging could work: the production strips the Don of whatever shred of nobility he has, and he is shown as a brutal rapist and murderer who is still somehow strangely compelling to the fairer sex. I'd go see that GIOVANNI. But the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry, and what we are left with is a bit of a mess.
To start at the end, the final scene is deprived of any terror, full of cheesy fire floating in the background. The Commandatore appears to be a businessman in grey makeup, without a notion of the frightening specter that drags the dirty Don to hell. Before we get to the climax, there is some very uneven direction. Elvira is a valium-popping neurotic, which works. She tries to attack Leporello during their love duet, which doesn't. Masetto's beating is really brutal, which works. Masetto offers the Don a Heinekin when he crashes the wedding, which doesn't. Anna is clearly reliving her near-rape during her first act aria, which works tremendously well. During said rape, The Commandatore is strangled, which doesn't work at all, for not only must he sing after he receives his wound, but the music calls for a sword fight and the libretto depicts him lying in a pool of blood. Worst of all, the Don gropes a statue of the Madonna during the graveyard scene and the banquet, a clear-cut case of directorial silliness.
This is also a Don Giovanni without a real Don Giovanni. Elsewhere, Gilles Cachemaille has done fine work as Lepporello and Masetto on CD, but the Canadian Bass-Baritone is a lost cause as the Don. He's compitant enoungh, but he doesn't make much of a vocal impression when compared with his rivals on dvd: Siepi, Ramey, Allen, Luxon, and Terfel are playing a whole different ballgame. The serenade is completely unmemorable, the Champagne Aria rushed and uncomfortable. Cachemaille is usually a fine actor, but has been left to wallow here. (The Final scream as he is dragged to hell is comical, nothing more than a kind of yelp.) With the concept of a brutal Don, we must be offered another reason why women are so attracted to him, a magnetism or a zest for life. Cachemaille offers us nothing by way of compensation. Why does Elvira follow him, why does Anna feel at the same time repulsed and attracted to him, why does Zerlina nearly leave Masetto for him? Cachemaille gives us nothing in return, and we have no clue.
The production's saving graces come in the supporting cast. Steven Page is a wonderful Leporello who makes me wonder if the production would have been more successful if Master and Servant had switched roles, and both Donna Anna and Donna Elvira (Hellivi Martinpelto and Adrianne Pieczonka, respectively) are superb. Roberto Scaltriti's angry young Masetto is one of the best I've ever seen, and Julianne Banse is a sweetly-sung Zerlina. John Mark Ainsley is a noble Ottavio, for once worthy of both Donna Anna's hand and the divine Music he is given. Gudjon Oskarsson is an unobjectionable but unmemorable Commandatore. Yakov Kreizberg's conducting is workmanlike and brisk, video direction is fine, sound a bit weak in certain areas (The opera starts off with a very bad echo.) I'll give this two out of five stars for the excellent supporting cast.

The trouble with this bleakly modern staging of Don Giovanni isn't that it fails but that it works all too well. Instead of the Faustian Giovanni of traditional productions, whose defiance is so appealing that one almost wishes him a better fate, Gilles Cachemaille portrays a sex-crazed psychopath who unquestionably deserves the psychological hell he's created for himself. Instead of the stock commedia Donna Elvira, we get a hopeless co-dependent. The cocky survivor Leoporello, traditionally a double of Figaro but less lucky in his master, becomes a self-hating neurotic with just a hint of masochistic homoeroticism. Don Ottavio, traditionally a satiric role, in the Glyndebourne production becomes the most stable character, the "therapist" for Donna Anna. And so on. All the roles are well conceived in this dark, Bergmanesque psychodrama. It's a good piece of theater!

Oh, but what about the music? Unfortunately, it's not well-suited to the action, and perhaps should be replaced.

The production is stark, the costumes modern, the acting dramatic and exciting, the singing for the most part is superb, the orchestral sound is incisive, sharp and compelling. Altogether a gripping and committed performance of an old war horse. Also great video mix of close-ups and more distant shots.

The only time I am bothered by "updated" or "unusual" versions of an opera is when the opera itself is altered in order to fit the production. I am not disturbed by the fact that Elvira takes Prozac halfway into "Ah chi mi dice mai" with a bottle of water, or the fact that Don Giovanni drinks a can of Diet Coke at the wedding party. I even think Leporello's little bag of potato chips is a neat idea; Don Giovanni keeps snitching from it throughout the scene. However, I do not appreciate how brutish the men tend to be, nor how victimized the women are.

It has been called a feminist production for a reason--even the mild-mannered Leporello puts on a display of physical brutality during his catalogue aria--an aria which, while being in content shocking, is delivered with only the most polite language. Only Don Ottavio restrains himself, but they nevertheless manage to portray him as something of a jerk in the "Non mi dir" scene. Masetto looks disappointed with himself for being too weak to beat Zerlina, who appears to be perfectly sincere in her normally teasing aria "Batti, batti." The feminism isn't what bothers me--it's the fact that they take away from the integrity of the characters, making them, for the most part, less interesting. There is little distinction between Donna Anna and Zerlina in regards to personality, and Donna Elvira is only slightly different from them.

Don Giovanni is really gross. There is nothing appealing about this man, not simply in the way he acts, but in his state of dress, and in his appearance in general. There is nothing seductive about him. He is so disgusting that it seems like the women are falling for him purely out of tradition. He does have a wonderful playfulness to him at times, suggesting that he takes nothing seriously, certainly not the things he should take seriously, and especially not his servant, whom he abuses to no end. Actually, I thought the amount of abuse Leporello received was a little too much; when Don Giovanni is constantly strangling him and throwing him across the stage until one thinks the servant will break in half, the moment when the Don is actually prepared to kill him (the end of the first act) is nothing new at all. In fact, I wondered why Leporello was so upset over it--Don Giovanni "almost kills" him roughly five times a day, so why should this time be any different?

Leporello is beautifully sung and well-acted. The character in this production is quite a clown, more so than I generally like, but less so than many Leporellos. His look upon seeing Donna Elvira for the first time is priceless; he looks ready to spew potato chip crumbs everywhere.

Donna Anna is sympathetically played and sung wonderfully well, making her the first Donna Anna I can remember not hating. Don Ottavio is a little wooden, but a fine tenor nonetheless. Masetto is slightly frightening, whereas Zerlina is a complete wimp. Donna Elvira is probably the best of all of them, strong even as she crumples beneath the weight of all that's happening to her. Vocally, she is nearly perfect for the role, with a nice weight to her voice so essential for her wonderful aria "Mi tradi quell'alma ingrata."

The production is very minimalistic, which creates a dark, modern atmosphere. I actually find it very clever. There is a slightly different take on the "Don Giovanni a cenar teco m'invitasti scene" in this production; Don Giovanni opens the door, only to find nothing. Looking back to the table, he sees the Commendatore standing there already.

The Commendatore was done in a commendably low-tech fashion; he was essentially presented as a ghost rather than a statue. During "O statua gentilissima," Don Giovanni and Leporello sing to a real statue, while the ghost moves slowly about the stage, watching them. It is the ghost which nods and sings "si." Very well done for a low-budget production.

Altogether, not terrible, but not so great. It balances out to an average. Three stars seems right.

Overall, very appealing. Bright, sharp visuals; full crisp sound; mostly good cast. Weaknesses, surprisingly, is Rene Fleming at the time who was about 30 pounds overweight and who's voice as yet had no dynamics. Also, staging a bit crude and minimalist. Also, not widescreen. So, better than many but not quite satisfying.

La qualità sonora è proprio mediocre. A questo si aggiunge una dizione veramente scadente, difficile da tollerare in una recita avvenuta nella Nazione del teatro ed in un tempio dell'Opera quale Glyndebourne. Perfino i recitativi risultano talvolta incomprensibili, quantomeno quelli delle parti minori, ammesso e non concesso che in questa opera qualcosa possa essere considerata minore. Viceversa sappiamo quanto nella trilogia di Da Ponte i recitativi costituiscano il telaio portante dell'opera, in grado non solo di sorreggere ma anche di fare ulteriormente lievitare in alto una musica letteralmente baciata dal cielo.
Paradossalmente consiglierei l'editore di aggiungere quantomeno i sottotitoli in italiano (sigh!).

Please do not waste your money on this one. The sound is tourchuring. We could not even listen through the first act! It was complete waste of money for us! Poor Mozart, and I always thought that you can't go wrong with Mozart's pieces, what a dissapointment.

Must the role of Cherubino ALWAYS be sung by a woman? I ask in ignorance: Why must this be so? I found this character impossible to accept, and for me the woman who sang the role ruined every scene she was in. I could only see a woman dressed as a man and pretending to be a man, and a willing suspension of disbelief simply would not set in.

This is my third Nozze. I give it 5 stars for scenery, costumes, freshness and entertainment! singers are all very excellent (except don basilio) - direction is clean and fresh - orchestra from london philarmonic is tight and with an excellent tempo - acting is believable and very realistic and clean.

recommended.

Overall, very appealing. Bright, sharp visuals; full crisp sound; mostly good cast. Weaknesses, surprisingly, is Rene Fleming at the time who was about 30 pounds overweight and who's voice as yet had no dynamics. Also, staging a bit crude and minimalist. Also, not widescreen. So, better than many but not quite satisfying.

La qualità sonora è proprio mediocre. A questo si aggiunge una dizione veramente scadente, difficile da tollerare in una recita avvenuta nella Nazione del teatro ed in un tempio dell'Opera quale Glyndebourne. Perfino i recitativi risultano talvolta incomprensibili, quantomeno quelli delle parti minori, ammesso e non concesso che in questa opera qualcosa possa essere considerata minore. Viceversa sappiamo quanto nella trilogia di Da Ponte i recitativi costituiscano il telaio portante dell'opera, in grado non solo di sorreggere ma anche di fare ulteriormente lievitare in alto una musica letteralmente baciata dal cielo.
Paradossalmente consiglierei l'editore di aggiungere quantomeno i sottotitoli in italiano (sigh!).

Please do not waste your money on this one. The sound is tourchuring. We could not even listen through the first act! It was complete waste of money for us! Poor Mozart, and I always thought that you can't go wrong with Mozart's pieces, what a dissapointment.

Must the role of Cherubino ALWAYS be sung by a woman? I ask in ignorance: Why must this be so? I found this character impossible to accept, and for me the woman who sang the role ruined every scene she was in. I could only see a woman dressed as a man and pretending to be a man, and a willing suspension of disbelief simply would not set in.

This is my third Nozze. I give it 5 stars for scenery, costumes, freshness and entertainment! singers are all very excellent (except don basilio) - direction is clean and fresh - orchestra from london philarmonic is tight and with an excellent tempo - acting is believable and very realistic and clean.

recommended.

First, the music was written by the 14 year old Mozart and it is pretty good with some neat twists but nothing like what you expect in the more mature works. Vocally, particularly, the arias are very like instrumental concertos with space for a short unaccompanied cadenza. This means they are very difficult. This cast, particularly Aspasia(Organasova), Ismene (Lillian Watson), and Farnace (Jochen Kowalski) execute these with a lot of finesse. Sifare (Anne Murray) and Mitridate (Bruce Ford) are not so agile and tend to become very strident and wobbly in places, especially in loud or high passages. Still, the music is there and well performed. The worst feature of the staging is the costumes which I don't normally notice. All characters have huge wide skirts and the principles usually have wide (2-3') ledges out from their hips. This means the acting is stiff or non-existent and characters essentially must keep separate to prevent collisions. The colors are garish, Glaring reflections are common and Ismene's print is truly hideous. I'm normally tolerant of this sort of thing but even I thought this a serious defect in this production.

Amadeus means "loved by God." Only a genius loved by God could write and orchestrate like this and only be 14 years old. Sure it's the old opera seria style yet Mozart even at 14 expands the boundaries of this convention. I love this opera with this cast. Ford, Murray, Orgonasova and all sing wonderfully. The sets are fair the costumes are ridiculous but, who cares with singing and conducting like this. I'd rather have this then some recent euro trash I've just seen live! Don't miss any of a favorite soprano's (Orgonasova) other recordings. She's GREAT! What a joy it is to have a DVD of one of her performances. The singers and conductor make this work in spite of a weak plot and hysterical costumes.
Don't be afraid to give this a viewing. The performers are great.

Being a lover of pre-Romantic Opera & all things Baroque, this release of "Mitridate" is manna in the desert for me. The sheer commitment of all involved in this production is enough to convince anyone of Mozart's (and pre-Romantic opera's) possibilities to create a dramatic (& entertaining) work of art.

Expect regal singing from all involved, especially Bruce Ford. He makes Mitridate's music sound as easy as breathing - this stratospheric part (top C following top C) is really the Turandot for (lyric) tenors. Jochen Kowalski puts his honey-like, finely honed counter-tenor to good use as the scheming brother, Farnace. Ann Murray is Ann Murray. Her voice, compared to her earlier excursion of the same part under Harnoncourt, has lost some of its beauty in the upper reaches, yet hers still remain a telling account of Sifare's music. Luba Orgonasova has a few misses as Aspasia, but is still wonderful - I prefer Yvonne Kenny; Arleen Auger; Natalie Dessay in this part. Lillian Watson as Ismene is a treat - even though she sometimes display "harsh" sounds in the upper register. The dramatisation of her first aria is magic (and difficult - she does some fine bangra dancing amidst the torrents of coloratura). The first entrance of Mitridate & his Samurai retinue; the Act one finale & Mitridate's second Act entrance are other moments to look out for. These are only a few of many remarkable moments.

The music will speak for itself. There are admittedly a few weaknesses in the score: much of the music is in a major key, and a fast tempo. This has more to do with the tastes of the time, than the young Mozart. He was expected to write flashy and entertaining music for his singers to show off their talents. In the original production Mozart had three castrati at his disposal. That explains why Sifare and Arbate are sopranos & Farnace an alto. Tenors, baritones and basses are reserved for older characters. For the 18th century audience, youth and virility could only manifest itself as sopranos in the bodies of castrati or female sopranos. Sexual ambiguity is one of the main characteristics of 18th century operas & this fascination is highligthed by the casting of the stunning counter-tenor Jochen Kowalski as Farnace.

Like Handel Mozart managed to strech the conventions, without breaking them. Sifare's farewell, "Lungi da te" - is heart-breaking and equal to any of Mozart's later music - finds Ann Murray unbeatable. Aspasia's extended scena when contemplating suicide is something which side steps "Don Giovanni" straight to Cherubini's "Medea". "Ombre pallide" and "Lungi da te", with its plungent and athletic horn solo must, have shocked the first audience. There are no real ensembles, except for the final (brief) quintett. The (only) duet is sensual and effectively conveys the sadness/unwillingness at the lovers' parting. This duet exists in two ravishing versions. The first one is my favourite, but the second one, which is now commonly used, is of no mean order either. For more mature opere serie from this composer, we will have to wait for "Lucia Silla", "Idomeneo" and "Tito".

The costumes are wonderful & opulent - an intelligent mix of 18th century fashion, mixed with oriental (Japanese) influences. This video makes a very valid case for any Mozart (early) opera. What we need are more singers/conductors/stage designers & directors like those who participated in the creation of this production. They make no excuse for the opera, or its conventions. They allow the music and drama to speak for themselves, without trying to be clever and super imposing their own ideas on the music. Whether you buy this staging or the Ponselle, you will be in for a treat. You may want to know that there are fewer cuts in the Covent Garden version, than the Ponselle & that Ponselle ineffectively uses a boy soprano (!) for Arbate.

The singers are great, especially Bruce Ford and Ann Murray. Unfortunaly, the director has made bad choices regarding the sets ... and the costumes. They are so exaggerately wide that the characters seem to be sitting on the border of their bed! And what about the make-up? All characters have white faces. You could believe they are dead. All this deconcentrates the viewer. I was so frustrated that I stopped looking at it and did something else while listening. I would recommend to buy the CD version with Cecilia Bartoli instead. If you buy this one, listen to it, but turn your TV off!

I have a version of this opera on VHS with Gosta Winbergh that blew me away when I saw it. I have been waiting hopefully for its appearance on DVD...but, I gave in and bought this one while I'm waiting. Absolutely excellent. Young Mozart was a soulful 14-year old to be sure. Much of his early-mid music strikes me as a mathematical exercise, with just about that much resonance...but this music is full of honest emotion without excess. Shades of the mature Mozart with no need to give ground for his extreme youth.

First, the music was written by the 14 year old Mozart and it is pretty good with some neat twists but nothing like what you expect in the more mature works. Vocally, particularly, the arias are very like instrumental concertos with space for a short unaccompanied cadenza. This means they are very difficult. This cast, particularly Aspasia(Organasova), Ismene (Lillian Watson), and Farnace (Jochen Kowalski) execute these with a lot of finesse. Sifare (Anne Murray) and Mitridate (Bruce Ford) are not so agile and tend to become very strident and wobbly in places, especially in loud or high passages. Still, the music is there and well performed. The worst feature of the staging is the costumes which I don't normally notice. All characters have huge wide skirts and the principles usually have wide (2-3') ledges out from their hips. This means the acting is stiff or non-existent and characters essentially must keep separate to prevent collisions. The colors are garish, Glaring reflections are common and Ismene's print is truly hideous. I'm normally tolerant of this sort of thing but even I thought this a serious defect in this production.

Amadeus means "loved by God." Only a genius loved by God could write and orchestrate like this and only be 14 years old. Sure it's the old opera seria style yet Mozart even at 14 expands the boundaries of this convention. I love this opera with this cast. Ford, Murray, Orgonasova and all sing wonderfully. The sets are fair the costumes are ridiculous but, who cares with singing and conducting like this. I'd rather have this then some recent euro trash I've just seen live! Don't miss any of a favorite soprano's (Orgonasova) other recordings. She's GREAT! What a joy it is to have a DVD of one of her performances. The singers and conductor make this work in spite of a weak plot and hysterical costumes.
Don't be afraid to give this a viewing. The performers are great.

Being a lover of pre-Romantic Opera & all things Baroque, this release of "Mitridate" is manna in the desert for me. The sheer commitment of all involved in this production is enough to convince anyone of Mozart's (and pre-Romantic opera's) possibilities to create a dramatic (& entertaining) work of art.

Expect regal singing from all involved, especially Bruce Ford. He makes Mitridate's music sound as easy as breathing - this stratospheric part (top C following top C) is really the Turandot for (lyric) tenors. Jochen Kowalski puts his honey-like, finely honed counter-tenor to good use as the scheming brother, Farnace. Ann Murray is Ann Murray. Her voice, compared to her earlier excursion of the same part under Harnoncourt, has lost some of its beauty in the upper reaches, yet hers still remain a telling account of Sifare's music. Luba Orgonasova has a few misses as Aspasia, but is still wonderful - I prefer Yvonne Kenny; Arleen Auger; Natalie Dessay in this part. Lillian Watson as Ismene is a treat - even though she sometimes display "harsh" sounds in the upper register. The dramatisation of her first aria is magic (and difficult - she does some fine bangra dancing amidst the torrents of coloratura). The first entrance of Mitridate & his Samurai retinue; the Act one finale & Mitridate's second Act entrance are other moments to look out for. These are only a few of many remarkable moments.

The music will speak for itself. There are admittedly a few weaknesses in the score: much of the music is in a major key, and a fast tempo. This has more to do with the tastes of the time, than the young Mozart. He was expected to write flashy and entertaining music for his singers to show off their talents. In the original production Mozart had three castrati at his disposal. That explains why Sifare and Arbate are sopranos & Farnace an alto. Tenors, baritones and basses are reserved for older characters. For the 18th century audience, youth and virility could only manifest itself as sopranos in the bodies of castrati or female sopranos. Sexual ambiguity is one of the main characteristics of 18th century operas & this fascination is highligthed by the casting of the stunning counter-tenor Jochen Kowalski as Farnace.

Like Handel Mozart managed to strech the conventions, without breaking them. Sifare's farewell, "Lungi da te" - is heart-breaking and equal to any of Mozart's later music - finds Ann Murray unbeatable. Aspasia's extended scena when contemplating suicide is something which side steps "Don Giovanni" straight to Cherubini's "Medea". "Ombre pallide" and "Lungi da te", with its plungent and athletic horn solo must, have shocked the first audience. There are no real ensembles, except for the final (brief) quintett. The (only) duet is sensual and effectively conveys the sadness/unwillingness at the lovers' parting. This duet exists in two ravishing versions. The first one is my favourite, but the second one, which is now commonly used, is of no mean order either. For more mature opere serie from this composer, we will have to wait for "Lucia Silla", "Idomeneo" and "Tito".

The costumes are wonderful & opulent - an intelligent mix of 18th century fashion, mixed with oriental (Japanese) influences. This video makes a very valid case for any Mozart (early) opera. What we need are more singers/conductors/stage designers & directors like those who participated in the creation of this production. They make no excuse for the opera, or its conventions. They allow the music and drama to speak for themselves, without trying to be clever and super imposing their own ideas on the music. Whether you buy this staging or the Ponselle, you will be in for a treat. You may want to know that there are fewer cuts in the Covent Garden version, than the Ponselle & that Ponselle ineffectively uses a boy soprano (!) for Arbate.

The singers are great, especially Bruce Ford and Ann Murray. Unfortunaly, the director has made bad choices regarding the sets ... and the costumes. They are so exaggerately wide that the characters seem to be sitting on the border of their bed! And what about the make-up? All characters have white faces. You could believe they are dead. All this deconcentrates the viewer. I was so frustrated that I stopped looking at it and did something else while listening. I would recommend to buy the CD version with Cecilia Bartoli instead. If you buy this one, listen to it, but turn your TV off!

I have a version of this opera on VHS with Gosta Winbergh that blew me away when I saw it. I have been waiting hopefully for its appearance on DVD...but, I gave in and bought this one while I'm waiting. Absolutely excellent. Young Mozart was a soulful 14-year old to be sure. Much of his early-mid music strikes me as a mathematical exercise, with just about that much resonance...but this music is full of honest emotion without excess. Shades of the mature Mozart with no need to give ground for his extreme youth.