DVD opera you recommend...
Mon, Apr 19 2010, 7:07PM
Evening all; I have a request of my learned friends. Recently, I have delved into DVD recordings of staged opera after many years resistance to the medium (preferring to hear it on disc or see it live and finding it difficult to engage on a small screen). A friend of my wife lent us 3 recordings; Pagliacci and Cavalleria with a young Domingo in fine voice and a recording of La Boheme from the ROH with Gardelli conducting and Cotrubas and Schicoff as a fine Mimi and Rodolfo, respectively, but with my plaudits to Thomas Allen for a tremendous reading of Marcello (fine diction indeed; what a marvellous singer). Now, my wife is keen to explore opera on DVD further, so here is my question; affected as she was by La Boheme, what DVD releases do you recommend of the following operas, both dramatically acted and sung:
1. Tristan
2. Aida
3. Otello
4. Madame Butterfly and Turandot
5. Pelleas e Melisande.
Kind regards, Myron C
Fri, Apr 23 2010, 10:59PM
#2
RE: DVD opera you recommend...
For Otello - Domingo, Te Kanawa, Solti from Covent Garden
Aida - Domingo, Millo, Zajick, Milnes, Levine - Met
Butterfly - Freni, Domingo, Karajan - film (though slightly offputting when you can hear them singing although their mouths are not moving at times)
Turandot - Dimitrova, Gasdia, Martinucci, Oren from Verona
The tough ones first, eh Myron? I'm not learned, but here goes.
Of those five, I don't hear many raves about any of the available Aida's or Butterfly's and I'm not overly-keen on the ones I've seen. The Barenboim/Kollo/Meier Tristan I like although it's a kind of studio performance and as much as I find irritating the reactions of, say, the Met audience, going berserk at every scene change, having no audience reaction at all makes the whole thing slightly antiseptic.
The Gyndebourne Pelleas, conducted by Davis with Tomlinson and Oelze, I found disappointing. As much as I like Davis, and find Vick's work interesting, this production seemed overly-clever and confused to me. I much prefer the Boulez which, strangely enough, is more traditional.
The Met Turandot surprised the heck out of me. Marton impressed, Levine doesn't seem to be bad at anything, and the production wasn't as frowsy or Hollywoodish as some I've seen from the Met.
For Otello, you're probably on much safer ground. There are strong advocates for a number of versions and Domingo has at least a couple that are generally considered excellent. I'm very happy with the Met/Domingo/Fleming. Some think Morris under-plays Iago, but his brand of sly villainy, also glimpsed in his performances of Wotan, works perfectly for me.
One man's views, and I appreciate that with opera more than any other genre there are performances to meet or offend every taste.
Dvd opera has been an eye-opener for me, but then I have so little opportunity to attend the real thing. With big-screen TVs improving by the minutes and dropping in price, dts sound and now blu-ray discs, the sky's the limit. Outside the six you've mentioned, there are some superb performances available.