The Product:
In the world of opera, there is only one truly mega-magnum opus: Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen. Also known as The Ring of the Nibelung or The Ring Cycle for short, it is composed of four huge pieces, each one reinterpreting Norse mythology into a continuing tale of greed, deception, loyalty, faith, courage, power, and cosmic manipulation. Shakespearean in scope and ambitious to a fault, few have seen the completed work in its entirety - and that's not really a surprise, when you consider that a traditional staging of the quartet can run anywhere from 16 to 20 hours. As a result of its size and range, many companies and creative directors have tried to infuse Der Ring des Nibelungen with contemporary and sometimes surreal elements. This is especially true of the La Fura dels Baus offering of the final phase of the piece, Götterdämmer...Read the entire review

The Product:
When DVD first arrived, audio and video purists greeted the format with open arms. In their mind, the updated technology afforded the kind of sophisticated reproduction and sound/vision clarity the CD, VHS, and standard analog mediums lacked. Fast forward a decade, and Blu-ray is getting the same sort of scrutiny, being sized up for uses other than home theater versions of your favorite big screen blockbusters. Granted, this remains relatively virgin territory. After all, the whole updated sound situation with DVD hasn't really translated over into massive music sales (or interest, for that matter). Indeed, for many, the switch from analog to digital has stayed solidly in the realm of cinema. So a Blu-ray release like The Virtual Haydn; Joseph Haydn's Complete Works for Solo Keyboard seems like a tough sell. It's a multi-disc set which uses the format's amazing sonic clar...Read the entire review

Reviews of opera Blu-rays on the web can't be that plentiful, so I'm already anticipating reactions from readers shocked that a person basically ignorant about opera (me) should even attempt a review. But, as I was curious about the new Arthaus Musik Blu-ray of Wagner: Die Walküre (St. Clair Ring Cycle Part 2), I've decided to give it a go. Unless the opera faithful resent outsiders peeking in on their special world, I'll probably survive. Let the eye rolling begin.

If I were any more uninformed I might think the Ring Cycle was on the washer dial between Spin and Dry. I know my way around a fairly wide array of movie subjects but was intrigued, in my own unschooled way, to find out more about Wagner. The other stage and music performance Blu-rays I've acquired have been of excell...Read the entire review

The Movie:
What were you doing when you were 18? Counting the days until you graduated from high school? Maybe working your first part time job? Relishing in that peculiar freedom that comes from being old enough to be largely responsible for your private time, while still being young enough to have your basic needs provided by your parents? Whatever you were doing, chances are you weren't, like Mozart was at this tender age, finishing your first really mature opera buffa, La Finta Giardiniera (The Pretend Garden Girl).

In an oeuvre so variegated and massive as Mozart's, it's natural that at least a few pieces have (at least temporarily) fallen by the wayside and not really enjoyed the renown they should in a just world. Such a piece is Giardiniera, a piece whose relative obscurity was at least partly due to the centuries long loss of the original Italian li...Read the entire review

The Movie:
The conflict between High Art and Popular Culture (should that one be capitalized?) is something that's not new or in fact even endemic to highbrow pursuits like opera and music in general. Witness, for example, the Bravo Channel. When I first got cable, back in the Dark Ages (meaning the late 1980s), Bravo was the "go to" station for art films and, lo and behold, performances of opera and classical music. Now, of course, we have Kathy Griffin's exploits on the D-list (not that I'm complaining, mind you). It's something that any artist who hopes to make their living with their art obviously struggles with literally on a day to day basis--should they resign themselves to penury and pursue only their highest aspirations, or should they give in to the call of the vox populi, and do something that will guarantee them a hefty regular royalty check? That very struggle is at t...Read the entire review

The Movie:
Some time ago here on DVD Talk, I mentioned in my review of Prokofiev's Love for Three Oranges how amazing it was that the great early to mid 20th century Russian composers were able to work under the strictures the Soviet state imposed on them. The flip side of that equation might be seen in the cautionary tale of Dmitri Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, an opera which debuted in 1934 to praise (if some consternation), but just a few years later was denounced in Pravda, the official Soviet news source, and became the symbol (in official Soviet eyes, at least) of Shostakovich's bourgeois degradation, leading to the official banning of his music for years. I have to say that I've always found it somewhat amazing that an opera this openly salacious, sexual and, dare I say, perverted ever saw the light of day in the USSR to begin with, let alone have at le...Read the entire review

The Movie:
My hunch is if you quizzed a group of opera aficionados, hardly any of them would know who Federico Moreno Torroba was. But if you asked a similar group of classical guitar aficionados, at least one or two of them could give you a long laundry list of great works this Spanish composer who lived until 1982 wrote for famous players like Segovia. The fact is, Torroba's operatic efforts, in the smaller scale, more populist form known as zarzuela, were really his claim to fame in his native country, though their fame hasn't really spread worldwide. Luisa Fernanda was his first unqualified success in this genre, and it receives a lovely interpretation starring Placido Domingo in this new BD release.

The zarzuela might be compared to the slightly more highbrow efforts in musical theater of, say, Schönberg and Boublil (Les Miserables)--that is, works which stay resolute...Read the entire review

The Movie:
Any Verdi, Greta Garbo or even Baz Luhrman fans out there who may on a whim pick up La Dame Aux Camelias may have a slight (or even more than slight) feeling of déjà vu as they watch. This very interesting quasi-ballet, accompanied by Chopin music, is an adaptation of the famous Alexandre Dumas fils novel (a sort of confessional semi-autobiography) that later became the inspiration for Verdi's Il Trovatore, the oft-filmed Camille (including of course the famous Garbo version) and, at least tangentially, Luhrman's epic Moulin Rouge. Here we get the ill-fated romance between an aging French courtesan (Agnes Letestu) and a young rake (Stephane Bullion), but choreographer John Numeier has filled this version with some very neat self-referential moments, some of which came from Dumas' original writings, but which have never made it into previous ve...Read the entire review

The Movie:
If I may be permitted to channel none other than Susan Powter for just a moment, please excuse me while I scream to whatever Gods (Teutonic or otherwise) may be listening, "Stop the insanity!" I recently reviewed Staatskapelle Weimar's pretty abysmal production of Das Rheingold, a production which left me literally shuddering in disbelief at the stupendously bad decisions made in staging. At least I gave credit where credit was due, to the production's largely flawless singing and orchestral accompaniment, both of which were delivered more or less flawlessly on that ArtHaus Musik BD. Well, to paraphrase another pop culture icon of sorts, Poltergeist, "They're baaaaack," this time doing Die Walküre, the first opera proper of The Ring cycle after Das Rheingold's prelude. ...Read the entire review

Note: I reviewed the SD-DVD version of this title last week. This review repeats non-format specific portions of that review.

The Movie:
Pay attention the next time you watch one of those great dance sequences from any of the better films to come out of the MGM Freed Unit during its heyday. Something very interesting is going on, at least from a camerawork perspective: absolutely nothing. Now that isn't a blanket statement, and of course there are notable exceptions, as when a camera might start in close and track back to reveal something, or conversely, crane shots that start wide and then swoop in to one or more principal dancers. But notice the simplicity of most of, say, the great Astaire routines--the camera is placed to reveal the entire body, and it just sits there as Fred does his thing. Dance really is something that needs to be seen in mid-shots for the most part, if...Read the entire review

Note: I reviewed the SD-DVD release of this title last week. This review repeats non-format specific portions of that review.

The Movie:
You film buffs out there who actually pay attention to composer credits (you know who you are--and let me be the first to congratulate you for being so aware) will no doubt recognize the name of Tan Dun, if for no other film than the iconic Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Marco Polo presents Dun as composer and conductor in the world of opera, or perhaps more appropriately musical theater, as this piece walks a fine line between classical idioms, ethnic musics, and one of the most audacious physical productions I've had the pleasure of viewing lately. This is challenging music wrapped around an equally challenging libretto, but if you stick with it for the long haul, you're in for one of the most astoundingly unique productions you...Read the entire review

The Movie:
Have you ever really paid attention to the lyric to "Mack the Knife?" I know it may be hard to fully concentrate when you're confronted with, say, the swingin' attitude of Bobby Darin or the more understated elegance of Louis Armstrong, but take just a moment to peruse only the first stanza of what may be the most unusual song to ever repeatedly crack the Top 40:

Oh the shark has pretty teeth dear,
And he shows them pearly white
Just a jack-knife has MacHeath dear
And he keeps it out of sight.

Probably due to Kurt Weill's infectious melody, a lot of listeners probably let the fact that the song is about a serial murderer slip by them. The really interesting thing, at least from a musicological and historical perspective, is that Weill and his librettist Bertolt Brecht, who wrote the tune for their epochal The Threepenny Opera, actually culled the id...Read the entire review

The Movie:
You film buffs out there who actually pay attention to composer credits (you know who you are--and let me be the first to congratulate you for being so aware) will no doubt recognize the name of Tan Dun, if for no other film than the iconic Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Marco Polo presents Dun as composer and conductor in the world of opera, or perhaps more appropriately musical theater, as this piece walks a fine line between classical idioms, ethnic musics, and one of the most audacious physical productions I've had the pleasure of viewing lately. This is challenging music wrapped around an equally challenging libretto, but if you stick with it for the long haul, you're in for one of the most astoundingly unique productions you're likely to see this, or any, year.

Dun and librettist Paul Griffiths take the basic facts of Marco Polo's life and mythologizes them...Read the entire review

The Movie:
Sometimes the DVDTalk database is just a little off kilter (no fault of our own, I might add--distributors often send along incorrect information). Here I had my popcorn all made, had pulled up my favorite comfy chair, and was prepared to launch into one of the all-time kitsch-fests, 1947's unintentionally hilarious "biography" of Rimsky-Korsakov, Song of Scheherazade, featuring Yvonne DeCarlo in one of her most (for better or worse) unforgettable roles. Instead what ended up getting delivered to my doorstep was an interesting little compilation of two late 1970s live concert videos of the prog-rock group Renaissance, one of which featured their epic song cycle "Song of Scheherezade." Well, it may not be Rimsky-Korsakov (though Renaissance loved to quote classical pieces in their own works), and it certainly doesn't feature the future Lily Munster, but this DVD, despite o...Read the entire review

The Movie:
A lot of people decry modern Hollywood stars when they voice their opinions on things political. Tell those folks to stay away from Tosca, Puccini's famous opera that one wag famously termed a "shabby little shocker," because its politically active hero, Mario Cavaradossi, doesn't just talk about political intrigue, he sings about it, and has the added audacity to be both an artist and the accomplice of an escaped political prisoner. Enter Mario's love, Tosca, a singer who finds herself sucked into the gaping maw of the Napoleonic wars, and, despite Puccini's assertion that he wanted Tosca to be something other than "grand opera," you have all the elements of a classic tragedy set to some of Puccini's most heart-rending music. This very interesting outdoor production is colorful and unusual, and provides soprano Fiorenza Cedolins with the chance to tear into...Read the entire review

The Movie:
What a sweet and bracing breath of fresh air it is to see conductor/composer Jose Serebrier taking such obvious delight in the brilliant playing of his National Youth Orchestra of Spain on this concert DVD filmed at Chester Cathedral in Britain. Serebrier doesn't just communicate that delight in his frequent smiles and gestures to these young soon-to-be professionals--he actually takes several opportunities to have whole sections and individual soloists stand for some audience recognition, something that rarely if ever happens in the more staid confines of big city philharmonic halls. The fact is, though, that these young people are more than deserving of the accolades Serebrier invites for them. In a performance spanning a couple of warhorses, one demanding new piece and a suitably flashy encore, Serebrier and his charges rise to the occasion with some beautifully textured and ...Read the entire review

The Film:

Renaissance vocal music meets contemporary visuals in John La Bouchardiere's The Full Monteverdi (2007), a complex story about six couples struggling to overcome their differences. Under the tunes of Claudio Monteverdi's Fourth Book of Madrigals (1603) pic aims to reveal emotions music only partially suggests.

An unconventional approach to appreciating the music of Monteverdi is what La Bouchardiere offers in his part-theater part-cinema The Full Monteverdi (60 min). Bringing contemporary resonance to the texts from a set of Italian madrigals the couples are faced with the difficult task of recreating a dramatic feel via a style that isn't openly suggestive of it.

With the strict canonic structure of Monteverdi's music extremely difficult to align with modernity music and text are coerced into a flow of emotions which each of the couples, made up...Read the entire review