Product Details

• Actors: Christine Schäfer, Kathryn Harries, Norman Bailey, Patricia Bardon, Stephan Drakulich
• Directors: Humphrey Burton
• Writers: Alban Berg
• Producers: Jo Marks
• Format: Classical, Color, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
• Language: German (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo)
• Subtitles: English, Spanish, German, French, Japanese
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Kultur Video
• DVD Release Date: January 13, 2004
• Run Time: 181 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00014NE76
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #123,756 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Berg - Lulu / Davis, Schafer, Bailey, Kuebler, Harries, Schone, Bardon, Glyndebourne" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

LULU - DVD Movie

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

51 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Perfect!!!, February 26, 2004

By 

Osvaldo Colarusso "Osvaldo Colarusso" (Curitiba, Paraná Brazil) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Berg - Lulu / Davis, Schafer, Bailey, Kuebler, Harries, Schone, Bardon, Glyndebourne (DVD)

Lulu is a very complex work. This DVD makes justice to all of the complexness of the work: musical and dramatic. First of all: Christine Schäfer. Since Teresa Stratas she is the most impressive singer to play this difficult role. As she is a genuine coloratura , Schäfer can handle with all these crazy cadenzas with naturality. And her personification of Lulu is as ambigous as Wedekind( the play ' s writer) has though. But it isn' t only Schäfer that is fantastic in this DVD. Wolfgang Schöne is a convincent Schon and Jack the riper.Stephan Drakulich as The Painter and the Neger is very sexy and exciting . The old wagnerian bass-baritone Norman Bailey is a moving and repulsive Schigolch (and yet in a very good voice).Alwa, one of the most demanding tenor roles in all lyric repertoire, is very well sung by David Kuebler, and his naive looking is very moving during all the performance.Kathryn Harries as Geschwitz is fantastic too. Her final singing is a golden key for this performance. Far from one analytical aproach, Andrew Davies made a romantic and effective reading of the score. The London Philharmonic is in a special day, sounding realy as a great orchestra. The violin and piano solos, at the first scene of act three are very well played.
The staging, transposed for a modern time ( Lulu is atemporal) is fantastic by the simplicitiy of the sets and the coherence (the steps marking Lulu's ascension and fall !!!). Sexuality flows over all the singers.But always with naturality.And I would like to remark also that this mise en scene has a fine movie during the intermezzo of the second act, folowing all the instructions of Berg.
For this ( low) price you will have one of the best readings of the score , only comparable with that of Boulez (1978), and one very special staging of one of the most important opera of the history, maybe .....the last great opera.

48 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hair Raising - a Perfect Performance, January 28, 2005

By 

G P Padillo "paolo" (Portland, ME United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Berg - Lulu / Davis, Schafer, Bailey, Kuebler, Harries, Schone, Bardon, Glyndebourne (DVD)

I cannot say enough good about Glyndebourne's 1996 production of Berg's
opera recently (and finally) released on video here in the States.
Initially I believed I'd be disappointed in this unit set. Wrong. A tall,
brick semi-circular wall of red brick with offset white bricks that extend
as necessary into beams, creating an angular stage wide staircase joining
otherwise impossible to use doorways, etc. A bare floor with 3 or 4
concentric circles revolves (sometimes in opposite directions) as necessary
denoting scene changes etc. At its direct center is a vast round hole.
This circular concept is fascinatingly explored bookending Lulu's going
full circle - beginning and ending in the gutter. Interesting too watching
her rise from this hole (a really great visual) in her first scene to
sinking permanently into it in the final. Once again the team of Graham
Vick and Paul Brown shed new light on one of opera's best bad girl
stories. That said light is brilliant is a cause for celebration!

Andrew Davis leads the London Philharmonic in a reading of the score that
may well be the most heavily romantic I've encountered. Berg's exquisite
melodies have never sounded more obvious (and sometimes drawn out -
wondrously so) as here. The jazz elements never sound foreign or archly
intrusive as they sometimes can, but rather all of a piece. The audience -
already berserk at final curtain goes berserker still at Maestro Davis's
bow.

If ever a singer was made for a role it is Christine Schaefer. Ms.
Schaefer's incarnation of this notoriously and fiendishly difficult role
comes off, both in voice and body, as an almost "victoire trop facile" for
she is, quite simply, Lulu. Schaefer exudes a raw, otherwordly femininity
and sensuality - the first notable gal to play by her own rules, facing
odds and consequences with an aplomb most men either find shocking or
forget completely the scruples they once possessed. Brilliantly
costumed Schaefer looks amazing whether she's in leather, lace or latex.
Heck, this Lulu even makes a bath towel look like evening wear. (And
the "painting" with her in almost painted on pants is hot stuff.)


Wolfgang Schoene paints Schoen in broad strokes on a huge emotional canvas
and the payoff is huge! Wonderful throughout, he is particularly
mesmerizing watching this "giant" of a human reduced to putty in the letter
writing scene. He is a helpless bear and he gets his just desserts, alright!

While not vocally - physically, in Kathryn Harries's portrayal of Geschwitz
looks like Frederica von Stade. Her countess is particularly pitiable, a
frightened bird - her act of heroism in the escape comes off with
incredible passion. Also a little creepy since I found it impossible to
decide whether the act was purely selfless or selfish. Her grizzly, filthy
demise following Lulu's horrifying screams were particularly chilling and
heartbreaking.

Stephan Drakulic offers a tremendous portrayal of the Painter. Here we see
Lulu's first victim (not, of course, sequentially) trapped in a fatal
obsession where he's so hot for her he can't keep his hands off her (or his pants on). His Act II with Schoen is really played out bigger than I recall in any other Lulu and it is shattering to watch both ego and love fly out the
window as Schoen repeatedly suggests his sole success was having "married a
half a million" - reducing the artist to nothing in a matter of minutes.
His return as a post punk, metal white trash Negro was initially a
humorous, then chilling turn.

Wonderful to see Norman Bailey as a more human than usual Schigolch, yet
retaining a wonderful bum-like craziness.

There is a wonderful black and white film during Act II's great intermezzo -
showing the action we "miss", Lulu's trial, the Countess's panty exchange,
all in a silent "film noire" style. The film ends back at Glyndebourne in
an empty house with Maestro Davis conducting. Amazing!

I could go on for pages more - but will spare you by saying: if you love
Lulu - you won't want to be without this most exciting DVD. It really is
remarkable and Schaefer gives a performance that simply cannot be missed!

28 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A winner, January 26, 2004

By 

Richard (Minneapolis, Mongolia) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Berg - Lulu / Davis, Schafer, Bailey, Kuebler, Harries, Schone, Bardon, Glyndebourne (DVD)

Lulu is not an easy opera to get to know. It is written in a twelve tone style (serial) invented by Arnold Schoenberg. But Berg's serial music is easier to listen to than Schoenberg and many parts of Lulu are beautiful in their own way.
This DVD is a perfect way to get acquainted with the score. It is a perfect performance and Christine Schafer has both the vocal resources for this difficult part as well as the looks and acting ability for this femme fatale. The rest of the cast are fully up to her.
The production is pretty bare: a brick wall with a stairway up to two doors, a wooden floor and chairs. But don't let that steer you off. The important thing in Lulu is passion, and it is here in spades.