Customer Reviews

Destination Mozart [VHS]

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Director Peter Sellers is not always on the money,he has takened enormous creative,aesthetic and philosophic chances throughout his directorships throughout the world . It's odd that he has found a vialble home in the cloistered preservative world of Opera,perhaps they both(neurotically) need each other. If he has been on target,conceptually and emotionally it recides overwhelmingly with Mozart. He understands the young Viennese master profoundly,he sees Mozart's simple/complex human world"can we live together?"is ultimately what "The Marriage of Figaro" asks,or revealing with sobering arias the empty odious shell which is "Don Giovanni". All are discussed in this wholly usefull tape. You see Sellers directly in rehearsa,laying on the floor and hear what has become his regular cadre of performers reflect on what their work with opera means to them.Vocalists Susan Larsen,Janice Felty,James Maddalena and Sanford Sylvan are all here and it's refreshing to see these artists outside of performance, for Mozart would be the first to remind us that art is only human. We learn of Mozart's trancendence,that the music goes beyond itself when it can,like the final moments of Act One in "Cosi fan tutti" when the woman-hater Don Alfonso helps Dorabella and Fiordiligi sing goodbye gently reflectively to their lovers in a plot to dupe them both.. We also have excerpts not only from "Cosi fan tutti" but" Don Giovanni" set in the war-zone-like South Bronx with Giovanni shooting up and humping as a drug lord. "Marriage of Figaro" is played in Trump Tower as an interesting backdrop.

Director Peter Sellars has upset traditional Opera fans with his inventive versions of works by Mozart. In "Destination," Sellars explains exactly what he was thinking with three such works: "The Marriage of Figaro," set in New York City's Trump Tower; "Don Giovanni," set in the South Bronx; and "Cosi Fan Tutte," set at a postmodern diner. With excerpt from the works along with interviews with the singers and designers who worked with him on these productions, Sellars makes his case quite convincingly. Every since Orson Welles and John Houseman staged a Voodoo version of MacBeth, classic works have been "updated." But this has always meant more than just creating a new setting for a play or opera. They are creative attempts to revitalize works. If you are interested in how directors do such things, "Destination Mozart" is one of the best looks inside the mind of such people you are going to stumble across. Even if you are not familiar with Mozart's operas, you will find this fascinating.