Customer Reviews

England, My England

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TONY PALMER, VERSATILE FILMMAKER COMBINED WITH THE CREATIVITY OF JOHN ELIOT GARDINER CREATE AN HISTORICAL MASTERPIECE!

Tony Palmer, filmmaker, has produced films in virtually all genres, but he obviously loves music and musicians. So it is not surprising that he would produce a film about Henry Purcell(1659-1695). Sometimes, rambling, but always fascinating; part biography of Purcell and part actors putting on a play about Purcell in modern day England.

Not much is known about the historical Purcell, whose music (in great abundance) nonetheless survives today as one of the great glories of the Restoration. Henry Purcell IS a mystery. We know where he's buried (next to Vaughan Williams in Westminster Abbey), but that's about it. No one knows for certain where he was born or even precisely when he was born. He lived exactly the same number of years as Mozart - only thirty-five- but we only know in detail what he did for three of those years. Page after page of some of his manuscripts of some of his masterworks are completely blank. Purcell was, and is, a mystery, except that we know he wrote over a thousand works, at least one for every working week of his life.

However, the film dances very neatly around the paucity of information by bouncing back and forth between Purcell's time and early Mid-60's England, a time of cultural and political upheaval.

The music played during this film was NEWLY DESIGNED for the action at the time. None of the music is from pre-existing recordings, and that fact makes this DVD doubly interesting to me. Thus you have music in period style played on period instruments, although with some give-and-take on questions of authenticity such as whether Purcell meant to use drums or not use drums in Queen Mary's Funeral Music; some authorities say yes, some say no, and I don't really care because it's not all that important. Suffice it to say that John Eliot Gardiner was closely involved with the selection of music repertory for the film, and although it does not always include Purcell's greatest hits, it does show the breadth of his achievements and the way he responded to the events of the late 17th century.

This is simply wonderful to behold on any number of levels: the Restoration Period is recreated with loving detail, with sumptuous costumes and production design, and Purcell's music is breathtakingly performed, conducted by John Eliot Gardiner and sung by his skilled Monteverdi Singers. The performance by Simon Callow, Corin Redgrave and a host of fantastic actors, some solo singers such as Michael Chance and James Bowman, are all uniformly excellent.

GRAMOPHONE, NOV. 2007: "An imaginative matching of history, ideas, the man and his music".

THE AUSTRALIAN: "Looks and sounds like a masterpiece - wonderful to hear as it is to behold. Overwhelming...it will blow you out of your seat!"

The entire production sparkles and crackles and pops with that certain flair that is owned by the 'Brits'.

This is a re-release of a 1995 DVD, the CD soundtrack of which is also available.

This is the perfect way to get to know the life of Henry Purcell. Even though there is an element of fantasy to the film, the historical information is very accurate.
Glorious music provided by Sir John Elliot Gardiner and hie musicians.

In my case this film is meant as a gift, so I just checked whether ist seemed to be technically ok. My impression is that it is first of all a valuable contribution with a view to eductation not only on English baroque music but also on Britsh history and patriotism. I shall give it to my grandchildren who are pupils at a high school for students of music. Maybe they can use it for a presentation which both includes history and music.
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