Product Details

• Actors: Yann Bridard, Marie-Agnes Gillot, Miteki Kudo, Thomas Hengelbrock, Ballet de l'Opéra national de Paris
• Directors: Pina Bausch, Vincent Bataillon
• Writers: Christoph Willibald Gluck
• Producers: Opéra national de Paris, Francois Roussillon
• Format: Classical, Color, DTS Surround Sound, Subtitled
• Language: German
• Subtitles: English, French, German, Spanish, Italian
• Region: All Regions
• Aspect Ratio: 1.77:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Bel Air Classique
• DVD Release Date: January 26, 2010
• Run Time: 104 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B002QXI2M2
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #45,980 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
  • #55 in Movies & TV > Blu-ray > Performing Arts

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A perfectly beautiful farewell from the internationally acclaimed choreographer/director Pina Bausch (1940-June 2008), February 11, 2010

By 

J. Faulk (New York NY USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Orpheus und Eurydike (DVD)

Dance (in bare feet) overshadows the singing in this production of the operatic masterpiece by Christoph W. Gluck premiered in 1762. His goal was "noble simplicity" and he concluded with a happy scene in which Amor revivified dead Orpheus and twice-dead Eurydike to resume their love. This production, however, respects their death.

The three principal roles are movingly danced and sung by Yann Bridard & Maria Riccarda Wesseling (Orpheus), Marie-Agnes Gillot & Julia Kleiter (Eurydike), and Miteki Kudo & Sunhae Im (Amor). The singers appear onstage and remain in character. Orpheus appears throughout, and Eurydike dances in the last two scenes. Most dramatic are the emotionally charged corps and chorus. The costumes designed by Bausch's romantic partner Rolf Borzik (died 1980) for the 1975 premiere are marvels of fluidity (thanks of course to execution by the current costume department). The excellent filming and editing was overseen by Vincent Bataillon.

THE SCENES

(1) Introduction & (2) Grief. At audience-left in a high chair is Eurydike (?) in a white shroud/wedding dress, blood red roses in her lap, looking down passively on her burial site. Black-garbed mourners, more women than men, cringe and twist beneath a black sky, in strict adherence to musical beat. Their arms and hands are in relentless motion, outdancing their feet. At audience-right, Orpheus, in "nude" briefs, stands rigid, before a brown uprooted cedar skeleton. Then he lies face down before a great laurel wreath. The mourners file off, and he rises to dance an agonized solo as he beseeches the gods to return his dead loved one. Thus appears Amor, who tells him he can invade the Underworld and reclaim Eurydike but must not look into her face. [Here, as well as in Scene 3, Ms Bausch is remarkably creative in distributing her dancers over the width and depth of the stage and animating the subgroups with different activities.]

(3) Violence. In the anteroom to hell three leather aproned men alarm the denizens, some in winding sheets. The music is demonic. Orpheus enters. One woman carries a yarn basket, and white skeins (the thread of life) intersect the excited corps. But Orpheus' beautiful lyre melody elicits a change, and merciful passage beyond the bronze door to his lost bride.

(4) Peace. Women in palest pink dance silkily to the music of blessed souls in a peaceful subterranean meadow. From among them Eurydike, now a contented shade, emerges for a beautiful solo. Orpheus enters and looks for her, then realizes she is behind him as she takes his hand, and he leads her away.

(5) Death. The great stage is enclosed by towering walls dwarfing the characters. Orpheus leads Eurydike in a flame red dress, not yet beyond the province of hell. Their vocal counterparts are onstage and the soprano expresses Eurydike's rising indignation because Orpheus inexplicably will not so much as look at her. Eurydike's extended solo is like a flame darting, swirling about the stage. Pushed to his edge, Orpheus finally turns to her, embraces her, she dies in his arms. Her vocal counterpart falls to the ground, his vocal counterpart kneels beside, Orpheus lays his Eurydike atop her double, and retreats to a far corner. The mezzo-soprano then dominates the stage, still kneeling, for 8 minutes singing "I have lost my Eurydike." (This stasis did seem overlong to me, and lessened the dramatic impact.) In the ensuing silence, the three aproned beings appear and take the life of Orpheus, the music resumes and mourners appear. The body of Orpheus is placed at significant remove from Eurydike's, failing to assure us husband and wife will ever embrace again.

AT CALLS...

the enthusiastic audience metamorphoses into rhythmic clapping. Also, finally the Balthasar-Neumann Chorus assembles onstage, and leader Thomas Hengelbrock is led on to sweep his BN Ensemble to their feet--both chorus and musicians have certainly demonstrated artistry perfected. Then Pina Bausch is brought on to roaring appreciation. Looking frail but strong in spirit, she was to die four months after this filming.

FOOTNOTE

Rather than the usual plastic case, the DVD is held inside the back cover of a colorful 36-page book in English, French, and German. The opera is sung in German and subtitles are available in these three languages as well as Spanish and Italian.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A unique dance-opera interpretation of this great work, April 5, 2010

By 

Mr. John A. Coulson "Tassie Devil" (Australia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Orpheus und Eurydike by Christoph Willibald Gluck, Opera-Dance by Pina Bausch (Opéra national de Paris 2008) [Blu-ray] (Blu-ray)

Stage action in many of these early operas is minimal so combining the singing with action in the form of ballet adds to the visual appeal IF that ballet is appropriate to the libretto and singing. Very fortunately the interpretive dance choreographed by Pina Bausch is just that. She first experimented with it in 1975 and this production is a revival of that. The mezzo soprano Maria Riccarda Wesseling has a gorgious voice ideally suited to the role of Orpheus and her role is shadowed by the dancer Yann Bridard.

On first acquaintance this dance-opera interpretation can seem odd and I found it required more than a single viewing to decide if it was personally appealing - and untimately yes it was. The music is beautifully played and sung under the direction of Thomas Hengelbrock which combined with very effective costuming and lighting comes across superbly in the Blu Ray format. The audio quality is appropriately first class.

Highly recommended.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Awfully hard to film..., September 19, 2010

By 

Thomas E. Ascher (Sedona, AZ) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Orpheus und Eurydike (DVD)

In general I agree with other reviewers on this. More ballet than opera which is okay, as little to see in opera version, lends itself more to dance. The choreography is quite complex, creative and flowing, and quite satisfying. The weakness is in attempting to bring it to video. Often, with other works, I feel that I am seeing an opera or video better at home than live, as the camera can come up close, feature movements, emotions that would be hard to see from twenty rows back in the opera house. In this case, there are so many centers of interest going on at once at different parts of the stage that it is almost impossible to film in any meaningful way. The film director has the choice of simply locking down the camera at the back of the house so we can see the entire stage, not missing any of the action, but also not seeing anything in close up, or attempting to go in close on some actions, but then losing others. Often, I felt that the camera would cut away from something that I was attending to, to feature some other action of lesser interest. Toward the end of the opera, the cameraman and director seemed to have a more consistent, artistically valid rationale for camera movement and cutting, but by then I was sufficiently irritated by wrong choices that it spoiled, at least in part, my enjoyment. Still, awkwardness of filming aside, this is still a stunningly choreographed and performed work, well worth owning and seeing.