Customer Reviews

Gluck - Alceste / Robert Wilson · John Eliot Gardiner · Anne Sofie von Otter · English Baroque Soloists · Théâtre du Chatelet

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

 

 

Gluck's Alceste was given a wonderful and moving performance by Gardner and company on this new DVD! The music is beautifully expressive, the singing by all the cast was suberb, esp. Annie Sofie Von Otter in the title role. the English Baroque period ensemble under J.E. Gardner was fabulous, as usual. The sets are quite beautiful and very well designed...but there isn't a lot of physical action, which could be troubling to modern audiences used constant action in movies, etc. I was impressed by the choreographers effective use of Kabuki (traditional Japanese opera)for the inspiration behind the stylized hand gestures. I am an 18th century opera fanatic and would like to see more staged productions of composers operatic works such as Gluck, Jomelli, Sacchini,Rameau and other composers that have unjustly slipped between the cracks of music history. From a technical perspective,both the audio and video quality are excellent. Bravo to everyone involved in the performance and production!

When is a CD more visually exciting than a DVD? That's not a joke; the answer is this Chatelet production of Gluck's Alceste. I've watched glaciers - literally - for hours, and seen more action than this.Was Brian Large, the director, momentarily suffering a post-encephalitic syndrome such as Oliver Sachs reported in Awakenings? LSD could not make this staging meaningful. This Alceste makes Wagner's Rheingold seem like a Rossini romp. It turns "Remenbrance of Things Past" into a haiku. It makes the American election process seem cogent.

What do you get when you pop this disk into your player? Blue. Faded Levi blue. A blue backdrop with hazy blue stage lights, sectioned by various blackish pillars and cubes. A small blue cube gyrates slowly overhead throughout the first act. A dozen female dancers in off-the-shoulder blue prom dresses, with blue Egyptian head-gear, glide stiffly fore and aft, their arms bent hieroglyphically. Eventually Alceste enters, sheathed in a simple red robe which, if you watch long enough, begins to seem blue also. Lo, the blue backdrop is declared to be a temple. There is a large gray-blue statue with impressive genitalia. A priest begins to sing sad blue phrases of omen. Blue moons later, Admetus emerges from the indigo shadows, saved from death by Alceste's sacrifice of her life, an act which makes him feel.... blue.

Oy! I've seen screen savers with infinitely more variety. Handel's Admeto, by the by, written in the same geological moment, handles the same story, but Handel had a handle on the human attention span.

As if the visuals weren't lifeless enough, the voice recording is dismally unlifelike. No matter how high I turned the volume or diddled the EQ, the singers sounded distant and pallid, as if I were sitting in the highest balcony of an opera house stuffed with baffles.

It's a colossal shame, really. The music, though somber and monochromatic until the very end, has its dolorous charms, especially as conducted by John Eliot Gardiner and performed by the English Baroque Soloists on period instruments. The miking of the orchestra, by the way, was quite intimate, as if that mattered when the singers were so stifled.

Please, don't make this your first pre-Mozart opera DVD! If you want a symbolist/minimalist staging of a Greek tragedy played on early instruments, get the DVD of Monteverdi's L'Orfeo, as performed by Tragicomedia nd Concerto Palatino. How subtle the difference that separates a great production from a dud!
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WAIT! HOLD THE PHONE! Months later, I've watched/heard this production again. I was totally unfair! I must have had a bad no-hair day! I'd delete this review, except for an urge toward penitent self-flagellation. See the thread of comments below for my apologies. There are certainly shortcomings in the sound recording, but the musical interpretation is superb, and the staging (except for that blue cube) makes a good deal of sense on second viewing.

The old Met had six composers displayed above the proscenium - Gluck,
Mozart, Beethoven, Verdi, Wagner, and Gounod. How different would the list be were it done today? Gluck is hardly a favorite or popular. He is more admired as a reformer than loved as a composer. And coming to him I have always considered a task - someone I SHOULD listen to and admire. I have long hoped to finally hear Alceste. Previous recordings have been severely handicapped in one way or another. And now here it is in the French version and in video. The musical performance is wonderful. How could it be other with Gardiner in charge? Robert Wilson is always something of a chore. I don't like him generally but I must confess that he is a good choice for a static work like Alceste. He reminds us always of the Greek roots to which Gluck wished to return. There is a marvellous hierarchic quality to this production that matches the drama and the music. Reading some authors on this work it is generally agreed to be the most somber and funereal of all operas. And Wilson's staging matches that solemnity. In all it is good to have this even though I still more admire than like it.

CHRISTOPH WILLIBALD GLUCK's sublime work is presented in a most interesting way by stage director Robert Wilson! On the one hand, "Alceste" is performed by a period instrument ensemble, the ENGLISH BAROQUE SOLOISTS, joined by the singers and dancers of the MONTVERDI CHOIR, directed by Sir John Elliot Gardiner. On the other hand, Wilson uses striking theatrical symbolism with decidedly modern overtones! Certainly worth checking out, as the singing alone is great!

Within the first 5 minutes of this production you see EVERYTHING that will take place in the remaining 2 + hours. What one must do, however, it view it as it is, and sink down into it's ritualistic nature. It rather reminded me of a High Church Easter Vigil. It does seem MUCH longer than its 2.25 hours, but there is a hypnotic effect which begins after about 30 minutes. Don't look for what is NOT there (typical stage movement), but concentrate on what IS present: a beautifully sung principal roles, especially Von Otter, beautiful lighting and costuming (one has to like blue, however) and thrilling orchestral playing. The whole thing comes off as an antique frieze come to (hardly moving) life, but pinning down the actual period of the antique frieze is difficult.
None of it's shortcomings really matter, however, if you are willing to meet it on IT'S terms, and not try to force it into your preconceived notions of what Opera should be.

I will not write about the music or the quality of the singing; both are sublime, as even those reviewers concede, who disagreed with the staging.

As in Orfeo/Orphee, there is not a lot of action in the story. Admete's life hangs by a thread - we do not learn why or how he attracted the gods' wrath. For Admete to live, someone has to die - a bleak outlook on divine justice. Alceste vows to sacrifice herself. The couple bemoan their fate, vow to sacrifice themselves rather than see the other die, quarrel over whose destiny it is to die. Just in the nick of time, Hercule appears to banish the forces of the underworld - and, just as irrationaly, the couple undergoes apotheosis... in short, there is little to act.

The staging here reminds me of those dreams in which you want to move but can't. The protagonists are caught in a web of forces, which they cannot control. And so the stage is awash in otherwordly blue, the characters move like marionettes, but still retain their dignity. This is dream space, mythical space - and I found it utterly captivating and emotionally intense. To have presented this work other than it was - austere, stark and highly stylised - would have resulted in cheap and gaudy melodram.

I am not a modernist. I harangue endlessly about placing an opera in an appropriate setting, time and place that is consistant to the story or the era of the composer. But the timeless setting of Robert Wilson's Alceste as conducted by Sir Eliot Gardiner seems almost perfect. The addition of the ballet-chorus takes the story back to it's Greek drama roots and puts action into a long, somewhat static opera. Another reviewer likened it to Kabuki dancers, I'm reminded of Egyptian tomb paintings or Minoan vase figures. Whatever, the effect is enormous. The whole project works well with one exception. The high priests are declamatory, the Admete of Paul Groves is rivetingly regal and the pantomime dancers carry the story along. Only one element seems lacking: Alceste. She must be both womanly and royal. Whereas Von Otter's voice can evoke the loving wife very well she can't command the stentorian needed for Admete's Queen. I've had the priviledge of seeing Jesse Norman at Chicago Lyric. She could do both and mesmerise an audience. Otherwise this is a great DVD to watch and to listen to.

The Metropolitan Opera went happily along its way for half century, or so, without producing Alceste. About the fourth decade of the 20th Century it was put on with the glorious Flagstadt soon monopolizing the title role. After, perhaps a dozen or fewer performances over the years, it was put in moth balls never to emerge. By no coincidence, the curtain calls she took at its conclusion were the last she ever took for an opera as she had made it her retirement vehicle.
Viewing it in this finely tuned version, one is led to think it will draw a contemporary audience only if played in a reduced concert version (since there is not much more physical action than is to be found in the concert hall) or taken in hand by a contemporary composer-writer-directing-conducting team which will edit and revise freely so as to introduce some physical counterpart to the intense musical-vocal action which is going on.
My advice to the potential viewer is to know thyself. If you are familiar with the music and can introspect from its vocalization the inner tension of music and moral situation being portrayed, this should prove quite moving and provide a sense of being in a setting such as one might find in Greek vases brought to life. If, however, you are the type who finds joy in the ebb and flow of patterns of interaction among people vocalizing their thoughts as well as their responses to each other, you might better stay away from this. I have no idea how alternative versions handle the problem of action so have no recommendation on that score.
Of course, I would guess that opera antiquarians would find this a satisfying version from which to help them reconstruct the original from documentary sources.

This opera is played by an excellent orchestra led by the excellent John Eliot Gardiner. The singing seems well-done though several of the main singers seem to sing in a style more appropriate for a later musical period with relatively pronounced vibrato. The real problem for me is Gluck's music. It is intended to be simple and unadorned as indeed the case. I find little merit or interest init. What is worse is that the stage action is very stylized and static. During an aria, it is possible that the singer will remain almost expressionless and perhaps raise his/her hand in two or three stages from waist to shoulder level. A background of stationary figues on the stage may remain almost unmoving for long periods. My wife calls this human hieroglyphics and she, justly, refuses to watch it even though the singing is quite good.

Okay, I'll admit to the fact that this period of music is not of great interest to me. But, I decided to get it a chance. While beautifully sung and played, this is the most boring thing I have ever seen in my life. For over 2 hours the principle singers moved in slow motion most of the time with the arms and hands in statuesque like positions -- it literally put me to sleep! Maybe it was effective in theatre but it sure wasn't on video. If you want it for the music and singing I would highly recommend it -- but don't bother watching it.