Customer Reviews

Gounod - Faust / Kraus, Ghiuselev, Gonzalez, Guingal, Teatro Regio di Parma

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

 

 

Another reviewer is confusing this with one of the many film versions of Faust done as a straight drama. This DVD, however, is a 1986 production of Charles Gounod's grand French opera based on the first part of Goethe's work. It was recorded "in house" by the theatre and not really intended for broadcast or release. It's in color, but the lighting and camera movement is not of broadcast quality. The sound, however, is surprisingly good and is in true stereo. It seems to be a complete rendering of the opera, including the ballet.

Despite its flaws, this is the best version of Gounod's "Faust" currently available. The only other one, the 1985 Vienna production with Ariaza and Raimondi, has better video but is, in my opinion, a weaker production and leaves out the ballet. I hope we will get a more recent, and hopefully complete, rendering on DVD at some point.

I have no idea what the other reviewers on this page are talking about ----- nor do I even know the performance to which they are alluding. It is certainly not this one. I purchased a VHS of the 1986 Parma "Faust" with Alfredo Kraus and the cast noted above. It most emphatically cannot be the one to which my fellow reviewers are referring. To begin with, I found the picture, even on VHS, to be vastly superior to many other live performances. State of the art it's not, but it's perfectly watchable, and, at times, pretty darn good. Moreover, I found the sound to be good enough to dub onto C.D. directly from the VHS. Since Alfredo Kraus never recorded Faust commercially, I wanted this performance in a CD format as well as a VHS one. With that established, I would like to say that tenor Kraus, soprano Gonzales, and bass Guiselev are all excellent. The entire ballet sequences are included here, and, as I have already said, I can't understand that which the other reviewers are referring. Is it possible that Amazon accidently posted these reviews to the wrong performance? They give the year as 1957, which is obviously incorrect. Alfredo Kraus didn't incorporate the role of Faust into his repertoire until much, much, later (probably the mid 1970's). I found this performance visually satisfactory and musically excellent. My only reservation is that there is some minor peaking in some of the louder passages ------- but no distortion. Again I reiterate -------- this cannot be the same performance eluded to in the previous postings. I believe that these reviews were posted incorrectly.

I find it hard to believe that people could rate this DVD with more that one star. The singers are very good, but... its recorded from an old video tape. The singing and the orchestra sound very bad. The picture is very dark and it reminds me of films from the begining of the 20th century. I wonder why it is sold. Oh, yes, on the back of the DVD there is a warning (in small letters) that some parts are not very clear (I don`t remember the exact words, as I sent the DVD back to the producers in Italy, and have not heard from them since... ). Some parts? all of the DVD is, excuse me, a torture to watch, and listen to. Lovers of Gounod`s opera wait for some good DVD.

A fine dvd of a provincial Italian (Parma) opera company which never the less gives a good performance. Recorded live in 1986. Picture quality: slightly fuzzy, ***1/2. Sound quality, good, not great, ***1/2.

Cast: good. Mephistopheles: excellent. Marguerite: excellent. Alfredo Kraus as Faust: FANTASTIC! His big aria stops the show. What a great artist he was.

There are two different versions of this Faust available on the net. Both star Kraus, Ghiuselev,and Gonzales as the leads and Guingal as the conductor. Unfortunatly, I purchased a VHS copy of the poorer version, produced by the Bel Canto Society in 1986.

Both video and sound quality are extremely poor on this version, although the leads sing quite well.

The Faust drama itself is very intriguing (What do you want most in the world, and what would happen to you if you got it?)

This music drama is well worth purchasing in the better version. But beware of used copies being sold elsewhere.

I fully agree with an another reviewer (Dr. Elizer) in that this DVD is a bad transfer from an old VHS tape. You can actually see some noise lines at the bottom constantly throught the whole opear. Of course the video and audio quality is very bad. I cannot understand the people who are giving more than one stars for this product either. The performance itself is not actually bad. But it is not good enough to justify the suffering from bad quality video and audio. I rented it from local library. I watched it skipping a lot, and immediately returned it. Buy some good CD for this opera (or LPs - which I have a couple of performances). It's much more enjoyable.

I just received the DVD of this 1986 performance. It is a DVD version of a VHS tape, and suffers from the transfer. The scenes are almost uniformly too dark--in many cases, nothing is visible. The live performance from Parma convinces me that I will never want to see another. Casting of the principals was good, especially Mephistofeles, but was done--as usual-- for the voices rather than personality. The choristers, while singing adequately, should never have been shown in close-up, as most were geriatric, and their movement was VERY badly blocked and mechanical. The same can be said for the ballet.

All that being said, operas are for the music, not the staging; Ghiuselev, as Mephistofeles, was magnificent. Unfortunately, the sound quality is a bit fuzzy, probably due to the age and transfer.

The stage is dark, the voices sound like they are in the next room and the conductor can't manage to stay with the singers. The cast is excellent, but it doesn't matter when you can't hear them or the orchestra is always a beat or two ahead of them. One of my favorite operas. How disappointing.

I remember seeing this opera at L'Opera de Paris many years ago. That one was done in 15th century costuming/staging. I fell in love with this opera. Finding an excellent version of this opera is most difficult. However, I encountered a BBC live broadcast production from the Royal Opera with all its commentary to be a better production. I only wish that it had the scenes numbered and had done away with all the inane commentary during act changes.

This one was darkly staged, or poorly lit. But, something was better than nothing at the time.

This is a long opera and a good performance. Satan was especially convincing. The poor quality, very poor quality, of the video is a shame, as the rest of the product is fine.