Product Details

• Actors: Roberto Alagna, Angela Gheorghiu, Tito Beltrán, Jan Sváb, Pavel Novak
• Directors: Barbara Willis Sweete
• Writers: Jules Barbier, Michel Carré, William Shakespeare
• Producers: Alan Sievewright, Chris Hunt, David Horn, Helen Asquith, Jac Venza
• Format: Classical, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Language: French
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Arthaus Musik
• DVD Release Date: April 15, 2003
• Run Time: 80 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00008V60M
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #138,157 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Gounod - Roméo et Juliette / Alagna · Gheorghiu · Anton Guadagno" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

41 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A half occasion, April 30, 2003

By 

"francisbit" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Gounod - Roméo et Juliette / Alagna · Gheorghiu · Anton Guadagno (DVD)

I'm really surprised that, in 2003, is still possible to see films like this: Gounod's magnificent opera here is cut by a butcher (running time 73 minutes, against the three hours of any integral recording!!!) who is trying to restore the 40s and 50s mode for b movie based on opera.
It's really a shame, since we have the most beautiful Romeo and Juliet of the century, Alagna and Gheourghiu, giving a marvellous and poignant musical and theatrical superb performance, but what a frame! the set (supposed to be in Verona but here in Eastern Europe, in a Snow-White-looking castle really funny)is near to amateurish (as well as frame characters, the out-of-tune Laurent and Mercutio) and the production is relly a bad trick to Gheorghiu and Alagna's exceptional performance. What a waste!!!A performance of the couple in their last Salzburg show would have been thousands times better then this!!!Anyway, their singing is worth enough to purchase the dvd.

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Opera Lite and an Unkind Camera Mitigate Gounod's Masterwork, June 2, 2005

By 

Ed Uyeshima (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Gounod - Roméo et Juliette / Alagna · Gheorghiu · Anton Guadagno (DVD)

After seeing this DVD, it does make me wonder if it truly makes sense to present an opera in a cinematic context with facial close-ups, kinetic cameras and actual locations. The preservation of a basically theatrical experience is one thing, but what director Barbara Willis Sweete does here is something else altogether, admirable and even enthralling in some respects but somehow out-of-kilter in others. Filming Gounod's "Roméo et Juliette" is a smart marketing decision given the immediate familiarity of Shakespeare's fatalistic love story and its many iterations over the years. The music itself is stunning and nicely orchestrated.

Having two superb singers in the title roles is an aural treat, especially since soprano Angela Gheorghiu and tenor Roberto Alagna are in peak vocal form. Gheorghiu's powerful voice threatens to overwhelm her character at the beginning, but its inarguably luscious tone envelops the growing tragedy quite effectively. Alagna does not display as much variety in his range, but he maintains a masculine, radiant quality and generates a fiery romanticism throughout. However, the camera can be unkind, as these two veteran performers, married in real life, were in their late thirties when this was filmed and hardly the adolescent lovers they are supposed to be portraying. Both are photogenic and move well, but Gheorghiu, in particular, looks too mature to get away with the adolescent behavior she needs to display, especially early in the film. The other aspect that will disappoint purists is that the five-act, nearly three-hour opera has been condensed to a 73-minute film of aria and duet highlights with supporting roles reduced almost to walk-ons. On one hand, the daunting length of operas has alienated non-aficionados in the past, so clearly condensing the story to Gounod's musical high points will inevitably generate greater awareness of opera as a more commercial genre. On the other hand, artistically, this film feels like the Cliff's Notes version of the story, as the young lovers are entranced with each other within the first five minutes. Besides which, there is little time to absorb the dramatic impact of the music since the film goes from one aria to the next with little break.

Shot entirely on location in and around a 13th-century Czech castle, the film effectively contrasts the pastoral setting of the woods and the adjoining lake with the dark, Hamlet-esque interiors of the castle. The castle itself has a rather scrubbed look that makes it look more appropriate for a Disney theme park, but Sweete has a good feel as to how to use the various locales for her shots. Where she goes awry is when she introduces symbolic elements like the solemn, gray-clothed chorus looking as if they walked off the set of Ingmar Bergman's medieval allegory, "The Seventh Seal". Sweete also makes the fight scene between Tybalt and Mercutio look particularly contrived as she stays true to the exaggerated staging rather than reinvent the action for the camera. Personally I think the film is a good step forward in integrating opera into more of the entertainment mainstream, but I also think it will take someone of the artistic caliber of a Baz Luhrmann or a Rob Marshall to be able to understand how to harness the powerful music within the medium's given constraints and visual possibilities.

25 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Gounod meets Bergman and nobody wins, March 23, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Gounod - Roméo et Juliette / Alagna · Gheorghiu · Anton Guadagno (DVD)

I was appalled by this video. If the intent was to attract younger audiences (read: viewers with ADD)to opera, viewers would be surprised to learn that it's actually a five-act opera that runs for close to three hours. This is a slash and burn affair benefitting the Alagnas; the supporting cast has little to do except look Nordically detached and sing a few lines here and there.
There's a good case to be made for limning this opera into a chamber piece but the setting doesn't do it any favors. Almost as comical as the setting is the staging: everyone is clothed in drab grays and browns and at one point Juliette is seen singing in a field (of wheat???!)surrounded by Bergmanesque extras frozen into position looking stage right. The director takes advantage of the castle by having Gheorghiu do a lot of running around: up and down staircases, around the castle battlements and through courtyards. Even if this isn't three hours, I was exhausted.
Alagna and Gheorghiu sound fine; this is really a vehicle for them and everyone else seems like an afterthought.
If it's a full production you want, you will be far better served watching the ROH production with Alagna and Vaduva, another Romanian soprano, who captures Juliet's adolescent edginess and passion. She may not have Gheorghiu's glamour but she's a far more believable and adorable Juliet. And it's great production, conducted by Sir Charles Mackerras.