Customer Reviews

Handel: Orlando [Blu-ray]

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

 

 

The analogy was suggested by the golden yellows of the stage--and by the bubbly blend of strength and sophistication in Handel's music. In purely musical terms, the performance is excellent. I like Christie's architectural approach to Handel: the clean lines matched with exuberant ornamentation. Marijana Mijanovic is stupendous in the title role: not just her spectacular vocal powers but equally her lithe elegant presence on the stage. In the final scene, she looks uncannily like young Ludwig from Visconti's sumptuous almost-masterpiece. It left me breathless.

The stage direction is uneven. Setting Orlando in a vaguely Freudian fin de siècle atmosphere is a percipient idea that yields some brilliant moments--the end of Act Two being a prime example. Regrettably, the insight is not sustained in all scenes. The character of Dorinda is left to an afterthought--profoundly unfair to the music and to Christina Clark who bravely does her best in impossible circumstances. Granted, the libretto is clumsy, but the score offers plenty of richness and depth. The attempts at humour tend to be bawdy and remain jarringly at odds with the music. I wish that the stage director had stayed with what seems to have been his original concept of Belle Epoque refinement and not lapsed into slapstick. Yet I cannot give the production anything but the highest recommendation. As a Classic Champagne Cocktail, it overdoes the sugar and perhaps somewhat neglects the cognac, but it still makes for some heady unforgettable evenings--even without Blu-ray, which is how I saw the performance.

"Orlando" is one of my favorite Handel operas and this production looks good and has an excellent cast and performance. However, there is no subtitle menu on the Blu-Ray edition and my Blu-Ray remote does not have a subtitle menu, so I could not use the subtitles.

I have a rather large collection of opera DVD's and all the ones with subtitles have a subtitle menu, so I am assuming this Blu-Ray does not have subtitles.

If this disc had subtitles, I would have given it 5 stars. However, without the subtitles, I cannot recommend it.