Customer Reviews

Henrik Ibsen Collection (Hedda Gabler / Ghosts / Little Eyolf / The Wild Duck / The Master Builder)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Because one of the earlier posters asked, the titles included in the set are "Brand", "A Doll's House", "Hedda Gabler", "The Wild Duck", "Ghosts", "Little Eyolf", "An Enemy of the People", "The Lady from the Sea" and two versions of "The Master Builder." Also included are the following plays in radio versions: "Peer Gynt", "The Pretenders", "Emperor and Galilean", "The Pillars of Society", "Rosmersholm", "John Gabriel Borkman", "When We Dead Awaken" and "A Meeting in Rome" by Michael Meyer (a play about a meeting between Ibsen and August Strindberg).

Henrik Ibsen Collection (Hedda Gabler / Ghosts / Little Eyolf / The Wild Duck / The Master Builder)

A wonderful collection of definitive performances of great plays, unobtainable in the U.K. 8 radio plays included. These performances by casts including Michael Redgrave,Judi Dench, Anthony Hopkins, Diana Rigg will never be bettered. Beautifully spoken and understood. The producers really know their Ibsen and bring out all Ibsen's subtle ironies and nuances. Alas, the BBC do not produce such great plays any more: very wise for any true theatre-lover to grab this collection while it is available. I have been studying Ibsen for 40 years; these productions are the culmination of my `Ibsen experience'. I know all the plays intimately; very few moments in these productions jar. Faithful period detail and costume: characters and background look convincingly `Victorian': contemporary productions (which are rare anyway) invariably make Hedda, Nora, Gina etc. look as if they've just walked in off the streets of New York or London, let alone Oslo. Seeing them actually prompted me book a Eurostar train to Oslo to visit the Ibsen Museum. Michael Meyer translations are relatively faithful: again, contemporary versions make the language much too chatty and contemporary.
Richard Camp, Brecon, UK.

I am impressed with this collection. The older versions of the plays hold up very well and are as vital as the later productions. The acting is magnificent - an impressive array of talent. Also it is a great bargain!

This aural and video collection of Ibsen should be in the collection of all who treasure the theatre experience. All the performances are very fine. Any collection that contains even such a truncated version of HEDDA GABLER with Bergman, Richardson, Redgave and Howard needs no further endorsement. Be ready for some memorable drama.

I can't vouch for all 6 plays, but the Ghosts is quite wonderful. In stars a younger Judi Dench as Mrs. Alving (brilliant), Natasha Richardson (radiant as the daughter of the "drunk"), Michael Gambon (pre-Dumbledore days) as a first - rate vicar, Freddie Jones (of Dune and Elephant Man) as the father of Natasha Richardson, and a very young Kenneth Branagh as the son. The cast lives up to their star status.

Assuming the other plays are that well done (I think I actually saw Little Eyolf), it is a wonderful introduction to my favorite dramatist.

I am very pleased with this collection. The performances are outstanding and the discs are loaded with extras, including a full 2.5 hour radio broadcast of Peer Gynt with Grieg's music. The price is also unbeatable. However, I am always amazed that Ibsen gets loads of attention while Strindberg (a better writer and dramatist) gets hardly any. Perhaps it's because he was branded a sexist. True, he had problems with women; but anyone who knows A Dream Play and many other works would conclude that this brand is too simplistic to warrant such a dismissal. Aside from this, I really have a great admiration for Ibsen. Included in this collection are his greatest plays. Ghosts is his best tragedy. Ibsen proved that he could present a dark and disturbing work without violence or death. It is also a major condemnation of social zombies, who are concerned more with the herd than with each other's individual needs. Even though I liked A Doll's House, I enjoyed Lady from the Sea better. Here, the stereotypical gender roles are not as noticeable, and the character development takes on a more primary concern. The Wild Duck is his most heartbreaking play, showing the tragic results from neglecting children. Similarly, Little Eyolf deals with the neglect of children. This tragedy takes a close second to Ghost with its strong sense of devastation that condemns the surviving characters to a gloomy existence. All in all, it is a very nice collection, but I sincerely wish BBC would honor Strindberg as well.

Some of the other viewers have described the excellent productions of "Ghosts", "Hedda Gabler", and "Brand", and I agree with them wholeheartedly, but I must say that this collection also contains my very favorite version of "A Doll's House", which, to my knowledge, is not available anywhere else except in this collection. Juliet Stevenson plays Nora so naturally, allowing the character to slowly emerge for the viewer, just as I think Henrik Ibsen intended. Ibsen's intentions aside, she is definitely the Nora audiences deserve. Beautiful! Brilliant! She has never really received the recognition she has deserved, and her performance in this film proves it. The other works are admirable, most of them stunning, all of them worthwhile, but I must say "A Doll's House" came to life for me as never before, thanks to some great performances. Bravo!

What a wonderful tour of the works of Ibsen. The acting and setting may not be thoroughly convincing and a tad dated but the essence is there and al you have to do is watch and learn!

If you are looking for a lot of action, this is NOT it.
If you want something you will probably remember in that it makes you think, if you love plays, and if you don't mind slow-going, thoughtful plots, you may enjoy this collection.

My own conclusion is that watching them, I didn't think I liked them very much, until the end of each one. The next day, the plot was in my mind, which rarely happens with other things I watch. That tells me these were masterfully done and did what they were intended to do. They made me think. The ending is never what I thought it might be. The characters are played by actors' actors.

I can see that back before we all spent so much time in front of our televisions, the slow pace would have been appropriate, even necessary. Today it's just a little more difficult to slow my own pace down so I can enjoy a collection like this. These are not really my cup of tea, but they may be exactly what you are looking for.

I really like the DVD but sorry it didn't have Closed Captions as I don't hear well. They did not speak clearly (because of accents I guess)
Otherwise glad I got it.