25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Cabinet of Dr Ponnelle, August 18, 2007
This review is from: Hindemith - Cardillac (DVD)
I just finished watching this DVD, which I picked up at HMV in London a few days before the American release, and carried triumphantly home. I equivocated between the recent Paris production and this 1980's Munich production, both of which were coming out neck-and-neck. I saw that the Paris DVD is longer (well over 100 minutes) while the Munich DVD clocked in at 88 minutes. I thought that might mean the Paris was more complete, but after further reading on the back covers found that the Paris DVD has a half-hour documentary, which might account for the longer playing time. The Paris DVD was costlier, and that made sense because of the greater length, so the Munich DVD was cheaper. Finally I decided to get the Munich because of the notice that Ponnelle had directed the work as if it were a 1920's expressionist German film. I am very fond of those silent films, and I wanted to see Ponnelle directing outside of his usual, baroque manner. I am happy to report that the result is, indeed, a triumph. One really feels the Weimar ethos.
I have in the past found Hindemith's music easier to appreciate than to like. In this work, the use of choral and ensemble creates a texture that carries the drama along. Frankly, twentieth century opera frequently sounds to me like felines wailing in the night. In this work the same danger lies, but Hindemith rises above the temptation to let soloists hang on a limb, and gives them full support of orchestra and chorus. The soloists in this work have to have a Wagnerian projection to assert their rightful place, and these soloists don't have any problem doing that, but the piece is more choral than most, I would say. When the 88 minutes were over, I felt I could have handled more. Maybe I will get that Paris disc, too.
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14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An expressionistic feast, September 30, 2007
This review is from: Hindemith - Cardillac (DVD)
I have to admit, I'm not a big fan of what is generally considered modern avant-garde music, often I find it to be more formulaic and predictable than the traditional music it seeks to upend. For instance, how many so-called avant-garde pieces remind one of one long continuous wail, occasionally punctuated with outbursts of brass and percussion just to maintain the listener's attention? So much of contemporary music attempts to plumb the depths of despair, but in my opinion it sounds more like some well-adjusted academic's naive, overly intellectualized hypothesis of what real despair feels like, and as a result any chance for a genuinely emotional experience is blunted.
Cardillac isn't like that. This is early twentieth century fin de sicle music, full of vigor and decadence and warped beauty, dark but also thrillingly alive. Any music lover who doesn't have a problem with early Richard Strauss, or Berg, or Stravinsky, or for that matter Shostakovich or Prokofiev, in other words any of the more romantically inclined of the European groundbreakers from the first half of the last century, should find much to savor here. Hindemith was considered something of a radical in his day, but I was surprised by the accessibility of the music, the wealth of melody, how it manages to be edgy without being off-putting(a lost art these days). This music breathes!
Speaking of accessibility, I found some nods to more popular operas in the music. For instance, several of the solos(I hesitate to label them arias) display a Mozartean structure and feel(but with none of Mozart's gentility of course), and the scene that takes place inside Cardillac's workshop even contains a quote from La Traviata, a recurring motif that sounds identical to Violetta's death knell. This might be a coincidence, but it does give the more traditional listener reference points within this challenging work, making it that much more entertaining to listen to.
Jean-Pierre Ponnelle's production for the Munich opera house is appropriately expressionistic, with angular sets, both interior and exterior, grotesque costumes, and a shortage of coruscating lighting effects. The staging is as mobile as Hindemith's music, flitting from scene to scene with nary a blip(at least that's the effect on video, there might have been set changes that were cut), with plenty of onstage action, almost constant movement, creating a cinematic impact that enhances the drama, the music, everything. Cardillac is a short enough opera as it is, but Ponnelle's attention-grabbing style makes it all the more swift and involving.
I wasn't familiar with any of the singers other than Donald McIntyre, the great Wagnerian and Straussian baritone, as the homicidal jeweler Cardillac, but really, all of the performances are top notch. In fact, I was a little disappointed that the two lovers(decked out in garish fin de sicle wardrobes) who disappear after the second scene, once the lothario in this scenario is violently dispatched in a wonderfully staged moment, weren't brought back for any curtain calls. Cardillac, as much as any opera I have seen, even Boris Godunov, is a group effort, and every performer is vital to its success. Wolfgang Sawallisch leads the orchestra in a loud, brash reading that is both lively and mercurial, like the score.
Cardillac is an odd opera in that the protagonist is a mass murderer, yet his death at the end is mourned. Hindemith was likely making a point about artists and the creative process, that the making of art, real art that is, is such a gut-wrenching process that it makes handing over the results to less appreciative minds unthinkable. Cardillac feels that the products of his craftmanship belong with him and him alone, rather than a public who is likely to desire it for less high-minded purposes(one customer buys an attractive chain just to bed a local beauty and sure enough dies for it).
No such worries here. The enthusiastic response of the Munich audience proves that Hindemith's art, especailly when it is abetted by such a satisfying production, is capable of being appreciated, and for all the right reasons.
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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Worthy Music, Worthy Performance, Less Worthy DVD, August 27, 2007
This review is from: Hindemith - Cardillac (DVD)
Mr. Podessa's review covers the good points of this opera adequately. It's a new work to me; I've never heard a note of it nor looked at the score. The logical comparisons would be with Berg's Wozzeck and Lulu, or Janacek's Makropoulos Case. The Hindemith stands up to such comparison musically, perhaps less complex and bold than the others but more colored and easier to hear immediately. I also like the Doktor Caligari staging; it's hard to imagine any other would be as appropriate for this post-Freudian opera. Now, however, the weakness: the sound transfer is tinny, distant, and without nuance. Even on my very good equipment, played at a volume as loud as I could bear, I felt I was listening to a car radio. What a pity! I've knocked off one star only because I'm in a cheerful mood; another time I might have knocked off two.
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