Product Details

• Actors: Roberta Alexander, Anja Silja, Menai Davies, Philip Langridge, Mark Baker
• Directors: Derek Bailey
• Writers: Gabriela Preissová, Leos Janácek
• Format: Classical, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Kultur Video
• DVD Release Date: June 11, 2002
• Run Time: 118 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0000687E8
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #97,387 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Janacek - Jenufa / Davis, Alexander, Silja, Glyndebourne Opera" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

JENUFA:JANACEK - DVD Movie

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars SIMPLE, EFFECTIVE AND RIGHT, November 15, 2003

By 

DAVID BRYSON (Glossop Derbyshire England) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Janacek - Jenufa / Davis, Alexander, Silja, Glyndebourne Opera (DVD)

If you have never been to Glyndebourne but would like to get the feel of the place from a recorded performance, I promise you that you will get none of it from this one. It is very good indeed but it might be from anywhere. Apart from Strauss and Puccini, there is probably no serious 20th-century opera that is easier to come to terms with than Jenufa. The story is harrowing, but all in a very operatic way as that term might be applied to Verdi. The narrative line is simple and direct and does not strain our credulity, at least not by operatic standards, the characters are few and strongly identifiable, and the pace of the action is very well calculated. Clarity has obviously been a major objective in this production, and the simplicity of the sets seems designed to focus attention on the action and the music. The musical style is highly rational in the best sense - free from hyperbole, the vocal parts reasonably pitched, lyrical up to a point and not afraid of word-repetition but avoiding formal arias and 'numbers' except for the choruses towards the end and even cleverly steering clear of cadences in the interests of continuity, the orchestral parts interesting in their own right but always subordinate to the voices.

There is everything to be said for DVD as the medium for bringing opera into the home. In sound alone the very greatest performances inevitably lose something - they were simply not written just to be heard. That said, this is not just ordinary drama, but music-drama, and within reason I for one am quite happy to suspend disbelief up to a point if the music is well enough done. For me Roberta Alexander as Jenufa does not look the part in the least, and I do not care in the least given her fine acting and superlative singing. She shares the spotlight with the Kostelnicka and in this role the tall and imposing Anja Silja is totally convincing in every respect - stagy in the right way at her first entrance, casting the shadow of doubt and misgiving everywhere about her, thrilling when left alone with her inward torment, and dominating the scene in her final confession. The male roles - the thoughtless Steva and the confused Laca - are admirably sung, acted and directed, and there is nothing that I feel like trying to criticise when the whole concept of the work is as well realised as it is here. Congratulations to Glyndebourne, but 5 minutes into the production I had forgotten all about them, which is as it should be.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant performances in an incredible opera!!!, August 14, 2001

By 

Baryton "germontpere" (Baltimore, MD United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Jenufa [VHS] (VHS Tape)

The influences of veristic opera abound in Janacek's powerful music drama. Roberta Alexander's performance in the title role is riveting. The other singer/actors are just as compelling. Abundant melodies, rich harmonies, and masterful orchestration make for an experience which will hold you spellbound from it's beginning to it's tragic end.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Better Choice, July 19, 2007

By 

Giordano Bruno - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Janacek - Jenufa / Davis, Alexander, Silja, Glyndebourne Opera (DVD)

There are two DVDs available of Jenufa, and this is slightly the better choice for musical reason. Neither production satisfies my conception of this great and moving opera. Both are somewhat dramatically turgid. The flaws of this production are chiefly visual and acoustical, as pointed out by other reviewers. It really is a problem, on a DVD movie scale, that Roberta Alexander simply doesn't "look the part" though she acts with conviction; in an opera house, the same production would be sublime.

Janacek is a composer who integrates the voices and the orchestra with great success; that ensemble effect is not captured well on either DVD production (and I confess that it's often not achieved in live performances either). The sound on this DVD is distant played at lower volume, tinny played at higher.

Five stars for the opera itself, three for the realization.