Customer Reviews

Lehar: The Merry Widow [Blu-ray]

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

 

 

I have over 100 opera and ballet DVD/BR's that I watch on a projected screen about 7' 8" wide and listen through a 7.1 loudspeaker setup where the left and right speakers are about 9' 6" apart. The room has sound treatments. The goal is to make the viewing experience as if I was there in a middle seat in one of the front rows.
This Merry Widow has fine video, but the audio is another story.
I watched it once a few days ago and listened to parts again yesterday with my ear plugs, trying to find out exactly what is wrong with it.
To start, it is an odd DTS-HD MA 4.0 given on the box, but there is some sound from the rears, so it seems like a 6.0. The center is definitely silent. At first, the orchestra is recorded quite o.k, but it falls short when we get to the voices. The male principals wear mics over their ears, the females have their mics hidden in the cleavage as seen briefly at Kirchschlager's. In addition, there are (I think very directional) stage mics every 2 to 3 feet along the stage. But the balance between the body mics and the stage mics is the problem, i.e. the stage mics pick up too much relative to the body mics. (You hear the shuffling of the feet very well.)
Whenever the singers move their heads while singing, the loudness of their voices fluctuates quite a bit, depending whether they sing towards a mic or sideways. In addition, Skovhus is louder recorded and fluctuates less, Kenny is softer recorded and fluctuates more. When the chorus is singing, she is hardly audible. The others are somewhat in the middle, not quite as loud as Skovhus, but louder than Kenny. This constant up and down makes this a less satisfying audio experience and I can't recommend it.
I checked briefly the stereo track and it is the same.

Then I remembered that the Decca LA Traviata Blu-ray with Villazon and Fleming also suffered from this variability of the voices and I looked up the credits on both disks.
While the Merry Widow has 11 people (6 audio engineers!) involved with audio, "Audio Post Production" is given as Ken Hahn and yes, he is also the "Sound Mixer" for the Traviata production. Coincidence or responsibility?

In the past several months, we have purchased many BluRay operas and ballets from Amazon, and have enjoyed most all, but last night we spent a magical night with the cast of the Merry Widow, and we were left breathless. We had never seen such magnificent costumes, such enchanting scenery, such beautiful people with such marvelous voices, such phenomenal ballet interspersed in an opera setting' It was complete with very interesting impressions of the performers and director in the Opus Arte extras. Kudos to the San Francisco Opera and Ballet! Almost three full hours of unforgettable fun! And Kudos to Opus Arte for another beautiful disc with marvelous sound.

everything about this production is top notch, bought the DVD some time ago, but the BLU-RAY has it beat, the sound track is far more dazzling, the picture is almost as good as being in row 10 or 12, is the production perfect? heck no, some of the dialog is so silly as to be embarassing, but the moment the music comes into play (with or without the vocals) magic happens, and the silly parts pass from memory, the costumes are brilliant (and quite obviously cost a fortune) the singing is fine, for me the Australian production staring Joan Sutherland has the better singers, but the quality of this disc, plus the extras in act 3 make this disc preferable, so of course I have both, I also have the German production, the less said about that one the better, until something better comes along (it ain't going to happen, cost prohibitive) this is the one to own, and play, and play again, and again

One of the few occasions where I bought the Blu-Ray, already owning the DVD. It's worth it. The picture is noticeably better than the DVD (which was already excellent) and the music is superb. The only criticism I have is that it STILL doesn't have English subtitles. Yes, I know the libretto is in English, but do YOU always understand the lyrics? Anyway, an excellent addition to any operetta aficionado's collection.

The dialog is a joke. The makeup makes everyone look like clowns. The production as far as costumes, audio and video is excellent but as far as operettas are concerned I would put this at the bottom of the pile. If you are familiar with the The Merry Widow and like it, then you will probably like this performance. This is no Die Fledermaus.