Product Details

• Actors: Montserrat Figueras, Jordi Savall
• Directors: Brian Large
• Format: Classical, Color, DTS Surround Sound, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled
• Language: Italian
• Subtitles: 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: January 27, 2009
• Run Time: 140 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B001KF6F9E
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #27,271 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Jordi Savall conducts Le Concert des Nations, La Capella Reial de Catalunya and the leading soloists of early opera in a beautiful period production of Monteverdi's favola in musica staged at Barcelona's Gran Teatre del Liceu in 2002. Gilbert Deflo's stage direction reflects the sublime art and imagery found in Mantua's Palazzo Ducale, with its famous Hall of Mirrors, where the opera was first performed in 1607.

Sung in Italian with English subtitles

Extra features: L' Orfeo in Mantua. Stage director Gilbert Deflo, in Mantua's Palazzo Ducale, reveals the inspiration behind his staging of L'Orfeo. Illustrated synopsis of the opera

Cast Gallery: Montserrat Figueras, Furio Zanasi, Arianna Savall, Sara Mingardo, Cécile van de Sant, Antonio Abete, Adriana Fernández, Daniele Carnovich, Fulvio Bettini, Mercedes Hernández, Marília Vargas, Gerd Türk, Francesc Garrigosa, Carlos Mena, Iván García

Le Concert des Nations
La Capella Reial de Catalunya
Conducted by Jordi Savall

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Scholarly, luxury production., May 28, 2003

By 

Plaza Marcelino (Caracas Venezuela) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Monteverdi - L'Orfeo / Savall, Zanasi, Figueras, Mingardo, Abete, Turk, Vargas, Bettini, Gran Teatre del Liceu Barcelona (DVD)

Savall may be today's grand guru of the "historically aware" musical production scene, and conducts here a recent, indeed sumptuous production of this masterwork from Barcelona's Liceo opera house. The theatre was ravaged by a fire some years ago and has been recontructed magnificently. Savall makes use of his catalonian forces one frequently encounters in his recordings and they rise magnificently to the occasion, producing a scholarly and thoroughly convincing, from the philological perspective, rendering. His singers are a varied lot. Montserrat Figueras, Mrs Savall in real life, opens up the proceedings as a very convincing La Musica, if somewhat over-acted. The Orfeo, a singer I face up for the first time (Furio Zanasi), gives a beatifully vocalised Orfeo that is utterly wanting on the acting side, apparently being more concerned with an impeccable mastering of the work's vocal intricacies than in projecting his character on stage in a convincing manner; the "possente spirto" passage is precious, though. The Euridice is given nepotically to Savall and Figueras's young daughter Arianna, who is not very convincing as the unfortunate girl that prompts Orfeo's rescue excursion into hell. She has a likeable voice but has still to develop her skills; in my view, there are in the market far better candidates for the rôle Savall might have chosen. The jewel in the crown is the Messenger, soprano Sara Mingardo, ravishingly poignant when bringing the news of Euridice's death, her voice soaring all over the vast venue and superbly acted. The supporting rôles are well cast and sung, and the Act 1 dancers do their fare effectively. The production by flemish régisseur Gilbert Deflo is, as I said in the introductory sentences, luxurious and all-encompassing and resembles a similar one that Spanish TV (TVE) broadcast by satellite to the world in 2000 from Madrid's Royal Theatre that I don't recall if is also his; in Barcelona it surprises you from its very beginning as Savall's enters from the back of the stalls, period-dressed and deliberately walking towards the pit to impetuously launch the proceedings, with musicians in charge of the famous opening fanfare distributed in various places in the hall and balconies.

Sound quality has the spectacularity one has grown to expect from this source.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb and stunning, August 19, 2009

By 

M. Ardrey-Graves (Shenandoah Valley, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Monteverdi - L'Orfeo / Savall, Zanasi, Figueras, Mingardo, Abete, Turk, Vargas, Bettini, Gran Teatre del Liceu Barcelona (DVD)

I am so sick and tired of baroque operas, performed by crackerjack period orchestras and stellar singers, married to ridiculous modernist and postmodernist stagings. Am I the only one who can't abide the disjunct? Baroque opera (recitative-aria-recitative-aria with the occasional duet, dance, or chorus) works because the music is designed to be paired with lavish stagings and opulent costumes. The theatrical aesthetic paradigm of the 17th and 18th centuries was one of whimsy, of fantasy, of color and "suspension of disbelief."
So tremendous kudos to the present production for its colorful and appropriately whimsical staging and costuming -- the mythological Greeks *look* like mythological Greeks, not, oh, Vietnam War combatants or Bronx junkies.

And the music? Maestro Savall has produced another winner. The orchestra is as fine as it ever is under his direction, and the vocal cast is without fault -- the weakest link may in fact be Caronte, whose tone is a bit shallow and whose full-face mask muffles some of the fine basso writing Monteverdi provided.

Highly recommended.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars the essence of Orfeo, March 7, 2003

By 

D. Boothe (Indiana) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Monteverdi - L'Orfeo / Savall, Zanasi, Figueras, Mingardo, Abete, Turk, Vargas, Bettini, Gran Teatre del Liceu Barcelona (DVD)

What a great performance of L'Orfeo! It moved me a lot more than I thought it would! The singing is impeccable, though I would've preferred more extensive ornamenting by the soloists, the musicians are absolutely magnificent, and the visual effects are also stunning! A collaboration like this with so many world class musicians does not happen all the time. I recommend this for anyone who complains that baroque opera is boring or stale.