Customer Reviews

Offenbach - Orpheus in the Underworld / Davin, Badea, Vidal, Theatre de la Monnaie Brussels

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

 

 

I don't think this is as awful as other reviewers say, but it's not as effective as the amazon.com reviewer claims, either.

Musically, I prefer the Michel Plasson-directed Orphee on EMI. It's both more sprightly and more profound, capturing the full range of Offenbach's unique genius.

The singing here is generally lovely (with some exceptions), and the set fantastic. There are some wonderful visual moments, but the pace isn't quite exciting or dramatic enough, ditto the comedic moments, and the choreography could be more imaginative.

PBS did a brilliant one decades ago that I've rarely seen or heard surpassed; sadly, it's not available.

This production looks great! The concepts are clever and fun!

The tempi are.....slow......painfully slow.....zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

This can only be considered "rollicking" if one finds a chess game "rollicking".

It's a good game, though, played on a lovely board by very fine players. It's just, with this kind of work, a farcical satire by Offenbach, they should be running around the court playing hand ball, not sitting at the chess board. It needs to have life, it needs to jump, it needs to Can-Can! But instead, musically we get a lullaby....a dirge!

I suggest the CD version with Dessay, Naouri, Fouchécourt, Beuron, Podles, Petibon, Smith, Gens, Cole, Minkowski.....which you may purchase here, BTW. This version with no visuals is much more preferable than this sluggish DVD version.

This is a good production of one of Offenbach's more popular operettas with good cast and orchestra. The setting is that of Nineteenth Century Paris, not Classical Greece. The setting, I suppose, makes a statement, but frankly I would have preferred the setting stay true to the story. That being said, if you like Offenbach, you should like this. There is some very familiar music, including the famous "Can-Can." One prominent stage device is the arrival of an old-fashioned locomotive in Hades. Very loud and very cute. I cannot help but note that in Offenbach's "La Belle Helene" (his take on the Judgment of Paris and the abduction of Helen by Paris), Paris solves a riddle which also involves "locomotive." Whatever can all this mean? On the whole, I like both the music and wit of "La Belle Helene" more than that of "Orpheus in the Underworld," but "Orpheus" is very entertaining.

A reasonable reader, considering the low ratings given by the other reviewers, might conclude that is is a bad DVD, to be avoided, fundamentally flawed, not worth the money.

No, its jolly good fun, well acted, the sound is good, and the story is funny.

This production may or may not be a good parody of Gluck's opera (or of the myriad of other Orpheus and Eurydice stories that have been done in the last 2500 years).

The point is that this is the only DVD available for Orpheus in the Underworld; so it's this or nothing. And, certainly, if you otherwise want Orpheus in the Underworld, go ahead and buy this one. It's fine.

I've given it five stars to compensate for the low ratings others have given it. I hope that others also will plug it.

This is a pleasant and entertaining production of the Offenbach classic. I would rank it somewhat behind the PBS production of some years ago, which sadly is not available on DVD. Nevertheless, if you enjoy classic musical comedy this is worth seeing.

Although I must admit I was somewhat baffled by the plot (most likely because I was trying not to read the subtitles and simply listen to the French), I thought the singing and acting superb. Our 14-year-old son understandably was not as enthusiastic nor was my husband, but there were times when we all laughed out loud. I personally like the opening scene - and wonder if the actor/singer were actually playing the violin (it looked convincing, anyway). Perhaps if we knew more about the 2nd Empire or a European lifestyle we would have "gotten it" more, too, but it was enjoyable.

Everybody is having a very good time in this performance; it is a farce. Offenbach composed a satire, and there is a difference. This is so poorly sung, conceivably by the Newark Light Opera Company, and as bad as the English language version I saw at Sadler Wells some years ago in London. I concluded that the English should leave Offenbach alone, and that the French should, in return, leave Gilbert and Sullivan alone. Everything backfires in a farce that isn't even funny. Perhaps it should not have been staged in Brussels, more famous for its chocolate than its music.

The fantastic music drags, the political and mythological satire is almost lost in comic antics, and the muscial satire on Gluck's great setting of the work gets lost in a nit-wit production.

I was brought up on the old Rene Leibowitz recording, now probably in Hades as well, and I own the recent recording by EMI with Natalie Dessay, and the great Eva Podles doing Public Opinion in her somewhat infamous low-alto, basso-profundo range.
If not the ideal total performance, it makes Offenbach's music and satire work to great effect, as opposed to this silly bit of incompetence, which anybody knowing the piece should avoid like a stinking zebra.

Why this version was released, and,indeed, well reviewed by your editor, remains beyond my comprehension. A friend watching it with me was as utterly bored as I was.

High points for the music, singing, train and Cerberus. However, having grown up with a very witty English-language LP of it, I thought that the
pedestrian subtitling grossly shortchanged the libretto. And I could have done without the on-stage incest.

Beyond belief. So bad it just lays there. How could anyone ever produce, film or release this mess on DVD? Poor Offenbach. The Kent Nagano "Tales of Hoffman" was awful but nothing like this. The perfect gift for your worse enemy.