Customer Reviews

Opera Fanatic: Stefan And The Divas [VHS]

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

 

 

The divas' comments, interspersed with judicious video excerpts of them in performance, reveal fascinating artistic and personal qualities. Many gems here. However, too much time is wasted on Stefan Zucker's comic (and sometimes tasteless) shtick. He has so much insight to offer, it's a shame the directorial choices were so frivolous.

As I watched this video, I become more and more disgusted at the behavior of this creature known as Stefan Zucker. He is a petty, affected fop who kept asking each of these talented women about whether or not they used "chest voice." These are women who have sung the greatest roles in opera. Of all the possibilities of WHAT to ask them, he's on some personal mission to validate whatever freudian motivation he has for proving the validity of his own mother's voice (or lack of it). So, he's a terrible interviewer. I've heard better enunciated Italian by first year language students. He's a creature with a HUGE ego, who thinks he actually has something to say about the gifted women he has interviewed. The best part of the video is the reaction of each of the singers as they have that "deer in the headlights" look, as if to say, "Can this THING be real." He is an embarassment to all men who love opera and have to fight the stereotyping that comes with that. That being said, the entertainment value of the tape is high--this tape is an excercise in the display of an ego which most small screens cannot contain.

This film could have been a real treasure - had the interviewer been someone other than the intensely dislikable and (as an interviewer) utterly incompetent Stefan Zucker. The opportunity to interview these great divas was a rare one and, in most cases, Zucker just blew it, especially with Marcella Pobb?. Zucker asks the dumbest questions - like, "What was the highest note you ever sang?" He has some bizarre obsession with chest voice and asks most of the divas if they used it. Pobb? quite rightly throws him out of her apartment after he is foolish and impertinent enough to ask why she left the Met. (There was some unhappy love affair and obviously she wasn't going to discuss that, so why ask?)

Fedora Barbieri camps it up for the camera in an embarassing manner, making a fool of herself and Zucker at the same time. Zucker asks her a question about having sex with women in her dressing room before going on stage. But Barbieri is too thrilled with all the attention to slap him and chuck him out like Pobb? did. One wonders who has the bigger ego and who is more excited to be on camera.

The entire enterprise is an ego trip for Zucker. The title, "Stefan and the Divas," is misleading; this is mostly about Stefan, and a more unappealing subject it is difficult to imagine.

Still, there are wonderful moments with Anita Cerquetti, Giulietta Simionato, Leyla Gencer and Carla Gavazzi, when Zucker shuts up and we get a glimpse of these great singers. The segment with the ancient Gina Cigna is a disappointment just because she is so old and feeble and can hardly string two words together. One of the best moments is when Zucker tells Gencer that Barbieri and Simionato deny ever using chest voice. She looks incredulous, rolls her eyes and asks, "Questo di LORO?" ("This from THEM?") For these, and for the clips of the great Magda Olivero, the video is worth having - if you can stomach Zucker's prissy falsetto, foolish posturing, dumb questions, and irritating manner. Like Pobb?, one wants to chuck him out.

What a waste.

Being true blue opera lover, this was a huge disappointment. This Stefan Zucker is a clueless buffoon, totally unable to conduct a meaningless interview. The entire thing looks like an amateurish farce. I am surprised that all the singers didn't react like Pobbe and threw him out. Just when you think that finally something good and interesting is coming you hear his most irritating voice (+ his most irritating Italian) asking something ludicrous, and that's it. Embarrassing for him, disappointing for opera lovers.
He also keeps bringing up his mother which has no place in this documentary (but in his shrink's office).
Terrible. One can see lots of good footage of those divas on YouTube, stay away from this. Really.

Probably, Stefan Zucker is not the right person to do these interviews. First of all, his italian is not enough to structure an unambiguous question. I had the impression the divas are not taking him seriously because of this look and the manner he speaks. The scenes are perfect but the overall movie looks like "making of -or- behind scenes of opera fanatic". However, it is also very interesting to see how these women act behind scenes. It would be good to make a regular DVD with complete interviews and add this current DVD to the set as "making of". There are some scenes Stefan Zucker is clearly drunk and he tries to make a serious talk in italian. To sum up, the overall idea of making such a movie is excellent, but the implementation is very bad.

This documentary is certainly worth watching thanks to the footage of the Italian opera divas of the 30-50s. Every word of theirs is captivating. They are themselves a great example of excellent taste and great human and artistic dignity. However, Mr. Stefan Zucker, in my view, is absolutely out of place there. It is even painful to think how much precious time, which could and must have been dedicated to the DIVAS, was simply wasted on his eccentricity, stupidity, vulgarity and all those things that do not have anything to do with ART and the DIVAS. He was so impertinent and vulgar that I wished with all my heart he were not there. His Italian is not very convincing, his team did not have any knowledge of the language and I think that sometimes they were not able to communicate with the DIVAS and they were not respectful enough to them! What a shame! I wonder whether it was possible to find a more professional team!
By the way, Cavalleria Rusticana with Carla Gavazzi, Il Trovatore, Werther and Aida with Leyla Gencer are now available on DVD. Excellent historical documents and good video and sound quality. Higly recommendable!

"What are the various aspects of expressive singing?" is one of the questions Stefan Zucker puts to the divas. They discuss and demonstrate their interpretations, singing brief excerpts from Norma, Butterfly, Travatore, Traviata, Fanciulla, and Adriana (Olivero, age 86, performs the Monologo). The film includes footage from 40 years ago -- some of which is not otherwise on video.

Shot in 1996 on location in Italy (including La Scala) on a big budget, the film is illuminating, poignant, and brimming with personality.

Stefan Zucker: "Cerquetti, Adami Corradetti, Barbieri, Simionato, Pobbe and Olivero are all opposed to the use of chest resonance."

Carla Gavazzi: "Chest resonance is indispensable. They are ignorant!"

Giulietta Simionato: "If I had to do all over again, I wouldn't become a singer. I suffered too much."

Marcella Pobbe: "All I did was right. I didn't make mistakes."

Forgotten by many but worshipped by some: ten stars from when the prima donna was still a goddess. And Stefan Zucker, the "World's Highest Tenor," a New York intellectual just as brilliant as he is risque, full of eloquence and grand entrances. The quintessence of the omniscient hardcore opera fanatic, a figure from another age.

A film within a film: a framework, shot in morbid, Visconi-like colors, surrounds Stefan Zucker on his journey. The visits are filmed with two cameras: an electronic one documents the interview, the Super-16 films the situation: the interview as part of Stefan's journey. Nothing is off the record. An obsessive film: extreme people, extreme feelings, extreme opinions. An anti-world full of pathos, sometimes earthy and theatrical. Spectators must leave the film having experienced a world so consistent with itself that they cannot orient themselves afterwards: can it be true that our world really is so banal?

What a wasted opportunity - There was so much that these immortal artists could have been asked - but instead we get Barbieri being grilled about the sexual apetite of mezzos - Leyla Gencer being called erotic ! embarrasing. The narrative sound is hard to understand but the diva footage is excellent. It is such a shame.