Customer Reviews

The Opera Gala: Live from Baden-Baden

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is the COMPLETE version of the Baden-Baden Concert on July 2007, available on DVD from DG, whereas the CD is the excerpted version.
By ALL means get this DVD version, since it contains double the contents of the CD, with some BEST performances NOT available on the CD version. (Plus stunning visual effects, of course).
Having reviewed the CD version earlier on, I must say that the complete concert reveals some thing quite different and interesting.
DG, in its inlaid leaflet, claims that its two artists Elina Garanca and in particular Anna Netrebko alone would have made the concert a success.
True - but only to a certain extent, and the truth lies mainly in the VISUAL aspect.
Without doubt, both Netrebko and Garanca are top-notch singers. Netrebko owns a voice whose unfathomable lyricism is hard to beat these days from any lyrical soprano. Garanca is a top-notch coloratura mezzo-soprano in the league of the late Lorraine Hunt Lieberson. Both ladies attired in Escada's gowns and Chopard jewelry, really presented a wonderful blend of commercialism and artistry.
Having said that, IMHV, the best performances that evening, rather from the two ladies, came from much less well-known (allow me to say so since I do not reside in Europe) French baritone Ludovic Tezier.
Right after the Norma duet from Netrebko and Garanca after the opening sinfonia, Tezier gave the concert its 'morning call' by his Il Puritani solo aria, a wonderful display of lyrical baritone, rich in tone and flying in coloratura singing. Garanca's Rossini aria from La Cenerantola is the second showpiece, fully demonstrating an agile coloratura. Her Italian diction suffering slightly from comparison with Tezier's, who, by all standards, is a great Verdian baritone in the making judging from his impeccable Italian and wonderful Verdian interpretation in the two Don Carlo excerpts that evening. All these wonderful pieces, apart from Tezier's Don Carlo solo, are NOT available on the CD version.
The two MET stars Ramon Vargas and Anna Netrebko were the natural spotlights in this evening, but Vargas, with a significant reduction in body weight, suffered also a reduction in vocal prowess. His shimmering upper register, so famously beautiful, lost some of its usual lustre this evening. On the whole, his performance could be termed 'passable', but short of brilliant.
Anna Netrebko's voice being as stunning as ever, the focus got onto her diction as she sang in Italian, German and French on this particular evening. My alien ears however failed to catch the differences, and had to reort to the subtitles' search to find out in what language she was singing, as all sounded so much alike.
The Lehar encore piece by Anna included a stunning dancing stint from the soprano, and would otherwise have been perfect but for the slight hiccup in the returning section, luckily speedily picked up by conductor Armiliato. This piece certainly was NOT included in the CD version.

This DVD of the Opera Gala from Baden-Baden is truly a worthy addition to anyone's collection of beautiful singing. The video and audio are excellent. All four featured singers possess gorgeous voices and in top form. The ladies looked divine and performed all their numbers magnificently. The baritone Ludovic Tezier was likewise quite impressive in my first introduction to his considerable talent. However, it was tenor Ramon Vargas who proved to be the rock and big star of the show. Although his voice has grown into a robust, powerful spinto with dark colors, he has not lost any of his admirable and distinctive qualities such as his trademark elegant legato singing, masterful control of dynamics, unerring sense of belcanto style and musicality of the highest order. His burnished bronze served him well in the dramatic Verdi numbers. Not only did he sing the most and clearly garnered the most ovation for his arias and duets, he was chiefly instrumental in raising the excitement level throughout the evening everytime he came out to do his solo or duet. For instance, after Anna Netrebko brought the roof down with the Lehar number and her bag of amusing tricks (seemingly an impossible act to follow), Vargas followed with a rollicking and powerful rendition of Rossini's La Danza in a pretty brisk tempo and demolished the remainder of the house left by Netrebko. It's that kind of a night that clearly belonged to Vargas, the senior of the group. Elina Garanca was sensational in the Spanish number too. The way the ladies looked and everybody sang made this gala a truly memorable one, and hard to top yardstick for a gala of four in the future.

This is an excellent concert recording. As mentioned by another reviewer, the lesser known singers were up to the high standards of Netrebko and Vargas. Netrebko and Garanca were exceptional in their acting even though this was a concert. They gave the impression they were enjoying themselves as much as the audience was.

This concert dvd has it all: wonderful video and audio, topnotch vocal performances as expected from the ladies and the baritone .Evidently Vargas has lost weight and some of the beautiful topend of his voice. However, for the price of the dvd who could complain? Netrebko continues to amaze and Garanca is a wonderful mezzo.

I wish there were more DVD's like this that were filmed in high definition. This is like going to the theatre or yes, being at the concert itself. I would have liked to have been there are the time, but this performance puts you right there and you are part of it. There's something about a live concert that makes it a simply joyous affair. Attending a live concert on DVD is a great way to spend an evening. I loved every one of these singers and they just get better as the performance goes on. Note: The Picture Format is 16:9, not 1:33 and fills up your Widescreen.

Marco Armiliato makes an example of how an orchestra needs to sound to support the singers and to be a solist itself. Magnificent.
Tezier and Garanca are in increasing form of singing, nevertheless are perhaps little moveless. The XXI century singers needs to be more agile at stage, in opera and concert.
Netrebko and Vargas are in frenetical race with their respective colleagues to be considered the prima donna and the primo tenore.
Netrebko is radiant, with a singing plein of virtuosism, of color, of power.
Vargas is technically great. The voice proyection, his phrasing, and his control makes a loving lirical model.
It is a concert to enjoy.

This DVD is a perfect alternative if you're not in the mood to listen or to watch an entire opera, for it provides well-known arias the majority of opera funs are familiar with. The video is of excellent quality and so is the audio. The auditorium is miked- there are mikes dispersed in various positions in the house for sound recording- but not the individual singers; and that exposes weaknesses and strengths. Ramon Vargas is the weakest in the link. If I'm not mistaken, he replaced the ailing Villazon. What a pity! His voice is small and with limited projectiom to cut above the orchestra, and barely audible in ensemble singing. Netrebko completely outsang him at the end of the duet from La Boheme. Vargas never had a big voice and its color is rather limited. The arias he sang, like "Una furtiva lagrima," the staple of golden-voice tenors, like Gigli, Pavarotti, and even Villazon, lacked colorization and chatacter, and they were rather monochromatic.
Tezier has a beautiful lyric baritonal voice of moderate size and his reading of "Per me giunto- lo morro" from Verdi's Don Carlo was admirable. On the other hand, a Verdi baritone needs a little more heft in the lower range which he's lacking; and that was more noticable in his "Toreador Song."
The stars of this concert are Garanca and Netrebko. Garanca's reading of the aria "Mon coeur..." from Samson et Dalila was superb, full of passion, yearning, and surrender. And her coloratura, in La Cerenentola's aria, fires rapid-machine-gun trills to kill you!
What more can be said about Natrebko. You wish she would never stop singing. Her rendition of "Casta Diva" maybe is not suited to everybody's taste, but the darkness of her voice brings something unique and totally her own. Her encore "Meine Lippen" from Lehar's Giuditta brought the house down, and showed the theater and stage animal in Anna's heart that burst all over the place: shoes kicking up and flowers throwing; twirling, dancing, and flirting! This DVD is fun, with high caliber artistic value. It deserves five stars and is highly recommended.

Constantine A. Papas
El Paso, Texas

This Baden-Baden Gala starts right with a Bel canto duet "Mira o Norma" after the Sinfonia with beautfull singing and Good looking soloist.The whole Concert goes on from that. The quality of the mail singers as well up to par.The bariton less experienced it seems,but georgeous voice.This Concert has drawn my tears for several times now with heartwrencing music & I can only recommend it to the fullest.The BEST opera concert on DVD for me out of many. Clear booklet & fantastic sound.

Stunning performances. Netrebko is, of course, brilliant. A boring stage and lack of decorations is compensated by extremely good DTS sourround sound. Your neighbours might not like this DVD as much as you will.

It was a very enjoyable concert. Anna Netrebko showed her multi-talents with her beautiful voice, great showmanship, spontaneity, charisma, warm personality and had the audience in the palm of her hand. I particularly enjoyed her singing and dancing Franz Lehar's "Meine Lippen sie Kussen so Heiss" for the encore.