Product Details

• Actors: Placido Domingo
• Directors: Chris Hunt
• Format: Classical, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English (PCM)
• Subtitles: English, French, German, Italian
• 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: November 17, 2009
• Run Time: 80 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B002NY7YVO
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #38,338 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Plácido Domingo is the most important person alive in opera. Greatest of the stage tenors still performing, experienced conductor, intendant of not one but two US opera houses these bald facts hardly begin to delineate the man. Major sponsorship flocks to him, his influence is felt in opera houses worldwide, and his support can be the making of a singer's career. And once every ten years he allows television cameras in. This time is probably the last television look at his active career and takes the form of a retrospective of his greatest work, building up a picture of this unique man throughout his extraordinary career.

Plácido Domingo has selected the roles he regards as his greatest, and the particular performances at which he was at his peak, which were all filmed:

Vienna Opera
Carmen
La Gioconda
Lohengrin

The Royal Opera Covent Garden
Andrea Chénier
The Tales Of Hoffmann
La Fanciulla Del West
Otello

San Francisco Opera
Samson & Dalila

Film Version
Tosca, The Settings And Times Of Tosca

Produced And Directed By Chris Hunt

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Lovely moments with a master artist., April 6, 2010

By 

S. Erickson "blackandwhite88" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Placido Domingo: My Greatest Roles - The Documentary (DVD)

Domingo's passion for his work, his art, is simply contagious. Just watching him talk about a phrase of music can be as moving as an actual performance. He is very good at expressing his extraordinary feeling for music and drama. At one point in this program he got himself so involved in describing the beauty of a scene that he had to pause just a moment before speaking again. So it is always a pleasure to hear his thoughts, especially at this late stage of his unending career.

I think I just caught on to what Kultur is doing here. This "Greatest Roles: The Documentary" must be intended as a sort of prelude to the reissuing of the whole operas in the series "Placido Domingo: My Greatest Roles" with Vol. 1 being of Puccini and Vol. 2 of Verdi. More to follow?
This program consists of clips of such performances interspersed or dubbed over with Domingo's comments (which I assume were filmed in 2008 or 9?). A narrator occasionally fills in to connect things and add info. Plus brief comments from great fellow-artists. There are also a few bits of rehearsals, including a little Parsifal, which are always fascinating! For a few moments of the millstone scene in Samson we get a different, and excellent, camera angle than was used in the release of the complete performance.

For me it is all worthwhile for the opportunity to see/hear Domingo, in a casual atmosphere, talk about his memories, his ideas on characters, etc. He is such a delightful and enthusiastic communicator- I could wish the program did nothing but let him ramble on without interruption! *****5 stars for his contribution. The overall concept of the program seems rather simple and doesn't present a lot in the way of new information. Essentially clips of already released operas plus a few other nice tidbits and Domingo himself providing the greatest value in his own inimitable personality. As such, I'm happy to have it but for a well-produced and multi-facetted portrait of the man, I love to go back to Kultur's earlier effort A Year in the Life of Placido Domingo which follows him through life and work (about 1983-4, judging by the content). That one is just a joy to watch as role preparation, rehearsals, his own summaries of operas and roles, times of casual relaxation, clips of actual performance (not necessarily available elsewhere!), and much more - all get skillfully interwoven to create a fascinating and enjoyable viewing experience. In it he mentions his satisfaction with his career to that point but he would love to able to sing, say, another 10 years. How about 25 and still counting! Similarly excellent is Domingo: A Musical Life, done in 1993 or '94, which spends a great deal of time with the artist in a relaxed and personal framework. We are fortunate to be the recipients of his special gift as he continues to share it with us to this day.

Subtitles available in English, German, French, Italian

One note; I thought it possibly misleading, for anyone not already familiar with his work, that Domingo's comments on, for example, his very first "Gioconda", should be followed by a clip of a performance in '86. Nothing wrong with such discrepancies but nowhere in this package does Kultur provide the dates for the selected operas. So, in case you are interested... along with house/city and conductor:
Carmen '78 Vienna; Kleiber
La Gioconda '86 Vienna; Fischer
Ernani '83 Scala; Muti
La Fanciulla del West '83 Covent; Santi
Andrea Chenier '84 Covent; Rudel
Tosca '92 `live' for television, RAI; Mehta
The Tales of Hoffmann '80 Covent; Pretre
Samson et Dalila '81 San Fransicso; Rudel
Lohengrin '90 Vienna; Abbado
Otello '92 Covent; Solti

You can't go wrong purchasing any of these in their entirety. I already own and love every one, plus many more. This Carmen is very special, Hoffmann is superb, Lohengrin is a beauty, Tosca very unique - and a wonderful look at his insight into the role near the end of his Cavaradossi days - Fanciulla is one of my favorites, Samson... they're all great!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great find, May 3, 2011

By 

T. Murphy "TaraZamara" (Denver, CO USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Placido Domingo: My Greatest Roles - The Documentary (DVD)

Got this for my mom for her birthday and she loves it! It arrived a day ahead of the estimated day so I would say we were all happy!

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A Very Old Retrospective, November 6, 2011

By 

Judy Monson (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Placido Domingo: My Greatest Roles - The Documentary (DVD)

Alas, this was a great disappointment. The documentary dates form 2009 and it is clear that Mr. Domingo's narrative was filmed around that time. However, all of the clips are from decades earlier--one has to guess exactly since none are dated. Therefore, no development of his acting, singing or, for that matter, looks, are provided. His colleagues in the performances are not named--so one has to know that it is Kire te Kanawa or whoever else. An equally large negative surprise was the fact that none of the clips are from performances at the NY Metropolitan Opera. Is this due to copyrights, the unwillingness of the documentary makers to pay royalties, or something else?

There are plenty of documentaries out there regarding Placido's contemporaries that move, educate and uplift. This one on Placido, unfortunately, is not one of them---by a long shot. Wish I could get my money back.