Customer Reviews

Puccini - Il Tabarro / Leoncavallo - I Pagliacci / Stratas, Domingo, Pavarotti, Pons, Quivar, Croft, Levine, Metropolitan Opera

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4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This double bill production of Tabarro Pagliacci is one of the great operatic experiences of the past several decades and must be purchased and experienced.

Tabarro may be my favorite of Puccini's operas. It is innovative and daring, holding your attention for every second. The orchestra is used ambiently, there are tugs going off, songs and lovers and all sorts of passers-by giving context to the action. The music bespeaks the most profound modernist melancholy. Subdued angst marks the entire opera, which bursts forth in the ecstasy of love, in terror, rage and finally in vengance. There is a magic about the score which underlines the action.

This opera, being so ambient, is almost completely on the shoulders of the performers. The opera will either fail or succed on the stregnth of the singing actors employed, and here there are only the best.

Juan pons is the Michelle. This charachter may be one of the great baritone charachters in all opera. Not evil by any means, Michelle is honestly loving, tortured by Giorgetta and her distance. He has sunk into paranoia and melancholy. His gentle melancholy slowly turns into fury, after bearing his soul to Giorgetta pleading with her, to "come close and rest by him, for the night is beautiful." (some of the most beautiful baritone writing ever done.) Juan Pons is a fabulous Michele, he is a big gruff man, the exact type needed. His voice, although as always lacking in warmth, has the power to express Michelles frustrated rage, and the beauty to express his romantic melancholy.

Domingo plays Luigi. At the age of 55 he is still the great romantic lead. No other tenor could do what he did. He was madly in love with Giorgetta. When he dances that out of tune waltz with her, your heart tears in two. I watched this production with four friends, and at the finish of "Hai Ben Ragione" we were one and all in tears. Domingo is in strong voice, and he uses his full range, from ringing desperation to sotto voce angst.

Teresa Stratas makes her farewell in the part of Giorgetta. Forget that she is 60 years old, her voice is still there, and she is still the greatest singing actress alive. Her giorgetta is consumed by lust, meloncholy and remorse. she really feels bad for her silent, brooding husband, and her tears are real when Michelle pleads with her.

BRAVO!!!!!!!

Next to Tabarro comes comes the inevitable Pagliacci, which was also spectacular. Pavarotti delivers a clown of real force. This is one of his finest acted performaces to date. Vesti la Giubba will truly move you to tears. Pons is a wonderful Tonio, a man truly deformed. His voice is ideal, shouty and intense. his interactions with Stratas are true verismo, with spit and blood to spare. Dwane Croft is an incredible sounding lover for Stratas.

Teresa Stratas, perhaps a touch less secure than in Tabarro, is still a memorable and incredible Nedda. Her attention to the drama, makes a work that is sometimes charachture into something dramatically convincing.

I don't cry very often, but I cried at this....

Well worth any price

In what has to be considered an inspired pairing, the Met opened its 1994 season with this double bill, recorded here for posterity. Il Tabarro and Pagliacci, though by different composers, belong together, since both are relatively short verismo tragedies, both feature indigent and tawdry characters, and both deal with infidelity and murder.

The evening starts with Puccini's Il Tabarro, the more low key outing of the two. It's typical of Puccini to be less interested in telling a complex story and more interested in creating a convincing sense of atmosphere, of place, and of eliciting strong emotions, all through his wonderful music, and he succeeds brilliantly. From the serene opening to its violent climax, Il Tabarro is filled with the brooding tension of its unhappy characters. The Met's dark, yet lovely, production works wonders toward bringing this tension to life, as do the singers. A scowling Placido Domingo is Luigi, the strong itinerant workhorse willing to risk everything, even to kill for his one outlet of happiness, his love for his boss's wife, played by Teresa Stratas. Domingo still sounds great, even youthful, his ardor is always legitimate because that's the type of singer he is. Physically, he isn't nearly as handsome as he was in, say, Rigoletto from fifteen years earlier, he looks a little like a more smoldering Lon Chaney Jr. at this point, but this actually ends up being a plus, his age adds a craggy, wounded look to his features that works, even though he is clearly much older than the character he is portraying. Stratas' voice isn't quite as strong as it was ten years earlier, when she was capturing the powerhouse roles of Violetta and Lulu and Salome to perfection, even with the pristine sound quality of this production she has trouble maintaining a consistency in volume, but if she was intentionally trying to save herself for the big moments, well, the strategy worked, because Stratas always manages to deliver when it really counts. To her credit, her voice rarely sounds strained, the purity of sound is still there even if isn't always as full or as forceful as it used to be. Juan Pons, the betrayed husband Michele, is a gentle yet threatening bear of a man, his singing is tender and passionate but also simmering with rage which the audience just knows is destined to come to the surface before the story is over; he gives a dynamite performance, appropriately enough, he is the last to make his curtain call and gets the strongest ovation. Il Tabarro is far from Puccini's greatest opera, but it is a work to be treasured, with its emphasis on the life and feelings of poor folk living and working by the Seine over the story itself, it functions as a chilling mood piece, and proves that this often underrated composer could do whatever he wanted, he was creatively diverse, he had a brain in addition to a heart.

Leoncavallo's Pagliacci is one of the greatest masterworks of the verismo genre, more hultihued musically and dramatically than Il Tabarro, which the Met emphasizes with a colorful and crowded production(but not too colorful or too crowded, it is just right). Pavarotti is Canio the tormented clown and one of the most complex protagonists in all versimo, his voice is clear and piercing as ever and his performance really gets to the violent heart of the murderous cuckold, he manages to match Domingo in the acting department, rarely has the singer come across as so, well, vicious. Yet his Vesti la giubba shows the sadness of the character and lives up to what you would expect from a tenor of his stature performing one of opera's most popular numbers. He even takes a curtain call for that one aria(and nobody takes a curtain call like Pavarotti). Stratas returns as Nedda, another wayward wife(was she trying to tell us something?), and she is once again on for the big moments, especially her glorious aria which taxes her voice, nevertheless she manages to break through and topple the house. Juan Pons also returns as Tonio, his prelude("I am the prologue") is delivered with panache, and his portrayal of the deformed comprimario plays up the lechery and resentment over the heartbreak with disturbing results. His voice is, of course, smooth and clear and boiling with hate. Dwaye Croft has the ideal sort of romantic baritone voice for Silvio. The complexity of Leoncavallo's "true" story, with its play within a play(a commedia del arte piece, the narrative of which cleverly matches the surrounding events) and the confusion of fantasy and reality yield all sorts of brilliant action from the chorus and players, the stage is never less than thrillingly alive.

Special accolades should be given to the performances of James Levine and the mighty Met orchestra, who bring out the tragedy, the humor, most of all the passion of both scores while never failing to miss the equally important moments of pensiveness and quiet. Verismo has never sounded better.

Stratas the musician, Stratas the actress is superlative here! No bars held! then we have Domingo and Pavarotti. You can't miss with this Luigi and Canio. Juan Pons rises to greatness as Tonio. With Quivar and the up-coming Croft- a complete cast that has no weak links at all. A great evening in the theater with Levine at the helm. Great singing, great drama through which we visit a day in the life of people caught in their own dead end tragedies. The lives of the marginal struggle and die before our very eyes here. An absolute winner of a dvd.

It looks like I can't get enough of Pagliacci; I own three of them now. It's the universal appeal, since most of us have had to deal with a love lost - and frankly, we were pretty angry, if we were honest. Thankfully, most of us didn't go completly nuts.
The music is wonderful - a sort of mad stagger between farce, exhultation, strange, then stumbling into eerie - then as suddenly, jerking back to opera buffo. James Levine conducts superbly, the orchestra is perfection. Art direction by Levine also luridly opulent and joyous -great color! -scenes interspersed with some extraordinary choral and vocal work - each performer deserving standing ovations. I was very impressed with Kenn Chester who played the affable Arlechin (harlequin ). superb- and I hope to see him in more, absolutely ! But you know who steals the show? Who eats the scenery, as it is called? Juan Pons ! This is his opera. At first, we buy an opera, because it may have the big name star - and certainly you want to own this one with the late, wonderful Pavarotti. In this one, however, Juan Pons is unmistakeably the master of ceremonies. Before I thought of him as best supporting actor. Now, as I hear more of him, more closely now, I have to admire his voice. Don't overlook his mastery of baritone bel canto. It's easy to find a collection of favorite arias by the big names...but it would be fabulous to listen to Mr. Pons do a CD/DVD in concert. I would buy that now in a minute. What a voice. In this show, Juan is the show.

This Pagliacci is unsurprising in that it is all that one would hope for. Old War Horse, or not, a decent cast can make it effective; a cast like this shows why it has been so successful for so many years. On the other hand, Il Tabarro, surprised me with its impact; as one reviewer recognized, it is a musical version of many of the films and plays of the thirties and early forties, working class drama, in which hard-working, ordinary people, find themselves the material of Greek tragedy. No better argument against minimalist staging of drama can be made than the atmosphere created by the Met scenic design which with deceptive simplicity makes a major contribution to the success of the production. Puccini's music amazed me with its sheer rightness for the simple love triangle so often portrayed yet made fresh and vital here. Finally, and most importantly, Conductor Levine leads three perfectly cast principals to give of their best, which is some of the best singing of its day. Stratas shows that even without singing she could step into the role on Broadway and be a hit; with her wonderfully expressive singing, she creates a memorable character despite the limited time available. Pons, too, in every respect commands respect for his portrayal. As to Domingo, his ability to enter into the most variegated roles is by now legend; here, he, too, looks, acts, sings with near perfection to make us believe in his tragic love.
Needless to say, I can recommend both these short operas, without qualification. The Pagliacci will live up to expectations, the Il Tabarro will exceed them.

This is my favorite production of Tabarro, one of my Puccini favorites. I saw this when it was first broadcast and a wonderful new surprise was Graves Frugola who gets the singing honors. Too many Tabarros are just too bright. This one verges on murky....very suitably grey. Stratas is a bit long in the tooth but well worth watching for master emoting and she still summons up some impressive singing (tho a bit rough in lower notes). I am no Domingo fan but this is one of his better singing efforts. His acting is passable, but not exciting. Pons is totally miscast. Michele commits double murder in a fit of rage and we need a voice with sharp intensity. Pons is too soft in voice and also is no actor.
If you've never seen this little masterpiece this is a good version to start with.

As I can't tolerate Pav my review stops here. I could only get thru this Pagliacci once because of him.

I really just bought this for I Pagliacci, so that is what I am going to review for it. This is an opera that I have watched several times since buying it, and listened to it on record numerous times. Mr. Pavarotti does an AMAZING job in this, and the praise I am going to give really does no justice. He does a fantastic job displaying emotions through music, watching and hearing him singing Vesti la Giubba will literally put tears in your eyes. You can really feel his pain in the inability to get out of his fate. What else can I say that hasn't been said? By far one of my favorite operas performed by one of operas greats, a definite must have.

I feel I should say this, too. Il Tabarro is a great treat to have with this, but I think that I Pagliacci really outshines it. Of course, that is entirely my opinion, so I hope that does not offend anyone who thinks the contrary!

So, in summary, definitely buy this and enjoy BOTH of these fantastic performances, you won't regret it.

This is one of the best productions of an opera I've seen in a long time. I've heard before that Pavarotti was a bad actor. This dvd does not support that at all, I recommend anyone that has doubts go to youtube and look up some scenes from this dvd. The Puccini piece was also very nice, and had some interesting harmonies!

Puccini's Tabarro is an sadly underappreciated and seldom performed opera; and while I was excited to see the MET's production with Domingo, I was dissapointed with many of the other singers. Stratas is too old, to shaky, and too past her prime to be attempting to sing a part that is both challenging and that is written for a younger voice. Whether it was throwing around her body to reach the high notes or scraping the bottom out of her throat, Stratas offers a terrible performance (unusual for such a wonderful performer). Yet looking past Stratas and several of her co-stars one can find an amazing performance. Domingo and Pons are superb. Domingo delivers an incredible "Hai ben ragione" which truly shows off his maturity and acting. Pons offers the yearning and cold Michele through his beautiful execution in "Come e difficile" and "Nulla Silenzio." For a Puccini lover who has not experienced Tabarro I would suggest getting the La Scala production of the entire Il Trittico. The cast is wonderful, youthful, and Piero Cappuccilli delivers the best performance of Michele yet on DVD.

Yet the pairing of Tabarro (with Domingo) with Pagliacci (with Pavarotti) makes this DVD worth buying. Once again, you will have to listen to an elderly Stratas (although she performs better in Pagliacci) but it is well worth the pain in order to hear Pons and Pavarotti. "Vesti la Giubba" is flawless as is "Non, Pagliaccio, non son".

If you are a committed opera fan then I would suggest these productions, but for new opera fans I would stick with La Scala's Trittico on DVD.

These two verismo opera performances more or less define what the Met has traditionally represented: Huge, colorful, even dwarfing stagings surrounding singers of great international renown. As a double-bill gala opening for the 1994 season, this DVD offers the Met's cream of the crop for an evening of flaring passions.

Il Tabarro has often been the ugly stepsister in Puccini's Trittico, although, if properly staged, as this production is, it can be even more moving than Suor Angelica, while exhibiting a much subtler and more advanced musical fabric. The design/directorial team of David Reppa and Fabrizio Melano has created a vivid Paris that nearly smells of croissants, with storefronts, cobblestone streets, high embankments, and a large barge on the Seine, where the tragic love triangle plays out.

As Giorgetta, the padrona, Teresa Stratas looks extremely haggard and wears a reddish fright wig (even though the libretto mentions that she is a blonde). She uses every molecule of her anorexic body to deliver this tricky role's high notes with real power and a minimum of squall. Unfortunately, much of the role lies in the lower part of her voice, straddling an audible break that produces some rather gutteral sounds. Normally an unparalleled actress, Stratas is far too manic and jittery here, making it all too easy for her husband Michele to guess that she is unfaithful.

As her secret lover Luigi, Placido Domingo makes a strapping (and somewhat paunchy) stevedore, and is in fine vocal form, keeping the bravado in check to play his role credibly. His swagger, his confidence, and his tender reminiscing on life in the suburbs are all artfully delineated.

The real revelation of this performance, though, is Juan Pons as the padrone Michele, a huge bear of a man, as threatening as he is gentle, as vengeful as he is pitiable. Pons mines every nuance of this fascinating role, and finds the right vocal shadings through volume and placement in order to create something truly original. That his sound is often less than polished only works in his favor here.

As La Frugola, the glorious Florence Quivar shines, a true case of star casting in a minor role. Federico Davia as her husband Il Tapa looks a bit old for his part, but has a real rapport with his wife and is quite nimble on the stage. Charles Anthony as the alcoholic Il Tinca is a fitting archetype of a man destroyed by his wife's infidelity, almost like a ghost of the future Michele. Levine and the Met orchestra control pacing, dynamics, color and phrasing to achieve maximum musical and emotional effect, making this performance one of their most satisfying on DVD.

Returning after intermission to Leoncavallo's I Pagliacci, we have a Zeffirelli production that is rather modest by his standards, and therefore attractive. Teresa Stratas plays the itinerant actress Nedda, who this time is caught in a love quadrangle, not only including her bourgeois lover Silvio and her clown husband Canio, but the hunchbacked clown Tonio as well. Stratas seems relaxed and renewed after the intermission, wears a much more becoming wig, and rarely has to reach for notes. She is fantastic in the range of things she must do in this role, from dancing to whipping to a wonderfully accomplished pantomime during the play-within-a-play. If I find her a bit TOO brutal in her treatment of Tonio when he declares his love, it may be just my own sensitivity.

Juan Pons is the hunchback Tonio without the hump. Evidently Zeffirelli felt that the physical hump would be superfluous, emphasizing instead Pons's physical girth, along with vocal color, makeup and movement to suggest his twisted nature. Pons delivers a forceful Prologue, but somehow I always hear Robert Merrill in this scene, which puts Pons at a disadvantage. However, Pons masterfully turns lovesickness into revenge, guiding our emotions from pity to disgust in a nicely arched portrayal.

Pavarotti as Canio is the weakest link here...he wouldn't know an emotion if it slammed into him at 60mph. He works as a monolith on the stage, a tangent to the drama and to the activity, rather than being an organic part of them. His "Vesti la giubba" is vocally sound, but that uber-italianate sniffling that is so much a part of his style has always been a source of annoyance for me. I wish Domingo had returned for this role.

Dwayne Croft is one of my favorite young singers and is put to good use in the role of Silvio. He's dashing and sophisticated, representing the promise of a step up in life for Nedda. As Beppo, Kenn Chester has a sweet lyric sound.

Again, Levine and the Met orchestra are the perfect musical accompaniment to these acclaimed singers. Had I been there at that gala opening night, I may have left after the close of Il Tabarro, knowing that after its riveting final 20 minutes, nothing that followed could possibly match it.