Customer Reviews

Purcell - King Arthur / Bonney, Schade, Rey, Widmer, Remmert, Maertens, Konig, Henkel, Bantzer, Renner, Rohrer, Harnoncourt, Salzburg Opera

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

This was made for a German audience and, as such, it works well. I am not against updated production values. Purcell only wrote music, admittedly extensive music, for a play. Purcell's music is beautiful, sublime, fun, powerful, joyful, expressive and funny - he does all these things in the music in King Arthur. Herr Harnoncourt does not mess around with the music at all - you hear, and see, 100% Henry Purcell when the music is performed.

However, the language of the drama is German and the staging is creative and modern. Shoot me, but I quite liked it. I am tolerant of such things, and, until a really H.I.P. DVD version of King Arthur is available, I think that this is the only party in town.

Yes, there is an element of Euro-trash here and I think that that is quite knowingly presented, perhaps it was intentional?

I love this work, I sang in a production two years ago. If you really want a serious recording of King Arthur, buy the William Christie / Les Arts Florissants recording on CD. That is probably one of the best recordings of any Baroque opera, or, indeed, ANY opera on CD.

I have to agree fully with a previous reviewer that the staging--apparently based on what costumes and sets were available in a seedy thrift shop--is truly awful and makes a mockery of Purcell's fine work. I'm not adverse to modernized (or in this case heavily postmodernized) stagings, but this production has to take the cake as the worst example of the genre I've seen in the last 30 years (do not be fooled, as I was, by the somewhat traditional look of the cover to this DVD). Harnoncourt has been something of a hero to me owing to his pioneer work using period instruments and due to the brilliance of his musical interpretations, and the work is well-played. But there is no excuse I can see for this production, and while I try to write only positive reviews, this DVD needs a warning label: NOT FOR THOSE WHO LIKE PURCELL.

After reading all the bad reviews of this production I can only wonder if most of the people who savaged it really sat down and gave it their full attention.

The set is a marvel. It's a huge multi-tiered piece that appears to be modelled along the lines of an ancient coliseum. There's a large backdrop overhead which depicts a sky and also serves as a projection screen. The effects are a combination of conventional stage devices (trap doors) and modern multi-media. The stage is a large oval with the orchestra pit is squarely in the middle. That served the production really well. But more on that later ...

The wardrobe is a multi-coloured array of styles and designs that looks like a what's what of fashions that survived a cataclysm. It looks bizarre but it acts as a contemporary image of how the peasantry would have dressed in Arthur's time; they were as poor as dirt and would have worn anything they could find. The costumes and makeup are excellent. The outfit worn by the spirit 'Philadel' combined baroque fashions with hair from '80's glam-rock. It was hilarious. 'Grimbald' is so hideously ugly he really looks as if he smells like rotten fish (something that 'Philadel' pointed out several times). Michael Schade's wardrobe ran the gamut from formal wear to alpine guide missing his St. Bernard. Barbara Bonney went from sprite to rag doll and finished up formally dressed. Isabel Rey wore an array of outfits as did Birgit Remmert and baritone Oliver Widmer. Widmer even ended up dressed as a penguin at one point. This was a feast of images that flooded the senses. But it all works in the service of the piece.

The narrative is updated but still reasonably faithful to (John) Dryden's original intentions. In this version the "Juice that makes the Britons Bold" looks like cans of beer. 'Emmeline's' most pivotal scene is played out with a camcorder instead of a mirror. The overall effect is the same whichever way the scene is presented. Some ornamentation has been added though. In this rendition 'Emmeline' sees a 'Conductor' (Harnoncourt) when she regains her sight. 'Merlin' gets in 'trouble' with one of the theatre's ushers when he tries to reach 'Arthur'. Like Dryden's text it combines farce with high art.

The spoken performances (as much as I could assess without being able to speak German) are fabulous. All of the actors involved were expressive physically as well as verbally. As the production progressed I became less dependent on the subtitles and more observant of the body language of the performers. Sylvie Rohrer did a fabulous job as the sightless 'Emmeline'. Even during the closeups she managed to avoid allowing her eyes to follow movements involuntarily. Michael Maertens was a hoot as the indecisive 'Arthur'. Dietmar König was wonderful as the obsessed 'Oswald'. Roland Renner was a beautifully disgusting 'Osmond' and Werner Wölbern was brilliantly repulsive as the aforementioned 'Grimbald'. Alexandra Henkel was deliciously loveable as the sprite urchin 'Philadel'.

The musical performance is fantastic. Barbara Bonney delivered a radiant version of 'Fairest Isle'. Oliver Widmer was marvellous during the 'Frost Scene' as was Isabel Rey when she contrived to 'warm him up'. Birgit Remmert did some great work with Michael Schade during 'Woden, our Defender'. Isabel Rey and Barbara Bonney doubled up beautifully on 'Shepherd. Shepherd, leave decoying'. Schade's rendition of the solo part of 'How Blest are Shepherds' was sublime. And he had too much fun acting out a rock star fantasy while performing the drinking song, 'Your Hay it is Mow'd'. Having the musicians in the middle of the action allowed the performers feed directly off each others' energy. (Nikolaus) Harnoncourt had the members of the 'Concentus Musicus Wien' playing as if they were walking on air. Everyone on stage was beautifully 'in sync' with those around them. The choral segments delivered by the entire ensemble were stunning.

This isn't the easiest production to view casually. At a glance it looks like a garish affair that lacks rhyme or reason. The songs are sung in English but the spoken dialogue is presented in German. That's reasonable given that the members of the live audience were German but it's a hurdle for English speaking buyers of the DVD. (Spoken humour loses its spontaneity when read as subtitles). That might might have been the biggest stumbling block for the writers who tore this production apart. If so then it's too bad because it's one that's both brilliantly and beautifully realized.

And it's worth the effort it takes to really get into it.

I was anticipating something far different from this travesty of baroque opera. From the outset, it is clear that the director, designer, etc have all combined to be as sophomoric and rediculous as possible. I have admired Mr. Harnoncourt's work in the past very much. He does what he can to try to present the musical part with SOME dignity, but even he gets suckered into stupid banter with the characters. The dialogue is presented in german, the music sung in (mostly) inflected english, except by the few english speakers in the cast. The imbicelic rendering of a beautiful Purcell opera is insulting to watch. It treats the music with disrepect, the subject also, and ultimately the viewer as well. I wish I had never wasted my time watching it. I only hope SOMEONE, maybe in England, who is not dedicated to these demeaning kinds of productions which are all too frequently offered as viable, will come to Purcell's aid and produce a thoughtful and worthy production of this and offer it on dvd. It is worthy of repect and care, not trashing the music and any sort of visual representation that will support and enhance the music. Mr. Harnoncourt, who has done such wonderful things in so many areas of music, concert and opera, should have known better; it does not do him a service to have been part of this crap. I will try to forget that when I see (or listen to) many other worthwhile things he has conducted. Unless you are hopelessly addicted to the crude and outlandish, occupy yourself with a cd version, or read a book! BLECH!

Yes - there is a 'music only' icon in the Main Menu!
I don't understand why people did not consider the music, but simply rant out on the more controversial production.
Harnoncourt and his singers did a wonderful job here - you can see him standing at the centre of the 'ring', singing the arias himself, enjoying immensely with the performaners.
And I absolutely agree with one other reviewer who commended on the performances of the non-singing cast as well as the singing cast. The ballet dancers are marvellous; the actor and actresses top rate.
If there IS any thing to complain of, it is the 'format' of the composition itself rather than the performance.
In nearly all of Henry Purcell's 'semi-operas', the protagonists are non-singing. Actually, it would not be accurate to call this genre of composition 'opera's - they are melodramas, to be exact.
Given the innate constraint, one would be much easier to come to terms with this production, which is never sloppy.
Back to the music - I absolutely love Michael Schade's singing here. He has the charisma, the timbre, the technique, the musical sense that connects the past with the present. Purcell's music is given a direct linkage to the Beatles!
Barbara Bonney's 'Fairest Isle' is nothing short of being tear-wrenchinglhy beautiful.
Unless you are a die-hard traditionalist, you'd enjoy this!

This is an apparently disastrous production. I almost fell asleep on the cold weekend afternoon watching it.
Alas, I am no German listener, and the dialogues are really tortuous.
THEN I discovered that there is a shortened 'music only' version in the Main Menu, of which I immediately resorted to.
Wow! What a world of difference! My ignorance in language was fully overcomed by the beautiful music and spectacular performances!
The soloists are brilliant - none other than Barbara Bonney and Michael Schade in their respect prime! Brilliant singing, beautiful costumes in many scenes (if not all), and even the acrobatic performance by the 'angel' who strides in the air wired from above was later on 'borrowed' by Zhang Yimou in the 2008 Beijing Olympics Opening!
The problem, if at all, is that this work is not an opera - like many of Purcell's works that are 'semi-operas', the main characters are NOT the major singers. Hence Schade and Bonney, even if they got to sing the main pieces, never appeared as any major 'character' in the story plot.
I agree and sympthesize with the conventional opera watchers/goers - this may NOT be their cup of tea, but even so, the performance is terrific (Bonney and Schade sung immaculately, Rey is effective and the baritone also sung beautifully. The chorus is strong in all respects. Harnoncourt's conducting is alert and highly energised). The production may be problematic, but again, as I said, the 'music only' button saved it all!
Enjoy!

The music is sublime. The staging is tiresome trash. I barely managed the first disc. I needed much brandy to sit through the second. Luckily you can set the DVD to show only the music part. And I did that with the second disc. A true waste of money. Avoid.

I read the several disparaging reviews of King Arthur and thought " oh, it can't be that bad because it is Harnoncourt and he did so magnificently with the Monteverdi trio of beautiful productions". Well, I was wrong and they were right. It's awful, horrid, totally "Euro-trash". I couldn't even finish watching to the end. Lesson learned; read, think and appreciate the reviews before buying!
John W. Rippon

I've heard much about "Le Roi Arthus", but I'd never seen it until I came across this iteration of the thing some years back. I searched high and low for a copy so I could finally see one of Purcell's masterpieces. And so I splurged on a copy I had found at a local Borders, and popped it into my DVD player with great anticipation.

My reaction; "Ooookay... so, this is a comedy?"

Or rather, farce, or some facsimile thereof.

In short, I don't get it. This is half play, half opera, half spectacle, and all craziness. One expcets a Germanic production was bound to take liberties, but you'd figure that in Vienna they'd take their musicology a bit more seriously. Well, after viewing this, you wonder if there's anything sacred at all.

The bottom line is this; I don't get it. I mean, I really don't. Was it the German that threw me? The fact that half the play was sung in English, spoken in English, and then in German? I don't really know.

I actually consider myself to be a pretty hip guy when it comes to the Avante-garde, and all things related, but this was, well, just kind of out there. And maybe that's all anyone can say about this piece. It's just out there.

Take it for what it is. Watch it and enjoy, or move onto something else. I know I have.

This is the worst bastardization of a musical work I've ever seen. I've tried to watch it twice and couldn't get beyond Act I either time. That the libretto is in German is not as bad as the fact that the so-called singers scream their lines at each other across minimalist stage settings wearing costumes salvaged from Willie Wonka & The Longest Day. Now I know the Salzburg Opera is no fan of National Socialism but the way this production comes out it more resembles an air on the "Horst Wessel Lied" than anything written by Henry Purcell. Were Purcell alive and witness to this farce he'd draw his rapier and go after the whole crowd responsible.