Customer Reviews

Ralf Benatzky: Im Weien Rssl - Fendrich/Kapfinger

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

 

 

I really rate this a 4 1/2. Not absolutely perfect--some of the singers do not have operatic voices but voices more suitable to musical comedy--but really fine for this production. And some of the costumes just don't fit, especially Ottile's pantsuit--in the era of Franz Joseph! But over all, a must watch performance. I bought it despite the bad review on Amazon and am glad I did. My friend and I enjoyed the whole performance; indeed my friend gave it a 5 star rating. I was humming the music for hours after it was over and I intend to watch it again fairly soon. By the way, we thought the acting and choreography were just great--particularly loved the scene with the cows. If you love Viennese operettas, you will love this one.

This production must have cost millions. Cast is gigantic, sets are magnificent and it is done outdoors in a beautiful setting. But it just lays there, a leaden glob.

Singing, acting and choreography are atrocious and since it is done outdoors the show is stolen by the large microphones that everyone is wearing. You can't take your eyes off them.

One example only. The gorgeous Im Salzkammergut which opens Act 2 (on my Rothenbeerger CD it is in Act 1)should be a showstopper but there is very little to it. The dancing is just average and it ends too soon. Most musical numbers are destroyed. At the conclusion even the audience seemed - to me - to be disappointed.

If you love operetta as I do, check out Laurent Pelly's version of Offenbach's La Vie Parisienne on DVD, the best and happiest operetta available. The incredible last three and a half minutes is much more fun than this horrible mess.

THE SOUND OF MUSIC premiered nearly thirty years after THE WHITE HORSE INN - IM WEISSEN ROESSL. It concerns Maria, a young lady who has trouble accepting the devout lifestyle in a convent in Tyrol. She relocates at the foot of the Tiroler Alps in Salzburg, where she pretends that customs of native Tirolers, such as the Laendler and the Edelweiss, have been really adapted as symbols of the nation of Auatria. The SOUND OF MUSIC ends with Maria as well as the Von Trapp family escaping to freedom across the rugged terrain of the Tyrol. THE WHITE HORSE INN takes place before the First World War at a summer resort hotel in the mountains of Tyrol. A lighter story, the hills are truly alive with the sound of music when it is this time a waiter and not a governess who has a romantic attachment to an employer. As an example of the silliness ensues when the plaintiff, the defendant ahd the lawyer of a civil case not being fought in Austria are all guests staying at the resort at the same time.