Product Details

• Actors: Nina Rautio, Bolshio Opera, Rautio, Kulko
• Format: Classical, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Language: Russian
• 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 22, 2005
• Run Time: 150 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000BP86QO
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #147,809 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

MAID OF ORLEANS:BOLSHOI OPERA - DVD Movie

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

40 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Romance, Not Reality, October 28, 2005

By 

L. Donald Bartholomew "uncadonald39" (Seattle, WA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Tchaikovsky - The Maid of Orleans / Rautio, Kulko, Gavrilowa, Gluboky, Krutikov, Mikhajlov, Mishenkin, Nikolsky, Pochapsky, Redkin, Lazarev, Bolshoi Opera (DVD)

Finally, this glorious production of this largely unknown opera by Tchaikovsky is available. Having had a (dare I say it?) bad "pirate" print for some time, I am so looking forward to seeing it for the first time all over again. The work has some of Pyotr Ilyich's most romantic music--the Act I Finale with Joan hearing her voices is wonderous. Historic liberties are taken as Joan has a romance with an enemy soldier, thus leading to her imprisonment. The production is elaborate yet not realistic. Joan's end at the stake is something to be seen to be believed. Now that we've gotten 'Mlada' and 'The Maid of Orleans', isn't it about time for Philips to release the DVD of 'The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevroniya'?

40 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Valid Presentation, February 24, 2006

By 

J. M. Parr (Ottawa,Canada) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Tchaikovsky - The Maid of Orleans / Rautio, Kulko, Gavrilowa, Gluboky, Krutikov, Mikhajlov, Mishenkin, Nikolsky, Pochapsky, Redkin, Lazarev, Bolshoi Opera (DVD)

Tchaikovsky's The Maid of Orleans is one of those grand operas that flourished in the mid 19th century similar to Le Prophete and Les Huguenots by Meyerbeer. It calls for huge sets, chorus, orchestra and pagentry with a capital P. Not unlike the Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals we see today. Therefore this is not an easy opera to bring off today. This is a pity because it has many wonderful moments and much good music. It certainly deserves to be seen just as often as say Andrea Chenier but I doubt there will be any rush to bring this opera back into the mainstream repertoire. Thanks go then to the Bolshoi for trying another way to make this opera viable in times of financial restraint. The director, Boris Pokrovsky, has conceived this opera as a hybrid between an oratorio and a mediival mystery play.The Met in New York went this route when they staged Le Prophete some years ago with mixed results. Here, the chorus in mostly modern dress (though the womens gowns could possibly pass as being gothic in style) are arrayed in tiers around the relatively economical unit setting. The chorus tends to comment on rather than take part in the action of the opera. There are suitably costumed extras for that. The setting on the whole works very well. The regular addition of banners & scrims adapted from illuminated manuscripts, well placed candleabri and flags the whole thing actually manages to simulate a sumptuousness and grandeur that it doesn't really have and that few can afford these days. The coronation scene manages to come off much better than one could hope for without actually resorting to CGI...
The action is left to the principals. Among the singers there are no letdowns. Nina Rautio is a superb Joan. She has a wonderfully full and creamy voice with great reserves of power. What she lacks is the last word in dramatic engagement with the role. Something a singer such as Waltraud Meier would have been outstanding at. I believe that Meier did attempt this role in Germany, she must have been shattering in intensity.
The second soprano, Maria Gavrilova, jumps wholeheartedly into her less showy role of Agnes Sorrel, King Charles VII longstanding mistress. The male roles tend to be more window dressing in this opera and the singers Oleg Kulko,Gleb Nikolsky,Valdimir Redkin, and Mikhail Kruthikov do not disappoint us in any way. Their acting tends to be of the more melodramatic style of the old soviet era but it is not so out of place in this opera and provides us with a point of interest during some of the operas longer spots.
One of the other reviewers commented on the soprano using the score at one point during the opera. Actually he missed the point...At various spots throughout the opera the chorus are asked by the director to sing from the score and one or two principals are also asked to do this. Pokrovsky seems to be trying to create an impression of an oratorio at those points. I'm not sure that it comes off as he intended. Certainly if the other reviewer didn't catch on it is a sign that it should have been rethought. It is in no way a reflection on the singers or the excellent chorus themselves.
The orchestra play magnificently for Alexander Lazarev and Tchaikovsky provided this opera with a number of orchestral preludes which allow the cameras to spend time with the various musicians at work. Once or twice some of the musicians are brought up on the stage by the director which doesn't help to clarify the action but is a boon for the hardworking solo instrumentalists.
The sound and picture of this dvd are excellent and there are subtitles in English,German,French,Italian,Portuguese, Spanish, and Japanese. also one should note that although this is a film of a fully staged performance, it was not recorded while the audience was present so like the various Bayreuth dvds available, there is no applause and the camera is permitted some very interesting camera angles that it normally wouldn't have managed in a live telecast.
All in all a highly recommended version of an opera we are unlikely to see another video of.

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An unexpected Tchaikovsky treat, April 12, 2006

By 

J. P. Henry (Carmel, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Tchaikovsky - The Maid of Orleans / Rautio, Kulko, Gavrilowa, Gluboky, Krutikov, Mikhajlov, Mishenkin, Nikolsky, Pochapsky, Redkin, Lazarev, Bolshoi Opera (DVD)

It is terrific to be able to see one of Tchaikovsky's neglected operas at last. Tchaikovsky worked on 12 operas - only two of which are regularly performed: Eugene Onegin and The Queen of Spades. Of the 12, two were never finished; he destoyed two others (one of which has been reconstructed); and one appeared in two forms under two titles. The Maid is a big opera - considered by some, his 'grand opera'. Sort of his equivalent in scope to Puccini's 'Turandot'. We have enjoyed this music for years on long-deleted LPs and are very happy to have access to such a well performed and fine production of a very rare treat.