Product Details

• Actors: Placido Domingo, Anna Tomowa-Sintov
• Format: Classical, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English
• 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 18, 2003
• Run Time: 112 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0000DI86O
• Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #59,802 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

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  Movies & TV > Musicals & Performing Arts > Classical > By Performer > Domingo, Placido

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

One of the most unjustly underrated Italian operas receives a production that should help correct that attitude. Andrea Chenier is based on the true story of a poet who was caught up and destroyed by the blind fury of the French Revolution. Giordano's music captures the acrid flavor of that movement, the cynicism of some of its leaders, and Chenier's integrity and tragic fate. This production's value has probably increased since Plácido Domingo, the leading Chenier of his generation, has dropped the role from his repertoire.

All three principals sing eloquently and with a fine sense of the opera's structure and context. Anna Tomowa-Sintow is in even better voice than Domingo, and Giorgio Zancanaro heads an expert supporting cast. The Covent Garden Chorus, directed with distinction by Michael Hampe, gives a memorable impression of the revolutionary mob. Julius Rudel's conducting is totally idiomatic. --Joe McLellan

Product Description

One of the most unjustly underrated Italian operas receives a production that should help correct that attitude. Andrea Chenier is based on the true story of a poet who was caught up and destroyed by the blind fury of the French Revolution. Giordano's music captures the acrid flavor of that movement, the cynicism of some of its leaders, and Chenier's integrity and tragic fate. This production's value has probably increased since Placido Domingo, the leading Chenier of his generation, has dropped the role from his repertoire.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Much Better Selection, November 29, 2003

By	Lee Gremillion (Minneapolis, MN) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Giordano - Andrea Chenier / Rudel, Domingo, Tomowa-Sintov, Royal Opera Covent Garden (DVD)

Until recently (November 2003) the only DVD edition of Andrea Chenier was a 1975 film version with Franco Corelli in the title role. This one is much better. It is an excellent live production filmed at Covent Garden in 1985. It illustrates why the Royal Opera is one of the world's leading companies.

The three principals -- Placido Domingo as Chenier, Anna Tomowa-Sintow as Maddalena de Coigny, and Giorgio Zancanaro as Carlo Gerard -- are all in the prime of their careers at the time of this filming, and handle their roles superbly. They are backed up by a solid group of supporting singers. The orchestra does justice to Giordano's rich score without ever drowning out the singers. The sets and costumes are appropriate and never distracting. In short, this is exactly what one would expect to see in a first-rate production at a first-rate opera house.

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Brilliant Andrea Chénier, December 27, 2003

By	Z. Yang (Hockessin, DE USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Giordano - Andrea Chenier / Rudel, Domingo, Tomowa-Sintov, Royal Opera Covent Garden (DVD)

Umberto Giordano's most famous opera "Andrea Chénier" portrays the tragic fate of poet Andrea Chénier in the French Revolution. Setting the real-life figure as the lead character and with the poet singing his own verses, this verismo opera embraces the realism enthusiastically. Character Andrea Chénier is a romantic and idealistic poet, who loved his country ardently and faced his death heroically. It's a tenor's opera. You would think a lyric tenor would be most suitable for the character's poetry, if he could also bring off some great heroic moments in the big orchestration. In this 1985 production, Domingo rendered Andrea Chénier with a well-balanced poetry and heroism. He filled poet's big arias with rich lyricism, at times, intimate feelings, and yet, the big outbursts were all there. Domingo was well matched by the powerful-voiced Anna Tomawa-Sintov as Maddalena. In her dark and rounded voice, Anna Tomowa-Sintov sang the character strongly, although some delicacy and variety might make the role more interesting. Her "La mamma morta" was in no short of dramatic expressions in both the recitative-like passages and the emotional outbursts followed. Giorgio Zancanaro, who approached the revolutionary Gérard humanly, sang a wonderful "Nemico della patria", which won him a storm of applause from the audience.

The stage design of this Covent Garden production is conventional, straightforward, with a few moments quite affecting, one of them would be the haunting picture at the end of Act I, in which the shadows of the poor and the angry gradually appeared above the aristocrats who were in the center stage, singing and dancing, without the faintest idea of what was awaiting.

28 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Already an historical performance, February 4, 2004

By	J. Luis Juarez Echenique "pepechenique" (Mexico City) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Giordano - Andrea Chenier / Rudel, Domingo, Tomowa-Sintov, Royal Opera Covent Garden (DVD)

It is going to be a long, a very long time indeed, before we see another Chenier to rival this fabulous 1985 Covent Garden performance. Domingo was in excellent voice, and he meets every vocal challenge with virile, golden tone. Even if he lacks that brilliant spinto of Corelli, he has what it takes for this formidable role. Of recent tenors none comes near. The rest of the cast is if anything, better. Anna Tomowa-Sintow, Karajan's favourite soprano is a glorious Maddalena: full voiced, warm, compelling, she is quite simply extraordinary. Baritone Giorgio Zancanaro gives a master class on how to mould a phrase in the old Italian style. His big aria is delivered with the kind of musicianship not heard since the days of Amato and Battistini.
Sound and picture are good and you would be completely insane to pass this dvd.