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52 of 53 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Outstanding!!!, September 23, 2004
This new production of Les Troyens at the Chatelet had been one of the major events in the celebrations for the 200th birthday of one of France's greatest composers, Hector Berlioz. Les Troyens is one of the greatest masterpieces of 19th century opera, one that stands alongside with Verdi's `Otello' and Wagner's `Tristan and Isolde'.
Director/designer Yannis Kokkos created wonderful classical sets, brown - gray for the first two acts, white - blue for the second part of the opera and directed a very effective and moving show.
John Eliot Gardiner conducted his Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique magnificently. Various period brass instruments are used on stage according to Berlioz instructions. The Monteverdi Choir combined with the Chatelet Choir make a wonderful and precise sound. The linkage of the music of Berlioz with Gluck is presented here more than in any other performance of this masterpiece I have heard in the past.
Major roles have been given to lighter-voiced singers than one usually associates with this score, but Gardiner assembled a great cast of wonderful singers - actors. Anna Caterina Antonacci is a magnificent Cassandra: a beautiful woman, a fascinating actress. She has a real sense of the text and sings with great beauty. Susan Graham sings a great performance of Dido with big violence and involvement for the tragic last scene of the opera.
Tenor Gregory Kunde sings a lot of bel canto roles, while the heroic Aeneas needs voices like Vickers, Heppner etc. but Kunde as Aeneas is a great surprise. Ludovic Tezier as Chorebe is one of the best baritones singing in French. Mark Padmore sings Iopas aria `Blonde Ceres' beautifully, and Laurent Naouri is an impressive Narbal. So is the young Mezzo from Croatia Renata Pokupic. Tenor Topi Lehtipuu sings the young sailor Hylas's Act V aria `Valon sonore' beautifully.
Great opera. Magnificent performance!
Highly recommended. Should be in every opera fan collection.
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29 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Berlioz's Masterpiece in a Stunning Production, October 23, 2004
'Virgil shakespearized' -- Berlioz describing 'Les Troyens'
I agree with everything already said here by reviewer T.C. and just wanted to add a few comments. I have been unable to find any weaknesses in this DVD of a live performance at the Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris, in October 2003, in celebration of the 200th anniversary of Berlioz' birth. From a technical standpoint the sound, lighting, stage set, costumes, stage action are simply above criticism. It is hard to imagine singers better suited to this so human, so universal opera. Susan Graham is in glorious voice and rises to the challenge in the final scene ('Je vais mourir,' 'Adieu, fière cité') with acting worthy of Broadway or the West End. One simply can't take one's eyes off her. Gregory Kunde, an American tenor best-known for bel canto and lyric tenor rôles, sings a lyrical Aeneas while not sacrificing the heroic quality so needed for the part. I cannot remember ever hearing a more ravishing account of 'Nuit d'ivresse et d'extase infinie,' the duet of Dido and Aeneas in Act IV. His ease of production allows him to negotiate its high tessitura and yet blend his voice with that of Graham's Dido as I've never heard it. Add to this their ecstatic acting and you have one of the highlights of any filmed opera scene ever recorded. I get goosebumps just thinking about it.
Anna Caterina Antonacci's Cassandra in Acts I and II is of equal power and impact. I'd never heard of her before, but you can be sure I'll be watching for other things of hers. She is a beautiful woman, a powerful actress, has a gloriously rich voice and when she returns, in a coup de théâtre, as Clio in the final Act V tableau to utter 'Fuit Ilium. Stat Roma' ('What once was Troy is now Rome.') there were goosebumps again. [This slightly truncated scene, by the way, is not how the piece is usually ended, but Gardiner and his colleagues cite, in an included marvelous 'extra' hour-long documentary about this production, precedent for this revised ending, I was convinced of its rightness.]
There is not a weak singer among the secondary roles. I would like to single out Ludovic Tézier (Chorébe), Laurent Naouri (Narbal), Stéphanie d'Oustrac (Ascagne), and Renata Pokupic (Anna) for special praise. Singing one of the most beautiful arias in all of opera, Hylas's 'Vallon sonore,' the song of the homesick sailor that begins Act V, is a wonderful young lyric tenor, Topi Lehtipuu.
John Eliot Gardiner has long been known as a fine Berlioz conductor. His original-instrument Orchestra Révolutionnaire et Romantique (which here uses Berlioz's original orchestration including saxhorns) plays with clarity, grace and lightness, but is able to provide the pomp and ceremony in the martial, minatory and celebratory scenes. The 'Royal Hunt and Storm' is particularly fine, as is the recurring 'Trojan March.' The combined singers of Gardiner's Monteverdi Chorus and the chorus of the Châtelet not only sing with wonderful precision and diction, they also display ingeniously individualized acting. Yannis Kokkos's set design, costumes and stage direction are stunning. I still don't know how he managed what appears to be a mirror-image upstage that often shows us the backs of the actors, but often can be seen to be showing action interesting but different from the downstage action. Is this back-projection? I don't know, but whatever it is, it is hugely effective.
I have not seen the two other DVDs of 'Les Troyens.' I can easily imagine that they must be fine. This one, which emphasizes, partly because of the small size of the Châtelet, the human side of the opera, will satisfy me for a long time to come I suspect.
Urgently recommended.
TT=5hr 12min, 3 DVDs
Scott Morrison
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26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Spanking gorgeous!!!!, January 17, 2005
Do opera DVDs come much better than this?
The quality of the recording, the performances, the sets, the orchestra........OUCH!!!!
This recording is of a superb quality with the vocals excellently discernible and some outstanding performances; indeed, this is probably the finest DVD recording of opera that I own. The original set of instruments that Berlioz had envisioned for his masterpiece are in place as an added bonus.
The performances are what stand out here too, above all Anna Caterina Antonacci and Susan Graham. Antonacci is terrific both vocally and dramatically. As the cast-off Cassandre she looks appropriately exasperated as opposed to constipated and makes a superbly credible mythical figure - expressive not hammy.
Her expression of intoxicated mania is at its finest when she urges the Trojan women to kill themselves rather than succumb to the lasciviousness of the conquering Greeks. It is a great moment and a great artistic expression of euphoria induced mob psychology. Antonacci has the right physical presence, broad domineering shoulders but nevertheless sensuous and radiant. Great stuff!
Then there is Susan Graham as Dido. Drammatically she produces an impressive performance as an imperious leader but it is vocally where she really excels - what a terrific voice captured so superbly by this recording. The love duet with Aeneas 'Nuit d'invresse et estasie infinie' is really something - Berlioz captured at his magical best - and the performance by Kunde as Aeneas complements Graham's soprano beautifully and not just in this particular duet.
The sets are also used well. The presence of the head (rather than the full body) of the Trojan horse, for example, provides a sense of pervasive and inevitable menace. The use of light gives it an almost ethereal quality and heightens our awareness of Troy's imminent doom. I also liked the use of mirrors here; greek myths should make one feel somewhat ecstatic and intoxicated and everything about this production tends to imbue one with this sensation.
Gardiner's conducting and the orchestra furnished with a full complement of Berliozesque instruments are also on top form; full of sound and fury signifying everything - passion, desire and raw power in equal measure. You really can hear just about every instrument on this recording.
So basically I would recommend that any fan of Berlioz, this opera or indeed any opera should buy this. It is sheer gorgeousity of a spanking nature.
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