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Monteverdi: L'Orfeo (Teatro alla Scala 2009)

Rinardo Alessandrini (Actor), Georg Nigl (Actor), Robert Wilson (Director), Rated:
NR
Format: DVD
4.0 out of 5 stars 25 ratings
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Genre Music Video & Concerts, Musicals & Performing Arts/Classical
Format Multiple Formats, Color, Widescreen, NTSC, Classical
Contributor Furio Zanasi, Roberta Invernizzi, Luigi De Donato, Anna Simboli, Emanuele Garofalo, Sergio Foresti, Georg Nigl, Robert Wilson, Rinardo Alessandrini, Teatro alla Scala, Sara Mingardo, Martin Oro, Marco Scavazza, Alessandro Striggio, Nicola Strada, Luca Dordolo, Raffaella Milanesi, Giovanni Battista Parodi, Claudio Monteverdi See more
Language Italian
Color Color
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Product Description


Monteverdi's seminal first opera tells the dramatic story from Ovid's Metamorphoses of the descent of Orfeo (Georg Nigl) into the underworld to recover his beloved wife Euridice (Roberta Invernizzi), who has died from a snake bite. In a new production for La Scala, based on a painting by Titian and directed by Robert Wilson, the opera receives a powerful and inspiring performance from a fine cast, the Orchestra of Teatro alla Scala and Concerto Italiano under the much-admired Italian early music specialist, Rinaldo Alessandrini. Filmed in High Definition and recorded in true surround sound.

Press Reviews
"Robert Wilson meets Monteverdi with successful results." (The Opera Critic)

"Beautifully flimed in Milan, this DVD shows how well Wilson's minimalist productions can take to the small screen." (Gramophone)

"The drama comes from Alessandrini's edition and the bite and brilliance of the La Scala orchestra, and Concerto Italiano's inventive continuo section." (BBC Music Magazine)

"...this is a wonderfully satisfying performance, featuring one of the finest Orfeos on disc, and a production which suits the needs of both the large-scale theatre and the small screen equally well" (International Record Review)

Cast
Georg Nigl (Orfeo)
Roberta Invernizzi (Euridice)
Sara Mingardo (Messaggera / Speranza)
Orchestra & Chorus of La Scala; Rinaldo Alessandrini

Production
Company: Teatro alla Scala
Stage Director: Robert Wilson

Disc Information
Catalogue Number: OA1044D
Date of Performance: 2009
Running Time: 116 minutes
Sound: 2.0 LPCM + 5.1(5.0) DTS
Aspect Ratio: 16:9 Anamorphic
Subtitles: EN, FR, DE, ES, IT
Label: Opus Arte

Product details

  • Aspect Ratio ‏ : ‎ 1.78:1
  • Is Discontinued By Manufacturer ‏ : ‎ No
  • MPAA rating ‏ : ‎ NR (Not Rated)
  • Product Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 0.55 x 7.48 x 5.38 inches; 4.32 ounces
  • Director ‏ : ‎ Robert Wilson, Emanuele Garofalo
  • Media Format ‏ : ‎ Multiple Formats, Color, Widescreen, NTSC, Classical
  • Release date ‏ : ‎ March 29, 2011
  • Actors ‏ : ‎ Rinardo Alessandrini, Georg Nigl, Roberta Invernizzi, Sara Mingardo, Raffaella Milanesi
  • Subtitles: ‏ : ‎ English, Spanish, French, Italian, German
  • Producers ‏ : ‎ Teatro alla Scala
  • Language ‏ : ‎ Italian (DTS 5.1), Italian (PCM2 .0)
  • Studio ‏ : ‎ Opus Arte
  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B004H6P2S8
  • Writers ‏ : ‎ Claudio Monteverdi, Alessandro Striggio
  • Number of discs ‏ : ‎ 1
  • Best Sellers Rank: #203,538 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.0 out of 5 stars 25 ratings

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4 out of 5 stars
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Top reviews from the United States

  • fabio
    5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
    Reviewed in the United States on May 15, 2016
    Verified Purchase
    Superb!
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  • Daniel B.
    5.0 out of 5 stars L'ORFEO A Renaissance Masterpiece
    Reviewed in the United States on November 15, 2017
    I absolutely love Monteverdi, and am happy to live in the Age of Monteverdi Redux. First and foremost, this venerable master lived so long he is both a Renaissance composer and a Baroque one. My single favorite composition is the Marian Vespers of 1610, and you don't have to a Roman Catholic with a traditional regard for Mother Mary to appreciate the spiritual depths and
    and formal excellence of Monteverdi's inspiration. The music is so varied and so sensuous it becomes part of your being. However, his operas make him the musical equal of his contemporary in poetic drama, Shakespeare.; I'm not saying they have much in common, except awesome artistic genius. L'Orfeo, in Robert Wilson's production, of a magnificent Renaissance
    tableau, essentially impersonal in its monumental stillness. The singing is wonderful, especially George Nigl's intense interior performance. But this version is not meant to break your heart with the death of lovers. The staging casts a cold eye on human suffering, emphasizing the immutable contingencies of the human condition, and that makes the the tragic destiny of the lovers admirable in its assertion of human love against the darkness of fate. This strikes me as a fine example of the Renaissance revival of ancient Greek values which extol human suffering in the absence of any consoling Christian redemption. This attitude is certainly present in Shakespearean tragedy to some degree. I would sum up Robert Wilson's
    tragic staging with a line by Yeats: WHATEVER FLAMES AGAINST THE NIGHT MAN'S RESONANT HEART HAS FED.
    Orfeo's nine-minute aria, "Possente Spirto," powerfully sung by George Nigl, epitomizes this Renaissance reaction to fate:
    It is a masterpiece of rhetoric and feeling, of softness and strength, of sincerity and manipulation. It does not change the larger fate which dooms the lovers, but makes their love an archetypal assertion of human values that affirms human nobililty and casts a blazing light into the abyss, however transient.
    One person found this helpful
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  • Keris Nine
    4.0 out of 5 stars Blue Orpheus
    Reviewed in the United States on February 24, 2011
    The minimalist staging of Robert Wilson's opera productions is not something that is to everyone's taste, but it is certainly unique and idiosyncratic, and no matter how familiar you are with a particular opera, you can be sure that Wilson's stage direction will provide a new way of looking at a piece and bring out elements or propose ideas that you might never have considered before. It is however not suited to every kind of opera. His production for Aida several years ago at the Royal Opera House was visually striking in its beauty and in the wondrous and carefully considered colour-coded light schemes, but the static nature of the production simply sucked the life out of one particular opera that merits a slightly more vibrant approach, if not necessarily always quite as flamboyant as Zeffirelli's.

    On the other hand, the stripped-down staging works better, it seems to me, when applied to more abstract subjects or at least the more archetypal matters of Greek mythology in opera seria and Baroque opera. Wilson's work for the Paris Châtelet productions of Alceste and Orphée et Eurydice, for example, is appropriate and perfectly in accordance with Gluck's reforming of over-elaborate and long-winded opera. The same should apply, one would think, to Monteverdi's L'Orfeo, the work that is considered the first opera proper - first performed in Mantua in 1607 - and, for many, the model to which opera should aspire. All the huge archetypes are there in its mythological subject - Heaven and Hades, with Eros, Fate, Hope and, most significantly, Music itself personified and indeed the main narrative force who introduces and tells the story of Orpheus and Eurydice, as well as the means by which the opera expresses itself.

    This is the kind of material that is perfect for Robert Wilson's interpretations, and all the familiar characteristics of his approach are here in this production for La Scala in 2009 - static figures making strange poses with enigmatic hand movements, stage props reduced to geometric shapes, the colour scheme a limited palette of greys, pale blues and pale green. In contrast to his non-specific approach to Orphée et Eurydice, L'Orfeo is practically period - in the period of Monteverdi, that is - inspired by Titian's Venus with Cupid and an Organist (1548), with Thrace a Renaissance version of the Garden of Eden, by way perhaps of Gainsborough. On a first viewing, I'm not convinced that such a staging brings anything new from Monteverdi's famous opera this time, but it is interesting and worth considering.

    As for the opera and its performance, well, L'Orfeo is a masterpiece that does indeed wield a heavy influence over the artform, or for at least a hundred and fifty years afterwards. It's a celebration of man's ability, intellect and ingenuity, taming nature and the seas, speaking with the voice of the Gods through music and, through Orpheus, even challenging Death itself through his singing and its expression of the finest human passions and sentiments. It's a worthy subject for what is generally considered the first opera - an artform that would unite so many artistic qualities, not least of which is music and singing. Monteverdi's opera accordingly lives up to the high standards it sets.

    L'Orfeo is more detailed in its scoring and specification of instruments than Monteverdi's final opera Il Ritorno di Ulisse in Patria, for example, but how it is performed is highly interpretative nonetheless. Early music specialist Rinaldo Alessandrini's conducting of the opera of La Scala is therefore not for me to criticise, but I would find it hard to find any serious fault with it other than the actual sound mix not quite having the transparency of other versions I've heard - notably the Pierre Audi Netherlands Opera recording at the Muziektheater in Amsterdam. I would however state a preference for John Mark Ainsley's lyrical Orpheus in that version over the rather deeper tenor of Georg Nigl. The contrasts and differences should be appreciated however, as it is through them that new thoughts and ideas still arise out of an opera that is now over 400 years old - and on that basis, this is a fine production.

    The quality of the presentation on the Opus Arte Blu-ray is as good as you would expect, with a clear 16:9 High Definition transfer, PCM Stereo and DTS HD-Master Audio 5.1 mixes. The only extras on the disc however are a Cast Gallery and an Illustrated Synopsis. The thin booklet presents some background on the history of the opera, but there is no information at all on the production itself.
    12 people found this helpful
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  • Dog-yeared
    2.0 out of 5 stars Iceberg Orfeo
    Reviewed in the United States on July 14, 2011
    Verified Purchase
    To be irresponsibly brief, let me say that doing Monteverdi's chamber opera Orfeo--performed in 1607 in a room in the ducal palace in Mantua--on the scale of the La Scala stage poses challenges to any director in terms of movement within volume. When Robert Wilson staged Puccini's Butterfly and Wagner's Parsifal, his iconic style could work against huge surging, attention-dominating orchestral forces that spilled over bar-lines and through the souls of the singers on stage. Monteverdi's score has lively dances and text-connected solos in recitar cantando--speaking in a singing voice. Wilson adapted his usual glacial movement meant to represent congealed inner feeling, but the 1607 opera is all about verbal ex-pression, not repression. (The signature 90-degree head snap from Einstein on the Beach is here, too.) The result of Wilson's familiar stylization here is, oddly enough, not "modern" or "moderne" at all, but an external, early 20th-century, monumentalizing of the work that only fills it with cold air and slow, symmetrical friezes that no amount of energy pumped in by Alessandrini can animate. Think of Emily Dickinson stretched horizontally to Whitmanesque size.
    The chorus does not really dance. And don't ask about the chimp or the white rabbits.
    17 people found this helpful
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  • Michael Scott
    5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 1, 2017
    Verified Purchase
    just magic
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  • sona simkova
    4.0 out of 5 stars Sehr passende Regie zur Musik
    Reviewed in Germany on August 26, 2014
    Verified Purchase
    Ich bin ein fan von Robert Wilson. Schreibe jetzt ein Buch ueber ihn. Und ausserdem habe ich neulich eine andere Inszenierung ueber dieses Thema gesehen, undzwar Castelluccis und Glućks Orfeo e Euridice. Deswegen war mir die Vorstellung von R. Wilson sehr wertvoll, in mehreren Hinsichten.
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  • issouli
    5.0 out of 5 stars Monteverdi. L'Orfeo
    Reviewed in France on November 9, 2014
    Verified Purchase
    Achat excellent. Comment ne pas oublier cette production définitivement exceptionnelle de l'œuvre fondatrice de l'art de l'opéra. À ne surtout pas manquer.
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  • Edoardo Erba
    5.0 out of 5 stars modernissimo monteverdi
    Reviewed in Italy on August 24, 2015
    Verified Purchase
    in un mirabile equilibrio tra realizzazione scenica e interpretazione musicale, l'opera di Monteverdi viene esaltata da una regia affascinante. Nella sua apparente staticità, la coreografia ipnotizza lo spettatore, consentendogli di "immergersi" completamente nella meraviglia della composizione musicale. Bellissimo. Eccezionale la conduzione di Rinaldo Alessandrini
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  • Sagittarius
    1.0 out of 5 stars Grauenhaft
    Reviewed in Germany on August 22, 2013
    Verified Purchase
    Es war wohl mehr Alessandrini, der mich reizte, diese Aufnahme zu kaufen. Über den statuarischen Manierismus von Wilson war ich im Prinzip informiert.

    Und dennoch, Monteverdi wäre vom Hof gejagt worden, hätte die Aufführung 1607 in Mantua so ausgesehen. Alle Lebendigkeit ist ausgetrieben. Die Inscenierung steht gegen die Musik, ja hemmt sie sogar.

    Natürlich ist dies, wie immer nur mein persönlicher Eindruck. Andere mögen das anders wahrnehmen. Mir gefällt es in keiner Weise, auch die SängerInnen sind keine Ohrenweide, insbesondere der harmlose Caronte.

    Diese Aufnahme angeschafft zu haben,kann ich nur bedauern.
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