Mozart's lively and comedic opera, as produced at the Glyndebourne Festival Opera, directed by Stephen Medcalf with music performed by the London Philharmonic. Read more
| Starring | Gerald Finley, Alison Hagley, Renee Fleming, Andreas Schmidt |
|---|---|
| Director | Derek Bailey |
| Genres | Music/Musical, World Cinema |
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Mozart's lively and comedic opera, as produced at the Glyndebourne Festival Opera, directed by Stephen Medcalf with music performed by the London Philharmonic.
| Starring | Gerald Finley, Alison Hagley, Renee Fleming, Andreas Schmidt, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Glyndebourne Chorus |
|---|---|
| Director | Derek Bailey |
| Studio | WARNER MUSIC VISION |
| Run time | DVD: 3 hrs |
| Certificate | |
| Genres | Music/Musical, World Cinema |
| Language | Italian |
| Subtitles | English, French, German |
| Released | DVD: 25 Oct 1999 Production year: 1994 |
| Format | DVD |
But simply delightful. The music is quite beautiful, the acting and singing exceptional and the settings simple and original. Because Glyndebourne is such an unusual venue, several scenes appeared very similar to those in a Midsummer Night's Dream and Albert Herring, very different operas in all other respects, but this was more than compensated by the quality of the marvellous accoustics.
Our only criticism was that the plot of the libretto was not really in keeping with the music, Mozart in a less sparkling, more emotional mode than I expected, which was more haunting than amusing and not as suitable for a comedy as Rossini's chuckling style in the sister libretto, the Barber of Seville. But this had much to do with the conductor, who appeared to take it all very seriously as high art, which it proved to be, rather than joyful fun, which was intended at any rate by the librettist.
We were actually waiting for the famous 'Figaro here, Figaro there,' aria from the less often staged 'Barber', before we realised it was a different opera altogether. 'Duh..'.
The plot revolves around the infidelity of men and the wiles of women, tricking and counter-tricking like a bedroom farce, but is very cleverly choreographed.
Rather a long film and somewhat bum-numbing, but soul fodder for all that.
Finding good DVD titles of any description to rent is always a problem for us: most of the best films we have seen in the cinema and don't want to waste a rental on seeing them again. So on one occasion we rented a Mozart Opera and we were so pleased with it we have rented a number of others.
This particular production is almost flawless and were please with our choice yet again, especially as it arrived in the week before Christmas and so filled in a couple of dead broadcasting evenings. Sit back and enjoy.