Russian Opera At The Bolshoi - The Vintage Years Details

A gem from behind the iron curtain!

This is the highest rating I have given a DVD on this site since joining! OK what makes this so special you ask. Well as an opera lover with more than a passing interest in Russian music, I have always been intrigued with the abilities of performers from the old soviet bloc.

A fantastic tradition of state supported music worked behind the iron curtain for decades. No expense was spared on individuals or productions which showed the spark of talent or merit, and many went on to have remarkable careers but were virtually unkown in the west.

As the iron curtain has come down, a treasure trove of archive material has begun to surface. Famous stars in sumptuous productions filmed at the height of there careers are now available for all to see on this disc.

The video/audio quality is generally very high bearing in mind the age range of the material 1930-1970. The sets and production values are immense, with huge numbers of performers on view in many scenes.

A lot of the filmed extracts are lip synced by the singers, probably due to the microphone technology of the day. However one or two show real singers really singing in a soviet tradition that is probably gone forever.

I can't recommend this highly enough to opera enthusiasts. It scores a 7 in my book. The 2 hours of artist's like kozlovsky, lemeshev etc make it pass in a flash.