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Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)Binding: DVD EAN: 9780769722566 Format: Classical, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC ISBN: 0769722563 Label: Kultur Video Languages: Manufacturer: Kultur Video Number Of Items: 1 Publisher: Kultur Video Region Code: 1 Release Date: October 14, 2003 Running Time: 95 minutes Studio: Kultur Video Theatrical Release Date: 1995 Editorial Review: Description: Leos Janacek's ground-breaking psychological opera is performed here in this Glyndebourne Festival Opera production, starring Anja Silja, Kim Begley, Victor Braun and Andrew Shore. Andrew Davis conducts the Glyndebourne Festival Opera Orchestra and Chorus. The film is directed by Nikolaus Lenhardt. Average Rating:
 Rating: - So close! But...I'm a major Janacek fan. I'd love to give this performance a five-star rave, as others have, but I find myself agreeing with the three-star reviews. Anja Silja (the Alma Mahler of our times) is a powerful femme; it's almost believable that even in her obvious 60s she could attract those men and boys fatally. It's her singing that has aged beyond attraction. She's far from perfect in tuning and she doesn't command the orchestra with her voice as the character needs to do. Her DVD performance as the ... Read More Rating:  - DisappointingAnja Silja is someone I respect, and I am all for 'grey power', but this is a performance too far. In the opening scene her light grey trouser suit makes her look like an elderly Scandinavian tourist. She does not look sexually desirable. Her attempts to be sensual are simply embarrassing, as are some of the outfits she later fits into. Furthermore her voice has none of the mysterious warm colouring of Söderstrom in the excellent Mackerras LP version and is often stridently off the note. The supporting ... Read More Rating:  - a dissenting opinion--staging and performances dramatically overwroughtI cannot argue with other reviewers' assessment of this DVD that it contains many musical felicities. The conducting by Andrew Davis (who has long demonstrated his affinity with this composer's dramatic works) is exemplary. The singing of the cast is certainly exceptional, and were this an audio-only performance, its dramatic flaws might have gone unnoticed. But, alas, I found Nicholas Lehnhoff's staging to be pedestrian, heavy-handed, and thoroughly lacking in subtlety. And, despite the praises it has ... Read More Rating:  - An amazing and powerful performanceYes, everyone else is right. This is an absolutely brilliant and absorbing account of this powerful opera. One misses a live audience but all the singers are completely committed and top notch. The orchestral sound and definition as good as Mackerras. Silja very moving, incredibly thoughtful, even when slightly off pitch. The booklet in the Mackerras CD has a very helpful essay about the opera; unfortunately nothing is provided with the DVD. Rating: - 337 years old and still going strong ...Silja was 55 when this Glyndebourne performance was video-taped, and in 2003 she was still singing Herodias at the Paris Bastille Opera, in an accoladed production of Salome. Will her career ever end, one wonders, or is she planning on going the way of Emilia Marty, the protagonist of this work, once a rarity in opera stages but nowadays thankfully far less so? For here we are in presence of an outstanding rendition of the work, from the hands of a veteran long acquainted with it and very much responsible for ... Read More |
