Boito - Mefistofele / Arena, Ramey, Benackova, San Francisco Opera
by Brian Large
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DVD details
Actor: Daniel Harper, Dennis O'Neill, Gabriela Benacková, Judith Christin, Samuel RameyDirector: Brian Large
Brand: Kultur
Editor: Gary Bradley
Writer: Arrigo Boito
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled); Italian (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
Format: Classical, Color, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 160 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2001-07-31
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Kultur Video
DVD Reviews of Boito - Mefistofele / Arena, Ramey, Benackova, San Francisco Opera
DVD Review: Banal Music, Sloppy Production ...
Summary: 2 Stars
... but Samuel Ramey is almost good enough to make it worth hearing/watching once. I hope the poor devil didn't have to sing this mediocre opera too many times during his brilliant career! The other soloists - Dennis O'Neill as Faust and Gabriela Benackova as Margarita - sing artfully also, but nothing they do can compensate for the dreadful out-of-tune groaning of the San Francisco Opera Chorus. This is an opera in which the chorus sings a lot, for long stretches, and I've seldom heard as dismal a lack of basic ensemble as on this DVD. Dante ought to have constructed a special circle of his Inferno for inadequate choristers.
But who was Arrigo Boito? Condensed from wikiknowitall:
""Born in Padua, Boito studied music at the Milan Conservatory with Alberto Mazzucato until 1861. His only finished opera, Mefistofele, based on Goethe's Faust, was given its first performance on 5 March 1868, at La Scala, Milan. The premiere, which he conducted himself, was badly received, provoking riots and duels over its supposed "Wagnerism", and it was closed by the police after two performances. Verdi commented, "He aspires to originality but succeeds only at being strange." Boito withdrew the opera from further performances to rework it, and it had a more successful second premiere, in Bologna on 10 April 1875. Boito's revised and drastically cut version also changed Faust from a baritone to a tenor.
Other than Mefistofele, Boito wrote very little music.
Boito's literary powers never dried up. As well as writing the libretti for his own operas, he wrote them for other composers. As "Tobia Gorrio" (an anagram of his name) he provided the libretto for Amilcare Ponchielli's La Gioconda. Boito successfully revised the libretto for Verdi's unwieldy Simon Boccanegra, which then premiered to great acclaim in 1881. With that, their mutual friendship and respect blossomed and, though Verdi's projection for an opera based on King Lear never came to anything, Boito provided subtle and resonant libretti for Verdi's last masterpieces, Otello (1887) and Falstaff (1893). When Verdi died, Boito was there at his bedside.""
That objectionable "Wagnerism" is noticeable chiefly in the overtures, and is barely skin deep. Verdi's judgment remains apt; the score is meandering bandshell music at best, bellowing bombast at worst. I know of operas based on Goethe's faust by eleven other composers - Spohr, Busoni, Gounod, Berlioz, Pousseur, Bochmer, Prokofiev, Stravinsky, Lutz, Schnittke, and Dusapin. Boito's is easily the least satisfactory.
This is an opulent production, though not visually enticing enough to compensate for the miserable music. The sets and costumes are lavish. The chorus is huge (that might be why it sounds so raggedy) and there are dozens of extras and dancers, though the stage is often so crowded that effective movement is impossible. It's interesting that such an extravagant production was plausible not so many years ago. It would be beyond the purse of the struggling SF Opera to mount such a production today.
Description of Boito - Mefistofele / Arena, Ramey, Benackova, San Francisco Opera
Samuel Ramey won overwhelming critical acclaim for his performance in the San Francisco Opera's production of Boito's adaptation of Goethe's classic conflict of good versus evil, under the baton of Maurizio Arena. Samuel Ramey: Mefistofele
Dennis O'Neill: Faust
Daniel Harper: Wagner
Emily Manhart: Pantalis
Douglas Wunsch: Nereo
Gabriela Benacková: Margherita/Elena
Judith Christin: Marta
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