Franchetti: Germania
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DVD details
Actor: Bruck, Caproni, Franchetti, Jerkunica, VentreBrand: Naxos OF America INC
DVD: Region Code 0
Audio: English (Unknown); German (Subtitled); English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Italian (Subtitled); English (Original Language); French (Original Language)
Format: Classical, Color, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 140 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2008-08-26
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Phoenix Edition
DVD Reviews of Franchetti: Germania
DVD Review: OK,BUT......
Summary: 3 Stars
In all honesty,Baron Alberto Franchetti,although wealthy and with all the time in the world at his disposal for composition was not one of the brightest stars of the para-verismo composers.I place him more as a lonely bird,maybe with the likes of Catalani,Wolf-Ferrari
and all that ilk.
After his noteworthy CRISTOFORO COLOMBO (which I really like very much),prior to which we had the mammothical wagnerian drama ASRAEL,came this GERMANIA in 1902.
By quoting folk songs and tunes by other composers and poets,including some as characters in the piece like Theodor Korner,Wilhelm Lutz and even Carl Maria von Weber he tried to convey
some local german color to his opera,but quite frankly I'm not quite sure what old Alberto
was trying to do here.He used the famous german folktune HOW MANY STARS THERE ARE which was
not composed until another ten years after the historical time in which the piece takes place,namely the napoleonic wars.A projection for the future maybe? Who knows,and I guess
we never will know exactly what his intentions were.
I must confess that I knew this opera some 12 years ago,from an audio in-house recording stemming from a New York performance in 1985.Upon my first watching of the DVD I was not that impressed.Both me and one of my buddies found the opera rather dull and boring.But over the years it has grown on me and watching it once again last night the experience was somewhat different and gratifying.The style is melodic,but with the exception of a few leitmotivs you won't remember much of it,in spite of the two tenor ariosos STUDENTI UDITE! in the Prologue and NON CHIUDER GLI OCCHI VAGHI from the first act.
Although a great hit in the days of Enrico Caruso the opera has not shared the bills over the
past 50 years with any other one,perhaps with the exception of the aforementioned NYC performance.Nowadays we have no Caruso(that is achingly clear!)but in this case we had a trio of singers who can be deemed as acceptable. Uruguayan tenor Carlo Ventre navigates
loosely through the tough role (Let's face it-The opera has been written for the tenor role)
of Federico Loewe without cracking one single note.But unfortunately the color of his voice
I find quite aggressive,uncouth,unpolished and unpleasant,that goes without not saying that he definitely can sing and has an acceptable tenor voice.I'm of the opinion that american
tenor Joseph Wolverton did a much better job in the New York version.
American soprano Lise Lindstrom runs along the same patterns,but her voice is obviously more pleasant than Ventre's.
Last but not least the baritone parts: Markus Bruck does a very good job in the short role of
Crisogono and that leaves us with irish baritone Bruno Caproni who sings the role of the unfortunate Carlo Worms.When asked about the role,stage director Kirsten Harms stated that it
requires a very strong dramatic baritone and that his is a very difficult part.I beg to differ.Carlo Worms sings quite enough in the prologue,but that's about it.He has a small arioso in the first act,and then he is totally absent during the epilogue.The second act he shares with Federico and with the other characters.Bottomline,this is a tenor opera.
It would have been ideal to have a trio of singers like Franco Corelli,Maria Callas and Ettore Bastianini for instance to perform the piece.Then I'm pretty sure the image of this opera would have been raised to the utmost levels of beauty,in spite of a not-that-inspired
score.Time will judge,but I guess we're not gonna hear from another performance of GERMANIA in the near future,but obviously I could be wrong....
Cheers!
More Franchetti: Germania reviews:
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Description of Franchetti: Germania
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