Gluck - Alceste / Robert Wilson · John Eliot Gardiner · Anne Sofie von Otter · English Baroque Soloists · Théâtre du Chatelet
by Brian Large
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DVD details
Actor: Anne Sofie von Otter, Dietrich Henschel, Ludovic Tézier, Paul Groves, Yann BeuronDirector: Brian Large
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo; English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
Format: Anamorphic, Classical, Color, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.77:1
Running Time: 133 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2001-03-27
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Image Entertainment
DVD Reviews of Gluck - Alceste / Robert Wilson · John Eliot Gardiner · Anne Sofie von Otter · English Baroque Soloists · Théâtre du Chatelet
DVD Review: Willibald Gets the Blues
Summary: 2 Stars
When is a CD more visually exciting than a DVD? That's not a joke; the answer is this Chatelet production of Gluck's Alceste. I've watched glaciers - literally - for hours, and seen more action than this.Was Brian Large, the director, momentarily suffering a post-encephalitic syndrome such as Oliver Sachs reported in Awakenings? LSD could not make this staging meaningful. This Alceste makes Wagner's Rheingold seem like a Rossini romp. It turns "Remenbrance of Things Past" into a haiku. It makes the American election process seem cogent.
What do you get when you pop this disk into your player? Blue. Faded Levi blue. A blue backdrop with hazy blue stage lights, sectioned by various blackish pillars and cubes. A small blue cube gyrates slowly overhead throughout the first act. A dozen female dancers in off-the-shoulder blue prom dresses, with blue Egyptian head-gear, glide stiffly fore and aft, their arms bent hieroglyphically. Eventually Alceste enters, sheathed in a simple red robe which, if you watch long enough, begins to seem blue also. Lo, the blue backdrop is declared to be a temple. There is a large gray-blue statue with impressive genitalia. A priest begins to sing sad blue phrases of omen. Blue moons later, Admetus emerges from the indigo shadows, saved from death by Alceste's sacrifice of her life, an act which makes him feel.... blue.
Oy! I've seen screen savers with infinitely more variety. Handel's Admeto, by the by, written in the same geological moment, handles the same story, but Handel had a handle on the human attention span.
As if the visuals weren't lifeless enough, the voice recording is dismally unlifelike. No matter how high I turned the volume or diddled the EQ, the singers sounded distant and pallid, as if I were sitting in the highest balcony of an opera house stuffed with baffles.
It's a colossal shame, really. The music, though somber and monochromatic until the very end, has its dolorous charms, especially as conducted by John Eliot Gardiner and performed by the English Baroque Soloists on period instruments. The miking of the orchestra, by the way, was quite intimate, as if that mattered when the singers were so stifled.
Please, don't make this your first pre-Mozart opera DVD! If you want a symbolist/minimalist staging of a Greek tragedy played on early instruments, get the DVD of Monteverdi's L'Orfeo, as performed by Tragicomedia nd Concerto Palatino. How subtle the difference that separates a great production from a dud!
WAIT! HOLD THE PHONE! Months later, I've watched/heard this production again. I was totally unfair! I must have had a bad no-hair day! I'd delete this review, except for an urge toward penitent self-flagellation. See the thread of comments below for my apologies. There are certainly shortcomings in the sound recording, but the musical interpretation is superb, and the staging (except for that blue cube) makes a good deal of sense on second viewing.
More Gluck - Alceste / Robert Wilson · John Eliot Gardiner · Anne Sofie von Otter · English Baroque Soloists · Théâtre du Chatelet reviews:
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Description of Gluck - Alceste / Robert Wilson · John Eliot Gardiner · Anne Sofie von Otter · English Baroque Soloists · Théâtre du Chatelet
Rebelling against the increasingly formulaic operas of the time, Christoph Willibald Gluck's "reformist" opera Alceste (1767) was a successful attempt to return to a purer form of musical drama. It is highly appropriate that this 1999 production of the revised 1776 Paris version should be conducted by Sir John Eliot Gardiner, with the English Baroque Soloists and Monteverdi Choir, the same forces responsible for many fine Bach performances equally emphasizing character and text. In setting the tragic story of the profound love between Queen Alceste and her husband King Admète, Gluck provided a score of austere, rending beauty.Principals Anne Sofie von Otter and Paul Groves dominate the production as much through the power of their acting as their musical prowess. The major scenes are electrifying in their emotional intensity. Contrasting with this psychological realism are the simple, Greek-inspired designs by Robert Wilson. Silhouetted, geometric shapes glide gracefully through the slow-motion movements of the actors, bringing an hypnotic, dreamlike quality to the work. Near-constant blue lighting adds a sense of late-evening tranquillity, giving the stage a highly distinctive look and a feeling of dislocation in space and time. Both chilling and uplifting, this Alceste is a triumph. --Gary S. Dalkin, Amazon.co.uk
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