Leoncavallo: Pagliacci / Mascagni: Cavalleria Rusticana
by Herbert von Karajan
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Actor: Fiorenza Cossotto, Gianfranco Cecchele, Jon Vickers, Raina Kabaivanska, Rolando PaneraiDirector: Herbert von Karajan
Brand: Universal Studios
Writer: Ruggero Leoncavallo
Writer: Pietro Mascagni
DVD: Region Code 0
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled); German (Subtitled); Italian (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); Italian (Original Language), DTS 5.1
Format: Classical, Color, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 79 minutes
Published: 2011-10-24
DVD Release Date: 2008-03-11
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Deutsche Grammophon
DVD Reviews of Leoncavallo: Pagliacci / Mascagni: Cavalleria Rusticana
DVD Review: Not twins exactly, but still heavenly
Summary: 5 Stars
Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci are often called the heavenly twins, but I don't think that's quite true. I'm not sure if Cavalleria is a great opera, but it's certainly a very good one. True, Mascagni does an admirable job of creating a small town atmosphere where privacy is a rare luxury and religion supersedes almost everything, you can practically feel every cobblestone, every whiff of ocean breeze, every drop of holy water in the music, and the score is filled with beautiful, passionate, dazzling melodies. Still, as far as I'm concerned, the opera never exceeds the sum of its parts. Maybe it's because the opera is ALL about flooding the listener with beautiful, passionate, dazzling music, and this comes at the expense of character development and true drama. It's a shame that Mascagni's masterpiece Iris is so seldom performed, and isn't available on DVD. Still, as I said before, Cavalleria Rusticana is quite good. Pagliacci, on the other hand, is a true masterpiece, one of the great treasures of the operatic repertoire. The opera, with its melodic richness, its orchestral inventiveness, and its solid musical characterizations, manages to transcend the tawdriness of the characters, who spend almost the entire opera hurting one another, to the extent that it qualifies as high art. It may well be the greatest short opera ever written.
This DVD presents a pair of films produced in 1968, featuring stellar casts and conducted by Herbert von Karajan, who also directs the film of Pagliacci. The films, like the operas, are good(Cavalleria) and phenomenal(Pagliacci).
The Cavalleria film faces the same central problem as any film of this opera: What to do with all that time devoted to long instrumental passages? Ake Falck, who directs the film, treats these moments like scenes from a movie by Yasujiro Ozu, filling them with shot after static shot of meaningful scenery, from rustic streets to a beautiful and tempestuous shoreline to a towering crucifix. This establishes atmosphere, like the opera the film does a good job of evoking a specific time and place, but it soon grows tiresome, leaving the viewer to concentrate on Mascagni's lovely music, which isn't such a bad thing. The rest of the film is pretty straightforward, like the opera itself, as primitive as the brutal emotions it conveys, with no abstraction whatsoever, no symbolism. The performers carry the film: Fiorenza Cossotto as Santuzza, sympathetic rather than shrewish; Gianfranco Cecchele as Turridu, fiery and handsome(he looks like a cross between Franco Corelli and Roberto Alagna); and Giangiacomo Guelfi as Alfio, the minatory cuckold. This is a fine performance overall, with von Karajan and his orchestra finding just the right moments to elevate the music to a passionate crescendo while easing up and luxuriating in the more passive moments. The film is unspectacular, but it serves as a competent enough overture for the fireworks to come in round two.
With this Pagliacci, von Karajan has produced a fine example of opera on film, his visual technique matching the color, the choreography, the brutal honesty suggested by the music. His use of close-ups illustrates a true affinity for this medium, as does his ability to coax just the right facial expressions from his performers. Speaking of which, the players are ideal. John Vickers has the perfect voice for Canio, with his ability to sing so beautifully but also with venom. Few can match his technique, or his intensity. He percolates with menace almost from the moment he appears onscreen. He is matched in both the singing and acting departments by Raina Kabaivanska, one of von Karajan's favorite sopranos, young and heartbreakingly beautiful here, cold but also passionate, with both the graceful movements and supple voice of a bird in flight. The way she flits so effortlessly onstage during the play within a play makes me wonder if she was a ballerina in a previous life. It's easy to see why a passionate sort with a raging temper might kill for her. Peter Glossop delivers a knockout prologue, and his Tonio eschews any opportunity for sympathy based on the character's deformity, he plays the hunchback as someone who would be every bit as grotesque even in a perfect body, unashamedly off-putting, mean-spirited and soulless, like the other major players in this fine but unsettling drama. Once again, von Karajan and his forces deliver the goods, driving the music forward with all the ardor and madness of the story's characters.
This isn't the only DVD to feature a pair of films of these two operas. The other, also on Deutsche Grammophon, offers the filmmaking talents of Franco Zefferelli, the conducting talents of Georges Pretre, and the vocal talents of Placido Domingo. It, too, is a marvelous DVD, but I give the edge to this one, primarily for its Pagliacci which is nearly perfect.
Instead of twins, perhaps it is better to look at these two operas as siblings, Cavalleria the sturdy and unassertive one that never quite achieves an individuality of voice, impeccable to be sure when viewed on its own, but overshadowed to a degree when presented side by side with its outlandishly talented brother or sister. Or we could dispense with all this pretentious nonsense and simply say, here we have two operas, one good, one great. Enjoy.
Description of Leoncavallo: Pagliacci / Mascagni: Cavalleria Rusticana
MASCAGNI/LEONCAVALLO:CAVALLERIA RUSTI - DVD MovieOpera's most popular double bill, fondly known as Cav and Pag, can be a tawdry mess or, as in this performance of Pagliacci, a searing experience. Its power derives from an all-star cast headed by tenor Jon Vickers in the double role of betrayed husband, Canio, and tragic clown, Pagliacci. He?s a singer who blurred the division between reality and stage illusion in every role he assumed, thus taking an opera about that thin line between real life and stage artifice to heightened levels of intensity. Vickers is a force of nature, his big, brawny voice suffused with emotion. Here, his phrasing, textual precision, and timbral colorations expand the scope of the opera, making a moving tragedy out of Leoncavallo?s verismo melodrama. It helps that his colleagues are also in good form: Soprano Raina Kabaivanska is an excellent Nedda, Canio?s cheating wife, whose loyalty to her lover, Silvio, sends Canio into a murderous rage in the stage farce that parodies their real-life situation. She sings with refinement in the Act One love duet and with powerful desperation in Act Two. Baritone Rolando Panerai is a fine Silvio, and the double role of Peppe/Arlecchino is enhanced by the smooth tenor of Sergio Lorenzo. Peter Glossup is a convincing Tonio, the lascivious member of the troupe whose lust leads him to betray Nedda and set the tragedy in motion. Herbert von Karajan conducts the La Scala forces, guiding the mounting tension to perfection. He?s also credited with directing the film, based on Paul Hager?s stage production. Despite copious closeups, lip-synching to the prerecorded vocal performances is smoothly done. Like Pagliacci, this Cavelleria Rusticana was a La Scala production filmed in 1968. But the filming, directed by Ake Falck, disappoints. Another village melodrama of love, infidelity, and murder, it?s well sung, with mezzo Fiorenza Cossoto in the role of Santuzza, the betrayed heroine and a little-known but capable tenor, Gianfranco Cecchele, in the role of Turridu, whose love for Lola, soprano Adriana Martino, leads to the violent response of her husband, Alfio, acted by baritone Giangiacomo Guelfi. Karajan shines in the expansive Prelude and the beautifully shaped Intermezzo but the opera is undercut by a film with too many irrelevant scenic shots and an excess of tight closeups that have the effect of creating emotional distance rather than involvement. But if Cav underachieves, this Pag, dominated by Jon Vickers, is an unforgettable operatic experience. --Dan Davis
This DVD is in 4:3 format. Sound options include PCM Stereo and DTS 5.1 Surround. Subtitles include English, French, German, Spanish, and Chinese.
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