Leos Janacek: From the House of the Dead - Festival Aix-en-Provence 2007
by Patrice Chéreau, Stéphane Metge
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Actor: Heinz Zednik, John Mark Ainsley, Olaf Bär, Peter Straka, Pierre BoulezDirector: Patrice Chéreau, Stéphane Metge
Brand: Universal Studios
DVD: Region Code 0
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled); German (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); Czech (Original Language), Dolby Digital 1.0
Format: Color, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.78:1
Running Time: 100 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2008-04-22
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Deutsche Grammophon
DVD Reviews of Leos Janacek: From the House of the Dead - Festival Aix-en-Provence 2007
DVD Review: The living dead
Summary: 5 Stars
Prior to watching this, I had never seen or heard this opera before, but I like Janacek, love Dostoevsky, so I thought I would give it a try. Good call. From the House of the Dead is a bleak but essential opera, and Stephan Metge's film of Patrice Chereau's dank, foggy, severe staging makes for a powerful viewing experience. Almost from the first note I fell in love with Janacek's score. The composer has created a brilliant melange of lyricism and dissonance where the orchestration is more important than the vocalism. The singing in this opera is non-melodic, at times sparse, austere, almost conversational. What melodies there are are all contained within the instrumental portion of the score, it's Janacek's schizophrenic orchestration that sets the mood, creates tension and individualizes the characters. And the tension rarely comes to a stop, even when very little is happening onstage.
Based on Dostoevsky's experiences in a Siberian prison camp, Janacek's opera has no real story, although it begins with the imprisonment of a nobleman and ends with his freedom. Not much happens over the course of three acts, yet we learn about the lives of some of the prisoners, the crimes they committed that brought them there, almost uniformly crimes of passion(Janacek, wisely, doesn't ask us to sympathize with the crimes, he only wants us to respect the incarcerated as flawed beings). There is a strange lack of regret among the men, almost as if the years of being jailed have beaten much of their feeling out of them, other than their loneliness, plus traces of anger and sadness for what's been lost. By the time we meet them the men are threadbare, submissive, seemingly robbed of their passions, a far cry from the hotheads sent to prison for giving in to their violent desires. Yet these men are far from dead. They tend to an injured eagle and revel in its eventual freedom, show an interest in each other's histories, and enthusiastically perform a couple of pantomimes that, like Hamlet's play within a play, have relevance to the bigger picture. Occasionally, they turn their suppressed rage against each other. They even form bonds, the most of touching of which develops between the nobleman(the newcomer among the bunch) and a young, heartsick prisoner who seems to have captured the sympathies of almost the entire population. Although the details of their friendship are given only a small amount of attention, at least in the larger scheme of the opera as a whole(the older man teaches the younger to read and write and through this becomes a paternal figure), the audience has no trouble feeling empathy, and being moved by their bittersweet separation which comes at the end of the piece. This is partly because of Janacek's music, his mastery at subtly painting an emotional connection, a dramatic minimalism so to speak(this opera has not a trace of melodrama except for that which is contained within the various prisoners' narratives) and partly because the prisoners as a whole converge into a single collective character, forcing the audience to connect with each experience. No prisoner's story has any real precedence, and yet they all manage to be effective. Hence, the title House of the Dead becomes ironic; the prisoners, despite their disenfranchisement, despite having a good deal of their vitality drained out of them by years of isolation, are still very much alive.
This production takes place before an audience, but it looks more like a film than the typical taping of a live performance, and the audience doesn't even realize that it is live until the curtain drops on the final act. Chereau and Metge have created a stark look for the film, effectively creating a sense of imprisonment and deprivation, which contrasts to a certain extent with Janacek's mood-swinging music, running the gamut of emotions, but is appropriate for the overall feel of the piece. There is little hope in the narrative and therefore in the lighting, sets, costumes or camerawork; even the ending, when both the eagle and the nobleman are released into the wide open, is handled in a delicate and non-commital manner rather than being celebratory. Nonetheless the opera and film do manage to be uplifting, in their own way, and the emotional effect is as overpowering as Verdi or Wagner while lacking those composers' sweep(which would have been inappropriate here). Despite the subject matter, this work of art goes beyond simply being disturbing, thanks to the fact that it is empowered by a heart and a soul.
Description of Leos Janacek: From the House of the Dead - Festival Aix-en-Provence 2007
Janác ek s rarely performed final opera From the House ofthe Dead is brought to the stage by acclaimed director
Patrice Chéreau and legendary conductor Pierre Boulez,
serving as the third collaboration between the celebrated
team behind the famous best-selling DVD Ring also on DG.
This production, commissioned by the Aix-en-Provence
Festival, has been widely hailed as one of the operatic
highlights of the new millennium.
Harrowing and unforgettable; one of the great Janác ek
interpretations of our time. The Guardian
Few operas match Janácek?s From the House of the Dead for sustained intensity and raw emotional power, especially effective in this 2007 Aix-en-Provence Festival staging. The opera is an ensemble work requiring an evenly matched cast of singing actors and a first-class orchestra under the baton of a conductor who masters Janácek?s but tricky rhythmic patterns, gritty folk-based melodies, and brilliant orchestration. That?s what it gets in this staging by Patrice Chéreau and conductor Pierre Boulez, whose precision and attention to detail amplify the overwhelming power of the score. This is one of those rare operas where nothing much happens yet leaves you certain that it has revealed important aspects of life. Without conventional arias, it delivers the power of such "highlight" moments through dramatic monologues and a continuous stream of orchestral music that illuminates characters and situations. In this late work completed months before his death, Janácek does in a mere 100 minutes what others strive to do in much longer time spans. Sharing the honors is a superb cast that brings the opera to life. You may despise what these people have done to land themselves in the Siberian gulag of Dostoyevsky?s novel, but Janácek?s libretto, almost entirely taken and re-ordered directly from the book, makes you sympathize with their degraded state and shocked at the cruelty to which they are subjected. Janácek focuses on six of the prisoners and several relate their stories. These are uniformly well done, with the first act monologue of Luca, a tale of how he murdered a prison commander, a gripping experience. It?s balanced in the final Act?s story of Shiskov; a grim tale of how he murdered his wife when she revealed her love for the villainous Filka, who turns out to be none other than the prisoner known as Luca. Filka/Luca is powerfully sung and acted by Stefan Margita, Shiskov by Gerd Grochowski. Olaf Bär sings the nobleman, a political prisoner roughly stripped of his clothes and belongings and who?s freed in the last Act. He becomes a father figure to the pallid, retiring Alyeya, brilliantly realized by Eric Stoklossa, teaching him to read and write and ministering to him as he lies feverish in the prison hospital. Special mention must be made of John Mark Ainsley, in the role of Skuratov, who murdered a rich man who wanted to marry his sweetheart.
Chéreau?s stage direction masterfully focuses attention where it needs to be, and keeps the dramatic arc flowing in ways that allow the audience to follow the action ? not easy on a stage filled with secondary characters, nearly all male and all in either shabby prison clothes or green guard?s uniforms. Thierry Thieu Niang staged the two brief plays within the opera, prisoners? performances mirroring some of their tales, bursting with depravity. The sets by Richard Peduzzi are fitting too, movable walls that reach to the top of the stage and enclose the prisoners in a claustrophobic setting. Film director Stéphane Metge?s camera placements and cutting are virtually always on target, blending the personal stories in a larger context. Extras include a 48" film that includes revealing scenes of Boulez and Chéreau in rehearsal. This is a must-have for anyone interested in 20th century opera. --Dan Davis
From the House of the Dead is an all-regions disc in 16:9 ratio. Sound options include PCM Stereo and DTS 5.1 Surround. Sung in Czech, subtitles include English, German, French, and Spanish.
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