Monteverdi - L'Orfeo
by Jean-Pierre Ponnelle
List Price:
Our Price: $14.78
You Save: $15.20 (51%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Category: DVD
See more DVD details
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
DVD details
Actor: Dietlinde Turban, Francisco Araiza, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Philippe Huttenlocher, Trudeliese SchmidtDirector: Jean-Pierre Ponnelle
Brand: Universal Studios
DVD: Region Code 0
Audio: English (Unknown); Chinese (Subtitled); English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); German (Subtitled); Italian (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); Italian (Original Language), DTS 5.1; Italian (Published), DTS 5.1
Format: Classical, Full Screen, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 102 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-03-13
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Deutsche Grammophon
DVD Reviews of Monteverdi - L'Orfeo
DVD Review: Opulent, Raggedy, Outdated
Summary: 3 Stars
When it was staged in 1975, Harnoncourt & Ponelle's production of Monteverdi's 1607 opera L'Orfeo was a revolutionary triumph of the "Early Music" movement, the harbinger of massive changes in the whole environment of classical music that have blessedly occurred since. I wasn't there for opening night, but I heard of the event and applauded vigorously. Nikolaus Harnoncourt has the stature of an Apostle in my musical pantheon. That said, it's painful to confess that I find the current re-released film of that production extremely hard to watch and hear. In comparison to the musically sublime performance by Tragicomedia, also on DVD, this costume-heavy staging seems melodramatic, busy, and incoherent in affect. The orchestra is raggedy in tuning and balance. The singing is uneven. The cinematographic is obtrusive. Judged by current standards, it's a three-star costly failure, and that's how I've reluctantly rated it.
First, the orchestra. Do I have to point out that the Baroque trumpets, cornetti, and recorders are not played at a standard comparable to normal orchestral instruments? That accusation was thrust in our faces - we who worked hard on resuscitating those instruments - often enough to make it painful to acknowledge that it was true. but even in 1975, there were recorderists and cornettists who could have given better accounts of their instruments than those in Harnoncourt's 'Monteverdi-Ensemble'. All the winds are prominent, and prominently out -of-tune. The rest of the orchestra sounds semi-pro at best by the standards of historical playing in 2008.
Then, the chorus. Huh? All those grandees in the balcony, singing lustily like aspirants to the Robert Shaw Chorale? L'Orfeo was essentially a chamber work, performed in a sala in Mantua, an expansion really of the madrigal form and intrinsically INTIMATE! It doesn't work well musically to treat it as halfway to Wagner.
And the soloists. Honestly, the shepherds steal the show. Those tenors have beautiful Italianate voices, and have at least teh rudiments of 'historically informed' vocal technique. The shepherds' duets are some of the most elegant music in L'Orfeo; the ensemble isn't exactly tight, but the sound is pleasurable. Mantuans, I assure you, were keen on pleasure. Trudeliese Schmidt is tuneful, if not expressive, as La Musica and La Speranza. Basso Hans Franzen is plenty profundo as Charonte, despite his over-the-top costume. The most serious problem is Orfeo, sung by Philippe Huttenlocher. Orfeo sings roughly half the music of the opera, and his emotions are what the whole thing is about. Huttenlocher first portrays Orfeo as a kind of jolly lout, straight from Die Meistersinger. He hams and grimaces distractingly. His voice is adequate and he has the notes, but he makes the trills and other embellishments sound dreadfully labored. Later, in Hades, he cranks up the embellishments way past his ability to sing them beautifully; it's the beauty of his singing that's supposed to drive the plot, after all.
Furthermore, the staging. Busy, busy, busy! So much going on in the background. So many visual distractions. How could Ponelle have imagined that people could concentrate on the music? And all the busy-ness is compounded to the Nth by the cinematography, which is as jumpy as a Police Academy film on TV with commercials. Camerawork on steroids! L'Orfeo is a tragedy, a work of "gravitas" and elegance, not a piece of Renaissance Faire burlesque.
Last, the interpretation. Is there one? Harnoncourt was certainly exploring the possibilities, and he can't be totally scorned for making some inchoate choices. The entrance of the Nymph who announces Eurydice's death, for instance, and the laments of the shepherds in both acts are musical catastrophes, blaring overstatements. Why, by the way, is that Nymph dressed as Sarah Palin without her glasses? She was Eurydice's bosom friend and companion, not a witch! The key word for any interpretation of Monteverdi and his contemporaries is AFFECT, and Harnoncourt never settles on a plausible, consistent affect for the music.
The bottom line is that this performance is outdated.
Description of Monteverdi - L'Orfeo
MONTEVERDI:L'ORFEO - DVD MovieClassical Music CDs
Bestsellers in Classical Music CDs
Winterscapesby London Philharmonic
Prophetic Voice; Published: 2000-07; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $2.74
Price in other shops:
The Queen, the Bear, and the Bumblebeeby Dini Petty
Childrens Group; Published: 2001-03; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $13.40
Price in other shops:
Classical Kids - Beethoven Lives Upstairs CdrRelease date: 2000-04-05; Music CD
Best price: $25.98
Tchaikovsky (Life and Works (Naxos))by Malcolm Sinclair, Jeremy Siepmann
Naxos; Published: 2003-11; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $35.99
![Jose Carreras - Jubileum Concert [VHS] Image](/images/Jose-Carreras-Jubileum-Concert-VHS-1584481471-X.jpg){kind=small}
Jose Carreras - Jose Carreras - Jubileum Concert [VHS]Sling Shot; Release date: 2000-04-18; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $5.87
Price in other shops:
![Tchaikovsky - The Nutcracker / Nureyev, Park, Royal Ballet [VHS] Image](/images/Tchaikovsky-The-Nutcracker-Nureyev-Park-Royal-Ballet-VHS-156127092X-X.jpg){kind=small}
Tchaikovsky - The Nutcracker / Nureyev, Park, Royal Ballet [VHS]Kultur Video; Release date: 1997-09-09; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $29.94
Price in other shops:
![Lonely Town Lonley Street / Sergeant's Early Dream [VHS] Image](/images/Lonely-Town-Lonley-Street-Sergeant-Early-Dream-VHS-1561270857-X.jpg){kind=small}
Rambert Dance Company - Lonely Town Lonley Street / Sergeant's Early Dream [VHS]Kultur Video; Release date: 1997-10-28; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $24.99
Price in other shops:
Winter Music: Composing the Northby John Luther Adams
Wesleyan; Published: 2004-11-10; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $23.62
Price in other shops:
![Puccini - La Fanciulla del West / Santi, Domingo, Neblett, Royal Opera Covent Garden [VHS] Image](/images/Puccini-La-Fanciulla-del-West-Santi-Domingo-Neblett-Royal-Opera-Covent-Garden-VHS-0769720382-X.jpg){kind=small}
Puccini - La Fanciulla del West / Santi, Domingo, Neblett, Royal Opera Covent Garden [VHS]Kultur Video; Release date: 1999-05-25; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Price in other shops:
![Verdi - Falstaff / Giulini, Bruson, Ricciarelli, Nucci, Royal Opera Covent Garden [VHS] Image](/images/Verdi-Falstaff-Giulini-Bruson-Ricciarelli-Nucci-Royal-Opera-Covent-Garden-VHS-0769720358-X.jpg){kind=small}
Verdi - Falstaff / Giulini, Bruson, Ricciarelli, Nucci, Royal Opera Covent Garden [VHS]Kultur Video; Release date: 1999-05-25; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $12.95
Price in other shops:
Similar DVDs, VHS Video, Audio CDs
Verdi - Rigoletto / Luciano Pavarotti, Ingvar Wixell, Edita Gruberova, Victoria Vergara, Ferruccio Furlanetto, Riccardo ChaillyUniversal Studios; Release date: 2006-07-04; Published: 2006; DVD
Best price: $15.78
Price in other shops:
Leoncavallo - I Pagliacci / Mascagni - Cavalleria Rusticana / Domingo, Stratas, Pons, Bruson, Obraztsova, PretreVARIOUS; Release date: 2005-06-14; DVD
Best price: $15.82
Price in other shops:
Stravinsky and the Ballets Russes: The Firebird/ Le Sacre du PrintempsRelease date: 2009-10-27; DVD
Best price: $20.57
Price in other shops:
Gluck - Orfeo ed Euridice / Baker, Speiser, Gale, Leppard, Glyndebourne OperaKultur; Release date: 2004-07-27; DVD
Best price: $16.75
Price in other shops:
Monteverdi - L'Incoronazione Di Poppea / Leppard, Ewing, Bailey, Duesing, Lloyd, Gale, Clarey, GlyndebourneKultur; Release date: 2004-02-10; DVD
Best price: $16.25
Price in other shops:
Purcell - Dido & Aeneas / Maria Ewing, Karl Daymond, Collegium Musicum 90Kultur; Release date: 2008-06-24; DVD
Best price: $15.48
Price in other shops:
Mozart - Le Nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro)Universal Studios; Release date: 2005-06-14; DVD
Best price: $21.86
Price in other shops:
Monteverdi - Il Ritorno d'Ulisse in PatriaUniversal Studios; Release date: 2007-03-13; DVD
Best price: $23.71
Price in other shops:
Monteverdi - L'Incoronazione di PoppeaUniversal Studios; Release date: 2007-03-13; DVD
Best price: $21.94
Price in other shops:
Monteverdi - L'Orfeo / Savall, Zanasi, Figueras, Mingardo, Abete, Turk, Vargas, Bettini, Gran Teatre del Liceu BarcelonaKultur; Release date: 2009-01-27; DVD
Best price: $17.13
Price in other shops: