 |
Tchaikovsky - Eugene Onegin / Fleming, Vargas, Hvorostovsky, Gergiev, Carsen [Metropolitan Opera 2007] by Brian Large, Robert Carsen
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
DVD detailsActor: Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Jean-Paul Fouchecourt, Ramon Vargas, Renee Fleming, Valery Gergiev Director: Brian Large, Robert Carsen Brand: Uni DVD: Region Code 0 Audio: Russian (Original Language); French (Original Language); English (Original Language); German (Subtitled); English (Subtitled); Italian (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled) Format: Classical, DVD-Video, Live, NTSC, Widescreen Picture Format: 1.78:1 Running Time: 156 minutes DVD Release Date: 2007-12-18 Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated) Studio: Decca
DVD Reviews of Tchaikovsky - Eugene Onegin / Fleming, Vargas, Hvorostovsky, Gergiev, Carsen [Metropolitan Opera 2007]DVD Review: Excellent Opera DVD Summary: 5 StarsThis is an excellent production and recording. I purchased it after seeing the live performance of the same production with an also excellent but different cast. The staging is spare but evocative and effective, and the performances, especially by Renee Fleming are truly memorable. One of the best opera DVD's I've seen.
DVD Review: Fantastic production Summary: 5 StarsI purchased this production to learn the opera prior to a family member performing the title role in an opera studio production. I found it easy to follow and the performance itself excellent. Renee Fleming is a favorite and she is excellent in this role.
DVD Review: What can I add? Summary: 5 StarsI have loved this opera for years!
I have four productions of it on DVD and nine on CD and LP (including one in English with Thomas Hampson and Kiri Te Kanawa) and I can say that the final act of this production is by far the most thrilling of them all,these two singers do not need any stage props to make it work, their superb voices, acting abilities and stage presence do it all!
BRAVO, BRAVO, BRAVISSIMI!!!
DVD Review: Evgeny Onegin, a revelation Summary: 4 StarsI gave this version of Onegin 4 stars because, in spite of the outstanding performance by Dmitry Hvorostovsky and Valery Gergiev, one that thoroughly revealed the greatness of Tchaikovsky's score, the rest of the cast, in my opinion, did not fully reach that level of perfection. Renee Fleming has a gorgeous voice, her pitch is perfect but at moments in the first act she acts too much as a grown-up woman rather than as a sixteen-year-old Tatyana. Tatyana finds her emotional turmoil inexplicable until she discovers that she is in love (Pouring water on herself is a bit extreme, particularly for a very young Russian country girl). However, Fleming is superb in the last scene of the opera. That scene is unforgettable. It takes one's breath away. Fleming and Hvorostovsky not only sing brilliantly, they succeed in making one forget that this is a stage and not real life, they are totally identified with their characters. No one else comes close to that level of performance. Olga is excellent, but she and Vargas do not make a credible couple. I find his Russian pronounciation not good, and his Lenski aria is too full of Italianate rubato and sentimentality. In my opinion, that aria is one of the most beautiful and profound in the repertoire. It, by the way, is beautifully and expressively played by the cello soloist in the introduction to the duel scene.
Other artists in this recording who do total justice to their role are Larisa Shevchenko ("nyanya") and Sergei Aleksashkin (Prince Gremin).
Shevchenko sings beautifully, has a warm personality, and is a kind and devoted nyanya. Sergei Aleksashkin's version of his aria is the best I have heard. The tempo is excellent, his voice is rich and of accurate pitch, and his delivery soberly conveys nobility of sentiment.
DVD Review: A Russian opera superbly performed Summary: 5 StarsAll of the roles in this performance at the Metropolitan Opera were nearly perfectly done.
Description of Tchaikovsky - Eugene Onegin / Fleming, Vargas, Hvorostovsky, Gergiev, Carsen [Metropolitan Opera 2007]Ren?e Fleming and Dmitri Hvorostovsky triumph in Tchaikovsky's operatic masterpiece Eugene Onegin, filmed live at the Metropolitan Opera. Their onstage chemistry, emotional singing and outstanding acting make this a very special production. Valery Gergiev, Russia's greatest living conductor, leads Russia's classic opera, with a thrilling account of Tchaikovsky's most intense and passionate score. Robert Carsen's evocative staging is striking and beautiful and highlights the personal drama at the heart of Pushkin's tragic tale of young love unrequited. The opera is introduced on this DVD by the great Russian dancer Mikhail Barishnikov. DVD extras include: Eugene Onegin "In Rehearsal," and "Backstage at The Met," a short documentary presented by Beverly Sills, who talks in person to Fleming and Hvorostovsky about the opera and their working relationship. Filmed in Hi-Definition Widescreen. This set, filmed at the Metropolitan Opera's February 2007 performances of Tchaikovsky's most popular opera, has just about everything going for it: an all-star cast in peak form, a great orchestra led by today's leading Russian conductor, and a striking stage production whose minimalist, often stark, sets manage to superbly suit this most Romantic of operas. Drawn from Pushkin's classic, the opera tightly focuses on the story of Tatiana, a naive young girl who declares her love for a dashing rake (Onegin) who rejects her overtures. His arrogance surfaces leads to flirting with his best friend's fianc?e and then to killing him in a duel. Plagued by remorse, a superficially reformed but still impossibly self-centered Onegin meets Tatiana at a ball, but now the childish country bumpkin is the glamorous wife of a Prince. He declares his love but she rejects him and leaves him alone, a solitary, tragic figure. Ren?e Fleming's Tatiana is a triumph, her gorgeous soprano voice, intense acting and precise characterization make the complex young woman come alive. Her "Letter Scene," in which the singer must reveal the innermost thoughts of a confused soul, is as good as it gets, as Fleming fully reveals the young woman's joyous hopes of requited love and also her fears of rejection. In the final act, she's still attracted to the dashing Onegin but resolved to preserve her marriage. In the title role, Dmitri Hvorostovsky is her equal; his firm baritone fits the music like a velvet glove and his acting matches Fleming's in its intensity. He's especially fine in his last-act monologue, bursting with despair and passion. Tchaikovsky gave the work's most beautiful arias to Lenski, Onegin's friend. Ramon Vargas' mellifluous tenor is well-suited to the lyricism of Lenski's Act One love aria and to the poignant aria before his duel with Onegin. Lenski's anger at his friend in the ball scene is palpably menacing. As Olga, Tatiana's high-spirited sister and Lenski's fianc?e, Elena Zaremba is fully up to the rest of the cast, her rich mezzo and pointed phrasing a strong point. Sergei Aleksaskin's Prince Gremin is a dignified presence, Larisa Schevchenko as Tatiana's old nurse is convincing, and the smaller roles are well sung and acted. Jean-Paul Fouch?court is not only in excellent voice in the beautiful aria of Triquet, Tatiana's French tutor, but manages to invest his song with an apt touch of parody as well. Valery Gergiev's conducting is a major asset, and the MET Orchestra is in terrific form, with special kudos due to the soulful clarinet solos that are so important in the musical texture. Producer Robert Carson imbues the work with Romantic glow and Michael Levine's spare sets are far more effective than one might think. The stage is strewn with leaves and framed by textured rods doing duty as birch trees in Act One; the ball scene similarly framed by a rectangle of chairs and side tables, both sets analogues for the character's imprisonment in their unbridled emotions. Video director Brian Large keeps his cameras well-focused on the action, to complete an Onegin that's the DVD version to get. --Dan Davis
|
 |