Bessie
(2015/HBO Blu-ray)/The
Fastest Guitar Alive
(1967/MGM/Warner Archive DVD)/The
King's Singers: Madrigal History Tour
(1984/ArtHaus)/Janacek:
Taras Bulba/Dvorak: Wood Dove/Neuman
(1986/ArtHaus)/La Belle
Helene/Offenbach: Priessnitz
(2014/Unitel Classica)/Rossini's
Aureliano in Palmira/Crutchfield
(2014/ArtHaus/Unitel Classica)/Von
Webber's Missa Sancta No. 1: Freischutzmesse
(1986/ArtHaus/Unitel Classica/all Naxos Blu-rays)
Picture:
B/C+/C+/C/B-/B-/C Sound: B-/C/C/C+/B/B/C Extras:
C/D/C-/C+/C/C+/C+ Main Programs: B-/C/B-/C+/B-/B-/C
PLEASE
NOTE:
The
Fastest
Guitar Alive
DVD is now only available from Warner Bros. through their Warner
Archive series and can be ordered from the link below.
This
list has music-oriented narratives, followed by a set of recent
Classical releases...
Dee
Rees' Bessie
(2015) is my favorite entry here with Queen Latifah doing an easy to
under-appreciate job of playing the legendary Blues singer Bessie
Smith in a project that took a while to get made, but it was worth
it. Recreating its period past better than most theatrical films of
late and using some flashbacks without overdoing it, this HBO cable
telefilm is a biopic and somewhat of a backstage musical, but tends
to be a bit richer and more well-realized than expected.
We
see some ugly incidents that shaped Smith's life (sadly not unlike
Billie Holiday; this film plays like an equally realistic flipside
and conformation of the enduring Lady
Sings The Blues
(1972) with Diana Ross) as well as her devil may care attitude to
live her life as she wished. She had talent early on, but a chance
meeting with the highly successful Ma Rainey (an incredible turn by
Monique) that becomes a personal breakthrough.
The
cast is great, acting impressive and no less than Horton Foote (whose
screenplay work included To
Kill A Mockingbird
and Arthur Penn's The
Chase)
wrote an early draft and much of that edge remains here. All this is
additionally enhanced by its vivid portrayal of racism that gets ugly
in some events shown here not talked enough about today, while
another great angle is how dead on it is about the early years of the
record industry. Rees handles all deftly and my only complaint is
that this was not long enough, though I have my suspicions the script
was likely longer than the final cut here.
The
solid supporting cast includes Michael Kenneth Williams, Oliver
Platt, Michael Greenburg, Mike Epps, Charles S. Dutton, Khandi
Alexander and Tika Sumpter. Rachel Portman supplied the score. If
only all TV movies could be this good!
Extras
include Digital HD Ultraviolet Copy for PC, PC portable and iTunes
capable devices, while the Blu-ray adds the Behind The Scenes
featurette
Bessie:
A Creative Journey.
Roy
Orbison was given the 'Elvis Musical' treatment by MGM in The
Fastest Guitar Alive
(1967), a horrible, lame comedy Western with bad drama, awful humor
and stereotypical 'Hollywood Indians' to a fault. It is actually a
disaster of a film except that Orbison keeps interrupting the horror
with solid full-length song after song. Even monophonic, once he
starts singing, its a while new ballgame. Maggie Pierce and Joan
Freeman are the female interests and this was made a year after
Orbison moved from his glory days at Monument Records to less success
at MGM Records. His tenure there was not as fruitful and his career
declined commercially, but not for lack of talent.
Only
for Orbison is this mess worth a look, though it helps that this
print looks better than expected.
There
are no extras.
The
King's Singers: Madrigal History Tour
(1984) is actually a six-part TV mini-series (co-produced by the BBC)
where the six harmonizing vocalists go preforming from country to
country while we hear stories about music and their history. They
sound like something between Gregorian Chant and a barbershop
quartet, capable of a Capella and covering a variety of songs (even
if some might not, to put it lightly) like their cover songs. Sort
of a European answer to The Lettermen, give them the credit that they
will fearlessly attempt to do any song ever made (their version of
David Bowie's ''Life
on Mars''
has to be heard to be believed).
This
is well-done, even if you are not a fan of the actual music. They
are a hit group and this is as good a way as any to get to know them
without the hit or miss of a few songs.
Janacek:
Taras Bulba/Dvorak: Wood Dove
(1986) are a solid set of orchestral performances by Vaclav Neumann
conducting the highly respected Czech Philharmonic. Fidelity gets in
the way due to the age of both videotapings including the bonus
Marches
program, but I can see why this assemblage has the reputation it has,
so it is worth your time if you are interested.
Jacques
Offenbach's La
Belle Helene
(in a new 2014 performance) is a decent, contemporary twist on the
most successful and popular work of the 19th
Century composer with a solid cast belting out the opera throughout
to good effect. Jennifer Larmore, Jun-Sang Han, Peter Galliard,
Viktor Rud and Rebecca Jo Loeb top the energetic cast, but some of
this was a bit uneven in its nearly 2-hour performance. Still,
Conductor Gerrit Priessnitz gives his best along with them and is a
decent way to experience the work for starters. The production has
the money on the stage and is not minimalist or paired down like many
contemporarizations of such works we have seen over the years.
Gioachino
Rossini's Aureliano
in Palmira
(also a new 2014 show) has the same level of mostly-successful Helene
Blu-ray, first performed in 1813, this opera takes place in a Syria
long, long ago involving the goddess Isis! A royal couple taking on
the title Emperor. Timely as ever, it brushes on myth and old
thinking while its melodrama has more than its share of ups and
downs. Michael Spyres, Jessica Pratt, Lena Belkina, Raffaella
Lupinacci and Dimitri Pkhaladze are the lead singers.
Von
Webber's Missa Sancta No. 1: Freischutzmesse
(1986) has two works that are rarely heard or performed, with the
main program over 25 years old, inspired by King Friedrich August the
First in 1818! This was good musically, but was hard to enjoy
because of fidelity issues, which extends to the second audio-only
program of Haydn's
Missa Sanctae Carciliae,
conducted by the highly respected Rafael Kubelik from 1982, which
might sound a tad better, but not by much. Sadly, fidelity again
gets in the way, but these are historical and I would likely rate
them higher if some serious restoration work could be done on them.
If not, you'll have to tolerate the limits.
Extras
in all five Naxos Blu-rays include booklets on the film including
informative text in several languages, Helene
and Missa
has previews for other releases, while Palmira
adds 14-minutes Behind
The Scenes
featurette and Taras
has a Marches
concert as long as both main performances combined.
All
the Blu-rays here offer 1.78 X 1 aspect ratios, with the 1080p 1.85 X
1 digital High Definition image on Bessie
easily the visual champ so well shot with a consistently good look,
good color range and a pleasant overall viewing experience with few
flaws. The 1080i 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image transfers on
Helene
and Palmera
are second-best here being new HD shoots with good color, but more
flaws, detail, issues and some motion blur. The remaining Blu-rays
are actually upscaled old standard definition video in 1.33 X 1
centered in the 1.78 X 1 frame, which does not make them HD, but they
look about as good as they ever will. Thus, the
anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image on Guitar
can more than compete for what it is from a decent MetroColor print,
but the upscaling on Missa
and Taras
are actually more flawed and weak sadly as Guitar
was shot on 35mm film.
As
for sound, Bessie,
Helene
and Palmera
offer
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mixes and the latter two have
lesser PCM 2.0 Stereo sound. The latter two are the sonic champs,
especially as Bessie
has its silent and dialogue-driven moments, yet also has some
sonically nice music presentations to offer. The remaining Blu-rays
only have
PCM 2.0 Stereo while the Guitar
DVD has lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono. Save the decent audio on the
Taras
Blu-ray's programs, the audio on the DVD and remaining Blu-rays is
surprisingly weak, thin and compressed, so be careful of high volume
playback and volume switching in those cases.
To
order The
Fastest
Guitar Alive Warner
Archive DVD, go to this link for it and many more great web-exclusive
releases at:
https://www.warnerarchive.com/
-
Nicholas Sheffo
