Ken
Russell's View Of The Planets
(1983/Holst/ArtHaus)/La
Damnation De Faust
(1989/Berlioz/Solti/ArtHaus)/La
Reine Morte
(1983 aka The
Dead Queen/Tchaikovsky/Kessels/Opus
Arte)/Le
Nozze Di Figaro
(1999/Mozart/Barenboim/ArtHaus)/The
Merchant Of Venice
(2015/Royal Shakespeare Company/Opus Arte)/Orlando
Furioso
(1989/Vivaldi/Behr/Marilyn Horne/ArtHaus)/Still
Life At The Penguin Cafe
(1987/Jeffs/Jeremy Irons/ArtHaus/all Naxos Blu-rays)/Song
Of Lahore
(2014/Broadgreen DVD)
Picture:
C+/C/B-/C+/B/C+/C/C+ Sound: B-/B-/B/B-/B-/C+/B-/C Extras:
C/C-/C/C-/B/C-/C+/D Main Programs: B-/B-/B-/B-/B/B-/C+/C+
Here's
a new group of music releases for you to consider and know about....
Ken
Russell's View Of The Planets
(1983) has the late, great, legendary filmmaker returning to his TV
roots, as he did plenty of work in TV before becoming a serious
feature film director with films like The
Boy Friend,
Tommy,
The
Devils,
Altered
States,
Lisztomania,
Mahler
and The
Music Lovers
more than qualifies him to take on Classical Music like no one except
maybe Kubrick or Nicolas Roeg (who used the piece very effectively in
his David Bowie film The
Man Who Fell To Earth
(1976). A year after MTV's arrival, the bold filmmaker decided to
take on Gustav Holst's classic in a too-brief 50-minutes program
where he comes up with some very compelling, effective visuals for
all segments of the complete work that has aged well and does not
look like a phony MTV-wanna be work (like so many of the time) that
makes for an underrated long-form music video work entirely deserving
of rediscovery.
Eugene
Ormandy conducts the Philadelphia Orchestra in a strong renditioning
of the classic, so no lite music coverage here whatsoever. My
second-favorite entry on this list, I highly recommend it.
La
Damnation De Faust
(1989) is Hector Berlioz's tale of soul-selling that we have not ever
covered, but this version with Conductor Sir Georg Solti may be based
in London at the Royal Albert Hall, but the Chorus of the Westminster
Cathedral and
Chicago Symphony Chorus & Orchestra make this a bit more
experimental and adventurous than your usual opera with orchestral
accompaniment. They succeed more than not, though at 134 minutes,
maybe it cold have been a bit longer. Not bad.
La
Reine Morte
(1983 aka The
Dead Queen)
is a ballet set to Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's music and based on the
true story of Prince of Portugal Don Pedro, who falls for a woman he
secretly marries, only to have it quickly come back to haunt all
involved. We've seen this kind of tale before, but it works well
enough here with choreography by Kader Belarbi and conducted by Koen
Kessels. Add a great cast and the Theatre du Capitole and this
delivers well in 110 minutes. Costumes and sets are a bit different,
but that's not a bad thing.
Le
Nozze Di Figaro
(1999) is only our second time covering any version of The
Marriage
(or Nozze aka Wedding) of
Figaro
after 14 years (!) with the first part of this excellent Mozart
set...
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/13189/Mozart+Royal+Opera+OpusArte+set+w/Marriage
Almost
as good, this version has Daniel Barenboim conducting and runs a
whopping 191 minutes. I liked some of this, but did not always think
it justified its length despite the amazing talent involved
(performed in Berlin with the Staatskapelle Berlin. It makes for
some interesting comparisons to the other version, so its still solid
for the most part. I just thought the other Papanno version worked
just that much better.
The
Merchant Of Venice
(2015) also is another all-time legendary opera we have only covered
once before...
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/13038/Conductors:+Collector's+Edition+(1945+-+2003/E
Erik
Nielsen's version was not bad, but this new Royal Shakespeare Company
release is petty much its equal, some flaws, but well made and
consistent enough. Yes, I still think a better version is possible,
but this is pretty authentic throughout and runs 132 minutes. Even
non-Shakespeare fans will not be disappointed.
Orlando
Furioso
(1989) is Antonio Vivaldi's great opera about the title character, a
woman ahead of her time going to war, and who better to play her than
the legendary Marilyn Horne? At 147 minutes, it is never boring and
this release re-reminds us why Horne is one of the giants in this
artform, a insanely powerful vocal bringing this to life as few
vocalists could do. Made with the San Francisco Opera, it is one of
the strongest entries on the list. I only had minor issues with this
one in pacing.
Still
Life At The Penguin Cafe
(1987) is a ballet that has the benefit of narration from no less
that Jeremy Irons offers a series of not necessarily related dance
segments that go for different kinds of music and only runs 39
minutes. However, it is some very compelling work and worth a good
look for those who would be interested. The bonus documentary
actually runs longer, so this is not that basic a disc and it
deserves to be reissued like this.
Sharmeen
Obaid-Chinoy & Andy Schocken's Song
Of Lahore
(2014) is the latest documentary true story of an all-too-familiar
story of the serious lack of respect and even hatred of the arts in
The Middle East, this time telling us how Pakistan had a thriving
music scene until the late 1970s when Islamic extremism forced the
artists to hide, abandon and bring their great work to an abrupt end.
Any resurgences since have been snuffed out again by the likes of
the Taliban and similar world terror organizations. The musicians
here land up in the U.S. to record with no less than Wynton Marsalis.
This runs 82 minutes and my inly complaint is that it does not run
long enough and go far enough.
The
1080p 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image on Venice
is the image playback winner here, followed closely by the 1080p 1.78
X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Morte,
the only two such never releases this time out. You might get some
minor detail issues and even motion blur here and there, but they
play as well as expected. The remaining Blu-ray's offer 1.33 X 1
images upscaled to 1080i in a 1.78 X 1 frame (save Figaro
upscaling older 1.78 X 1 video), but calling them totally digital
High Definition image transfers is pushing it, especially when you
get analog video that shows the age of the materials used. Faust
and Penguin
look particularly poor, though maybe some work would have helped.
Thus, the
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on the Lahore
DVD actually looks better despite some issues with how it was
digitally recorded.
In
the sound department, Morte
with its DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix has a great
soundfield, is recorded really well and has terrific sonic range.
Figaro
and Venice
sound almost as good with the same type mix, but Furioso
is not as well mixed and presented, also offering a PCM 2.0 Stereo
mix that is a bit lesser. Guess the original soundmaster was not
great. Planets
offers a better PCM 2.0 Stereo mix and to make up for their image
limits, Faust
and Penguin
have PCM 2.0 Stereo mixes
at 192 kHz they are dubbing 'Hi-Res Audio' despite their age and
limits. The big disappointment is Lahore
with its lackluster lossy Dolby Digital 5.1
mix that has location audio issues, lacks fidelity and sadly
undercuts the music. It also has no extras.
Extras
include booklets on (and sometimes built into) all the Blu-ray
releases here, while Planets
adds a Melvyn Bragg introduction,
Morte
and Venice
add a Cast Gallery, Venice
also adds a feature length audio commentary track from the director
and featurettes Setting
The Stage
& Telling
The Story
and Penguin adds the documentary
The
Penguin Cafe Orchestra.
-
Nicholas Sheffo
