Andrea
Chenier/Girodano/Chailly
(2017/C Major)/Ariodante/Handel/Loy
(2017/Unitel)/Don
Giovanni/Mozart/Harnoncourt
(2014/Unitel)/Falstaff/Verdi/Barenboim
(2018/C Major)/Sunwook
Kim: Beethoven The Last Three Sonatas
(2021/Accentus)/Romeo
and Juliet/Prokofiev/Sorokin
(2019/Opus Arte/all Naxos Blu-rays)
Picture:
B-/B-/B-/B-/B/B- Sound: B/B/B-/B/B/B Extras: C/C/C+/C/C/C+
Main Programs: B/B/B-/B/B-/B-
Now
for our latest set of classical releases, which are interesting as
usual...
We
start with Umberto Giordano's
Andrea
Chenier
(2017) is about a poet (Yusif Eyvazov) who is a poet and finds
himself in some unexpectedly problematic positions during the French
Revolution, not fitting into the politics of the time and the Teatro
alla Scala production delivers a fine performance at 128 minutes that
gets to the point and keep sup the tension in showing the results.
A
nice addition to tales of that period, it is one of the best
programs here, thanks to a great supporting cast, conducted by the
amazing Richard Chailly and including ballet that really fills out
the presentation. It is fair to say this is an underrated work that
deserves a wider audience and this version will absolutely help that
cause.
Not
seen much, Handel's Ariodante
(2017) conducted by Gianlica Capuano and directed on the stage by
Christof Loy, twists sexual identities as the King of Scotland's
daughter Ginevra (Kathryn Lewek) falls for the title character,
thinking 'him' to be male, but instead (played well by Cecilia
Bartoli) The reason for this is about politics, power and hate, so
you can imagine this will all get complicated quickly in its long 216
minutes.
Not
that I could sit through it again, I have to say that despite some
minor issues, I cannot imagine this being much better and that the
makers (including all the actors) did this as well as expected and is
a pretty definitive take on the narrative and all of its issues. It
might not be for everyone (starting with all those hours to watch it)
and some will avoid it for reasons of discomfort, but 5that does not
stop it from being as good as it is.
Next
up is a new Don
Giovanni
from 2014 that has Nikolas Harnoncourt conducing at the Theater an
der Wien with the Arnold Schoenberg Chor as the second of three
Mozart classics he did at the time as a trilogy. It is well done and
worth of the previous editions we have covered to date, but it runs
184 minutes and that is a bit long.
However, the cast of
opera singers/actors led by Andre Schuen in the title role helps keep
it interesting, though it can be a bit more basic at times than one
might like for such a long version of the work, but if you like the
tone, you might like it more than I did. The way the music is
delivered also helps keep it going, so it is worth a look for those
interested and also in conjunction with other versions we have
covered before.
Next
is a interesting version of Verdi's Falstaff
from 2018 with Daniel Barenboim at the conductor's stand, with the
title character (Michael Volle) looking like a strange combination of
Neil Young and Van Morrison, but it is not a work all filled with
contemporary touches. Made at the Staatsoper Unter Den Linden, it
also runs very long at 142 minutes and did not always justify its
length. However, it is not bad and we have rarely seen this one and
the cast is giving it all they can.
The
dancing choreographed by Raffaella Giordano also helps keep the pace
lively, but not always enough to make it flow like any work this long
ought to. However, again, you might want to see it if you are
interested, but be sure you are in the mood for it.
In
our one live performer music presentation entry, Sunwook
Kim: Beethoven The Last Three Sonatas
(2021) has the impressive pianist perform the title work, including
No. 30 in E Major Opus 109, No. 31 in A-flat Major Opus 110 and No.
32 in C Minor Opus 111. Running a smooth 74 minutes, the length of
a CD (or SA-CD). This belongs on the same shelf with the many Lang
Lang Blu-rays we have encountered over the years and is very
impressive throughout.
Its
not easy to perform such a work and without problems or flaws, but he
knows and loves this work and it shows, which is why this disc makes
it compelling viewing and makes the man one of the best musicians in
his class around. This was a release I thought would be good, but I
was even a little more impressed than expected and hope Kim's that
only grows from here. This is a great argument for that.
Lastly,
after so many versions (plus we expect more to come) of Romeo
and Juliet
with Prokofiev music, but this time, it is a decent ballet from 2019.
Conducted nicely by Pavel Sorokin, it runs a reasonable 137 minutes,
but again, I was not always engrossed, though this is based on the
choreography by Kenneth MacMillan, but I though the results were more
hit than miss, yet a little more miss than I would have liked. Maybe
it is the characters I have seen too much, but the Royal Opera House
is still top rate and the lead performances by Matthew Ball and
Yasmine Naghdi are not bad.
The
story is as popular as ever, so this will have more immediate
audience than most ballets out there, so it is not a bad place for
new potential fans to start.
Now
for playback performance. All six discs are in 1080i 1.78 X 1
digital High Definition presentations and all have some motion blur,
but Sunwook
is the most stable and clear, whether it is from little camera
movement or it being the most recent production, though color is fine
across the board. Ariodante
and Falstaff
are both originally 4K productions, so we'll have to see how much
better they can look if they get 4K disc releases.
All
discs also offer two soundtracks: DTS-HD
MA (Master Audio) 5.1 and PCM 2.0 Stereo lossless mixes, but all
sound a little better in the 5.1 versions and are all sonically fine,
but Falstaff
is a bit off in its two mixes for some reason.
Extras
in all cases include multi-lingual booklets with tech and summary
information, while Giovanni
adds a 52 minutes long documentary looking at the conductor and
production, Romeo
adds a Cast Gallery, and three Making Of featurettes ands the rest
have trailers for other classical releases.
-
Nicholas Sheffo
