Prokofiev’s The Love For
Three Oranges/Doctor Atomic + Wonders Are
Many – The Making of Doctor Atomic (Docurama DVD)/La fille mal gardee/The
Adventures of Pinocchio + DVD (Naxos/OpusArte Blu-ray)
Picture:
B+/B Sound: B+/B Extras: C+ Main Programs:
Prokofiev’s For the Love of
Oranges B+
Doctor Atomic B-
Wonders Are Many – Making of
Doctor Atomic B
La fille mal gardee B+
The Adventures of Pinocchio B-
Having
already covered numerous titles released by Naxos via the OpusArte label, we’ve
quickly come to recognize the high level of programming as well as technical
achievements on the Blu-ray format. Here
we take a look at Prokofiev’s surreal composition The Love for Three Oranges, the controversial John Adams opera
about the invention of the atomic bomb in Doctor
Atomic, and the fantasy world of Jonathan Dove’s The Adventures of Pinocchio.
Along with this review is the Making
of Doctor Atomic in Wonders are Many, which is a DVD-only
release and the DVD edition of The
Adventures of Pinocchio.
We’ve
really enjoyed the outings thus far by OpusArte and this great trend continues
with this recent batch as well, although the results here are perhaps a bit
more mixed, which has more to do with my dislike of most English-speaking
Operas. They never quite seem to work as
well. This again is purely a preference
though.
The Adventures of Pinocchio is pretty good, but at times a
bit too much, despite a clever production, it just doesn’t work quite as well
as an Opera as some might like to think.
There are certain things that are left better in their original
design. I would even think that a play
would even translate better, but the 213-minute production wears thin after
awhile and can’t course correct fast enough or charm long enough and is only
recommended for patient and passionate Opera fans. Victoria Simmonds does a wonderful job of
portraying the wooden boy come to life as does Jonathan Summers are Geppetto
and are the real highlight of the entire production. Extras include some production material that
take a look from the views of the composer, stage director, and conductor, the
performance is recorded from the Opera North with Sadler’s Wells Theater using
the Orchestra and Chorus of Opera North under David Parry’s conducting.
The Love for Three Oranges is a solid performance of
Prokofiev’s stylish and creative comedic Opera using the French libretto from
its 1921 premiere and using the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra along with the
Chorus of De Nederlandse Opera and runs just over 2-hours on this 50GB Blu-ray
disc. Musically the work is phenomenal
here and ranks as some of Prokofiev’s best work, however the premiere of this
piece was never fully well-received and even years later this production comes across
rather stale at times, the visuals never seem to fully line up with the
orchestral movements and the results can be highly mixed, it is perhaps fair to
say that the four acts and prologue are a bit uneven and the fascination that
Prokofiev had for the abstract did not translate well enough to make this one
of this most recognized pieces, regardless of how well this particular
production is.
Doctor Atomic is predominately an
English-speaking Opera by John Adams and portrays the work of J. Robert
Oppenheimer and his team of scientists as they work on the construction of the
first Atomic bomb. The material here is
clearly more controversial and even risky at times and this is explored even
further in the terrific documentary Wonders
are Many, which is the making of the opera and is released through Docurama
films. This is an obvious companion
piece that really helps form the foundations for the Opera and examines with
more depth the footage from the earlier blasts and pieces them together with
various accounts of performers and physicist to create a fascinating story that
will greatly enhance the viewing experience of Doctor Atomic.
La fille mal gardee is the only ballet of the bunch
and is a truly fantastic work recorded from the Royal Opera House as
Frederick’s Ashton’s masterwork comes to life and tells the tale of the
countryside two young lovers must attempt to foil the plans of a Widow to marry
off her daughter to the son of a wealthy farmer. This is not your typical flowing and graceful
ballet, but rather a more raw expression that even features a famous clog dance
and is a more organic expression of countryside living that is crafted together
in splendid fashion for this 2005 production.
While the
productions here for Blu-ray are all displayed in 1080i High Definition widescreen
framed at 1.78 X1, the quality is fairly consistent from title to title in the
picture quality department. The Adventures of Pinocchio seems a tad
softer at times than the other titles, colors are a bit more lush and vibrant
on The Love for Three Oranges, and
the overall balance of contrast and definition is quite sharp and nicely
detailed on the five Blu-ray titles.
However, audio is a bit different as we have several options to choose
from. The Love for Three Oranges and
La fille mal gardee are presented
with PCM tracks in 5.1 and 2.0 configurations. The mixes feel more natural and
perhaps even a bit more forward heavy, but are packed full of detail, warmth,
and beauty. The Adventures of Pinocchio
and Doctor Atomic are available in
Dolby Digital TrueHD 5.1 mixes and also contain Dolby Digital TrueHD 2.0 mixes
as well, they do not fair nearly as well as the other options on the other
titles and it seems like the overall level of sound is somewhat muted when
compared, these mixes are far more subtle and less engaging, which we can only
hope more titles come with DTS-HD mixes as they feel more like high resolution
mixes rather than just boosted standard resolution mixes.
All in
all we are highly pleased with the vastness of the OpusArte collection of work
and their dedication to releasing some of the best titles to the format with
high technical merits and excellent productions offering what no other company
in the market is right now and at a superb pace to get their catalogue into the
hands of deserving fans.
- Nate Goss
