There are some DVDs that I really regret having purchased
Who needs a lacklustre badly-lit entirely predictable indifferently-sung version when you already have Ruggero Raimondi in a feathered hat striding round beautiful Palladian Villas in the Veneto, Simon Keenlyside shinning up walls and baring his chest, Bryn Terfel working his magic with nothing but an apple, and Thomas Hampson and his mysterious underwear models (nearly a mistake but at least not boring)?
Fine if you want to spend hours listening to a series of totally undistinguished ten minute da capo arias, bewildered by the story and watching a staging that reminds you so much of the snow queen's cave you have to get a warm rug to stop from chilling down too much. I've tried to watch it twice and each time lasted two hours before giving up. I think I'm an exception here though, judging from the Amazon reviews which were what made me buy it in the first place.
Karajan knows a lot less about directing than conducting, and this is obviously under-rehearsed. And they take curtain calls after EVERY SCENE! How are you supposed to suspend disbelief or keep track of what is going on in an already overburdened plot?
I've already banged on about this appalling production on other threads. If you must have it, put a blindfold on and listen to the wonderful singing. Or get a CD.
What was the set designer thinking of? The dining room of a Bournemouth boarding house has nothing to do with Alcina's magic island. I can almost smell the over-boiled cabbage. And several of the singers are so bad I remember having to fast-forward through their arias. Alice Coote is the only bright spot in this.
Who needs a lacklustre badly-lit entirely predictable indifferently-sung version when you already have Ruggero Raimondi in a feathered hat striding round beautiful Palladian Villas in the Veneto, Simon Keenlyside shinning up walls and baring his chest, Bryn Terfel working his magic with nothing but an apple, and Thomas Hampson and his mysterious underwear models (nearly a mistake but at least not boring)?
Fine if you want to spend hours listening to a series of totally undistinguished ten minute da capo arias, bewildered by the story and watching a staging that reminds you so much of the snow queen's cave you have to get a warm rug to stop from chilling down too much. I've tried to watch it twice and each time lasted two hours before giving up. I think I'm an exception here though, judging from the Amazon reviews which were what made me buy it in the first place.
Karajan knows a lot less about directing than conducting, and this is obviously under-rehearsed. And they take curtain calls after EVERY SCENE! How are you supposed to suspend disbelief or keep track of what is going on in an already overburdened plot?
I've already banged on about this appalling production on other threads. If you must have it, put a blindfold on and listen to the wonderful singing. Or get a CD.
What was the set designer thinking of? The dining room of a Bournemouth boarding house has nothing to do with Alcina's magic island. I can almost smell the over-boiled cabbage. And several of the singers are so bad I remember having to fast-forward through their arias. Alice Coote is the only bright spot in this.