Glinka: Ruslan and Lyudmila on DVD
1995(LI) - Valery Gergiev - Kirov Opera Orchestra, Chorus and Ballet - St. Petersburg (the Mariinsky), in association with San Francisco Opera
This is a Philips Classics release, with excellent technical quality:
Video aspect 16:9 Anamorphic
Sound tracks Linear PCM stereo, DTS 5.1
Optional subtitles in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, and Chinese
Region Free
2 DVDs, the first one with acts 1, 2, and 3, and the second one with acts 4 and 5, and two documentaries: a 18' interview with maestro Gergiev about the opera, and a 59' documentary on Gergiev's life and career (very good, I had seen it on TV already).
The insert has a detailed synopsis track by track, and very good essays about Glinka and the opera, a different one for each of three languages: English, French, and German. I don't speak German, but the English and the French one were both very interesting and provided a wealth of information on the composer, the source material, the making of the opera (including the unusual fact that the music was composed before the libretto was written), the première, including detailed musical analysis of the various numbers down to their styles, influences, rhythm, structure, tonal characteristics, etc., with references to the DVD chapters that contain the numbers they are talking about.
An excellent job from Philips Classics, and an example to be followed by other recording companies. This is a flawless product, with everything that needs to be included in a proper opera DVD.
Mikhail Glinka (1804-1857)
Ruslan and Lyudmila - Magic opera in five acts
Libretto by Valerian Shirkov after Alexander Pushkin
The all-Russian cast includes:
Svetosar: Mikhail Kit
Lyudmila:
Anna Netrebko La Bellisma, at age 23!!!
Ruslan: Vladimir Ognovenko
Ratmir: Larissa Diadkova
Farlaf: Gennady Bezzubenkov
Gorislava: Galina Gorchakova
Finn: Konstantin Pluzhnikov
Naina: Irina Bogachova
Bayan: Yuri Marusin
Video direction is by Hans Hulcher.
The staging directed by Lofti Mansouri is lavish, luxurious, and very traditional - actually, they made an attempt to reproduce as closely as possible the way the opera was staged in its premiere on 11-27-1842, which also explains the park-and-bark, stock acting. Since the original scenarios were lost, they used sketches and paintings they had from a 1910 production, with a few additional sketches from the 1860's that also survived.
Maestro Gergiev in his interview had lots of good things to say about Anna, which made my day already!
Galina Gorchakova is quite good-looking too.
OK, so, now, the production.
I haven't watched it yet, folks... I'll continue this review later, by editing this post. In spite of some negative earlier reviews (especially the one by Dark Angel) I'm quite excited. See you soon.
Edit 1
First impressions: Spectacular overture (it is quite famous as an isolated concert piece). Beautiful costumes. Anna looks stunning... but doesn't sing as well as our current Anna - it seems like she learned a lot over the years. I better enjoy Anna while she's on stage because she spends most of the opera kidnapped and in a coma. But we do get an eyeful of young Anna with her beautiful face (under tones of clothes and a wig).
In terms of pace and musicality, one can tell that this thing with a running time of 210 minutes will be more boring than I had anticipated (maybe Dark Angel is right after all).
I'm less enthusiastic about the technical quality. Sound balance is a problem. The chorus and the orchestra are too loud, and the singers not loud enough. Oh well. Nothing is perfect.
Edit 2
Middle of third act. I like it. No Anna to be seen, of course, since the first act when she got kidnapped and was put in a coma under a magic spell. She will only wake up in the final scene of the fifth act, darn!
The production remains very beautiful, great costumes, lighting, scenarios, everything looks gorgeous. There is some occasional eye candy besides Anna - the ballerinas from the Kirov Ballet are cute, and so is Galina Gorchakova in the small role of Gorislava.
A word about the singing: the bard Bayan has a weird high pitch in his tenor, quite unpleasant. The trouser role of Ratmir is well sung by Larissa Diadkova. Finn the sorcerer gets the best singer - bass Konstantin Pluzhnikov, who gets some beautiful arias. Vladimir Ognovenko as Ruslan is good but not great. Anna like I said sings rather poorly at the start of her career.
This opera is actually musically interesting and I'm not finding it as boring as many say, more thanks to the music than to the plot. Yes, the pace is slow. Yes, there isn't much happening dramatically speaking. But the enormous variety of genres and styles that Glinka crammed together makes it appealing.
I'm currently watching the third act ballet, quite conventional (both musically and in terms of choreography) but it is made more interesting by all these great looking Russian young women
in beautiful (although not revealing) costumes.
Edit 3
Watching 4th act. Oh boy, 3rd act was loooong (thanks in part to the endless ballet). But unlike I had thought, act IV opens with Anna awake and singing (still not very well, and still looking great).
She gets a long and beautiful aria,
Vdali ot milogo. This is the best part of the DVD so far. Very difficult to sing, and she does better than before.
By the way, the sound balance problem is probably due to microphone placement. Sometimes we can hear the singers very well (like now), some others they get drowned by the orchestra and especially the loud chorus.
About acting - Anna is actually, at this young age, already the best actress in this production. She is natural and cute in her acting, and moves more on stage than anybody else, while others are quite stiff.
We get to the visually stunning scene of Chernomor's March. The Oriental Dances (Turkish, and Arabian) are next. Gee, how did they get to have so many beautiful costumes, props, and scenarios? Poor Anna is in coma again.
Oh good, the sorcerer woke her up. The Turkish dance has started and the music is very beautiful. Nice dances. Oh well, Anna is in coma again. Beautiful mourning aria from Ruslan. He takes her and heads off to Kiev. Nest, the 5th and last act.
Edit 4
Act 5 is under way, it opens with a fabulous romanza called
Ona mne zizn', ona mne radost! - one of the best numbers of the opera, sung by Ratmir. Poor Lyudmila gets kinapped again! Wéll, I don't blame them, I'd like to kidnap Anna Netrebko as well... somehow I remember Almodóvar's movie
Atame!
OK, I got to the last scene, the long (19') finale. It's about time, it's 1 AM and I'm sleepy.
All right, La Belissima is awake again, and all rejoyce. Curtain.
Verdict - mixed. Dramatically weak, overlong, would need some cuts, very long ballet. On the other hand, there are many beautiful moments, the music is varied, the orchestration is sublime (overture, intermezzi, choral music...). The production is very visually striking. The documentaries are good. And then, there is young Anna. I'll say recommended.