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Opera recitals, concerts, and documentaries on DVD and blu-ray

7K views 15 replies 5 participants last post by  Almaviva 
#1 · (Edited)
I'm starting a new thread for this large category of videos that we have completely overlooked so far: those about opera or with recitals/concerts, but without complete operas.

I'll start by reviewing this PBS movie: Amato, A Love Affair With Opera, on DVD



This is a wonderful documentary about the Amato Opera Company, this quasi-amateur opera house in New York City's East Village neighborhood that operated continuously for 61 years out of a tiny brownstone, led by Tony Amato and his late wife Sally Amato (depicted on the cover).



They staged a seasonful of complete opera productions (5-6 different operas every year, each running for 10 nights) in their small theater that seats 107 people, with a 20-foot stage a tiny pit - and served as training/learning site and launching pad for many successful professional opera singers, directors, and conductors. They had a repertory of about 60 operas.

Their productions were not improvised - they had real scenarios, real props, a small ensemble (a piano, a few other instruments), rehearsals.

I was already familiar with their work by reading a book written by one of their former trainees.

The movie tells Tony Amato's life story, from his early life in Italy until he came to America at age 7, through his own singing career, to his passion for opera and decision to start his own small opera company. His wife - also a former singer - helped in several capacities - selling tickets, sewing costumes, cooking pasta for the entire troupe, doing voice teaching, being the light technician and sound engineer, etc. Tony teached, directed, conducted, played...

There are several short interviews with their singers and students (some, better known, with Met careers).

This film is from 2001. The company closed in May of 2009, due to the passing of Sally Amato and the old age of Tony Amato (he's still alive, at age 91). Two spin-off companies, however, sprouted from it: Bleecker Street Opera, and Amore Opera.

While the documentary - with a running time of 60 minutes - is a little disappointing because it doesn't show images/sounds of one of their performances (just rehearsals), it is sweet and entertaining enough.

Here you can find some pictures from one of their season brochures:

http://www.amato.org//60th.html#0

Quite amazing!
 
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#2 · (Edited)


This is a great opera highlights document...........

13 extended extracts from various Dessay video opera performances, such a great actress and exciting dynamic singer. The frustrating thing is most of the complete operas referenced here are not available for purchase, tragic situation!

Picture and sound quality are very good and the commentary is well worth turning on here as Natalie will give you some important background for each performance

Essential purchase for opera lovers, highest recommendation
 
#3 · (Edited)


Best single Callas video document..........

Combines two parts of 1958 Paris TV broadcast: a recital that includes many of her famous arias showing diversity of style and dramatic presentation......Callas is just stunning here vocally and visually, too bad the 1950s TV picture quality can't be of higher quality (Callas in HD would be dream come true)

Also has segment from Tosca Act II dealing with her scence with Scarpia (Tito Gobi) including her famous "vissi d arte" at last we get to see Callas intense performance style with her facial expressions and body movements, a revelation

Needless to say this is an essential opera document
 
#6 · (Edited)


Even if you are not a huge Sutherland fan you will be impressed with most of these 1960s TV performances, the vocal range of early Sutherland while still having clear voice will amaze.....the name La Stupenda will be self evident

You will get a little chuckle from some of the TV stage sets as them seem dated now, but do enjoy the singing

Here is a sample of TV perfomances from above DVD, Lakme "Bell Song"

 
#8 ·
If you're wondering why I've put this story in this thread, bear with me...

Before José Carreras was diagnosed with leukaemia, he had started an affair with an Austrian Airlines air hostess called Jutta Jäger and apparently had promised to leave his wife for her. When he became ill, any thought of divorce was put on hold and it was Mrs Carreras who (publicly anyway) sat at the bedside but rumour has it that Jutta visited him in Seattle when he had his bone marrow transplant.

After his quite miraculous recovery, he was busy with 'come back' concerts & the setting up of his Leukaemia Foundation etc. He still hadn't divorced his wife (allegedly too busy) & Jutta was still waiting. Eventually Jutta got so fed up of waiting she called the whole thing off. Carreras pleaded with her, started divorce proceedings but too late & she up sticks & left. He was the Spanish opera world's darling & was used to getting his own way so was shocked & furious that she wouldn't do as he wanted. She eventually married someone else.

At the start of this clip of the rehearsal of The Three Tenors 1990 concert



an aeroplane disturbs the now single Carreras & you can hear him petulantly mutter "Austrian Airlines" as if sabotaging the rehearsal was the sort of thing the now foot-loose Jutta, in her aeroplane, would do.

As it happened they met again many years later & are now happily married.
 
#9 ·
I'm starting a new thread for this large category of videos that we have completely overlooked so far: those about opera or with recitals/concerts, but without complete operas.

I'll start by reviewing this PBS movie: Amato, A Love Affair With Opera, on DVD



This is a wonderful documentary about the Amato Opera Company, this quasi-amateur opera house in New York City's East Village neighborhood that operated continuously for 61 years out of a tiny brownstone, led by Tony Amato and his late wife Sally Amato (depicted on the cover).



They staged a seasonful of complete opera productions (5-6 different operas every year, each running for 10 nights) in their small theater that seats 107 people, with a 20-foot stage a tiny pit - and served as training/learning site and launching pad for many successful professional opera singers, directors, and conductors. They had a repertory of about 60 operas.

Their productions were not improvised - they had real scenarios, real props, a small ensemble (a piano, a few other instruments), rehearsals.

I was already familiar with their work by reading a book written by one of their former trainees.

The movie tells Tony Amato's life story, from his early life in Italy until he came to America at age 7, through his own singing career, to his passion for opera and decision to start his own small opera company. His wife - also a former singer - helped in several capacities - selling tickets, sewing costumes, cooking pasta for the entire troupe, doing voice teaching, being the light technician and sound engineer, etc. Tony teached, directed, conducted, played...

There are several short interviews with their singers and students (some, better known, with Met careers).

This film is from 2001. The company closed in May of 2009, due to the passing of Sally Amato and the old age of Tony Amato (he's still alive, at age 91). Two spin-off companies, however, sprouted from it: Bleecker Street Opera, and Amore Opera.

While the documentary - with a running time of 60 minutes - is a little disappointing because it doesn't show images/sounds of one of their performances (just rehearsals), it is sweet and entertaining enough.

Here you can find some pictures from one of their season brochures:

http://www.amato.org//60th.html#0

Quite amazing!
Any names we would recognize as students?

Wonder how many other small independent opera schools/companies there are in NYC...........
Many large cities have special schools CPE (creative and performing arts), wonder if the MET has a school for singers?
 
#11 ·
Both Chicago Lyric Opera and the Met have young artists programs.
The names weren't recognizable, at least not to me. They would flash on the screen: such and such, who sang at the Met for 12 years - stuff like this. I don't recall the names.
 
#15 ·
Cecilia Bartoli: Maria on DVD



I'm watching this and is is pretty good. Cecilia shows amazing agility and is sober enough here, mostly (not always) without her usual over-the-top facial expressions. The selection is rather pleasant, with the arias paying tribute to Maria Malibran. This concert in Barcelona celebrated Malibran's 200th birthday. Running time 79 minutes, good 16:9 image, good sound with LPCM and Dolby 5.1, subtitles in several languages, with the good orchestra La Scintilla. Recommended, but not essential.
 
#16 · (Edited)
Anna Netrebko: The Woman, The Voice - on DVD



Controversial documentary. Anna, MTV mode. It's been said to death: bad lip-syncing, silly interviews, intrusive video direction with too many cuts, devaluation of her best feature (her voice).

I don't care.

We get to see her in so many different ways, so many outfits, always looking gorgeous, and bad lip-syncing or not, we get to hear her spectacular voice.

The clips:

La Bohème - She looks gorgeous and sings inside a car. Short. Not that interesting.

Faust - She is pretty, playful, girlish. It's a lot of visually stimulation and the black outfit with the mirror fragments is quite ridiculous. But her interpretation of the aria is spectacular. And we get to see lots of beautiful Anna faces.

In between this one and the next there is a long interview about the beginning of her career. She laughs a lot and looks lovely, with her sexy accent and peculiar English. Interesting part: she says one needs to be absolutely cold and focused, like with a calculating computer, on stage, otherwise the performance won't be right; the idea of getting emotional about the role, in her opinion, is totally wrong, everything needs to be very well programmed to convey well the emotion, it's all very rational, she says.

Don Giovanni - Again, spectacular looks, this woman doesn't know how to not look good. She is in the middle of some dancers dressed like trees. The takes oscillate between a red outfit and a light purple formal gown, more revealing than the read outfit. She is fab in either. I actually like this staging (one of the parts that most people criticized as Eurotrash) - it doesn't have much to do with the aria but is effective. The other women in the dancing group have transparent shirts that show their breasts except for a dot hiding the nipples. The purple gown is very flattering, she is *really* yummy in this one. The trees get to be distracting and overstay their welcome, I can see it now why people didn't like these trees very much.

Next she talks about her childhood. Looks down to Earth, a simple, nice woman.
A part I liked: "We are Russians, we need some **** in our lives; if everything is good we don't feel it's right."

La Sonnambula - Rather ridiculous outfit again. Big wig. Well, with all this going against her natural beauty, she can't help but look... gorgeous again. It's amazing how she defeats the director's attempts to make her look ridiculous. The scene is a banquet, one of the dishes is a woman's leg. Eurotrash is everywhere. The whole thing is totally preposterous, and Anna still flies above it all and actually looks the best so far since the beginning of the documentary. As a matter of fact I think I've never seen her looking this good. It's quite impressive, really. How does one continue to shine in the middle of so much crap? Bravo, Anna. And her voice in the aria is also incredible. Let's put it like this: if this clip had anyone else than Anna as the leading lady, it would be a visual disaster. With her there, it becomes a visual pleasure as long as you train your mind to look at her only.

Oh well, next interview she says if she could have a one-day fantasy, she'd be a stripper for one day. Then she says she's kidding - but I don't think she is, actually. Kind of surprising.:eek: Not that I wouldn't want to see her performance.;) I've been telling you people, we need her doing a Salome!

Anna doesn't come across in this interview as having lots of brain power. She seems rather like a simple country girl who was given fame and money and likes to have fun.

Rusalka - Here I don't like what they did to her looks, they made her into someoneho who doesn't match her style. The swimming suit is not flattering. The floating bed has preposterous colors, and the lighting makes her legs look like they are painted with tar and grease. Rather unsuccessful this one. Simultaneously we see a more steamy scene in a bathroom and shower. The aria is so gorgeous - the Song to the Moon - and the visuals are so distracting that one can't enjoy it. This is by far the worst clip of the five. For this one, the director finally accomplished what he seems to be out to do: kill her good looks. Quite ridiculous.

There's more singing during the credits. Running time so far 48 minutes.

Bonus features will add some more running time. Let's go to them.

We get her live on stage.

Fragment 1 - La Traviata, Munich 2004 - she does very well. Better than in her Salzburg one, because here she doesn't run around and sing upside down so she can focus on better singing and her voice is more agile. The image is poorly filmed, overexposed (too bright). Her outfit and hair are not flattering.

Fragment 2 - La Traviata, Vienna 2002. She looks drop dead gorgeous, a bit younger, in a beautiful gown. Less experienced singing, though (Anna has been learning, and learning fast - usually year to year you can notice her singing improving). Here she's a bit shrill. Anyway, it's refreshing to see her singing for real, no lip-syncing like in the video clips. She gets Ah Forse Lui, followed by Sempre Libera. Her acting in the second one is a bit forceful, I've seen her doing better than this (Salzburg comes to mind). So, not a very successful trailer, except for her young looks. The orchestra of the Vienna Staatsoper doesn't do a good job either.

Fragment 3 - Ruslan and Lyudmila at the Mariinsky - I own this one and she is *very* young and looks stunning, but again, the more we go back in years, the less good is the singing. But nobody can fail to be impressed with Anna in her early twenties. Gee, this woman is beautiful!!! If you guys haven't seen this staging, it is very colorful and interesting.

We get a 15-minute Making Of feature with Vincent Paterson, the director/photographer. He sounds like the idiot I suspected him to be, from his mistaken visual concepts. His explanations for his ideas are shallow. He does convey an admiration for Anna's beauty (at one point I was thinking of him as a misogynist trying to obfuscate his subject).

We do get some behind the scenes shots of Anna being playful and cute.

Oh wow, there is a really added bonus to this documentary: during the part about Faust, Anna spins around and her gorgeous legs show a lot better than during the movie itself.

The silliness continues, this idiot says his work is a bit like Fellini's. Sorry to break the news to you, Mr. Paterson, but you're most definitely no Fellini.

To top it all, this complete imbecile says that he wishes Anna will give up her opera career and become a movie star (he lives in Hollywood). No, doofus! Anna is an opera singer, and a darn good one! That's a lot more difficult and rewarding than being a movie star. WTF???

Anna's CD of the same cover picture gets a preview of each track in the continuation of the bonus features. That's a good, unexpected benefit.

Then, there's a picture gallery with 16 lovely pictures.

By now we're at 1'34" of running time.

Then there is the usual DG trailers with fragments of several of their products make the usual appearance. Fidelio, Tristan und Isolde, are some of the more extended trailers. Bryn Terfel's Amsterdam concert with the RCO is also there. Oh God, after Anna's lovely face, I certainly don't care for Bryn's!:lol: DG's catalog also gets a bonus feature.

There's a link to Anna explaining the characters that she sings in the five clips, and a link to her interviews, and to the five clips. Therefore one can divide the documentary's 48 minutes in its three components and watch them separately. I don't really see the point of this, except for maybe just watching the video clips (which then have a running time of 28 minutes).

That's it, folks.

Is it recommended? Not if you aren't in love with Anna Netrebko. It's all very silly.
But I happen to be in love with Anna Netrebko as you all know, so, yes, for me, highly recommended.
 
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