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DVD : Offenbach - Des contes d'Hoffmann (Some Tales of Hoffmann) / Nagano, Galvez-Vallejo, Dessay, Lyon Opera
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Offenbach - Des contes d'Hoffmann (Some Tales of Hoffmann) / Nagano, Galvez-Vallejo, Dessay, Lyon Opera starring: Daniel Galvez-Vallejo, José van Dam, Natalie Dessay, Barbara Hendricks, Isabelle Vernet directed by: Pierre Cavassilas Price: $159.99 Prices subject to change. |
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Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated) Binding: DVD EAN: 0014381578126 Format: Classical, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC Label: Image Entertainment Manufacturer: Image Entertainment Number Of Discs: 1 Number Of Items: 1 Picture Format: Academy Ratio Publisher: Image Entertainment Region Code: 1 Release Date: October 26, 1999 Running Time: 120 minutes Studio: Image Entertainment Theatrical Release Date: 1983 Sales Rank: 110697 Browse for similar items by category:
Editorial Review: Description: The highlight of the inaugural week of Jean Nouval's new opera house in Lyon was the premiere of "Tales of Hoffmann." Inspired by Offenbach's "Les Contes d'Hoffmann" and freely based on the performing edition by leading American musicologist Michael Kaye, this production is far removed from its familiar settings. Hoffmann--poet, musician and philosopher--finds himself trapped in some kind of infernal huis clos, surrounded by mutant incarnations of the men and women who have been instrumental in his moral and creative decline. Insanity, drunkenness or nightmare? Daniel Galvez-Vallejo, a young French tenor of Spanish descent, makes a striking impression in the title role. The four villains are portrayed by the peerless Belgian bass-baritone Jose van Dam, and the legendary Gabriel Bacquier plays Spalanzani, Crespel and Schlemil with veteran aplomb. Amazon.com: This is not quite the most controversial opera video recording of our time (that title would probably go to Valery Gergiev's 1993 Kirov production of Prokofiev's The Fiery Angel), but it is a strong contender. It has, in one package, two tendencies that give special creative tensions to opera production in our time: the musicians' imperative for fidelity to the composer's intentions, and the stage director's impulse to use the story, characters, sets, costumes, etc., as springboards for his own creative imagination. Jacques Offenbach's last opera (his only grand opera) is specially vulnerable to such tensions because he died before finishing it. Musically, some of the opera's best-loved moments (notably the bass aria "Scintille, diamant") were cobbled together (using melodic material from other Offenbach works) after Offenbach's death. This production, the first video recording based on the new, critical performing score prepared by musicologist Michael Kaye, omits those beloved, spurious numbers. They are missed, but it's hard to complain about the omission of inauthentic material. In any case, conductor Kent Nagano has assembled a superb cast that does the music full vocal justice--most notably Natalie Dessay, Gabriel Bacquier, and Jose Van Dam. While Nagano works hard to respect Offenbach's intentions, stage director Louis Erlo runs roughshod over them, so much so that at Kaye's suggestion the production's title was changed from The Tales of Hoffmann to Some Tales of Hoffmann. Offenbach's original treatment takes place in four European cities where Hoffmann fights the same implacable enemy through one doomed love affair after another. In this production, the locale shrinks to one location--a symbol-infested mental hospital. This fits the feverish, surreal atmosphere of E.T.A. Hoffmann's stories and Offenbach's imaginative musical treatment, but many patrons have found the staging offensive--as is their right. I find it often stimulating, but I would not want it to be the only Hoffmann on my shelf. --Joe McLellan Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
 Rating:  - Some prententious intellectualismThere are several reason you may want to own that DVD. First of all: Natalie Dessay. She is incredible. So much nuances and clear control of the voice! Not to mention she is adding two high G (same in the CD version) and one high high A flat (not in the CD version)without any strain. Second, the marvelous Barbara Hendricks, loveliest Antonia with a vibrato more controled than usually. Beside her high C sharp at the end of the trio which seems a bit thight to my ears, the colour of the voice is opulent. Third, the Van Dam-Bacquier duo with perfect style, "intelligence de la scène". Galvez-Vallejo is an adequate Hoffmann but not a revelation. However you have to think that it was a non stop evening which is quite a marathon ... Read More: Rating:  - Magic.....magic.....OMG.....where's the magic???You know what I hate? I hate musically challenged producers and directors who because of their lack of understanding of a masterpiece, and a penchant for robbing others of their due reward, invade the composers artistic impression just to rape it with a vile and grotesque version of their own. What we have here my fellow opera lovers is sin spewing out from the Grand Opera stage dragging some truely remarkable singers down to it's vulgar depths with it. I know what you grave robbers are thinking who gave birth to this test tube baby.....it's an esoteric work stupid.....and as such you who are unenlightened could never understand it. So we'll just sit back stroking each other. All the while an angry audience is demanding that justice be served. And ... Read More: Rating:  - Vaguely HoffmannI was relieved (it's not so bizarre, grotesque as these other reviewers say) and mildly entertained. Though the music is sublime, beautiful, this version makes even less sense than the original. And if I hadn't known the original, I would have been hopelessly lost. I was anyway. It had some effective moments, particularly the draping of the corpse of Antonia's mother over Antonia's shoulders, in fact that whole story was wonderful I thought. The story of Olympia who in this version was called a mechanical doll but was actually a girl in braces who when she first stood could barely walk was, frankly, I thought, in very poor taste. Guilietta's part made no sense at all, it doesn't in the original to me either, but particularly not in this nonsense. ... Read More: Rating:  - attn: classical fundamentalists!the classical fundamentalists are as annoying and as harmful as christian fundamentalists. why? because, like the religious fundamentalists the 'classical crowd' has become so conservative, so insistent on the 'sacred word' that they are, in affect, killing the future of artmusic. and that, is what classical music and jazz really is; artmusic. interpetation is an art within itself. the plague that was toscanini had devestating affects that we are still struggling to recover from today. and the result is that classical music is in its death throes. where are the current composers? oh, we have knussen, salonen, saaarhio making small dents, but that is all. it was less than a mere hundred years ago that ... Read More: Rating: - Interesting but it's not OffenbachIf you think that you are getting Offenbach's opera, think again. This modernistic production which seems to be set in a madhouse bears only the faintest relationship to Les Contes D'Hoffman. (Hence the title Des Contes.) If I didn't hear the music I would think I was watching a staging of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari or Marat/Sade. It remined me of a production of Rienzi I saw where everyone was clad in camoflauge? Where were the visuals to go with the grand music? And where in this version of Offenbach is the charm, the beauty, and the humor that goes with this music? Is it really doing composers a service to mask their intentions and create incongruous crap in the name of invention and eschew convention? I felt as one who sits down to dine on Beef Wellington ... Read More: |
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