Off The Bookshelf Puccini: Madama Butterfly -- 1974 film version/Von Karajan (NTSC) Search DVD

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1.Orff - Carmina Burana (Eichhorn, Munich Radio Orchestra) starring: Lucia Popp, John van Kesteren, Hermann Prey, Michel Jacot, Heino Hallhuber directed by: Jean-Pierre Ponnelle May 06, 2002
Average Rating: >>More Details		Off The Bookshelf's Price: £13.99 Prices subject to change. Used Price: £20.29
As an cinematic and operatic performance, this version of Carmina Burana can't be beat, hence the 4 stars. However as someone who sang in Carmina back in college days and who has seen it performed in concert many times, I found it a bit disconcerting for a couple of reasons. First there are the cinematographic tricks: people popping onto and off the screen, bizarre camera angles, etc etc. Even though I managed to get past that ("It's a movie" I kept telling myself) there was still the problem of the orchestra and the chorus. You never see the orchestra at all. (But then how often do you see the orchestra playing the background music in a movie?) And you don't ever really see the chorus either. (You do see a bunch of people impossibly leaping ... Read More:

2.Verdi - Rigoletto [1983] (NTSC) starring: Ingvar Wixell, Edita Gruberova, Luciano Pavarotti, Victoria Vergara, Ferruccio Furlanetto directed by: Jean-Pierre Ponnelle June 12, 2006
Average Rating: >>More Details		Off The Bookshelf's Price: £19.99 Prices subject to change. Used Price:
This is an orgy of garish colours and bad taste, which given the subject matter is perhaps not inappropriate. Certainly I think it has dated badly when compared with the less overpowering visual productions these days. Costumes and set are, in a word, lavish, and the filming does help you to follow what is going on. I thought the direction needlessly cut to close-ups of characters' faces, such as when one character is singing about another. My biggest gripe is that they missed the chance to make a truly moving ending by not having any fake blood on Edita Gruberovna (who sang brilliantly by the way, but doesn't look quite young enough for the part). So instead of enjoying the moving musical interplay between father and daughter, I was thinking ... Read More:

3.Madama Butterfly - Puccini [1974] (NTSC) starring: Mirella Freni, Plácido Domingo, Christa Ludwig, Robert Kerns, Michel Sénéchal directed by: Jean-Pierre Ponnelle May 19, 2005
Average Rating: >>More Details		List Price: £19.99 Off The Bookshelf's Price: £12.47 You Save: £7.52 (38%) Prices subject to change. Used Price: £8.00
It is the late 1800's. An American naval captain, Benjamin Franklin Pinkerton (Plácido Domingo) is stationed in Japan. As is tradition he has a girl in every port. That is except Japan. So he is matched up with a poverty stricken teen Cio-Cio-San, known as Butterfly (Mirella Freni.) Butterfly dumps her old religion (which infuriates her relatives) and clings to Pinkerton. Naturally the day will come when Pinkerton will need a proper American wife. So how does Cio-Cio react? (Puccini music at his best) At first this looks like a 60's movie with voiceover. Placido looks a little like an Italian Hercules. But as time grows on you realize that they actually did a pretty good job of staging. There are plenty of implications that are not in the ... Read More:

4.Tristan Und Isolde - Wagner/Daniel Barenboim [1983] starring: Hermann Becht, René Kollo, Hanna Schwarz, Rene Kollo directed by: Jean-Pierre Ponnelle July 16, 2007
Average Rating: >>More Details		List Price: £24.99 Off The Bookshelf's Price: £21.48 You Save: £3.51 (14%) Prices subject to change. Used Price: £116.72
After watching Acts 1 and 2, I was forming the opinion that this was the finest DVD of a Wagner opera available. The production up to the end of Act 2 is faithful to the composer's wishes, and the performances are all excellent - Kollo's voice, I think, has the perfect tone colour to express the yearning of Tristan. But there are two serious problems with Act 3: 1/ The singers are miming to what has been previously recorded. Why DG have chosen to go down this route for the final Act is beyond me - perhaps because of the difficulty of performing it. But it lends an unrealistic and unnnatural air to the performance. One of the reasons I buy opera on DVD is to see it being performed, not mimed. A singer's behaviour changes completely when he or she ... Read More:

5.Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau - Le Nozze Di Figaro - Mozart [1976] starring: Hermann Prey, Mirella Freni, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Kiri Te Kanawa, Maria Ewing directed by: Jean-Pierre Ponnelle May 09, 2005
Average Rating: >>More Details		Off The Bookshelf's Price: £24.99 Prices subject to change. Used Price: £13.45
I cannot rate this film of perhaps my favourite Mozart Opera highly enough. It has everything ... beauty, wit, charm and above all the depth of the passion is brought out through the beauty of the music so eloquently performed by the artists. The only very slight criticism I have is that Susanna looks so similar to Cherubino!!! A very minor detail. Please do choose this as your first option you really will not regret it.

6.Rossini - La Cenerentola (Abbado) [1981] starring: Frederica von Stade, Margherita Guglielmi, Laura Zannini, Paolo Montarsolo, Francisco Araiza directed by: Jean-Pierre Ponnelle October 17, 2005
Average Rating: >>More Details		Off The Bookshelf's Price: £19.99 Prices subject to change. Used Price: £24.26
This is an enjoyable performance of a lively, colourful and comical opera based on the fairy tale Cinderella - complete with ugly sisters, Dandini and so on. The American mezzo Frederica von Stade makes a fetching Cinders, and the Mexican tenor Francisco Araiza is the handsome prince. It's a La Scala production conducted by Abbado and a jolly good show. But buyers should be aware that this is a film and not a stage performance. Therefore the singers are miming and - inevitably - slightly out of synch at times. When it comes to opera on DVD, I like to hear the creak of the floorboards and feel the heat of the crowd.

7.Monteverdi: L'Orfeo [1978] (Region 1) (NTSC) starring: Francisco Araiza, Trudeliese Schmidt, Dietlinde Turban directed by: Jean-Pierre Ponnelle February 19, 2007
Average Rating: >>More Details		Off The Bookshelf's Price: £19.99 Prices subject to change. Used Price: £11.11
This is an enjoyable performance of a lively, colourful and comical opera based on the fairy tale Cinderella - complete with ugly sisters, Dandini and so on. The American mezzo Frederica von Stade makes a fetching Cinders, and the Mexican tenor Francisco Araiza is the handsome prince. It's a La Scala production conducted by Abbado and a jolly good show. But buyers should be aware that this is a film and not a stage performance. Therefore the singers are miming and - inevitably - slightly out of synch at times. When it comes to opera on DVD, I like to hear the creak of the floorboards and feel the heat of the crowd.

8.Mozart - La Clemenza Di Tito [1984] starring: Eric Tappy, Tatiana Troyanos, Carol Neblett, Anne Howells, Kurt Rydl directed by: Jean-Pierre Ponnelle March 13, 2006
Average Rating: >>More Details		Off The Bookshelf's Price: £19.99 Prices subject to change. Used Price: £8.99
Dating from 1980, this exquisitely beautiful recording of Mozart's 1791 opera seria, La Clemenza di Tito, was staged and directed by the legendary Jean-Pierre Ponnelle in a number of ancient Roman ruins: the Forum, the Baths of Caracalla and Hadrian's Villa in Tivoli. Reflecting the studied artificiality of the genre, costumes are based on court dress of the late 18th century and acting is mannered verging on melodramatic, rather than naturalistic (which I take to be a nod to Classical stage conventions and which works perfectly in this production). The plot involves political power-plays, love, vengeance and a failed assassination attempt against the Emperor (initiated by the daughter of the usurped former Caesar, Vitellia - played with magisterial ... Read More:

9.Mozart - Cosi Fan Tutte [1998] starring: Edita Gruberova, Delores Ziegler, Teresa Stratas, Ferruccio Furlanetto, Luis Lima directed by: Jean-Pierre Ponnelle April 10, 2006
Average Rating: >>More Details		Off The Bookshelf's Price: £24.99 Prices subject to change. Used Price: £17.78
I am no fan of studio-shot 'films' of operas. There is no substitute for the sound of the singers' feet on the boards, the muffled shifting of scenery in the background, the interaction (good or bad) with the audience which a live stage production provides. I approached this DVD warily, therefore, although the cast was too mouth watering to pass it up altogether. I was wonderfully surprised. It is by far the best studio opera I have yet seen, thanks in great part to the brilliant (and sadly mourned) influence of Jean-Pierre Ponnelle directing what was to be his final work. It is thanks, also, to a wonderful cast of singers, whom we now know as veterans, but then in their prime (the film was shot in 1988). Edita Gruberova (Fiordiligi) pulls ... Read More:

10.Puccini: Madama Butterfly -- 1974 film version/Von Karajan (NTSC) starring: Mirella Freni, Plácido Domingo, Christa Ludwig, Robert Kerns, Michel Sénéchal directed by: Jean-Pierre Ponnelle October 15, 2001
Average Rating: >>More Details		Used Price: £16.42
It is the late 1800's. An American naval captain, Benjamin Franklin Pinkerton (Plácido Domingo) is stationed in Japan. As is tradition he has a girl in every port. That is except Japan. So he is matched up with a poverty stricken teen Cio-Cio-San, known as Butterfly (Mirella Freni.) Butterfly dumps her old religion (which infuriates her relatives) and clings to Pinkerton. Naturally the day will come when Pinkerton will need a proper American wife. So how does Cio-Cio react? (Puccini music at his best) At first this looks like a 60's movie with voiceover. Placido looks a little like an Italian Hercules. But as time grows on you realize that they actually did a pretty good job of staging. There are plenty of implications that are not in the songs; so the ... Read More:

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