Mozart - Le Nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro)
by Jean-Pierre Ponnelle, Karl Bohm
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Product details
Actor: Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Hermann Prey, Kiri Te Kanawa, Maria Ewing, Mirella FreniDirector: Jean-Pierre Ponnelle, Karl Bohm
Edition: VHS Tape
Audio: Italian (Original Language), Analog; Italian (Published), Analog; English (Published)
Format: Classical, Color, NTSC, Subtitled
Running Time: 181 minutes
Release Date: 1991-10-22
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Publisher: Polygram Video
Studio: Polygram Video
VHS Movie Reviews of Mozart - Le Nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro)
Movie Review: Image in Contrast With Mozart's Music
Summary: 4 Stars
A strange mix of beautifully performed music and a director's view trying to create a burlesque atmosphere where it does not belong. Conducted by the great classicist conductor and Mozart specialist Karl Bohm and sung by an excellent cast (with some pluses and minuses, of course), this production is worth collecting if you are willing to ignore some of the director's visualizing solutions.
Leading the cast is Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, as always bringing a very nuanced and sophisticated interpretation of the Almaviva role, the likes of which you will not find with others. Every word is emphasized differently, he uses various voice colors and effects to accent the intricacies of Mozart's music. One example is how he darkens "felice un servo mio," ([to see] one of my servants happy [while I sigh with pain]). Note that he is also a very great performer of German Lieder, having been heard to sing with several voices in the same song. Well, the level of the singers' intelligence is evident in the way they use the potential of an effect or, on the contrary, they ignore it -- writes German author Thomas Mann in Der Zauberberg (The Magic Mountain, Chapter VII).
It is impossible in this limited space to discuss everybody in detail. Mirela Freni sings an exceptional Susanna, but Kiri Te Kanawa as the Countess is too light and sometimes lightens her sounds even further, probably opening her mouth in a horizontal position.
The director made huge efforts to mar Mozart's work and suggest just how "creative" he is: the makeup tried to make Freni ugly (luckily, this effort was not successful); Marcellina's makeup is too heavy, some characters wear exaggerated wigs, and often they are made to move too fast, like puppets, sometimes even grimacing, in a rhythm different from the score. All this does not serve the music, and, which is worse, distracts the viewer. Neither the play by Beaumarchais, which is a study in a social "chaos" that precedes the restoration of the acceptable erotic order at the end, nor Mozart's opera, which includes a streak of anguish, are circus shows. But, there is worse in this world: at least, this director did not put the action on a UFO with Predator fighting ET over Susanna!
So, five stars for the performed music and three for the visual effects: average four.
Movie Review: better than I could ever have hoped
Summary: 5 Stars
I am not a great opera fan, but I love Mozart and really wanted to hear the whole Marriage of Figaro beyond the too-familiar overture. I read the reviews on this one and it seemed more like a movie than a Brunhilda endurathon. BOY DID I FIND A GOOD ONE! If ratings had six stars I would give this seven. You will LOVE this performance. Excellent choreography, cinematography, casting, acting, singing, scenery. The english subtitles were easy to read and unobtrusive. The case comes with a summary of the storyline, scene-by-scene, which is good for knowing what the story is about beforehand. Even my 16-year old daughter and wife (who said that up to now she hated opera) both loved it. We are now all fans of Ponnelle. Wonderful!Movie Review: Mozart-Le Nozze Di Figaro DVD
Summary: 5 Stars
I love this DVD with an all star cast including two of my favorite baritones,Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Hermann Prey. It is a fun filled opera.Movie Review: A gift to the eyes, earls and soul.
Summary: 5 Stars
Well, a Mozart in Video. So soft, so funny, so sweet. That is what I was looking for since a long time ago. Finally I got it and in this DVD.
Ponelle is a genius, is a mozartean as well, unfortunately he passed away before doing the Don Giovanni. What about the Idomeneo? Let's not talk about this.
This DVD has an amazing interpretation of this Opera. It's very funny. The music, conducted by Bohm is lucid and clear. What winds this orchestra has! The "Porgi Amor", with Te Kanawa singing is just about to take you to the Heaven.
It takes place in a beautiful scenario. Nice costumes and good number of scenes and takes.
Ponelle likes the closes and so do I. The playback is helpful in order to avoid the ugly expressions of some singers when reaching too high or low notes. However, sometimes you see a lack of synchrony, but nothing really ugly.
There is only one drawback in this recording. The frame freezing in the moment that Marcelina says to Susanna that she is Figaro's Mom. I didn't like it.
On the rest, the film is really dynamic.
The best part is, for me, the Frey's interpretation of the recitative and aria "Madre. Madre, son morto./Aprite un pu? quegli ochi." He did a great job here. Putting the heart in the music and doesn't loosing the humor.
Cherubino is a very nice character and is doing fine here. The susanna is gorgeous in his mood. The "Conte" is a rascal very well done by Dieskau. "La contessa" rules. Marcelina and Bartolo are really funny. So is Basilio.
After the last coda you will stay in your seat, thinking. "This cannot finish, this should last forever".
If you are looking for a really dynamic and funny Figaro, with amazing singers , amazing conductor and nice orchestra and, in addition, with great scene play and gorgeous acting. Buy this DVD.
Movie Review: Great singing, good conducting, excessive production
Summary: 3 Stars
The cast, scenery, and costumes are great, and the conducting is very good though often on the slow side. The sound track would make a fairly competitive CD. But this is a movie; the filming was done months after the recording. And the movie is overdone, with one especially annoying visual effect: singers' mouths not moving when they are supposed to be thinking. I much prefer videos of live performances to movies with lip synching (except for the superb Rattle/Glyndebourne Porgy). The next time I get a Figaro craving I'll probably listen to one of my CD versions (Kleiber, Levine, or Solti).
Summary of Mozart - Le Nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro)
Mozart's Marriage of Figaro is a comedy whose dark undertones explore the blurred boundaries between dying feudalism and emerging Enlightenment. Among dozens of fine Figaros on CD and DVD, few are as finely sung as this one, filmed in 1976 to a soundtrack recorded the previous year.Herman Prey's Figaro is admirably sung in a firm baritone and aptly characterized. So too, is his antagonist, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau as the Count perpetually frustrated by the scheming wiles of Figaro and Susanna, here the perky Mirella Freni, who sings and acts like a dream. The Countess is creamy-voiced Kiri Te Kanawa, and the Cherubino, Maria Ewing, looks just like the horny, teenaged page she's supposed to be. The all-star leads are complemented by worthy supporting singers, the Vienna Philharmonic at the top of its form, and the experienced Mozartian, Karl B?hm conducting a stylishly fleet performance.
The problematic visuals though, don't match the musical attributes of this Figaro. Director Jean-Pierre Ponnelle says film techniques of editing and special effects permit added musical and interpretive components. So we get nervously irrelevant camera movements, distorted close-ups, jump-cuts that place singers in impossible places during arias, and--most distracting of all--arias on the soundtrack while the "singer" stares close-mouthed at walls, ceilings, and furnishings. Try Te Kanawa's beautifully sung "Porgi amor" to see how this distracting technique subverts the music, rather than "complementing" it. Of course, this may not bother many but others will prefer to listen to the glorious soundtrack and give Ponnelle's directorial hubris a pass. --Dan Davis
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