Donizetti - Maria Stuarda
by Petr Weigl
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Huguette Tourangeau, Joan Sutherland, Kamila Magálová, Luciano Pavarotti, Milan KnazkoDirector: Petr Weigl
Writer: Friedrich Schiller
Writer: Giuseppe Bardari
DVD: Region Code 0
Audio: English (Subtitled); Italian (Original Language), PCM Stereo
Format: Classical, Color, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 90 minutes
DVD Release Date: 1999-09-07
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Image Entertainment
Movie Reviews of Donizetti - Maria Stuarda
Movie Review: Avant Garde Opera Film: The Power Of Drama
Summary: 5 Stars
The masterful conductor Richard Bonynge served as a creative force behind this unconventional opera-drama-film made in the late 80's. It features the voices of Joan Sutherland and Tourangeau, two worthy dramatic sopranos, dubbing for two German-speaking actresses. It uses many of the lines from the original Schiller play that Donizetti's opera was drawn from. This particular opera may not be suited to everyone's tastes. On the one hand, you get superb drama with actors and actresses in historically accurate Elizabethan costume and deliviring fiery drama in what seems to be England or some European location, complete with authentic castles. But on the downside, the jumping back and forth between spoken play and sung opera arias can be dissatisfying. If you want to get just the opera look for a rare 2000 performance from Italy starring obscure singers. If you want to get this, buy it merely for a specialized interest in this particular type of project. This is at heart an opera film. Bonynge's attempt to establish the same type of genre that Zefferelli did with his La Traviata or Rosi with Carmen. Joan Sutherland has sung Maria Stuarda several times in her career. She, along with Beverly Sills, have popularized the role when it was becoming neglected Donizetti repertoire. Tourangeau is a fellow Australian soprano with a heavy, dramatic voice that is befitting of the regial, imperious and jealous Queen Elizabeth so often stereotyped by romanticism and films such as Bette Davis' portrayal and Flora Robson. The story is inaccurate but sensational. Mary Queen of Scots, the Catholic queen and political rival to Queen Elizabeth. She is also a romantic rival, since in the opera Leicester, the Earl that Elizabeth adores, is clearly in love with the doomed Mary. After being charged with treason and after a dramatic confrontation in Fotheringay (in which base insults are exchanged) Queen Elizabeth orders the execution and beheading of Mary. She goes to her death but not before such moving scenes as her Confession and Prayer with rousing chorus. This is a terrific film, almost the opera equivalent to a little known early 70's film Mary Queen Of Scots. Enjoy dramatic opera and spoken drama and film at its most united harmony.
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