Hindemith - Cardillac
by Wolfgang Sawallisch, Jean-Pierre Ponnelle
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Donald McIntyre, Hans Gunter Nocker, Maria de Francesca-Cavazza, Robert SchunkDirector: Jean-Pierre Ponnelle, Wolfgang Sawallisch
Brand: Universal Studios
DVD: Region Code 0
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled); German (Original Language), DTS 5.1; English (Original Language); French (Original Language); Spanish (Original Language)
Format: Classical, Digital Sound, DTS Surround Sound, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 89 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-08-14
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Deutsche Grammophon
Movie Reviews of Hindemith - Cardillac
Movie Review: An expressionistic feast
Summary: 5 Stars
I have to admit, I'm not a big fan of what is generally considered modern avant-garde music, often I find it to be more formulaic and predictable than the traditional music it seeks to upend. For instance, how many so-called avant-garde pieces remind one of one long continuous wail, occasionally punctuated with outbursts of brass and percussion just to maintain the listener's attention? So much of contemporary music attempts to plumb the depths of despair, but in my opinion it sounds more like some well-adjusted academic's naive, overly intellectualized hypothesis of what real despair feels like, and as a result any chance for a genuinely emotional experience is blunted.
Cardillac isn't like that. This is early twentieth century fin de sicle music, full of vigor and decadence and warped beauty, dark but also thrillingly alive. Any music lover who doesn't have a problem with early Richard Strauss, or Berg, or Stravinsky, or for that matter Shostakovich or Prokofiev, in other words any of the more romantically inclined of the European groundbreakers from the first half of the last century, should find much to savor here. Hindemith was considered something of a radical in his day, but I was surprised by the accessibility of the music, the wealth of melody, how it manages to be edgy without being off-putting(a lost art these days). This music breathes!
Speaking of accessibility, I found some nods to more popular operas in the music. For instance, several of the solos(I hesitate to label them arias) display a Mozartean structure and feel(but with none of Mozart's gentility of course), and the scene that takes place inside Cardillac's workshop even contains a quote from La Traviata, a recurring motif that sounds identical to Violetta's death knell. This might be a coincidence, but it does give the more traditional listener reference points within this challenging work, making it that much more entertaining to listen to.
Jean-Pierre Ponnelle's production for the Munich opera house is appropriately expressionistic, with angular sets, both interior and exterior, grotesque costumes, and a shortage of coruscating lighting effects. The staging is as mobile as Hindemith's music, flitting from scene to scene with nary a blip(at least that's the effect on video, there might have been set changes that were cut), with plenty of onstage action, almost constant movement, creating a cinematic impact that enhances the drama, the music, everything. Cardillac is a short enough opera as it is, but Ponnelle's attention-grabbing style makes it all the more swift and involving.
I wasn't familiar with any of the singers other than Donald McIntyre, the great Wagnerian and Straussian baritone, as the homicidal jeweler Cardillac, but really, all of the performances are top notch. In fact, I was a little disappointed that the two lovers(decked out in garish fin de sicle wardrobes) who disappear after the second scene, once the lothario in this scenario is violently dispatched in a wonderfully staged moment, weren't brought back for any curtain calls. Cardillac, as much as any opera I have seen, even Boris Godunov, is a group effort, and every performer is vital to its success. Wolfgang Sawallisch leads the orchestra in a loud, brash reading that is both lively and mercurial, like the score.
Cardillac is an odd opera in that the protagonist is a mass murderer, yet his death at the end is mourned. Hindemith was likely making a point about artists and the creative process, that the making of art, real art that is, is such a gut-wrenching process that it makes handing over the results to less appreciative minds unthinkable. Cardillac feels that the products of his craftmanship belong with him and him alone, rather than a public who is likely to desire it for less high-minded purposes(one customer buys an attractive chain just to bed a local beauty and sure enough dies for it).
No such worries here. The enthusiastic response of the Munich audience proves that Hindemith's art, especailly when it is abetted by such a satisfying production, is capable of being appreciated, and for all the right reasons.
Summary of Hindemith - Cardillac
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