Monteverdi - L'Orfeo
by Jean-Pierre Ponnelle
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Dietlinde Turban, Francisco Araiza, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Philippe Huttenlocher, Trudeliese SchmidtDirector: Jean-Pierre Ponnelle
DVD: Region Code 0
Audio: Italian (Original Language), DTS 5.1; Chinese (Subtitled); English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); German (Subtitled); Italian (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); Italian (Published), DTS 5.1
Format: Classical, Full Screen, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 102 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-03-13
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Deutsche Grammophon
Movie Reviews of Monteverdi - L'Orfeo
Movie Review: Opulent, Raggedy, Outdated
Summary: 3 Stars
When it was staged in 1975, Harnoncourt & Ponelle's production of Monteverdi's 1607 opera L'Orfeo was a revolutionary triumph of the "Early Music" movement, the harbinger of massive changes in the whole environment of classical music that have blessedly occurred since. I wasn't there for opening night, but I heard of the event and applauded vigorously. Nikolaus Harnoncourt has the stature of an Apostle in my musical pantheon. That said, it's painful to confess that I find the current re-released film of that production extremely hard to watch and hear. In comparison to the musically sublime performance by Tragicomedia, also on DVD, this costume-heavy staging seems melodramatic, busy, and incoherent in affect. The orchestra is raggedy in tuning and balance. The singing is uneven. The cinematographic is obtrusive. Judged by current standards, it's a three-star costly failure, and that's how I've reluctantly rated it.
First, the orchestra. Do I have to point out that the Baroque trumpets, cornetti, and recorders are not played at a standard comparable to normal orchestral instruments? That accusation was thrust in our faces - we who worked hard on resuscitating those instruments - often enough to make it painful to acknowledge that it was true. but even in 1975, there were recorderists and cornettists who could have given better accounts of their instruments than those in Harnoncourt's 'Monteverdi-Ensemble'. All the winds are prominent, and prominently out -of-tune. The rest of the orchestra sounds semi-pro at best by the standards of historical playing in 2008.
Then, the chorus. Huh? All those grandees in the balcony, singing lustily like aspirants to the Robert Shaw Chorale? L'Orfeo was essentially a chamber work, performed in a sala in Mantua, an expansion really of the madrigal form and intrinsically INTIMATE! It doesn't work well musically to treat it as halfway to Wagner.
And the soloists. Honestly, the shepherds steal the show. Those tenors have beautiful Italianate voices, and have at least teh rudiments of 'historically informed' vocal technique. The shepherds' duets are some of the most elegant music in L'Orfeo; the ensemble isn't exactly tight, but the sound is pleasurable. Mantuans, I assure you, were keen on pleasure. Trudeliese Schmidt is tuneful, if not expressive, as La Musica and La Speranza. Basso Hans Franzen is plenty profundo as Charonte, despite his over-the-top costume. The most serious problem is Orfeo, sung by Philippe Huttenlocher. Orfeo sings roughly half the music of the opera, and his emotions are what the whole thing is about. Huttenlocher first portrays Orfeo as a kind of jolly lout, straight from Die Meistersinger. He hams and grimaces distractingly. His voice is adequate and he has the notes, but he makes the trills and other embellishments sound dreadfully labored. Later, in Hades, he cranks up the embellishments way past his ability to sing them beautifully; it's the beauty of his singing that's supposed to drive the plot, after all.
Furthermore, the staging. Busy, busy, busy! So much going on in the background. So many visual distractions. How could Ponelle have imagined that people could concentrate on the music? And all the busy-ness is compounded to the Nth by the cinematography, which is as jumpy as a Police Academy film on TV with commercials. Camerawork on steroids! L'Orfeo is a tragedy, a work of "gravitas" and elegance, not a piece of Renaissance Faire burlesque.
Last, the interpretation. Is there one? Harnoncourt was certainly exploring the possibilities, and he can't be totally scorned for making some inchoate choices. The entrance of the Nymph who announces Eurydice's death, for instance, and the laments of the shepherds in both acts are musical catastrophes, blaring overstatements. Why, by the way, is that Nymph dressed as Sarah Palin without her glasses? She was Eurydice's bosom friend and companion, not a witch! The key word for any interpretation of Monteverdi and his contemporaries is AFFECT, and Harnoncourt never settles on a plausible, consistent affect for the music.
The bottom line is that this performance is outdated.
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