Mozart - Idomeneo
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DVD Cover Information Actor: Anja Harteros, Ekaterina Siurina, Jeffrey Francis, Magdalena Kozena, Ramon Vargas Director: Roger Norrington Brand: Universal Studios DVD: Region Code 0 Audio: English (Unknown); German (Subtitled); English (Subtitled); Italian (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language); Italian (Published), DTS 5.1 Format: AC-3, Classical, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC Picture Format: 1.78:1 Running Time: 165 minutes DVD Release Date: 2007-02-13 Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated) Studio: Decca |
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Movie Reviews of Mozart - Idomeneo
Movie Review: Gods and Monsters
Summary: 3 Stars
For the best part of an hour, things are not going well. Is it due to the acoustics of the House for Mozart, too huge for its own good? Or the staging, extremely difficult to manage when you are a singer: a very deep stage split in two, with the fist part of it occupied by a big whole...where the orchestra pit plays? In any case, Kozena and Siurina do their job professionally, but nothing more. Ramon Vargas walks his huge body around with little motivation and Sir Roger Norrington imposes a solid routine into this bizarre pit, forcing him to turn around to search for his singers, sometimes behind him, sometimes on the side, sometimes nowhere at all.
But then at the beginning of Act II, Jeffrey Francis, who sings Arbace, delivers a magnificent "Se cola ne' fatti e scritto", and gives a much-needed wake-up call to the party. Ekaterina Siurina displays her superb high notes in "Se il Padre perdei", Vargas brings the house down with "Fuor del Mar", showing the amazing range and strength of his instrument, Magdalena Kozena finds beautiful accents for the ensuing trio (#16: "Pria di partir, oh Dio!"), while Anja Harteros uses her very impressive voice to great effect in the last aria of the opera. Only Sir Roger will remain on the safe side until the end but then considering how the pit is placed, it's a miracle he manages to conduct at all...
The staging of Ursel and Karl-Ernst Herrmann is VERY impressive. The two-part stage is really huge and gives an impression of grandeur. Both stages are separated by a moving wall, which gives beautiful light effects depending on where and how it is lifted or brought down. The mise-en-scene has modern tones but remains loyal to the score and to the libretto all the way: When Mozart and his librettist Varesco say "thunder and lightning", the Herrmanns provide (successfully!) thunder and lightning. The God Neptune is always at the centre of the proceedings (as he should be) and the interaction between characters is generally successful. The stage directors do not try to reinvent the wheel but their pictorial interpretation is innovative and interesting.
How come we are not more enthusiastic then? Bar the fact that the performance takes an awfully long time to take off, and that the stage design (despite being beautiful) is penalising for the music, it is true that this "Idomeneo" lacks the feeling of "team-work" that many other offerings in this M22 collection have. Is it because we have now reached the stage of the last seven operas and that the addition of maybe bigger names and bigger egos make it more difficult for singers, conductors and designers to "jell" together? Is it because it is more difficult for stage designers to reinvent famous pieces that have already been worked to death? In any case, we know that the public and the critics alike have very enthusiastically received this production. I hope I will be forgiven for not quite sharing this enthusiasm, even if there are many qualities in this "Idomeneo".