Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Finlay, Pappano, Persson, Royal Opera House, SchrottCompiler: W.A. Mozart
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); German (Unknown); French (Unknown); Italian (Unknown); Spanish (Unknown); English (Subtitled); German (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); Italian (Subtitled)
Format: Classical, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 202 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2008-04-29
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: BBC / Opus Arte
Movie Reviews of Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro
Movie Review: A superb and illuminating production
Summary: 5 Stars
This production of Figaro restores one's faith in opera. It also illuminates the shift from the "Viennese School" of Mozart singing and production typical of the 50's and 60's, to a more modern, hard-hitting style of Mozart-as-Theatre, bypassing - thank heaven! - the prevalent ghastly school of opera-as-an-extension-of-the-producer's-ego, which has driven so many of us out of the opera house.
The old "Viennese School" cherished a style which emphasized subtle nuance and magnificently polished singing, perhaps best personified by the work of Elizabeth Schwarzkopf. Splendid recordings made a whole generation of us cherish such releases as the Giulini Figaro (and Don Giovanni) and the Mozart recordings of Karl Boehm and the early Karajan, where refined singing and polished ensemble were always the rule. The Solti Figaro, though a bit more energetic, was perhaps the last of these.
The new school, which one hopes this magnificent performance may encourage, is certainly ensemble based: the McVickars production shows the results of many hours of rehearsal and much thought. But at times, it tends to burst out of the somewhat placid, purely musical bounds of the Viennese school: recitatives are interrupted with business, or for emphasis or comic effect - they do not simply flow on. Emotional outbursts between the characters, as perhaps most notably an in-the-face confrontation between Figaro and the Count in Act Three, simply overwhelm for a moment the purely musical aspect of a given scene, always to great effect, and always for a reason rooted in the drama and illuminating the situation..
It is terrific theatre. I have never before seen a production of Figaro where the Countess' pain was so clear and aching, or where the naked brutality and dominance of the Count was so blatant. Similarly, Rinat Shaham is the most convincingly boyish Cherubino I have ever seen. Stage business clarifies, over and over, the motivations and situations of the characters, and the singers move, act, and react in a style that reminds one more of top film making than of opera. This must be seen!
A few minor quibbles: why place the action circa 1830? One guess is that eliminating all the wigs and hoopskirts and swords and knee britches may bring the action a step closer to the audience. And why, or what, is the last act supposed to represent? A conservatory? Perhaps - but if so, why the piano and formal furniture scattered about in what suddenly seems like clutter. Or is it supposed to be outside the walls of the palace? If so - again, whence the piano, etc., and the screens? These questions distract from the music, and at times seem even to puzzle the singers - Erwin Schrott seemed for a moment or two to lose the plot during this most complex and delicate of acts. But let me emphasize that the first three acts were brilliant, with the sets magnificently enhancing everything that went forward. Perhaps the fourth act went over better in the theatre: on the small screen, it was confusing. Acts one and two are performed as one, with brilliant scene transformations, as are acts three and four, most effectively.
The singing is uniformly excellent, if not quite aspiring to the highest refinements of the old Viennese school. One suspects other things - the drama - were paramount. But then that school rarely rose to these dramatic heights. Erwin Schrott has a very fine base voice, and looks and acts the part of a young, active, sexy Figaro. Miah Persson's Susanna is everything a Susanna ought to be and is always "on" in this very long role. Dorothea R?schmann sings wonderfully and her acting illuminates every emotion of the Countess - her humor, her patience, and her pain. It is magnificent acting. Gerald Finley is one of the leading singers of our day and is very fine, but - dare one say it? - more perhaps more a Figaro than a Count; he simply does not look like an aristocrat, though he sings like one. Antonio Pappano conducts with vigor, grace and clarity.
For a wonderful "Viennese School" Figaro, one need look no further than the Glyndbourne production with Gerald Finley (Figaro), Renee Fleming (Countess), and Andreas Schmidt (Count), all under the baton of Bernard Haitink. This is superb - traditional (the sets are somewhat stylized), graceful, superbly sung.
An odd thought: this Figaro is meant to be seen as a whole; I wonder if it would hold its own on purely aural terms, as a CD, well sung though it is? The Glyndbourne production certainly would - but then it needs less to be seen than to be heard, wonderful as the acting of Finley, and the minor characters, is. Different emphases in each - and both are magnificent.
Do not go to the dreadful Jacobs DVD. I enjoyed the performance hugely on SACD: passage after passage came to a new life, and it was a joy to hear young voices and such active and perceptive recitative. But the production which the DVD documents is dreadful, a discouraging example of the worst sort of ego-driven "look what I can do" production which does nothing to illuminate the drama, and is a constant distraction: ugly, cluttered, egotistical, unnecessary and irrelevant and disrespectful both to the audience and to Mozart. The Drotningholm Figaro, under ?stman, is the only disappointing production from that generally delightful and successful source.
This new DVD is one I shall return to often with gratitude and enjoyment.
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