Puccini - Il Tabarro / Leoncavallo - I Pagliacci / Stratas, Domingo, Pavarotti, Pons, Quivar, Croft, Levine, Metropolitan Opera
by Brian Large
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Dwayne Croft, Elijah Chester, Juan Pons, Luciano Pavarotti, Teresa StratasDirector: Brian Large
Brand: Universal Studios
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); Italian (Subtitled); English (Subtitled); German (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language)
Format: AC-3, Classical, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 140 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-10-11
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Deutsche Grammophon
Movie Reviews of Puccini - Il Tabarro / Leoncavallo - I Pagliacci / Stratas, Domingo, Pavarotti, Pons, Quivar, Croft, Levine, Metropolitan Opera
Movie Review: This isn't rocket science, look at the cast, you want this!
Summary: 5 Stars
In what has to be considered an inspired pairing, the Met opened its 1994 season with this double bill, recorded here for posterity. Il Tabarro and Pagliacci, though by different composers, belong together, since both are relatively short verismo tragedies, both feature indigent and tawdry characters, and both deal with infidelity and murder.
The evening starts with Puccini's Il Tabarro, the more low key outing of the two. It's typical of Puccini to be less interested in telling a complex story and more interested in creating a convincing sense of atmosphere, of place, and of eliciting strong emotions, all through his wonderful music, and he succeeds brilliantly. From the serene opening to its violent climax, Il Tabarro is filled with the brooding tension of its unhappy characters. The Met's dark, yet lovely, production works wonders toward bringing this tension to life, as do the singers. A scowling Placido Domingo is Luigi, the strong itinerant workhorse willing to risk everything, even to kill for his one outlet of happiness, his love for his boss's wife, played by Teresa Stratas. Domingo still sounds great, even youthful, his ardor is always legitimate because that's the type of singer he is. Physically, he isn't nearly as handsome as he was in, say, Rigoletto from fifteen years earlier, he looks a little like a more smoldering Lon Chaney Jr. at this point, but this actually ends up being a plus, his age adds a craggy, wounded look to his features that works, even though he is clearly much older than the character he is portraying. Stratas' voice isn't quite as strong as it was ten years earlier, when she was capturing the powerhouse roles of Violetta and Lulu and Salome to perfection, even with the pristine sound quality of this production she has trouble maintaining a consistency in volume, but if she was intentionally trying to save herself for the big moments, well, the strategy worked, because Stratas always manages to deliver when it really counts. To her credit, her voice rarely sounds strained, the purity of sound is still there even if isn't always as full or as forceful as it used to be. Juan Pons, the betrayed husband Michele, is a gentle yet threatening bear of a man, his singing is tender and passionate but also simmering with rage which the audience just knows is destined to come to the surface before the story is over; he gives a dynamite performance, appropriately enough, he is the last to make his curtain call and gets the strongest ovation. Il Tabarro is far from Puccini's greatest opera, but it is a work to be treasured, with its emphasis on the life and feelings of poor folk living and working by the Seine over the story itself, it functions as a chilling mood piece, and proves that this often underrated composer could do whatever he wanted, he was creatively diverse, he had a brain in addition to a heart.
Leoncavallo's Pagliacci is one of the greatest masterworks of the verismo genre, more hultihued musically and dramatically than Il Tabarro, which the Met emphasizes with a colorful and crowded production(but not too colorful or too crowded, it is just right). Pavarotti is Canio the tormented clown and one of the most complex protagonists in all versimo, his voice is clear and piercing as ever and his performance really gets to the violent heart of the murderous cuckold, he manages to match Domingo in the acting department, rarely has the singer come across as so, well, vicious. Yet his Vesti la giubba shows the sadness of the character and lives up to what you would expect from a tenor of his stature performing one of opera's most popular numbers. He even takes a curtain call for that one aria(and nobody takes a curtain call like Pavarotti). Stratas returns as Nedda, another wayward wife(was she trying to tell us something?), and she is once again on for the big moments, especially her glorious aria which taxes her voice, nevertheless she manages to break through and topple the house. Juan Pons also returns as Tonio, his prelude("I am the prologue") is delivered with panache, and his portrayal of the deformed comprimario plays up the lechery and resentment over the heartbreak with disturbing results. His voice is, of course, smooth and clear and boiling with hate. Dwaye Croft has the ideal sort of romantic baritone voice for Silvio. The complexity of Leoncavallo's "true" story, with its play within a play(a commedia del arte piece, the narrative of which cleverly matches the surrounding events) and the confusion of fantasy and reality yield all sorts of brilliant action from the chorus and players, the stage is never less than thrillingly alive.
Special accolades should be given to the performances of James Levine and the mighty Met orchestra, who bring out the tragedy, the humor, most of all the passion of both scores while never failing to miss the equally important moments of pensiveness and quiet. Verismo has never sounded better.
More Puccini - Il Tabarro / Leoncavallo - I Pagliacci / Stratas, Domingo, Pavarotti, Pons, Quivar, Croft, Levine, Metropolitan Opera reviews:
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Summary of Puccini - Il Tabarro / Leoncavallo - I Pagliacci / Stratas, Domingo, Pavarotti, Pons, Quivar, Croft, Levine, Metropolitan Opera
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