The Life of Verdi
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Carla Fracci, Giampiero Albertini, Lino Capolicchio, Omero Antonutti, Ronald PickupDVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); Italian (Original Language)
Format: Color, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 600 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2003-11-18
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Kultur Video
Movie Reviews of The Life of Verdi
Movie Review: Verdi's Biography
Summary: 5 Stars
Giuseppe Verdi borrowed liberally from writers Victor Hugo and William Shakespeare, and so it's ironically appropriate that Verdi's life has all the earmarks of a Shakespearian tragic hero, complete with tragic flaw. Music is his strength, but also his weakness. He has the passion to feel love, but not passion enough to boldly go after love. Opera lovers will find themselves absorbed by the operatic treatment of Verdi's life, which includes many scenes performed from Verdi operas: Nabucco, Ernani, Rigoletto, Trovatore, Traviata, Aida, Otello, and Falstaff.
The plot is really second to the music, and I don't mean the standard background fare. Substantial operatic performance clips and background music of Verdi's operas wash over you as you watch. Verdi's musical education began at an early age, although it is not known exactly when he began formal study. It is known that he was captivated by music and that his parents early on decided to give him an instrument of his own, a little spinet piano. Verdi was born to a poor family in a tiny Italian village. He began studying music in a nearby town Busseto, where he was taken into the home of a wealthy patron who later also supported his education in Milan. When he completed his studies, he became municipal music director in Busseto and married his patron's daughter; three years later he returned to Milan with the score of his first opera, Oberto. Oberto was produced at La Scala and had a modest success which brought Verdi a contract for more operas. Then disaster struck. Verdi's wife and their two children died within a very short time. Verdi managed to complete his next opera, but it was a failure and in despair he persuaded himself that there was no consolation in his art and vowed to never compose again.
A few years later the film shows when Verdi composed Rigoletto and La Traviata. Although the public loved them, critics were often scandalized by their subject matter. They seemed to condone rape, suicide, and free love. But Verdi was fiercely independent and himself lived openly with his second wife for ten years before marrying her. Verdi composed not for the musical elite but for a mass public whose main entertainment was opera. He wanted subjects that were as Verdi said "original, interesting and passionate; passions about all!" Almost all his mature works are serious and end unhappily; they move quickly and involve extremes of hatred, love, jealousy, and fear and his powerful music underlines the dramatic situations.
By the end of the film, opera lovers will have felt as if they had just attended a "highlights" concert combined with a sometimes somber treatment of the composer's semi tragic life. Those who aren't so familiar with opera will come away with a better sense of the music. If there's one surprise, it's that apart from the performance clips there's very little in the way of dramatic score. Most of the scenes that drive the plot are presented in silence, although music is used for transitions and to heighten emotional moments. People in this day and age aren't exactly known for being opera lovers, on the whole. They generally get their arias from tv commercials and movies. Ask someone to hum a few bars of Verdi's "Libiamo ne lieti calici" and you'll get a blank stare or a laugh. Play a few bars for them, and many of them will beam, "Hey, I've heard that from a commercial on television." Even if you are not an opera fan, but you're a fan of musical biographies, you'll like this film.
Summary of The Life of Verdi
"Sumptuously costumed and splendidly staged, this elaborate cinematic biography blends documentary with drama to tell the story of a great artistic genius who became the musical voice of a nation."* Booklist. Filmed on location in Italy, Leningrad, London, and Paris, this epic mini-series took several years to create, requiring more than 100 actors, 1800 extras, and 4000 costumes. This uncut version dubbed in English is 4 hours longer than the edited version that originally aired on Public Television to great acclaim. This spectacular film is filled with Verdi?s glorious music, sung in the original Italian and taken from past recordings featuring such operatic legends as Renata Tebaldi, Maria Callas, Luciano Pavarotti, and Birgit Nilsson. Stars Ronald Pickup, who plays Verdi with a "subdued, dignified passion" and Carla Fracci, the famed Italian ballerina, who is "absolutely superb" as Giuseppina Strepponi, Verdi?s second wife (Clive Barnes).Similar DVD Movies
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