Best Tannhauser on DVD?
Ken
there are basically three to pick from: The Met, Munich and San Carlo.
It's surprisingly hard to find reviews on these, aside from what's on
Amazon. Any opinions would be appreciated!
Note that I was all ready to purchase the Met/Levine version, but I
saw on Amazon that someone said that you could hear people talking
over the second half. Has anyone else heard that?
Thanks,
Ken
Davenalias
"Ken" <kena...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
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Avoid the Kollo/Meier/Mehta production. Kollo's singing is way below par,
it isn't just bad, it's unwatchable. Then there's the strap-on dildo fetish
costumes etc....
Jay Bollyn
news:br7pr8$bfnc$1...@ID-163212.news.uni-berlin.de...
Here is a review I found online:
http://www.digitallyobsessed.com/showreview.php3?ID=1032
Noam
par,
> > it isn't just bad, it's unwatchable. Then there's the strap-on dildo
> fetish
> > costumes etc....
>
> Here is a review I found online:
>
> http://www.digitallyobsessed.com/showreview.php3?ID=1032
There are now three Tannhäusers on DVD. This one has the best voices and the
best sound. The Naples production benefits from film director Werner
Herzog's genius and is reviewed extensively on Amazon and by Mike Richter in
Opera Japonica. Compared to these two the MET's is traditional. The major
drawback of the MET production is the poor German diction of the tenor,
Richard Cassilly. He also sounds strained. Picture quality on the MET is in
line with other Pioneer Classics reissues-grainy. It is much better on the
other two Tannhäuser DVD's.
Noam
Sailbad Sinner
the one with Kollo and Meier. I saw a review of another dvd in the
Gramophone magazine earlier this year. Gramophone has a web site
(www.gramophone.co.uk), and the reviews are supposedly readable
online, but for some mysterious reason, I can only access cd reviews,
not dvd reviews. If I can locate the review, I will get back to this
topic.
I have watched the Kollo/Meier Tannhäuser a couple of times, and the
audience speaking does not bother me, but what I do find distracting
is that this opera crystallizes what IMO is wrong with Wagner's music
in general. Tannhäuser has gorgeous music in act 1, but this kind of
music is associated with "sin" which even the pope will not forgive.
In act 3, Tannhäuser recounts his pilgrimage in which he reached for
ultimate asceticism, and "ultimate asceticism" is an apt description
of the music. I much prefer the sinful music!
In Tannhäuser Wagner tried to prove that the non-embellished music is
essential for drama. The act 2 songs of the minstrels must be listened
to very carefully. If the meaning of the allegorical songs is not
understood, the entire drama fails to make sense. In order to make
words understandable, his vocal melodies are essentially free of
embellishments (except Beckemesser's parodic serenades in die
Meistersinger). Later, in "Oper und Drama" (1850) Wagner explained
that drama is masculine and music is feminine and this (!) is why
drama must dominate over music.
But Wagner was not entirely consistent in omitting embellishments.
Sieglinde's "O hehrstes Wunder", which is comparable to Virgin Mary's
Annunciation, has a melisma in that "hehrstes" has six notes for two
syllables. Thus Wagner admits that it is ok to use embellishments on
special occasions, like when one hears that one is to give birth to
the saviour of the world.
Pardon me for the off-topic mumbojumbo, but if one wishes to know how
Wagner justified his ascetic vocal melodies, the justification is
precisely in the Tannhäuser.
Ivy Lin
Elisabeth: Cheryl Studer
Hermann, Landgraf of Thuringia: Hans Sotin
Tannhäuser: Richard Versalle
Wolfram von Eschenbach: Wolfgang Brendel
Walther von der Vogelweide: William Pell
Biterolf: Siegfried Vogel
Heinrich der Schreiber: Clemens Bieber
Reinmar von Zweter: Sándor Sólyom-Nagy
Venus: Ruthild Engert-Ely
A Young Shepperd: Joy Robinson
Bayreuth Festival Orchestra and Chorus
Conductor: Giuseppe Sinopoli
Direction and Stage Design: Wolfgang Wagner
Choreography of the Bacchanal: Iván Marká
Video Director: Brian Large
Produced at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus during the 1989 Festival
A Production of UNITEL
Philips
PAL
LD 070 435-1 (4 sides)
VHS 070 435-3 (2 tapes)
NTSC
LD 070 535-1 (09/1993) (188')
VHS 070 535-3 (2 tapes) (09/1993) (188')
Video Opera House
TAN 07V (2 VHS) (USA)
TAN 07L (2 Laser) (USA)
gerberk
"Ivy Lin" <fifthhan...@yahoo.com> schreef in bericht
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Cruz Tijerina
is probably the (Wagnerian) opera where the singer doing the title
role is the single most important factor to determine its success or
otherwise. I must say that we have not been blessed with great
Tannhaeuser's on video.
Munich has Kollo who is way past his prime and with an unbearable
wobble for vibratto (his experience with the role shows in the
performance but can not make up for vocal faults).
The Met has Richard Cassilly whose voice I just don't find
particularly pleasant (too nasal at times). He is a good actor but his
voice is definitely not well suited for the role.
Fellow canadian tenor Allan Woodrow is Tannhaeuser at San Carlo and
his voice has an unpleasant "sobbing" sound to it that prevents me
from recommending it. I don't doubt that he will later be an excellent
heldentenor but at the time this was recorded he wasn't at a
particullarly high level of singing (might have been an off night).
kena...@yahoo.com (Ken) wrote in message news:<5058d240.03121...@posting.google.com>...
Mike Richter
Helmut Fischer
Prai Jei
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> TANNHÄUSER
>
> Elisabeth: [somebody who gets mentioned too often here in spurious posts]
> [snip]
> Philips
> PAL
> LD 070 435-1 (4 sides)
> VHS 070 435-3 (2 tapes)
>
> NTSC
> LD 070 535-1 (09/1993) (188')
> VHS 070 535-3 (2 tapes) (09/1993) (188')
Are laserdiscs (LD) still made? Is this version available on DVD in either
format?
(My DVD player at least can play Never The Same Color discs but here in the
UK we generally prefer PAL)
--
Paul V. S. Townsend
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