Arts Movie Reviews

I can't improve upon the first reviewer but I must wholeheartedly agree that this operetta/opera...whatever you wish to call it...is quite the visual experience in addition to Strauss' typically enchanting music. I too was absolutely amazed with the quality of the sets. How could they make money on this I kept wondering. I suppose some might find a few scenes offensive but I loved it from beginning to end.

If you love Strauss' music then you must own it.

The Opernhaus Zurich can well be proud of it's magnificent revival of Johann Strauss' lost operetta Simplicius. The performance on DVD here was the first revival of this work in 113 years since it's recent rediscovery. Strauss seems to have been aiming to make operetta more sreious and in line with mainstream opera. This one has the usual tangled love story set amid the Thirty years war with some unusally dark commentary about the horrors of war mixed in with the customary froth. His music is quite delightful as always, pieces such as Tilly's schnaps song or the love duets are very grateful on the ear.There is the usual quota of waltzes and marching songs. The wonderful ensemble cast never puts a foot wrong in David Poutney's magnificent production. The sets by Johann Engels are an inspired achievment. They seem to be a living, moving,almost breathing thing with a striking resemblance to one of the more fantastic paintings of Bosch or Breughel.The sets and costumes alone look like they would have bankrupted most opera companies. The DVD itself is beautifully produced with Leterbox picture and 5.1 sound well nigh perfect. there are english subtitles but unfortunately they have been placed within the viewing area instead of below the letterbox as it should have been. My sole complaint about a most desirable dvd for any opera lovers collection. Highest reccomendation!

This production of Die Fledermaus was taped live at Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. It is a fabulous performance of a great operetta. This has Kiri te Kanawa, Herman Prey, Benjamin Luxon, and Placido Domingo CONDUCTING!! (plus a little surprise between the Jailer and Domingo in Act 3)

Now. why do I give it 4 stars? This is a great 5 star performance. but the spoken language changes constantly from English to German, which is annoying.

Even though Kiri te Kanawa and Herman Prey are fabulous, I still reccomend the 1990 New Year's Eve Die Fledermaus all in ENGLISH, with guest appearences by Joan Sutherland (in her official retirement performance), and guest appearences with Luciano Pavarotti, and Marlyn Horne. both that and this video are worth owning. Watch it on New Year's Eve, and it will feel like YOUR'RE in the audience. Enjoy!!

The best Fledermous is the one with Dame Joan as an honorable guest and Pavarotti and Marilyn Horne. That is the party of the century. The most festive Fledermous of all time. This one is also great. But it is second best. I have them both.

This the very best video available of "The Bat" from Covent Garden with Hermann Prey and Kiri, conducted by Placido Domingo performing at their very best with a wonderful supporting cast. The jailer pulled a great surprise in rehearsal and it stayed in the production, but I'll leave that for your viewing pleasure. I have a German production with Wolfgang Brendel that is quite good but this production is the best of the video versions I've ever seen. A truly amusing opera with great fun to be had by both the cast and the audience. It is a tradition among my opera loving friends to watch this New Year's and always such a delight. Costumes, production and cast are first rate! If you like this opera or have never seen it - Buy this version and sit back and enjoy! You will love seeing it again and again! Highly recommended!

This really is a joy to all who watch this. I had a New Year party last year and had it on my TV. Everyone loved it. And most of the people there aren't even Opera fans. It's just a fun Flederous, and superlatively sung and acted.
The bonus is the retirement of the one and only La Stupenda. Who, at 63 still raises the temperature of the House when she entered it. Along with Pavarotti and Horne (both of whom adore her), they sing up a storm. No, Sutherland had sung better. But this is her retirement. She was all choked up. Pavarotti and Horne sung stupendously in their tribune to one of the most celebrated and beloved of all opera singers.
Bravisima, La Stupenda, we adore you. And agree with the countless opera fans who consider you,
Prima Donna Assoluta, for all time.

This is a very plush production of Fledermaus from 1990 at Covent Garden that also was Dame Joan Sutherland's farewell to a house in which she had been singing for nearly 40 years. The production of Fledermaus is very well done, with very lavish settings from the Vienna of Johann Strauss, including the centerpiece ball of Act II. The cast is excellent throughout and the singing is in English ((with subtitles available). Dame Joan's husband Richard Bonygne leads the orchestra and the chorus under John Brown is excellent.

Although this is in itself a superb Feldermaus, many will want to see this production for its farewell to Miss Sutherland. She and her long-term colleagues Marilyn Horne and Luciano Pavarotti treat us to several solos and duets in the Act II gala sequence, always a great vehicle for bringing out star talent for their turn. The gala is a lot of fun and quite moving too when Dame Joan sings "Home Sweet Home." The gala lasts about 40 minute and also includes two ballets to Strauss tunes. We see Dame Joan at the curtain calls at the end of the opera too when she speaks her farewell to the ecstatic house.

This is a great DVD to have if you either love Fledermaus or Dame Joan Sutherland. A definite buy!

I actually purchased the Laser Disc of this the same year of the performance, and will now order the DVD, it is a stunning production, if you think Dame Sutherland doesn't sound just fine, perhaps you should invest in a better audio system, if that fails try a hearing aid, the idea of insulting one artest just because you prefer another, speaks volumes about YOU and no one else.

Nothing more needs to be said that has not been said (especially by the descriptive reviews here). Miss Sutherland sings all her signature arias and scenes perfectly. She is a true bel canto princess and will always be known for her voice and flexible technique. Get this DVD to cherish one of this century's most beloved sopranos.

I'm not good with words. I only know that this Bell Telephone DVD is incredible. I have always been a die hard fan of La Stupenda. But never have I heard her in this state of voice as it is here. Maybe it is that she did it 40 years ago when she was still young.
It puts all of my other Sutherland cds and dvds to shame. And that includes the Lucia and the Lucrecia Borgia.
I sit here and read all the remarkable and raving reviews and incredible as it may sound, these fans are not exaggerating. This really is the most spectacular display of bravura singing that has been recorded. But the only way to convince you that this is the epitomy of great singing is to experience this. After that, you'll be a believer, and a fan for life. As I have.

I have never in my life heard anything like this. I am a huge opera fan, and I don't believe my ears!
This is a Sutherland that I've never heard. The voice is sooooooooo beautiful. The high notes and the coloratura so exact and easy. I'm sorry, but this has to be the most astonishing collection of coloratura arias I've ever heard. And as for drooping or mushiness. I never heard any of it here. I've heard that from Sutherland elsewhere.
I do see three or four very nasty and angry sounding critiques by a person who obviously hate Sutherland. One bad review is enough, why do you write four bad reviews? I'm a handwriting specialist, I can tell by your writing pattern that you are doing that, so don't deny it, just stop it.
Anyhoo, I thought the Lucia was good. But the Sutherland here is way beyond that, it's awesome. Sorry I'm going on and on, but I never knew she could sing like this, or anyone, for that matter. Callas was formerly my favorite soprano, but no way can she sing like the Joan Sutherland here.
I am a fan for life.
P.S. Any suggestions? I want more of this.

This is a great concert from a legend who seems to get better with age. He's transformed that voice into a very interesting instrument.

Shot in Germany over two nights, You get the feel for sheer power of a full band outdoors live. The only gripe I have is that I really don't want to see crowd shots during the performances. Keep the cameras pointed at the stage!
The band is made up of some of the best session musicans and backing vocals in the business. It's loud, extremely tight and full of sound with multiple keyboards, Hammond organ and a great sax player. Backing vocals Maxine Sharpe and Stacy Campbell are fantastic.

Of all the videos out there of Joe performing - including his most recent DVD of "Respect Yourself" - this performance to promote "Across Midnight" is his best. For those who do not like the highly produced sound of Joe's efforts in the past decade, you'll enjoy a couple of tracks from his "Organic" CD. Plus a great mix of his classics including Delta Lady and Cry Me A River. I really like the full "wall of sound" delivered in "The Letter". Wow.

Buy this one and leave the others alone. I've shown this to friends who have a mild interest in Joe and now can't wait to see him live. He's a hard working guy that really delivers a great show and is out on the road performing each year.

I felt like I was taking a chance on buying this disk. Guess I was, but immediately knew it was better than I expected. This guy looks like he might have just walked off a trawler or come up from a coal mine. But what a song-myster he is!!!... The different arrangements on a couple of the tunes were also very good.
This DVD is a KEEPER.

I noticed the drummer is the same guy that played on the Tina Turner Amsterdam show.

Excellent concert. Joe has mellowed alot from his earlier days....his stage presence and delivery is not as wild as it used to be.

Video is excellent, great close ups and the lighting is very good. Joe "sweats" to his oldies. Puts his heart and soul into the tunes. The band and back-up singers are fabulous. You'll recognize every song. The sound is wonderful.

It is a concert dvd I would watch over and over again. I'm not a HUGE Joe Cocker fan, so that should speak volumes.

If you're looking for lots of action during the concert......you'll be disappointed, if you're okay with the singer standing in front of a mike and belting out their hits with their heart and soul, you'll love this dvd. The setting of this concert arena is very pleasing.

Despite all that is praiseworthy about this production--sets, costumes, supporting roles--it misses John Gay's artistic intent by several thousand light years. Gay didn't write just another British working-class grumble about real or fancied oppression by everybody in sight, as this production has it. He crafted a sly, funny dig at the upper classes as aped by the lowest: outcasts, thieves and scalawags. Until Jonathan Miller's "rehabilitation" it was a very funny, even romantic, little piece. Anthony Powell, in his autobiography, dwells nostalgically on the charm it cast every time a new production was mounted every 20 years or so. Or at least did cast until this latest--which should finish it for good. It may be politically unimpeachable but artistically it is witless and mendacious.
The now unobtainable Olivier version, marred only by Lord Laurence's decision to sing his own part, may well be the last to respect Gay's original intent.

I agree entirely with the reviewer who said that this version is badly recorded. The words are unintelligible.

I have a further criticism. I don't believe the part of MacHeath should be played by a boy in such a foppish, effete manner. MacHeath is a bold highwayman and a charmer of the ladies. This young man could never fit that description.

It's a shame that the version of Beggar's Opera with Lawrence Olivier, produced in the 50's or 60's is not available on video.

Although I understand the complaints about the dialogue being unintelligible, I actually thought the songs were very easy to understand. Both the singing and the general presentation of the music were excellent--John Eliot Gardner does a great job of music direction. I also agree that this is an excellent version to use in teaching; it's lively, thoughtful, virtually uncut, and offers some interesting interpretations. (Jonathan Miller diverges from the text at the end, but it is a thought-provoking divergence.) It's not a sugar-candy version of the Opera, but since the threat of death by hanging is a central element of the text, I don't see the gritty aspects of this performance as a problem.

Viewing this DVD was an exercise in frustration. 50% of the content was good classic Valby, but the other half filler. Furthermore, the DVD looks and sounds as if a cheap 300 dollar video cam was used to record the show. Audio is muffled a bit much of the time and not up to par on most of the DVD, and the video is a one camera presentation with no real closeups of John. OK, the camera is about 20 feet or so away, but it would have been a lot more professional if at least 2 cameras were used, and closer shots of John were included during some passages. That said, it is good to have JV on on DVD finally, and I am sure if John himself is reading the review he is saying 'FU' to me right now!

I have little good to say about this DVD of the 2001 Salzburg Festival production of Johann Strauss's 'Die Fledermaus' in Hans Neuenfels's grotesque staging. The production, while sumptuous in some respects, is so tawdry that I could barely force myself to watch it through to the end. I wouldn't have done so if I hadn't decided to write this review to warn people off it.

Neuenfels enjoys, if that's the word, a reputation as an enfant terrible of opera in Europe, although at his age - 60 at the time of this production - he should have grown up by now. His entire style seems to be based on shocking the bourgeoisie, in this case the well-heeled attendees at the Salzburg Festival, one of the most expensive musical venues in the world.

The production is set in roughly 1900. There is entirely new and often scatological spoken dialog by Neuenfels that makes unsubtle references to the hypocrisy and decadence of society, that of Austria in particular. He has made Prince Orlofsky into a cocaine-addict; the part is played by a "jazz musician" of whom I'd never heard, one David Moss, who is tricked out as a Rastafarian in dreadlocks and pajamas. His singing is all over the place, from Tom Waits-like growling to a girlish falsetto. He prances around the stage like someone in a junior high school play. We get to see him snort cocaine and offer it to his guests during the ball scene. Kewl!

The main singers are, in the main, quite good. I would single out particularly Mireille Delunsch (Rosalinde) and Malin Hartelius (Adele). Also, Dale Duesing (Frank) is fine, although he is required to wear a big white cylindrical contraption that makes him look like a walking wedding cake; the symbolism escaped me. Olaf Bär (barely recognizable as Dr. Falke) sings superbly as one expects from him, and his acting as the evil Falke is smarmily repellent. Frosch is taken by a 'comedienne,' Elisabeth Trissenaar, and her humor - cruel, solipsistic, ugly - eluded me entirely. I kept wishing for Jack Gilford in the old Met production! The Salzburg Mozarteum orchestra, led by Marc Minkowski, is fine.

The mise-en-scène is a single set that is varied artfully by the stage lighting. There are extras galore, chorus and dancers, who are required to do very strange and, at times, repulsive things. There are two added characters, the children of the Eisensteins, who look like they wandered in from a second-rate production of "Hänsel und Gretel." It is not clear what they add to the action, although they certainly ham it up a lot. Dr. Blind is actually blind (nyuk, nyuk!). Eisenstein is not only a figure of fun - that is, after all part of the plot - but a figure of cruel fun. There are gratuitous erotic acts (e.g., involving the two Eisenstein children) that are simply embarrassingly inappropriate.

I gave the DVD two stars merely because of the musical performance. And perhaps added a little in empathy for the embarrassment of the cast and musicians who had to perform in this travesty.

At the première of this production there was a near uprising by the audience; one hears booing from the audience during the curtain calls. One attendee reportedly sued to get his ticket money back. And it created a 'ein grosser Skandal' in European opera circles. It is no surprise that Gérard Mortier, the Intendant of Salzburg at the time of this production, is no longer there.

Scott Morrison