Raymonda

Raymonda ballet. Music by Alexandr Glazunov. Choreography by Marius Petipa as revived 2011 by Sergei Vikharev with the Orchestra and Corps de Ballet of the Teatro alla Scala.  Stars Olesia Novikova, Friedemann Vogel, Mick Zeni, Mariafrancesca Garritano, Francesca Podini, Claudio Coviello, Marco Agostino, Sabina Galasso, Luigi Saruggia, Manuela Aufieri, Matteo Buongiorno, Matthew Endicott, Antonella Albano, Daniela Cavalleri, Serena Sarnataro, Maurizio Licitra, Beatrice Carbone, Eris Nezha, Lara Montanaro, Alessandro Grillo, and Emanuela Montanari. Also stars students of the Accademia Teatro alla Scala Ballet School (directed by Frédéric Olivieri). Michail Jurowski conducts the Orchestra of the Teatro Alla Scalla. Original sets by Orest Allegri, Pëtr Lambin, and Konstantin Ivanov as recreated by Elena Kinkulskaya and Boris Kaminsky; original costumes by Ivan Vsevoložskij recreated by Irene Monti; lighting design by Marco Filibeck; historical archive research by Pavel Gershenzon. Directed for TV and video by Lorena Sardi; photography directed by Luciano Cricelli; production managed by Luca Latini; musical advice from Giovanni Primavesi and Maddalena Novati; editing by Valeria Franchino; direction assistance by Elena Russi. Released 2012, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: A

Petipa was 80 when this long, huge ballet was first staged. I get the impression it was Petipa's attempt to present a living encyclopedia of dance steps and techniques. He had the good fortune to enlist Aleksadr Glasunov as composer, whose score is full of beautiful tunes and impressive ideas. (Could this be the most under-appreciated ballet music ever?) The ballet has a plot, but just barely. You don't see this to get sucked into the emotions of the characters. To go to see some 60 numbers knocked out by 150+ performers in lavish sets and costumes in a manner that foresees the eventual development of abstract choreography. Only the biggest and best ballet companies can dream of producing Raymonda. In 2011 La Scala made the investment it takes; this recording will likely be the definitive documentation of this work for some time.

The sound is exciting. Picture content is excellent with abundant full-stage shots and mostly full-body, mid-range shots spiced up with occasional close-ups. 1080 resolution just barely barely hacks it when you have so many full-stage shots in a house as big as La Scala; additional resolution (4K or something similar) would be worth having.   (This item is also available on DVD where low resolution will doubtless result in poor PQ for much the title.) Picture quality suffers from time to time from motion blur and jutter, but this is easy to forgive.

This is an important additional to our growing library of ballet HDVDs and fully merits the grade of "A."

Lulu

Alan Berg Lulu opera to libretto by the composer (3-act version completed by Friedrich Cerha). Directed 2010 by Vera Nemirova at the Salzburg Festival (Haus für Mozart). Stars Patricia Petibon, Tanja Ariane Baumgartner, Cora Burggraaf, Pavol Breslik, Michael Volle, Thomas Piffka, Franz Grundheber, Thomas Johannes Mayer, Heinz Zednik, Andreas Conrad, Martin Tzonev, Emilie Pictet, and Cornelia Wulkopf. Marc Albrecht conducts the Vienna Philharmonic.  Sets by Daniel Richter; costumes by Klaus Noack; video direction by Brian Large. Sung in German; subtitles in English only because this title is limited to Region A. (See the EuroArts version of this title for discs that can be played on Region B and C players.) Released 2012, has Dolby 5.0 sound. Grade: A-

Lulu in its current version was first performed in 1979. It's a long, complicated, and sophisticated work with challenging modern music. Someone said an opera is a play where people sing about sex and violence. That definition fits Lulu. But this is not in another sense a normal opera, which usually has a cast of characters (included at least one you care about), a conflict, a climax, and an happy or sad ending.  Lulu has a lot of characters,  and you don't care about any of them. But it is fascinating to see how they all come to ruin,  except for the lesbian Countess Geschwitz, who then declares that she will abandon her past life, go to law school, and become a champion for womens' rights. (In another version, Lulu says this about 20 seconds before Jack rips her open.) So now you maybe get the picture: this is a comedy. From what I can tell from recordings, people don't laugh at this in the opera house. But in a home theater, I laugh at this a lot, and loud! Give it a try.

We now have two versions of Lulu: a colorful, "rich" Salzburg show and its polar opposite, an almost black-and-white, Spartan Royal Opera House production. So let's briefly discuss the pros and cons of both, and use the this mini-review for both of them.

In the Salzburg version, Veri Nemirova is quite successful in supporting the singing and acting with sets, costumes, and props tha help make sense of the dense libretto. A newcomer to the opera with the aid of a synopsis has a fighting chance of following the pageant of disasters. Taking mercy on the viewer, Nemirova avoids injecting surreal or bafflingly clever elements in the show. Then "Large takes charge" to give the home viewer a dazzling video with superb picture quality and picture content

Maybe the most confusing part of this opera is Act II, scene 1, after Dr. Schön marries Lulu and his home life disintegrates into chaos. Nemirova manages with the use of skillful visual images to get me through this.  In contrast, I find this scene in the ROH version to be baffling. I also liked the way Nemirova and Large depict the Act III, scene 1 Paris party scene 98% in the midst of the audience. It took a lot of nerve and skill to bring this off, and this change of approach helps avoid the onset of monotony in this long opera. But the dull look of the ROH show stays the same for 3 hours, enough to wear out all but the most fanatical opera fan.

The severe mise-en-scène of the ROH show puts a huge burden on the singers to act out the libretto intelligently. Fortunately, the cast is superb, and they troop on magnificently. But director Loy then throws too many curves at the cast and audience. For example, in Act I, scene 2 the painter goes into another room (to cut his throat). Schön then calls for an axe to batter down the door.  Loy leaves the painter on the stage in the midst of the other singers. But the business with the axe stays in as well, which makes no sense unless (1) you know the opera really well, (2) stay on your toes, and (3) figure out fast that Loy is trying to make you look like a fool. At the end of the opera, Lulu as prostitute has three customers.  She had 3 husbands.  The first customer is played by the same actor who played her first husband, etc. OK, when the second customer appears, you see he is played by the same actor who played the painter (second husband). But he still has the same blood on his shirt that we saw when he cut his throat. The problem is that this is inconsistent with the character of the second customer. (He is a tough customer, but Johns don't walk in covered with blood). This depiction of John 2 is Eurotrash cuteness, which deserves to be slapped down!

At this point I've done enough to register my irritation at the ROH directing. A should also mention that the ROH orchestra and Pappano do a magnificent job with the music. I love the German subtitles (which Kultur is too cheap to provide). So if you work hard enough, you can make sense out of this show notwithstanding the director.

In summary, if you are just starting to learn Lulu, the Salzburg version is a vastly better choice for you than the ROH version even if you are buying the Region A version with its mediocre sound quality. Let's hope the dts-HD Master Audio sound with the Regions B and C versions will be better. The ROH version would be a good choice if you are an audiophile as well as opera lover or if you are already an expert on Lulu and are tired of the more gaudy versions you have seen.

I'm giving the grade of "A-" to the Salzburg Kuture disc. I'm giving the same grade to the EuroArts disc but will upgrade later if the sound is as good as we hope. I'm giving a "C+" to the ROH version on account of boring and dumb-stunt direction.

Giselle

Giselle ballet. Music by Adolphe Adam to libretto by Théophile Gautier and Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges. Choreography by Marius Pepita, Jean Coralli, and Jules Perrot as revived by Yuri Grigorovich. Recorded 2011 at the Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow. Stars Svetlana Lunkina, Dmitry Gudanov, Vitaly Biktimirov, Maria Allash, Elena Bukanova, Ekaterina Barykina, Alexay Loparevich, Vladislav Lantratov, Chinara Alizade, and Andrey Bolotin. Pavel Klinichev directs the Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra. Set and costume designs by Simon Virsaladze; lighting design by Mikhail Sokolov; produced by François Duplat; directed for TV by Vincent Bataillon. Released 2012, disc has 5.1 dts Master Audio sound. Grade: D

This production was doubtless a joy to see at the Bolshoi live. But this video is not competitive with the magisterial Giselle we have from the Paris Opera Ballet (2006), the dramatic job done by the Royal Opera House (2006), or the fresh (2009) version from the Dutch National Ballet.

The Bolshoi stars are all fine dancers, but none of them leave a lasting impression. So to overcome the lack of outstanding stars, everything else about this production would have to be smashing, which, alas, is not the case. The Bolshoi Act 1 (Giselle's village) uses a skimpy set. It depicts a depopulated place where most of the young men seem to have gone to work in another country leaving the poor girls to dance for themselves. The direction is skimpy too. For example, Berthe doesn't even try to explain the mystery of the Wilis to Giselle. Lunkina either can't act or nobody bothered to tell her what to do. In Act 2 (the Wilis) the set is spoiled by gaudy blinking electric lights (representing spooky spirits) and the clumsy appearance of Giselle from a tree dropping flowers on Albrecht. Myrtha, Zulme, and Moyna come across fine, but the corps is ragged from lack of adequate drilling. The result is that the Bolshoi comes in last in both acts in comparison to the competition.

This title does have good sound. But everything is dragged down by weaknesses in picture quality. Vincent Bataillon was unable to get good resolution for long-range shots even in the well-lit Act 1 scenes. Irritating motion artifacts and blur abound, and picture artifacts are triggered by the fancy costumes worn by the royal hunting party. Bataillon shoots Act 2 from a low angle. This prevents the viewer from seeing the corps very well. Or maybe this low angle was chosen in an attempt to hide deficiencies in the preparation of the corps. (In fairness, this trick was also used by the ROH trying to obscure problems with their female corps.)

So now for a grade. To protect their franchise, the Bolshoi folks will have to do a lot better than this. With three better HDVD choices to pick from, I see little reason for anyone to buy this Giselle for HT viewing unless he has some real good reason. Under our grading scheme, this title gets a "D."

Pina

Pina dance film by Wim Wenders. This is a documentary about the choreography of Pina Bausch. The film includes excerpts of stage performances, interviews with dancers who knew and worked with Bausch, and archival footage of Bausch. Includes two discs - a 2D version and a 3D version. This title is available in several European markets, and all are Region B. As of now there are German, French, Spanish, and Italian releases. Grade: A

One of the very best fine-art HDVDs we have is the Pina Bausch Orpheus und Eurydike dance-opera from the Paris Opera Ballet. In that title you see Bausch make maybe her final curtain call--she died a few weeks later. The Bausch Orpheus und Eurydike is a classical work presented in Pina's surreal style. Pina's more typical works, created and presented over decades at her Tanztheater Wuppertal in Germany, are more radical and iconoclastic. These radical works are what Wenders treats in his film, which was made entirely after Pina's death. The film has lengthy excerpts from three of Pina's most famous works: Le Sacre du Printemps, Kontakthof, and Café Müller.

I've seen the film only in its 2D version. It works great in 2D. It's going to be a bit of a challenge to find in Dallas, Texas a Region B player that handles 3D. So if you have seen it in 3D, we would really like to hear from you and have your opinion how much 3D adds to this! If you have any interest in modern dance, you will want to buy this.  I'm giving this the provisional grade of "A." We need to see it again in both 2D and 3D to arrive at a final grade.

We would be so happy to have a better mini-review from you about this most interesting documentary!

San Francisco Symphony at 100

San Francisco Symphony at 100 concert. Michael Tilson Thomas conducts the San Francisco Symphony in a concert in honor of the San Francisco Symphony's centenary. Also included are documentary vignettes about the history of the San Francisco Symphony. The program is:

1. Aaron Copland - Billy the Kid Ballet Suite

2. Felix Mendelssohn - Violin Concerto in E minor (with violinist Itzhak Perlman)

3. Benjamin Britten - The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra

4. John Adams - Short Ride in a Fast Machine

Released in 2012. Grade: Help!

Please help by writing a mini-review about this title!

Flamenco Flamenco

Flamenco Flamenco dance film by Carlos Saura. This is a full-length motion picture showing 21 performances of flamenco, ranging from traditional dances to new, avant-garde interpretations. Some featured performers include dancers Farruquito, Eva Yerbabuena, and Sara Baras; guitarrist Paco de Lucia; and singer Miguel Poveda. This title has been released in Europe under two different labels: Cameo Media (Spain) and Bodega (France). Both versions of this title are Region B only and have dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: B+

I found this in May 2012 at the gift shop of the Paris L' Opera de Charles Garnier. I had never seen anything about it in our Internet resources. I asked the Phantom of the Opera if I should buy it. He said OK, and I have not been disappointed. It's a Region B only product, but I still had time on my trip to see it in France.

Saura was able to get a bunch of great acts to come to his studio where they could be filmed under uniform, controlled conditions.  The stage was decorated with a lot of classy artwork which is used ingeniously to tie the various acts together. The video was made on film stock; it has that rich, painterly look you can't get with digital video. I think it benefits also from progressive handling of the video (contrasted to the usual 1080i specification). I don't have sound recording specs, but it sounds great.

The acts vary from fairly traditional to a bit racy. True hard-core, old-school flamenco lovers might bemoan some of this, but even they would probably agree that there is nothing tacky or sentimental afoot.

Now that I'm back in the U.S., Flamenco Flamenco will not play on my Region A Oppo. In the past, I've rented a Region B player to review Region B stuff. But in honor of Flamenco Flamenco, I now plan to buy something I can use to play it any time I like.

Nobuyuki Tsujii Carnegie Hall Debut

The Nobuyuki Tsujii Carnegie Hall Debut Live solo piano concert was performed on November 10, 2011, and this disc came out promptly, in early 2012. The keep-case booklet is almost entirely in Japanese. Neither the booklet nor the disc menu gives track numbers. But the tracks are numbered. If you enter the number you want on the numerical keypad and sit still, the disc will take you to the track you selected. So here are the track numbers and the pieces performed as best we have been able to sleuth them out (as non-Japanese readers):

1. Opening

2. John Musto Improvisation and Fugue

3-5. The 3 movements of Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 17 ("Tempest")

6. Liszt Étude No. 3, "Un sospiro"

7. Liszt Rigoletto Paraphrase

8-23. Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition (There are 16 tracks here which are listed on a sub-menu to track 8.)

And now 3 encores:

24. Steven Foster "I dream of Jeanie with the light brown hair" --- arranged by Nobu (I think)

25. Chopin Prélude No. 15 "Raindrop"

26. Mystery number. Short, simple, absorbing piece that sounds to me like Schumann. But I can't identify it.  I saw something on the Internet suggesting Nobu wrote this in a classical style in honor of a "Yuku." If that's so, then Nobu should maybe focus on composing rather than performing.

27. End Credits

Released 2012, disc has 5.0 Dolby TrueHD sound. Grade: B+

"Nobu," blind from birth, is a piano prodigy who learns masterpieces by ear and also composes. He has other challenges in addition to sightlessness. For example, his head bobs about in a kind of Brownian motion that has little apparent relationship to the music he's playing or what is happening around him. This is somewhat disconcerting until you get used to it. He got his big breakthrough in 2009 at the Cliburn Competition and has since made a number of recordings. This is his first HDVD. 

At the Cliburn Competition, Nobu was controversial. Some jury members thought he was too "special" to be put up against all the top sighted performers. Other jury folk found themselves sobbing as he played. And for sure, he is very paradigm of the instant underdog. (Is the U.S., underdogs always win.) So the solution was to award 2 first prizes: one for Nobu and the other for the winning sighted player.

This Carnegie debut was probably made on a modest budget. The HD picture quality is not top notch. The resolution is a tad fuzzy, one camera had trouble rendering the piano strings accurately (jaggies and the like), and there is a camera on the wall behind Nobu and facing the audience that is plain, old SD (usually anathema to us). No information is given about the sound sampling or other aspects of the audio recording.  The piano doesn't sound as "real" as it does in the AIX Chamber Music Palisades recording with its 96kHz/24 bit sampling, but it does sound as good as the piano played by Volodos in his Vienna recital recorded by Sony.

The program and performance is highly enjoyable to watch. (If you just listen, you might detect that Nobu's execution is not as rock solid as that of the top sighted players.)  You also get a keen feeling for the event. The N. Y. audience was happy with Nobu, and Nobu's face at the end becomes grotesque as he strains to control his emotions. Finally, a cameraman behind stage catches tears gushing while Nobu's companion comforts him. You can't get something like that with a CD.

So what grade should I give for this expensive disc? I start with a "B" for the program and performance. I move up to B+ because it's so inspirational to see what Nobu has accomplished. I wish I could go further, but the technical issues discussed briefly suggest I stay with the "B+." I hope Nobu/Avex can find a way to produce this HDVD in the West with English and other languages to make it more accessible.