Bravi

Je suis bien heureux de voir ici réunis ces deux artistes tant admirés. Deux chanteurs ayant beaucoup en commun sur le plan du répertoire (Pélléas et Mélisande, Don Juan et Leporello, Mélodies françaises- Poulenc notamment, ...), du talent scénique, peut-être même aussi dans le timbre de leurs voix ?

Another DIRECTOR‘S CONCEPT conceit of with really bizarre results. I am quite familiar with the several film & recorded versions of this opera but nothing really prepared me for this. It was filmed 30 years ago now & somehow my radar did not pick it up until recently. My primary interest in watching it was to see & hear one of my favorite singers, Jose Van Dam, in one of his famous roles. Knowing a bit about his opinion of certain contemporary operatic productions I do wonder how he & Bacquier got roped into this project. The production setting is in an insane asylum of all places & certain characters, music, & situations are all mixed around rather incoherently. Some of the music I did not even recognize which is not surprising when one realizes all the different sources of material drawn from Offenbach‘s numerous attempts at coherency. Nothing wrong with reversing the Giulietta/Antonia sections but then reaching some kind of denouement without much clarity is unfortunate especially for someone experiencing this marvelous work for the first time. Even some well known pieces like SCINTILLE DIAMANT gets lost in the shuffle. Although the singers themselves (especially Dessay, Van Dam, & Hendricks) acquit themselves with honor vocally they seem to struggle with whatever concept the director had in mind. Dessay though has a real show stopper as Olympia sailing up to both a high G & A flat even. However fine the singing is cannot redeem the visual pretensions of this farrago, IMO. The best thing would be to look for, if it exists, a CD of the production & just enjoy the singing although the one serious mistake was the tenor who both vocally & visually fails to match his colleagues. New concepts in opera staging are fully justified but not in this case, IMO.

Superbe extrait ! Y a t il moyen de voir la version complète ?

Dam, Daniel