Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A wonderful imaginative production, 23 Dec 2008
This production is presented as if it were a live performance in (then) modern dress taking place more or less contemporary with this opera's composition in 1738. The action takes place in an imaginative re-creation of the Vauxhall pleasure gardens before a reproduction of the Roubiliac Handel statue that was completed in the same year.
I've given this DVD 5 stars for its entertainment value. The music, it goes without saying, is of very high quality even if it is not the very best Handel. The plot appears complicated on paper but it's perfectly sensible when it's set out before you on the stage. As to the performance... well the string sound is a little too modern for my liking, a little heavy with too much vibrato. Also the harpsichord used is much too heavy. It sounds like a modern revival style instrument to me, but it's not a serious defect overall. The tempi are well chosen, with a springy beat and a lively pace which perfectly suits this comedic, subversive and slightly satirical piece.
The singing and acting are outstanding. Christopher Robson is brilliant as Xerxes' brother Arsemenes, and Lesley Garrett is predictably winsome as Atalanta. But frankly it seems unfair to single anybody out from this outstanding cast.
I make no criticism at all of Rodney McCann in the minor role of Ariodate, but when I first saw this production on stage in the 1980's the great Norman Bailey sang this role and it is a shame that, given that his recorded legacy is so thin, he could not have been present on this occasion. How nice it would have been to have seen one of the great Wotans of the modern era recorded on the stage.
But the quibbles mentioned above are all very minor, and I certainly don't want to give the impression that this performance, production and recording are anything less than first class. This is an absolutely essential item in the DVD collection of anybody in the slightest degree interested in baroque opera.
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Almost total joy, 1 Oct 2005
Nicholas Htytner's 1985 production of Handel's Xerxes was a tremendous celebration for the Handel bicentenary and remains in the reperoire for 2005.This 1998 recording of the original cast is not quite as blissful as the first run, but contains quite enough joy to make the purchase self-reccommending. Best are Christopher Robson's Arsamenes, fluent and heroic, and Jean Rigby's Amastris, unforgettably beautiful of voice and person. Ann Murray's Xerxes is steely of voice but vivid of character and breath-taking in technical assurance, whlst Lesley Garrett's Atalanta has perky charm and a large dose of sheer bravura, even when the theatrical coyness grits the teeth. The most sheerly beauitful singing comes (intermittently) from Valerie Masterson, who also looks ravishing as Romilda, although her tone at 52 is less reliably pure than the contining precision of her technique. It is truly sad that the best work of this outstanding singer with the exception of Mireille and Gilda in Geneva (Semele at the ROH, Manon at ENO, Marguerite at the Paris Opera, Countess Almaviva at the Aix-en-Provence Festival and the Marschallin in Liège) was not preserved, but there are enough hints here to show what she was able to achieve to enable any imaginative viewer to enjoy a magical three hours or so.
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3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best Handel DVD yet!, 20 May 2005
By A Customer
This performance is by a top cast of English performers at the English National Opera in London. This purchase is worth it only for the fact that Ann Murray sings a superlative Serse (Xerxes). The title role of Serse, which Handel composed for the great castrato Gaetano Majorano (who also trained with Farrinelli's teacher Nicola Porpora), is plainly put a terrifying part. Ann Murray (in probably Handel's most testing role for a castrato next Teseo in 'Arianna in Creta') offers a clarion and creamy voice which meets every obstacle with her excellent technique. The fact that every aria is stylishly and stylistically decorated according to the competencies of the specific singer are breathtaking: especially in Serse's big set pieces of every Act where MacKerras went to town making the decoration as difficult and intricate as possible. Needles to say these decorations do not seem to trouble Murray at all as she whizzes through them with unbelievable ease. Her colleagues Valerie Masterson (Romilda), Leslie Garrett (Atalanta) and Christopher Robson (Arsamene), to name but a few, excel in this clever production. Leslie Garrett especially seems to have been born to sing Atalanta. MacKerras's use of rhythm is not very interesting, but his tempi are very well-chosen and the dramatic pace impressive! Forget other performances of this opera...The English translation (and please note I generally prefer operas to be sung in their original language) fits the music like a glove. The costumes are not modern - mostly 18th century flavoured (around the time of George III). This production by Nicholas Hytner is a clever, nostalgic, funny at times, and a true updating - unlike the Bondy "Don Carlos" - of an opera with a very complicated plot. In hindsight one wishes the same production team had done the ENO's 'Ariodante'.
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