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Verdi: Macbeth [DVD] [2000]
 
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Verdi: Macbeth [DVD] [2000]

DVD ~ Renato Bruson
3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)

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Product details

  • Actors: Renato Bruson, Mara Zampieri, Berlin German Orchestra and Choir, Giuseppe Sinopoli
  • Format: Classical, Full Screen, PAL
  • Language English
  • Subtitles: English, French, German
  • Region: Region 2 (This DVD may not be viewable outside Europe. Read more about DVD formats.)
  • Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
  • Number of discs: 1
  • Classification: Exempt
  • Studio: Arthaus Musik
  • DVD Release Date: 29 Jan 2001
  • Run Time: 150 minutes
  • Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
  • ASIN: B000058UUP
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 108,007 in DVD (See Bestsellers in DVD)

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Reviews

Amazon.co.uk Review
One of the best of Verdi's earlier operas, Macbeth has a distinctive energy to which, in this performance, conductor Sinopoli gives full rein. His excellent chorus--terrifyingly skittish witches, mournful exiles, sinister-facetious murderers, outraged and vengeful courtiers in the aftermath of Duncan's murder--is as much a participant as the principals, and the orchestral accompaniment reminds us that what the young Verdi lacked of his later subtlety he made up in sheer vigour. Renato Bruson is an extraordinary Macbeth, caught in a nightmare of his own making and unable to find release save through further killings and eventually self-destruction; Maria Zampieri has the sort of voice Verdi specified and which many productions avoid, a voice prepared to give its all, not to any sort of lyric beauty but to a harshness that is dramatically appropriate--this is a fine characterisation. Dennis O'Neill has comparatively little to do, but makes his vengeance aria a memorable reminder that guilt and shame are not all that this opera is about. --Roz Kaveney

Special Features
4:3 Full Frame
English
Region 2
PCM Stereo English
PCM Stereo
English\French\German


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3.0 out of 5 stars (1 customer review)
 
 
 
 
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Hmmmmm, 29 Sep 2007
By spalanzane (North Wales) - See all my reviews
Any Verdi production featuring Renato Bruson is worth watching, the guy is in the top three of Verdi baritones from the 70s and 80s. Unfortunately, this Macbeth wouldn't be on my all-time favourite list. I wasn't such a big fan of the recording on Philips, which is conducted by Sinopoli and has Bruson and Zampieri as Macbeth and his Lady, and the DVD of the performance didn't really do that much for me either. Zampieri is the sole draw here, she is a very effective actress and has a much more steely voice here than she did in the recording - halfway through I was under the impression she was losing it, she sounded so much more hoarse than in the cavatina, but in this live recording she maintains that clarion-like sound all the way through.

Sinopoli cuts, mindlessly, several bars from the coda to Banco's aria in act two, and then the entire "Ondine e silfidi" ballabile chorus near the end of act three, which jarred me too much to let it pass. The director seemed to have trouble finding much for the witches' chorus to do besides writhe about and look sinister (in their black little beards, taking Banco's joke a little too far in my opinion), so I suppose cutting the chorus was a way of saving us more of the same. What I thought odd was the omission of a cauldron. Granted, the apparitions were done fairly well (even if the same person was used for numbers 2 and 3), but when Macbeth says "The cauldron has disappeared" when it wasn't even there to start with, you have to wonder what's going on.

Another jarring aspect of the DVD was the way the camera cuts back to Sinopoli in the pit in the middle of the action - for instance, the con slancio of the first act finale, we suddenly see Sinopoli in all his grandeur leading the orchestra. I must admit I've never seen this done before, so am used to seeing nothing of the conductor after the overture/prelude save for those windmill arms until we reach the curtain calls.

I did like the banquet scene, Banco's reappearance was well done. Having the witches at the banquet and parting to reveal what we are told is Banco's ghost (when in actual fact it's just James Morris in the same costume as before) was a good way of doing this effect (I've heard of a production that decided, as it was Macbeth's hallucination, Banco wasn't actually there at all...hmmm...)

So its a fairly mixed bag for me. If you like your early Verdi conducted with the grand majesty of some of the later works then Sinopoli is the man. If, like me, you prefer to give it some gusto and whip through the score like a firecracker then I'd leave it on the shelf. Mara Zampieri is definitely worth buying this for, but if that's not enough then I'd look elsewhere.
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