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Alcina - PAL [DVD] [1999]

DVD ~ Catherine Naglestad

3.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)

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What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

	67% buy the item featured on this page: Alcina - PAL [DVD] [1999] 3.3 out of 5 stars (6) �24.49
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Product details

Actors: Catherine Naglestad, Alice Coote, Helene Schneiderman, Catriona Smith, Rolf Romei
Format: Classical, PAL, Widescreen
Language German
Subtitles: German, English, French, Italian, Spanish
Region: All Regions
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Number of discs: 1
Classification: Exempt
Studio: ARTHAUS
DVD Release Date: 21 Jan 2002
Run Time: 159 minutes

Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)

ASIN: B00005YTLG
Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 67,383 in DVD (See Bestsellers in DVD)

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Reviews

Amazon.co.uk Review

Produced with the cast of a year-2000 Stuttgart stage version, this performance of Handel's 1735 opera Alcina has been specially shot for home viewing without the audience present (though applause is heard during the closing credits). Director Janos Darvas enhances the usual low theatre illumination with stronger television-friendly lighting to provide more detail, and he also takes his cameras much closer to the artists than live performance permits, offering film-style close-ups that greatly enhance the drama. With just eight performers and an essentially static set--though some intriguing interesting things are done with a large "mirror"--this intimate approach proves an enormous advantage.

Handel's complex tale of intense romantic entanglement on the island of the enchantress Alcina focuses as much on high-voltage acting as powerful music-making. The 20th-century costumes are initially disconcerting, but soon become part of a psychologically intense world where time seems out of joint and charged with otherwise-unimaginable emotional possibilities. As Alcina, Catherine Naglestad gives an extraordinary performance, both strikingly passionate and deeply sensual, her revealing costuming being just the most obvious sign of a production intent on the erotic. Though Naglestad dominates, each performer offers memorable characterisation and fine singing.

On the DVD: Alcina comes to disc with an anamorphically enhanced 16:9 picture that is clear and detailed, while the PCM stereo audio is natural and is recorded with good presence. Other than various optional subtitles, including English, extras are entirely absent. Within the booklet is a brief biography of Handel, background notes on Alcina and a synopsis, but nothing on the artists or performance. --Gary S Dalkin

DVD Description

Feature Length: 159 mins
Sound Format: PCM Stereo
Menu Languages: GB, D, F, SP
Subtitle Languages: I, D, F, SP, GB
Picture Format: 16:9
Region Code: 0
Colour

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Customer Reviews

6 Reviews

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

Average Customer Review

3.3 out of 5 stars (6 customer reviews)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Alcina considered, 27 Aug 2005

By	Kate Guelke (Northern Ireland) - See all my reviews

This strangely engaging production has been judged too harshly by other Amazon reviewers who have failed to cite the weaknesses of this interpretation as the weaknesses of the original. For, in spite of the change of setting and modern day dress, emotionally, Morabito and Wieler have followed a fairly traditional line. If a character experiences a violent mood swing, the direction moves with it. And this is where their "Alcina" falls down. The absurdities of the plot are sometimes too much to swallow. The serious, semi-naturalistic approach proves problematic when out of the high drama (made credible by some excellent acting) there is a mention of magic; when Alcina's "spell" is broken by a magic ring, when Ruggiero, feigning his love, tells Alcina it is not necessary to turn his rival Ricciardo (in reality his disguised betrothed Bradamante) into a beast to calm his jealousy. It is a pity that the directors could find no sensible metaphor for sorcery, ridding their production of it entirely rather than just ignoring it for the majority of the time and accepting jarring references.

As for the superficial details - the little black dresses, the intimate caresses etc. - which have created so much controversy, they can hardly be considered shocking in the opera world, especially the Stuttgart opera world. To my mind these touches, whilst perhaps lacking in subtlety, are in fact perfectly in keeping with the irrational passions that run through Handel's opera.

Musically certainly worth a listen for the knock out performances of the three leads, particularly Alice Coote's masculine and dramatically intense Ruggiero.

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28 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Sexploitation, 22 Oct 2002

By	Robin Elliott (Canada) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

A disappointment on all levels. Alan Hacker, the British clarinettist, is not much of a Baroque stylist as a conductor; the fast tempi are too slow, and the slow ones too fast. Lots of music is cut, and several da capo arias feature only the A section. But worst of all is the direction. Catherine Naglestad as Alcina is forced to spend much of acts one and two exposing her breasts, to no apparent purpose (other than, no doubt, to fill the theatre in Stuttgart). The libretto speaks of a dagger and the singer brandishes a pistol. There is no attempt to evoke the world of magical transformations that much of the plot revolves around. The entire opera takes place in one dull drawing room with a stupid fake mirror at the rear wall; no enchanted island, no barren desert, or anything else that is meant to be there. The singers are cast at their proper voice ranges, at least, but otherwise this production does violence to Handel's text, and does not offer anything elevating by way of interpretation to compensate for this. The singers are all decent but not great, as is the orchestra. Why this was all deemed worthy of a DVD production for posterity is beyond me.

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4 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Why bother?, 16 Oct 2003

By	Michael Kenward (West Sussex, UK) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Maybe it is unfair to comment on this one after seeing just the first act. But I can't bring myself to watch the rest.

The other review of this production is spot on. I will just add that anyone who saw and appreciated either the William Christie Paris version, or the production at ENO, should avoid this one.

I have nothing against "modern dress" productions - the "Stuttgart" version of Rinaldo with David Daniels is funny and very good - but this one simply does not make sense.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars DANGER - DEEP WATER
The back wall of the set is dominated by a massive gilded baroque picture frame, initially empty, its distressed grandeur an opening to the space beyond. Read more

Published 6 months ago by D. NICHOLLS

4.0 out of 5 stars An Erotic and Magical Alcina despite Modern Setting.
I have always been of the opinion that Alcina contains some of Handel's
finest music, and, after experiencing this DVD I have not waned from
my long held belief. Read more

Published 12 months ago by Semele

4.0 out of 5 stars Alcina - surprising and challenging
I have to admit that this is my first real experience of an opera.... and why choose this one I hear you ask - well I heard great things about the mezzo-soprano Alice Coote... Read more

Published 16 months ago by shuunya

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