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Mozart: Don Giovanni -- Zurich/Harnoncourt [DVD] [2002]
 
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Mozart: Don Giovanni -- Zurich/Harnoncourt [DVD] [2002]

DVD ~ Rodney Gilfry
4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Actors: Rodney Gilfry, László Polgár, Isabelle Rey, Cecilia Bartoli, Roberto Saccà
  • Format: Box set, Classical, PAL, Widescreen
  • Language Italian
  • Subtitles: Italian, English, German, French, Spanish
  • Region: All Regions
  • Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
  • Number of discs: 2
  • Classification: Exempt
  • Studio: ARTHAUS
  • DVD Release Date: 12 Mar 2002
  • Run Time: 187 minutes
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
  • ASIN: B000062Y6J
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 46,434 in DVD (See Bestsellers in DVD)

    Popular in these categories:

    #10 in  DVD > Musicals & Classical > Opera > Composers > Mozart
    #37 in  DVD > Musicals & Classical > Opera > Composers > Offenbach

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Reviews

Amazon.co.uk Review
In this Zurich Opera House staging of Mozart’s darkly comic cautionary fable Don Giovanni the lighting and stage design keep the characters shaded in half-shadow: even Zerlina’s wedding feels like a subdued affair here, and the Don’s banqueting room is a suitably gloomy venue for the Stone Guest’s climactic visit for a spot of dinner and damnation. Both this staging and video director Brian Large’s filming play no tricks with the audience’s expectations, opting for a largely traditional presentation of this tragedy of swaggering bravado, cuckolded lovers and revenge from beyond the grave.

Nikolaus Harnoncourt brings all the sensitivity of his historically informed approach to the orchestra pit. Heading a very strong cast are Rodney Gilfry, defiantly strong-voiced but also haughtily handsome as the seducing Don, and Cecilia Bartoli, a mercurial presence as Donna Elvira. Their scenes together crackle and fizz, even when Bartoli’s extremely ripe vibrato contrasts a little uncomfortably with Harnoncourt’s authenticity. Liliana Nikiteanu makes for a pretty, naïve Zerlina, convincingly torn between her Masetto (Oliver Widmer) and the animalistic attraction of the Don. Laszlo Polgar’s Leporello is wheedling and base, but still the inheritor of his master’s charisma; Isabel Rey and Roberto Sacca are solid as the colourless moralists Anna and Ottavio; while Matti Salminen’s powerful Commendatore isn’t expected to do anything more than stand still and declaim. Overall this is an excellent musical performance, unexceptionally staged.

On the DVD: Don Giovanni on disc has a good 24-minute "Behind the Scenes" feature, including interviews with Cecilia Bartoli, Harnoncourt, Gilfry and Isabel Rey. There’s also a trailer for other ArtHaus releases. The 16:9 picture sometimes struggles to bring definition to the dimly lit sets; sound though is crisp and clean PCM stereo or Dolby 5.1. There are subtitles in five languages. --Mark Walker

Special Features
16:9 Wide Screen
Region 0
Behind The Scenes
English\French\German\Italian\Spanish


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Customer Reviews

8 Reviews
5 star:
 (3)
4 star:
 (3)
3 star:
 (1)
2 star:
 (1)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.0 out of 5 stars (8 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Forget about the buffo part, 4 Oct 2003
By Michael Bo - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   
The Flimm production of 'Giovanni' from Zurich is no masterpiece, but it does have a lot going for it. Wonder's sets and the way they are lighted evoke the multi-textured realms of Caravaggio and Rembrandt, and Harnoncourt's musical realization of Mozart's score is idiomatic and quite a far cry from the way the Classicists are normally perceived. There is such drama, such heightened emotion at play here, and it is never any less than a matter of life and death, which is hardly what composer and librettist intended with their buffo-opera, but, but, but: it works. Flimm's ideas are few and far between, but he never intrudes. Three singers stand out with absolutely marvellous performances: Saccà is utter tenorial purity as Ottavio, Bartoli is a hissingly venomous but ultimately heartbreaking Elvira, but even more so Gilfry in the title role, his sexuality is hypnotic, his legato silken, his arrogance stupendous. His is almost an Oscar-worthy performance.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Hmmm...., 28 Jan 2006
By A Customer
To be honest, I really don't like this production. At all. The sets were poor and jarred with the opera itself (Why was there a backdrop of river boats in the scene where the Don seduces Zerlina?), the costumes were bland and didn't seem to know what period they were settling for. Elvira wore an 18th Century dress, while Giovanni seemed to be dressed a lot like Lord Flashheart from 'Blackadder goes fourth' for most of the opera.

Most of the singers did nothing for me. I wanted to throw things at the telly whenever Bartolli came on stage, her acting was so over the top. If you want to see a top quality Bartoli performance see her as Susanna in 'Figaro' but not here. Her voice isn't right for the part of Elvira and 'Mi Tradi' is taken far too slowly for my taste. Laszlo Polgar as Leporello has a good voice to be sure, but he's a bit of a lousy actor which is a travesty in this fantastic role. I found Isabel Rey and Roberto Sacca quite boring really, despite their lovely singing. I know these aren't easy parts to act, but I've seen Hillevi Martinpelto and John Mark Ainsley make excellent characters of them in the Glyndebourne DVD. I thought that Liliana Nikiteanu was an okay actress, but I felt her voice was too heavy for this role. Matti Salminen is usually excellent, but here is given very little to do apart from stand there and sing. I really hate the way Oliver Widmer's Maesetto has been portrayed. Urgh. Why have they made him into a drunken idiot? Why? It just didn't work, you couldn't really have any sympathy with him.

So why have I given it three stars? Simple really. Rodney Gilfrey is the very best Don Giovanni I've ever seen, and I don't think I'll ever see anyone play this role better. He epitomises the words dangerously sexy, and sings fabulously.

I would tell you to buy this DVD, seriously. But only to see Gilfrey's performance. But buy it only if you're familliar with the opera, so that you can skip through every scene he's not in. I really don't recommend it for any other reason. Harnencourt seems to have chosen his singers purely on their vocal ability. Some may say that's a good thing, but I don't agree in the case of Mozart opera. Because the music is so divine and yet so human, it needs to be well acted as well as well sung. This is why Mozart is so notoriously difficult to perform. As for Harnencourt's conducting itself, it's very good. Taken at good tempo throughout, apart from the awful interpretation of 'Mi tradi'.

In conclusion: Buy it for Mozart's music. Don Giovanni is proof of the myth that Mozart's music was in fact 'touched by God'. Buy it also for Gilfrey's performance. You may not see another like it.

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best opera DVDs available, 16 Jan 2005
There is very little I would not call perfect in this opera. The staging is excellent - every pause, every bar of music seems motivated by what goes on on stage; and the slightly surreal backgrounds make the story timeless. The conductor and singers bring out what is most lovely and dramatic in Mozart; I have seldom heard anything like it (particularly the duetts and choruses are amazing). Gilfry has found his true metier in Don Giovanni - he is a scary, egoistic and sexy menace with a lovely voice. Polgar as Leporello has an inspiring comic ability paired to a voice like chocolate. The females are, as usual in Harnancourt operas, exceptional - Rey and Nikiteanu have not only lovely and sure voices, but are very good actors (especially Nikiteanu as Zerlina). Bartoli, of course, has a dramatic and interesting voice; her stage presence in all but one aria is, however, somewhat of a disaster (to hear her spoken of as "noble and tragic" by the other actors is involuntarily comic). She moves and acts like a rather dim and chubby little girl. But! her singing is faultless, full of passion and sweetness. Widmer as Masetto is a very fun casting, and Salminen's Commendatore something rather unusual. This is probably the opera that one can watch and re-watch most often. It is an epitome of Mozart.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining
This is a very good Don Giovanni with darkness interwoven with light humour. Bartoli sometimes is a little over the top in her role as Donna Elvira. Read more
Published 17 months ago by Aquinas

4.0 out of 5 stars Not the best but Cecilia Bartoli is subvlime
I think this comment just about sums it up.

For me Cicilia Bartoli can do no wrong ... you must see her in La Chenorentola!!! Read more
Published 22 months ago by David M. Calvert-Orange

5.0 out of 5 stars My favorite opera DVD
I have seldom seen a Don Giovanni which is more convincing than this. The drama, sexuality, fear and anger work - without ever going outside the mannered context of a beautifully... Read more
Published on 6 Aug 2005

2.0 out of 5 stars A disappointment
This production is not too successful. It surprised me, because I thought Rodney Gilfry would be such an obvious Don Giovanni. Read more
Published on 19 April 2005 by Christian Aalling

4.0 out of 5 stars Don Giovanni
I usually judge Don Giovanni by the effectiveness of the near to final scene where Don Giovanni gets dragged into hell - and this version is distinctly average compared to some... Read more
Published on 3 Jan 2003 by D MACKNESS

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