Join Amazon Prime and get unlimited Free One-Day Delivery. Already a member? Sign in.

 

or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
   
More Buying Choices
18 new from £11.44
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
   
Bartok - Bluebeard's Castle [DVD] [1981]
 
See larger image 
Share your own customer images

Bartok - Bluebeard's Castle [DVD] [1981]

DVD ~ Sylvia Sass
4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
RRP: £19.99
Price: £19.59 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
You Save: £0.40 (2%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In stock.
Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk. Gift-wrap available.

Only 4 left in stock--order soon (more on the way).

Want guaranteed delivery by Tuesday, July 21? Choose Express delivery at checkout. See Details
18 new from £11.44
Learn about Lovefilm
Amazon's choice for DVD rental.
With a 14 day FREE trial. Learn more

Frequently Bought Together

Bartok - Bluebeard's Castle [DVD] [1981] + Leos Janacek - From the House of the Dead / Chereau, Boulez (Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 2007) [DVD] + Strauss - Arabella [DVD] [1984]
Total RRP: £59.97
Price For All Three: £51.66

Show availability and shipping details

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

Bartok - Bluebeard's Castle [DVD] [1981]
80% buy the item featured on this page:
Bartok - Bluebeard's Castle [DVD] [1981] 4.0 out of 5 stars (1)
£19.59
Leos Janacek - From the House of the Dead / Chereau, Boulez (Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 2007) [DVD]
8% buy
Leos Janacek - From the House of the Dead / Chereau, Boulez (Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 2007) [DVD] 5.0 out of 5 stars (4)
£12.48
Bartók: Duke Bluebeard's Castle
7% buy
Bartók: Duke Bluebeard's Castle 5.0 out of 5 stars (3)
Daniel Barenboim - Wagner - Tristan und Isolde [DVD] [2007]
5% buy
Daniel Barenboim - Wagner - Tristan und Isolde [DVD] [2007] 5.0 out of 5 stars (1)
£13.98
Explore similar items

Product details

  • Actors: Sylvia Sass, Kolos Kovats, Georg Solti
  • Directors: Miklos Szinetar
  • Format: AC-3, Classical, Colour, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, DVD-Video, Full Screen, PAL, Subtitled
  • Language English
  • Subtitles: Chinese, English, French, German, Spanish
  • Region: All Regions
  • Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
  • Number of discs: 1
  • Classification: Exempt
  • Studio: Universal Classics & Jazz
  • DVD Release Date: 17 Mar 2008
  • Run Time: 58 minutes
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
  • ASIN: B0011WMWWU
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 40,279 in DVD (See Bestsellers in DVD)

    Popular in this category:

    #35 in  Music > Classical Instrumental > Composers > A-B > Bartók

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Reviews

DVD Description
Tracklist 1. Bartok: Bluebeard's Castle: Titles Stereo 2. Opening Scene. "Megérkeztünk" Stereo 3. Door 1. "Jaj!" "Mit látsz? Mit látsz?" "Láncok, kések" Stereo 4. Door 2. "Mit látsz?" "Százkegyetlen szörnyü fegyver" Stereo 5. Door 3. "Oh, be sok kincs! Oh, be sok kincs!" Stereo 6. Door 4. "Oh! virágok! Oh! ilatoskert!" Stereo 7. Door 5. "Ah!" "Lásdez az én birodalmam" Stereo 8. Door 6. "Csendes fehér tavat látok" Stereo 9. Door 7. "Lásd a régi aszszonyokat" Stereo

Synopsis
Sir Georg Solti conducts the London Philharmonic Orchestra in a performance of Bela Bartok's only opera, BLUEBEARD'S CASTLE.

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Leos Janacek - From the House of the Dead / Chereau, Boulez (Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 2007) [DVD]

Leos Janacek - From the House of the Dead / Chereau, Boulez (Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 2007) [DVD]

DVD ~ John Mark Ainsley
5.0 out of 5 stars (4)  £12.48
Strauss - Arabella [DVD] [1984]

Strauss - Arabella [DVD] [1984]

DVD ~ Otto Schenk
5.0 out of 5 stars (1)  £19.59
Parsifal - Wagner/Stein [DVD] [2007]

Parsifal - Wagner/Stein [DVD] [2007]

DVD ~ Brian Large
4.8 out of 5 stars (5)  £15.48
Pizzetti - Assassinio Nella Cattedrale [DVD] [2007]

Pizzetti - Assassinio Nella Cattedrale [DVD] [2007]

DVD ~ Ruggero Raimondi
£15.69
Berg: Lulu - Glyndebourne Festival Opera [DVD] [1996]

Berg: Lulu - Glyndebourne Festival Opera [DVD] [1996]

DVD ~ Christine Schafer
5.0 out of 5 stars (3)  £13.98
› Explore similar items

Suggested Tags from Similar Products

 (What's this?)
Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
Check a corresponding box or enter your own tags in the field below
opera dvd
opera
hungarian opera
bartok opera

Your tags: Add your first tag
 
See most popular tags
 

Customer Reviews

1 Review
5 star:    (0)
4 star:
 (1)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.0 out of 5 stars (1 customer review)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars A fantastic Bluebeard - but "Caveat Emptor"..., 4 April 2008
By Loge (Edinburgh, Scotland) - See all my reviews
This is a strangely beautiful, resonant and, I found, totally compelling film of Béla Bartók's astonishing early opera (his only one). On initial viewing it's almost overwhelming and the final images are an exquisite - and appalling - finale.

At the time of composition Bartók was still very much under the influence of Wagner and Richard Strauss and - like his librettist, Béla Balázs - French symbolism. For Bartók that meant, in particular, Debussy's tonal sophistication, directness and atmospherics, but he was also keen to incorporate genuine Magyar folk traditions and Transylvanian ballads as source material. This he concentrated into a potentially harrowing hour of music, broadly through dramatic grandeur and emotional progress for Judith and her journey, and a more static, controlled declamation for Bluebeard, bound together by repeating motifs. (The `blood' motif - an interval of a minor second - accompanies the opening of each door, and each door has, effectively, its own mini tone poem, revealing and explaining, in rich and detailed sonority the meaning of the contents behind the door.) And this is not 'difficult' Bartok - that comes later in his career - but rather High Late Romanticism with a Gothic twist.

But then the caveats come in. For this film to work you have to give yourself over to the strangeness, the other-worldly representational imagery it deploys. Given the sheer power; the genuinely visceral strength and emotional weight of Bartók's almost elemental score this can work, and work fabulously. But given how much detail, how much is made explicit in the music, there is a real question about how - if at all - this can be meaningfully staged.

I first became aware of this opera through a Scottish Opera double bill with Stravinsky's "Oedipus Rex" and immediately adored both, buying CDs the next day - in the case of "Bluebeard" the Christa Ludwig/Walter Berry/István Kertész recording that is still considered the benchmark. Musically this DVD runs it a close second - indeed, musically this is undoubtedly a five star performance, propulsive and ravishing. Solti's reading is finely detailed where needed and appropriately dark. He conjures astonishing tonal range in the great orchestral highpoints whilst picking up on telling orchestral detail: the hints of dissonant woodwind at the opening of the fourth door; the magnificence of the fifth with its deep underlying organ beneath the C major brass unison - an aural magnificence that almost inevitably can't be matched by our view through the door; the eerie stillness behind the sixth door over which Sass' voice floats as the music intensifies to its odd rising harp arpeggios pleading and questioning (Solti here is a master of the mysterious and weird; the occasional sighs and moans of the castle spine-tingling); the almost lush romanticism of the Seventh Door until Judith's earlier question, asked quite matter-of-factly, "Who has bled to feed your garden?" gets its answer. And then a final fading away.

The London Philharmonic Orchestra is on top form. Sylvia Sass is a fully convincing Judith, carrying the stylised acting manner perfectly and increasingly poignant as her `quest' reaches its conclusion. By the end our empathic identification with her is total. Kolos Kováts is imposing and firm-toned as Bluebeard (if you're not in the right frame of mind he may seem rather heavy-handedly villainous, straight out of the Hammer House of Horror at its hammy worst!). All round, however, this is an exceptional performance. The singers lip-sync to a pre-recorded sound track. This is usually the kiss of death for me; here I don't find it hugely problematic, probably a combination of singers faces not always being visible, moments of such visual power that it's not noticed and a lot of time because it's actually done quite well. Additionally, of course, there are quite a few purely orchestral moments.

The relatively poor handling of the fifth door makes plain the central dilemma of staging "Bluebeard". This is a very "interior" work; a cantata on relationship, personal history, trust, and isolation. On one level Judith is probing Bluebeard's mind and stripping it back to its deepest, darkest - and as bad as you feared - kernel. How do you put that on stage? Bartók's intention - and usual practice - is to have the seven doors leading off a darkened central hall. As each door is opened coloured light floods into the stage. Here each door opens into a whole new vista, loosely based on Roman arcades, often crumbling - of racks and chains, or serried ranks of weaponry, improbable diamonds or verdant flowers. If you buy into it this can be wonderful - if not, bathetic, even risible.

This is a 2008 DVD re-issue of a 1981 VHS video - re-mastered in 5.1 surround sound - and is worth buying if only for its musical excellence. Personally, I completely buy into this strange, almost surreal stylised vision. The final images of Judith joining her three predecessors behind the seventh door is as beautiful as it is disturbing, but I can see that this could leave some people cold.

I'd strongly recommend this DVD for its tremendous musical brilliance and power alone. As a DVD, at the very least you'll get appropriate and resonant imagery as background to this astonishing work - but you may find that, like me, you have a film that you will cherish.
Comment Comments (2) | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Only search this product's reviews


Customer Discussions

 Beta (What's this?)
This product's forum (0 discussions)
  Discussion Replies Latest Post
  No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
  [Cancel]


Active discussions in related forums
   
Related forums

Listmania!

Create a Listmania! list

Look for similar items by category

Feedback

Fun for Everyone

Christmas Gifts
Achieve over 15,000 RPM with our great range of Powerballs.

›Shop the Powerball store

  

Up to 75% off Shoes

Shoe Clearance - 75% off Shoes
Save up to 75% on shoes for the whole family.

›Shop clearance shoes

  

Boys Smell

Lynx Africa Body Spray and After Shave Gift set
But we make sure they smell good...

›Discover male grooming at Amazon.co.uk

  

Treat Someone

Amazon.co.uk Gift Certificates--available in any amount from £5 to £500 With an Amazon.co.uk Gift Certificate, you can get them what they want (even if you don't know what that is).

›Learn more about Gift Certificates

  
Ad

Where's My Stuff?

Delivery and Returns

Need Help?

Your Recent History

  (What's this?)
You have no recently viewed items or searches.

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.

Look to the right column to find helpful suggestions for your shopping session.
Continue Shopping: Top Sellers

amazon.co.uk Amazon Home
International Sites:  United States  |  Germany  |  France  |  Japan  |  Canada  |  China
Business Programs: Sell on Amazon  |  Fulfilment by Amazon  |  Join Associates  |  Join Advantage
Customer Service  |  Help  |  View Basket  |  Your Account
About Amazon.co.uk  |  Careers at Amazon
Conditions of Use & Sale |  Privacy Notice  © 1996-2009, Amazon.com, Inc. and its affiliates