DVD Videos

“[Abbado] is electrifying throughout...The playing of the Vienna orchestra is exquisite in the quieter episodes and sumptuous in tone, as is the moving contribution of the chorus...The camera is expertly directed, and always where the viewer wants it. This is a mandatory choice for all lovers of Russian opera.” Penguin Guide, 2011 edition

“this Australian Opera production brilliantly overcomes the limitations of a theatre and the electricity and vitality of Sir Charles Mackerras's conducting makes one readily forget any shortcomings...thanks to the excellent singing and conducting, the impact of Wagner's great score catches you as it would in the theatre.” Penguin Guide, 2010 **/*

“Palmer's 1998 film is much more documentary than performance, but it does bring the great benefit of letting us hear Placido Domingo as Parsifal...As always with Palmer, it is a film both thoughtful and provocative” Penguin Guide, 2010 ***

“Britten's penultimate opera was planned to be equally effective on television or in the opera house, but it was its first stage production at Covent Garden that made the bigger impact,. Now this film version, imaginatively directed by Margaret Williams and tautly conducted by Kent Nagano, helps swing the balance the other way.
There's almost nothing stagey about the opera here. The camera roams freely indoors and out, using cleverly executed angles to follow members of the fearsome Wingrave family at their ancestral home, and throwing in flashbacks and voice-overs wherever they might be apposite – much as one might expect of an adaptation of a literary classic. In fact, the period has been updated to the 1950s, which necessitates some minor changes to Myfanwy Piper's libretto (no need to escort the ladies to their bedchambers by candlelight any more) but this handsome version in all other respects stays close to Britten's intentions.
Gerald Finley is a tower of strength as Owen Wingrave, completely believable as the sturdy but sensitive scion of an upper-crust family. The other singers are well cast, and play expertly to the camera.
The 'special feature' on the disc, Teresa Griffiths's three-part biographical film, BenjaminBritten: The Hidden Heart, lasts as long as the opera. It focuses on three major works – PeterGrimes, the War Requiem and Death in Venice – and, while its message is somewhat diffuse and the editorial style jumps irritatingly from image to image as if afraid to let the camera come to rest, it does include a wealth of fleeting extracts showing Britten and Pears in performance.
Those alone are enough to make it a desirable collector's item.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“Finley and his top-drawer British actor/singer colleagues tread an impeccably drawn line beween emotion and excess. Nagano and his German players might have been a strange choice but they are never less than efficient.” Gramophone Magazine, June 2013

“The unsympathetic fiancee, Kate...seems a more complex character than before, well taken by Charlotte Hellekant, and the gallery of disagreeable family-members is strongly cast too” Penguin Guide, 2010 edition ***

“We've cursed modern producers and their productions often enough, but here's a delight. The conductor, working with his own edition of the opera, is Alberto Zedda. But when the director and designer, Dario Fo, takes the last, climatic bow, he deserves every cheer he gets.
The performance was filmed at the Netherlands Opera in 1991, but the production dates back to 1987, and was Fo's first for the operatic stage. Employing a group of mime artists, he places the action in a commedia dell'arte setting and opens with a brilliant pantomime-accompaniment to the overture. The ideas match the music, and the visual style suits the elegance of Zedda's orchestral players. Throughout the opening solos, chorus and duet, a delightful ingenuity of movement plays along with the singers, who have the youth and elasticity of voice, limb and spirit to cope with the thousandand- one tasks thrown at them. There's very little sense of distraction or overloading; just a feast of melody, wit and energy.
The tenor Robert Croft impresses most: his tone is clear; his scales are fluent and evenly articulated, and he can apply vocal decoration with panache and delicacy. The Figaro, another American, David Malis, has personality and bright high notes. Jennifer Larmore's Rosina, better when seen than merely heard, is strongvoiced and technically accomplished. Renato Capecchi is a memorable Bartolo, distinct from the potbellied bumbler of convention.
In the theatre the production might be found too restless, but, expertly filmed, it's just about the most enjoyable comic opera production available on DVD.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010