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“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

“Colin Davis...proves an inspired interpreter, taut in control as well as warmly expressive, drawing vividly atmospheric playing from the orchestra to supplement the brilliantly effective sets, minimal but wonderfully evocative in their dark picture of the Borough.” Penguin Guide, 2010 ***

“an ideal cast of principals and passionate, idiomatic conducting...the glorious singing of Placido Domingo as Des Grieux comes over heroically, and Kiri te Kanawa as Manon is both girlish and provocative...Thomas Allen is equally characterful and strong as Lescaut...For a realistic presentation it would be hard to find any rival.” Penguin Guide, 2010 edition ****

“Domingo is in superb voice...Neblett as the Girl sings freshly with an appealing directness, untroubled by the formidable demands of the role. Carroli makes an aptly sinister Rance” Penguin Guide, 2010 edition ****