DVD Videos

“Mortally wounded by the censors, Verdi's 1850 opera disappeared for more than a century. This Met staging is impressively sung, especially by Domingo in the title role.” BBC Music Magazine, Proms 2007 ****

“…the production… was mounted specifically for Domingo who enjoyed in it one of the most impressive triumphs of his career, happily preserved now in sight as well as sound.” Gramophone Magazine, September 2007

“…this is much more than a Debussyian curio, a strikingly stageworthy vindication of the score.” BBC Music Magazine, September 2007 ****

“There are some beguiling dance sequences, especially the one between Boris and Lidochka - Vladimir Vasilyev and Olga Zabotkina, who are charming - and a whole gallery of deftly-observed character roles. …Shostakovich's hit-and-miss score is played with panache by the Leningrad Philharmonic under the highly distinguished leadership of Nikolay Rabinovich. With its zestful if relentlessly buoyant period flavour, the film knocks spots of any of the recent productions.” BBC Music Magazine, Proms 2007 *****

“Like The Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk a quarter of a century earlier, Shostakovich's one and only musical was a hit. Other similarities are hard to find. Unlike its bloody predecessor, Cheryomushki did not fall from official grace. In fact such was the breadth of esteem it enjoyed that it was reworked as a feature-film in 1963 – four years after its first staging – and broadcast on Soviet television at intervals for the rest of the composer's life. It was even, as Andrew Huth's helpful essay recalls, released in the US, under the title Song over Moscow, albeit it to rather less acclaim than in its homeland.
This anodyne little comedy about rehousing (to Moscow's 'Cherry-trees' suburbs) and petty corruption had enormous resonance for Russians in the Khrushchev and Brezhnev eras. Both the musical and the film were brilliantly engineered pieces of Socialist Realist spin, encouraging good-humoured acceptance of dire social conditions and continued belief in a 'bright future'.
There is satire here, but only of the most cautious variety: with a smile, but no teeth.
Of its kind the film is admirably put together, and both audio and video scrub up well in its remastering for DVD. A good deal of innocuous fun is had on the part of the singer-actors, many of whom would have been familiar to Soviet audiences. The squally sopranos and boomy baritones may be an acquired taste, but the direction – both musical and visual – has the sharpness of pacing crucial to the genre.
Yet the film version is in no way a substitute for the musical itself. For one thing, probably little more than a third of the music Shostakovich 'composed' survives the translation of media (though completists should note that he actually added bits for the film as well). For another thing, the re-jigging of the scenario is extensive (but then so it would most likely have been in stage productions). For a full picture of Shostakovich's score we really need also a reissue of the sparky Melodiya LP recording conducted by Grigory Stolyarov. Meanwhile this DVD provides us with a fine document of Soviet culture in the late-Thaw years and some modest entertainment value over and above that.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“…the film is admirably put together, and both audio and video scrub up well in its remastering for DVD. The squally sopranos and boomy baritones may be an acquired taste, but the direction - both musical and visual - has the sharpness of pacing crucial to the genre...” Gramophone Magazine, September 2007

“[On Sonia Ganassi] A wonderful young mezzo-soprano enviably possessed of stage presence and a first-rate vocal technique.” Gramophone Magazine

“There can be nothing but praise for Angela Denoke’s debut as Sieglinde, she seems to have taken up Rysanek’s mantle.” Opera News

“Christophe Rousset and his forces deliver an excellently paced reading and much of the singing is perfectly judged. Pierre Audi's production, while it moves the cast around efficiently enough, is at times obscure in its use of gesture…” BBC Music Magazine, July 2007 ****