Mozart, Humperdinck and Adams on DVD
by Peter Grahame Woolf

These four recently released DVDs illustrate contrasting approaches to opera presentation. Furtwangler's Don Giovanni is a historical document, filmed shortly before his death, and preserving great singers of the mid-'50s in the realistic style of staging which was then current. Carl Czinner was a pioneer in filming opera and achieved this important record of a great performance, mainly at night at the end of the festival. All the principals sing well and have good stage presences, if with a tendency to 'stand and deliver' their arias, and the whole thing paced in too leisurely a manner for today's taste. (Around the same time, I attended the Magic Flute, which was special for Furtwangler, in the same vast outdoor 'Felsenreitschule' carved out of the cliff face, and those memories of his conducting are still present, as is the way as one ages.) Not a likely first choice for younger readers, but for me, and others of my generation, it is a reminder of how things were before opera was 'hijacked' by new theatre directors. I am glad to have seen it.

The Figaro took a little getting used to at first, with very basic, inexpensive staging which emphasises that this is theatre, not reality, and serves to concentrate attention on the modern style opera singing, with gesture and movement mirroring and emphasising every comic twist in the familiar tale. There is some re-ordering, explained by John Eliot Gardiner. The young Count is no match for the wily and menacing Bryn Terfel, in splendid voice, and his Susanna is delicious to watch and hear. The brightness of the authentic instruments is well recorded and the whole thing is a joy, with a team which gives fine accounts of the glorious ensembles. I have seen it twice through and found the staging more persuasive the second time - very strongly recommended.

The Zurich Opera House production of Hansel & Gretel, filmed before a live audience and with children on stage who mime the orchestra during the overture, sounds very well indeed under Welser-Most, who had a rough ride in London with the LPO. The Zurich orchestra glows in music which is almost too sumptuous for the children's fairy tale it supports. Humperdinck's Wagnerian score has always seemed to me overblown disproportionately to the homespun little story, with its old fashioned parents, not schooled in modern child management, unaware of the dangers of child abuse in a wicked world in which a Sandman and a Dew Fairy look after lost children. The (male) witch Voker Vogel is never menacing, and no-one involved makes a serious attempt to frighten us. Liliana Nikiteanu and Malin Hertelius are well cast, sing beautifully together and relate to each other with heartfelt conviction in interpretations which will have been affecting and effective in the opera house. But seen close up in one's own sitting room, they offer no illusion.

I have serious difficulty with the jokey and colourful, cartoon-like Maurice Sendak sets, which seem to belong firmly to the television age. It all adds up to an entertainment which is not for me, and the leisurely progress of the drama may be too slow to maintain the engagement of today's children despite the visual gimmicks introduced. I have preferred productions in which the harsh Mother doubles the Witch to give the audience something to think about!

El Nino is a difficult case and readers should not rely upon my reaction, finally negative. It probably worked better in the theatre, but I found Peter Sellars' elaborate production overloaded. The New York Times review said: " - - No matter where one looked, there were things to do. Musicians played; singers sang; arms waved; feet flashed. Mr. Adams has given us an oratorio as splintered and variegated as the California both he and Mr. Sellars live in, and here the latter has made sure that the eyes will have no rest. - - ". That was the problem. It is opera for contemporary television viewers, who are reckoned to become restive unless a new picture is put before them every few seconds. A range of film images is projected above the stage, with many multi-ethnic references. A contemporary Mary is driven in an old car, her lip pierced and studded.

Multilingual texts (subtitled in the language of your choice) look at the story from various angles. The excellent singers do their best with the material and create something of a devotional atmosphere, though are not best served by close-up exposure to the camera. As they gesture and emote, they are shadowed by dancers. John Adams reverts to over-reliance upon ostinato and harmonic simplicity, paced slowly with word repetition hammering home the message, as in a Handel oratorio (Messiah was an acknowledged model). The music calls for distraction and gets it!

The audience clearly enjoyed it all vastly and the reception, shown on the DVD, underlines its success. El Nino is scheduled to be staged in the UK in 2003; meanwhile, try to sample it before purchase (see also John Adams website: http://www.earbox.com).

© Peter Grahame Woolf 2002.

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