Highlights from the Royal Opera 50-51011-2324-2-8 [GF]: Classical DVD Reviews- May 2006 MusicWeb-International

This hotchpotch compilation of excerpts from performances at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden from the early 1980s can be regarded mainly as an appetizer for those who have not yet decided whether to buy the complete sets. I am not sure that this is the best method to recruit proselytes, the problem being that as soon as one gets involved in the proceedings the scene comes to an end and is tantalizingly faded out. Maybe that is the point. Anyway there is a plethora of good singing even though the choice of scenes does not very often result in thrilling action. Of course there is a certain thrill in seeing as well as hearing great singers perform favourite bits and pieces, and browsing through the heading to this review is like skimming through opera’s Who’s Who.

Luciana Serra, for instance, is a perfectly mechanical - this is praise! - Olympia and her make-up gives her a wax doll look. The otherwise unknown Marilyn Zschau is a Musetta with charisma and it is a pleasure to see the very young Barbara Bonney in her signature role as Sophie. Anne Howells sings well as Octavian, but the close-ups are very revealing and there is no mistaking her for a young man, when in the theatre she was probably a believable male character.

I reviewed the complete Don Carlo a few months ago and also saw the production just a few days before the film was shot. I still regard this as a truly great performance, which is also confirmed by the two excerpts here with Lima creating the role of his life. Zancanaro, although fairly wooden as an actor, was possibly the best Verdi baritone of the 1980s and early 1990s. Best of all, there’s Robert Lloyd’s deeply-felt Philip II. His monologue is, to me at least, the best reason for acquiring this DVD. Better still, though, is to get the complete set.

The other Barbara, Hendricks of course, is a charming Nannetta and Renato Bruson’s Falstaff is really spectacular. He sings better than most Falstaffs.

Kiri Te Kanawa’s Marschallin is a well-known impersonation but as Manon Lescaut she is almost unrecognizable in the death-scene. Domingo is great, both as a singer and an actor and there is also a glimpse of him in the Hoffmann excerpt.

I have no complaints considering the quality of sound and pictures. All in all seeing through this DVD offered an hour of entertaining morsels. I am sure it will be liked by opera lovers but I still think the complete sets are better propositions.

Göran Forsling

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