Graham Vick reviews

Graham Vick reviews

Verdi: Stiffelio

Luciano Ganci, Maria Katzarava, Francesco Landolfi; Bologna Theatre Chorus/Guillermo García Calvo; dir. Graham Vick (Naxos, DVD)
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Rossini: Overtures

Rossini’s last and most ambitious opera was staged in August 2013 at the festival in Pesaro named after the town’s most famous son. It’s a piece that seems to be coming back into fashion, partly due to a generation of singers who can tackle its challenging roles, most notably that of the initially reluctant Swiss patriot, Arnold, here magnificently sung by Juan Diego Flórez despite its plethora of nigh-on impossible high notes.

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Handel – Tamerlano

The grandly tragic figure of the enslaved Turkish sultan Bajazet in Handel’s 1724 opera is a recent departure for Plácido Domingo, and one that could be supposed to lie outside his comfort zone. So it says much for his artistry and intelligence that he makes such a significant success of it in this filming of Graham Vick’s 2008 Madrid production.

 

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Rossini: Ermione

This brilliant Glyndebourne staging sets the action in an Italian opera house. Anna Caterina Antonaccci and Bruce Ford lead a strong cast, Andrew Davis shows his versatility.
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Verdi: Falstaff

DVD companies are having fun with feature films — good compilations and reissues, imaginative tracking entry points, generous use of extra features. With opera they are still being over-cautious, allowing musical rather than visual considerations to dominate choice of both repertoire and productions. Opera on DVD should be a library of great stagings, not a collection of great musical performances with pictures added on.
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Prokofiev: War and Peace

True ensemble and a sense of theatre are the vital operatic ingredients every studio recording has to recreate at one remove. So it’s worth enduring the irritations of this live performance – not least the audience shuffle and stage noises which invade the Moscow salon, and even the peasant hut where Prince Andrei lies dying – to enjoy stage history in the making.
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