“Live” at last!
La Cieca is delighted to note that two of the best-remembered and most-coveted “Live from the Met” telecasts have at last been made available on DVD. Otello (25 September 1978) and Cavalleria rusticana/Pagliacci (5 April 1978) are now available at the Met Opera Shop and online at www.metoperashop.org, “as well as through other outlets.”
La Cieca’s cher public will be happy to know that both these releases may be purchased at amazon.com:
Otello really is a gem, with Jon Vickers in excellent form (a stray high note or two notwithstanding), a superb balance of passion and intelligence. The vocal and physical dignity he brings to the role firmly places the work on the plane of high tragedy. The Desdemona is (as you all know) Renata Scotto, in a part that is not a natural fit vocally — her timbre is narrow and steely where one would want a more plush sound. But to hear her phrasing a line like “Oh! come è dolce il mormorare insieme” or “Guarda le prime lagrime” is to remember just how specific and committed an artist she always was. (More, including previews, after the jump.)
Both she and Vickers are, it should go without saying, terrific singing actors. One standout moment is the third act confrontation, when Otello has thrown Desdemona to the floor. Scotto is of course Queen of the Cowerers, and Vickers, a man of at best medium height, contrives to tower over her like a giant. Even his shadow is enormous and menacing!
The Iago, Cornell MacNeil, is good in a more generalized “opera singer” sort of way, not helped particularly by the unflattering black Caesar cut wig and studded leather jerkins of the Franco Zeffirelli production. On the other hand, you compare even late-career MacNeil with what we mostly get singing Iago today, and, well, let’s just say the wig is forgiven.
Cav/Pag is another Zeffirelli staging. At the time of the telecasts, neither was a decade old yet, though the Otello is already starting to look a little dusty. Cavalleria in particular looks great on video, perhaps because it’s lit brightly as a Sicily midday. This set is a must-have primarily for the Santuzza of Tatiana Troyanos, a veritiable singing Magnani. No one ever did slow-burning torment like Troyanos, and here she’s in tip-top vocal shape too, with searing top notes and easy, rich chest tones.
The rest of the evening is all fine if not on the exalted level of the mezzo-soprano. Placido Domingo doubles the tenor roles, prey to nerves as Turiddu but back in his customary “demonic” form for Canio opposite the gold-standard late ’70s Met cast of Teresa Stratas and Sherrill Milnes.
James Levine takes the verismo double bill a little on the ponderous/Wagnerian side — except when his tenor wants to get off a pesky high note. The Otello, though, I think must be his conducting masterpiece: vital, thrilling and big-hearted, without even a hint of vulgarity.
The image and sound on the DVDs have been cleaned up nicely, though the occasional lapses of focus and off-mike singing remind us that these performances date from the infancy of televised live opera. For my taste, I’d rather have a rough edge here and there as a reality check that what we’re seeing and hearing is the real deal, not something created in post-production.
i remember my Shakespere professor using Renata as an example of how Desdemona should be done. He said she is the only one who ever got it and understood that her hubby has actually lost it. she is not a dumb blonde Desdemona as most are. as for the person who recommended the Fleming domingo performance, WHATEVER. If you want to see Domingo get the performance with te kanawa from Covent Garden or better still the bootleg copy of the la scala performance with Freni. and of course La Cieca canñot resist taking jabs at the Zeffirelli productions. shame on you. stick to Fleming bashing it becomes you more. now lets vote for what performances the MET should release next.]
IL TRITTICO with Scotto
DON PASQUALE with Sills,Kraus and Bacquier
LA TRAVIATA with Cotrubas and Domingo
TOSCA with Pavarotti, Verrett,and Mac Neil
DER ROSENKAVALIER with TeKanawa and Troyanos
DON CARLO with Scotto
May I compliment you on “singing Magnani”? Troyanos deserves more accolades than most.
Yes, there are still many great Met telecasts that should be released on DVD for posterity.
To the excellent list of titles already provided, I will add the late 80s telecast of DIALOGUES with Ewing, Norman, Crespin (Met farwell) and Quivar.
The met should have released this otello as part of a double DVD set and release the telecast from the following year with Domingo, Milnes and Cruz-Romo. Both Telecasts are fantastic.
I second the calls for a release of the Carmelites telecast. it is an Amazing afternoon of singing and acting. I’m surprised the met has not done an HD transmission of one of their (justly) most famous productions.
The Pasquale with Sills and Krauss is a little geriatric, but by God, those were the days. Let’s hope they will release it. it remains to this day, the only Sills telecast (from the US) that remains unavailable on DVD. Maybe VAI could come to the rescue as they did with the 3 telecasts from Wolf Trap?
The (circa) 78 Don Giovanni is also beautiful to look at. I wish the Met would be more intelligent and release some of those telecasts in multiple sets. I would be very happy to have the old Giovanni along with the Zefirelli one as a 2-DVD set. Same with the Don Carlos, the Toscas and the Tritticos. I think it would be fun to see the operas back to back and compare styles. The Rosenkavalier would compete with any that has been released in the past 4 years, why would they wait?
Come to think about it, wouldn’t it be nice if NYCO did something like that as a fund raiser? they have some very interesting telecasts from the 70′s and 80′s with operas and singers that went under-appreciated and under-recorded. Right off the top of my head is Baby Doe, which has not been recorded on DVD ever. Their telecast remains the only performance ever recorded of the opera. Their Zauberflote with John Garrison is beautifully sung, their Saint of Blecker street is also an opera that remains unavailable on DVD, so is their Paul Bunyan, and their Carmen with Victoria Vergara is better sung that any of the Met telecasts (with the exception of Carrera’s passionate Jose). Their Boheme from 2000 something was beautiful in almost every aspect (I hated Villazon even then)
I think some of those telecasts could do a lot to raise some funds for NYCO, if there was a way to release them for that purpose. What do you think?
Just adding my voice and vote for the ’78 Don Giovanni. How lovely it would be to see the Eugene Berman sets and costumes again. To see and hear a young James Morris. And no brick walls or glass elevators to Hell.
And the Dialogues and te Kanawa/Troyanos Rosenkavalier. I made a VHS of both of those when they aired, but alas – they are fading and I am reluctant to play them much.
I think you guys are forgetting what Met Player is for. I think this latest DVD release has been on Met Player for a while and everything that has been mentioned so far will probably be added soon.
Yes, DON GIOVANNI, DON CARLO, TRITTICO, DON PASQUALE, DIALOGUES, ROSENKAVALIER and even BARTERED BRIDE would be on my list. And let’s not forget Price’s farewell AIDA. What a treasure THAT would be.
Javier: I just can’t sit at my computer and watch an opera for hours. I know lots of people who watch movies and episodes of their favourite TV shows on the computer, but I can’t. I want a DVD that I can watch on a proper TV.
Kashania, I agree. But the MetPlayer really is great, and more economical, so what I do is connect my computer to my tv. Depending on the type of tv you have, it can work pretty well.
scifisci: I have a 50″ TV screen. I imagine that the Met player resolution wouldn’t be high enough to work on my TV (even if I figured out how to connect the two
). I’m really happy that the Met has introduced the Metplayer. It’s a treasure trove and I would certainly go to it for watching highlights and for listening to audio recordings. But for me, there’s still something about watching a high-quality DVD of an opera.