Kusej in top form!!
Added 5/29/2009
Martin Kusej is one of my favourite stage directors and although I have to admit that I didnt get everything he tried to convey here, it is nontheless a very clever production.
To have all the main characters on stage or rather in this white cube most of the time, let them position to each other (reminded me of family constellation) and act whats going on in there head, was not very subtle, but psychologically very interesting. Also that the white cube got stained with dirt and blood as the plot progressed was a reminder in the final scene - the music suggests a happy ending - that after what happened there is a bitter aftertaste and it takes time to recover from that experience.
The music in this opera is great, but the libretto would be pretty dull if Kusej wouldnt have tried to put on stage the psychology behind the plot rather than the plot itself.
2 out of 2 people found this helpful.
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I absolutely agree with the previous reviewers,specially with Mr.Cahill.
This DVD is pathetic and why would someone watch it or go see the production at the opera house is beyond my reckoning...
I would love to see his list of "banned" stage directors,since I likewise
have one and we probably coinicide.
If you want to appreciate GENOVEVA get the audio MASUR set on BERLIN CLASSICS,.That is "THE GENOVEVA."
Fernando Funes
2 out of 3 people found this helpful.
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Awful production
Added 2/7/2009
I agree with the reviewer who called it EUROTRASH. Absolulely true. I can't add anything to what was written about this production. What a shame that such productions are staged. I have a list of names of stage directors I avoid in any DVD that comes out. I won't go to see their productions in the opera house either. Some day I would like to see a production of a classical themed opera (such as Orpheus and Euridice) that actually had appropriate sets and costumes representative of the time period of the story. Avoid this DVD at all costs. I bought it and regret the purchase.
6 out of 8 people found this helpful.
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Eurotrash strikes again!
Added 1/30/2009
This DVD was a tremendous disappointment.
I knew that Harnoncourt has been an advocate for "Genoveva" for years, and I was really looking forward to seeing and hearing the opera. I found the music attractive, even moving. The plot stretched credibility, but no more so than "Norma" or "Il Trovatore," both of which I have seen repeatedly and love.
I found the performance superior musically, but I suspect that Harnoncourt's tempi, which have generally slowed in the past few years, were too slow to present the opera at its best.
The staging, however, was a major disappointment. It was Eurotrash at its very worst. Medieval knights and peasants were garbed in Edwardian(?)dress. Most of the performance took place in a white box with only a chair, a sink, and a mirror. All the major characters stood on the chair at one time or other, and most of them hid behind it from time to time. They also stood on the sink, and Genoveva climbed into and out of it several times while the libretto said that she was being forced by peasant captors to struggle up hill. Characters who left the scene, according to the libretto, often simply remained in the box and looked bored. And then there was the chorus throwing fish at a nude Genoveva--whatever that meant.
I found the staging almost unwatchable, and had great difficulty sitting through the entire opera. I certainly was not going to sit through it again, and immediately sold it back to the store from which it was purchased. If you're curious about "Genoveva" rent or borrow the DVD, but don't buy it.
10 out of 13 people found this helpful.
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Product Review
Added 1/12/2009
Sean Mathey is outstanding! All of the principle voices are excellent. The show is a bit weird.
2 out of 6 people found this helpful.
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