Whistle Stopper - Leoncavallo: Pagliacci / Mascagni: Cavalleria Rusticana

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Manufacturer: Deutsche Grammophon
Starring: Joh Vickers, Raina Kabaivanska, Rolando Panerai, Fiorenza Cossotto, Gianfranco Cecchele
Directed By: Herbert von Karajan

Average Customer Rating:

Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: DVD
EAN: 0044007343890
Format: Classical
Label: Deutsche Grammophon
Manufacturer: Deutsche Grammophon
Number Of Discs: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Deutsche Grammophon
Region Code: 0
Release Date: 2008-03-11
Running Time: 148
Studio: Deutsche Grammophon
Theatrical Release Date: 2008

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Spotlight customer reviews:

Customer Rating:

Summary: TOO MANY CLOSEUPS
Comment: Musically, a triumph.
Visually, that's another story!
Too many closeups, closeups of flowers, architectual building details,cactii,flowers.
I was hoping to see more action, the ending of Cavalleria was plain disappointing.
For a much more satisfying experience of this two operas get the Zefferelli
film with Domingo and Obraztsova and Bruson in PAGLIACCI and Domingo, Stratas and Pons in CAVALLERIA.
That's a great double bill.

Customer Rating:

Summary: Cav Pag Karajan
Comment: From the musical perspective, this DVD is great. Particularly Vickers and Karajan/orchestra are exceptional. But the staging/dirction is a bit old-fashioned and the play-back far from perfect...

Customer Rating:

Summary: A Force of Nature
Comment: When I ordered this DVD several weeks ago, I didn't realize that these were filmed, as opposed to live performances of Cav/Pag. I have a decent live Pagliacci performance (from the Met, paired with Puccini's Il Tabarro), but there don't seem to be any live, staged DVD performances available of Cavalleria Rusticana. Upon receiving the DVD, I was initially disappointed, because even though the lip-synching is very well done here, I much prefer seeing a staged, live performance to a filmed, on-location presentation such as this.

Nonetheless, this DVD set gets five very favorable stars from me, not only due to the impeccable sound and picture quality of performances from 40 years ago, but primarily because of the acting and singing of a force of nature named Jon Vickers in Pagliacci.

I was not fortunate enough to have seen Mr. Vickers, the Canadian heldentenor, on stage. I have his Peter Grimes from Covent Garden on DVD, and his performance there is intelligent, nuanced and oftentimes searing in intensity. In this Pagliacci, his performance is nearly overwhelming: I don't think I have ever seen such frightening, impassioned, murderous rage on display before in an opera performance, whether filmed or otherwise. As noted by Mike Birman in yet another of his spot-on Amazon reviews, Mr. Vickers was the full package, ladies and gentlemen -- and I only wish there was a DVD of his Fidelio somewhere out there.

Very, very highly recommended.

Customer Rating:

Summary: A sublimely beautiful Cavalleria, a powerful Pagliacci
Comment: If you are familiar with von Karajan's brilliant 1965 recordings of Cav/Pag that he made in Milan for DGG, two of the finest recordings yet made of this matched pair of one act operas, then you already know of his affinity for these two verismo masterworks. He seems to extract the beauty and power from their gritty melodrama without wallowing in their undeniably tawdry undertones. Most important, von Karajan takes them seriously. He treats them as if they were major works by Verdi or Wagner and not as the sole success of each composer that they in fact are. This makes all the difference in the world. How much more beautiful is Cavalleria Rusticana when the music is played with such lavish sonority and such broadly defined tempos? Von Karajan offered us his best on his 1965 recording and he offers us his best here, in a production that can only be described as lucious, filmed on the island of Sicily in 1968, its images still looking gorgeous after all these years. This film might double as a time-capsule travelogue of Sicily, the ancient home of Phoenicians and Greeks all those millennia ago. The landscape is eternal and von Karajan captures that same ageless quality in this filmed performance. The singing is lip-synched well, allowing the performers to concentrate on their acting. Fiorenza Cossotto was the quintessential Santuzza of her era, as she shows here. Giangiacomo Guelfi is a strong Alfio. The rest of the cast is uniformly excellent, the recording and film superb.

Jon Vickers was the finest Canio of his time. If you have seen his Peter Grimes, his Otello or his Fidelio, then you know what power and stature he brought to a role. This film of a La Scala stage production breathes fire. Vickers is riveting in his portrayal of Canio. The DVD is worth its price merely for the thrill of watching Vickers' incendiary performance. Raina Kabaivanska as Nedda and Peter Glossop as Tonio hold their own, as do the rest of the cast. But Vickers is the story here, he is stunning! Von Karajan conducts the Orchestra e Coro del Teatro Alla Scala with great beauty and power, but also with great tact, stepping out of the way and letting the singers act the drama. It is a splendid performance.

The full screen films have been remastered and look fine. Sound in both PCM stereo and DTS 5.1 is crystalline in clarity. The usual DGG booklet, menus and translations are here. The total disc time is 148 minutes.

Cav/Pag was a von Karajan specialty and this DVD shows why his reputation was what it was. The performance by Vickers must be experienced at least once, he was the finest male operatic actor of his era. Here are a pair of exemplary films on a DVD that won't gather dust on your shelf. Most strongly recommended.

Mike Birman

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Editorial Reviews:

Opera's most popular double bill, fondly known as Cav and Pag, can be a tawdry mess or, as in this performance of Pagliacci, a searing experience. Its power derives from an all-star cast headed by tenor Jon Vickers in the double role of betrayed husband, Canio, and tragic clown, Pagliacci. He's a singer who blurred the division between reality and stage illusion in every role he assumed, thus taking an opera about that thin line between real life and stage artifice to heightened levels of intensity. Vickers is a force of nature, his big, brawny voice suffused with emotion. Here, his phrasing, textual precision, and timbral colorations expand the scope of the opera, making a moving tragedy out of Leoncavallo's verismo melodrama. It helps that his colleagues are also in good form: Soprano Raina Kabaivanska is an excellent Nedda, Canio's cheating wife, whose loyalty to her lover, Silvio, sends Canio into a murderous rage in the stage farce that parodies their real-life situation. She sings with refinement in the Act One love duet and with powerful desperation in Act Two. Baritone Rolando Panerai is a fine Silvio, and the double role of Peppe/Arlecchino is enhanced by the smooth tenor of Sergio Lorenzo. Peter Glossup is a convincing Tonio, the lascivious member of the troupe whose lust leads him to betray Nedda and set the tragedy in motion. Herbert von Karajan conducts the La Scala forces, guiding the mounting tension to perfection. He's also credited with directing the film, based on Paul Hager's stage production. Despite copious closeups, lip-synching to the prerecorded vocal performances is smoothly done. Like Pagliacci, this Cavelleria Rusticana was a La Scala production filmed in 1968. But the filming, directed by Ake Falck, disappoints. Another village melodrama of love, infidelity, and murder, it's well sung, with mezzo Fiorenza Cossoto in the role of Santuzza, the betrayed heroine and a little-known but capable tenor, Gianfranco Cecchele, in the role of Turridu, whose love for Lola, soprano Adriana Martino, leads to the violent response of her husband, Alfio, acted by baritone Giangiacomo Guelfi. Karajan shines in the expansive Prelude and the beautifully shaped Intermezzo but the opera is undercut by a film with too many irrelevant scenic shots and an excess of tight closeups that have the effect of creating emotional distance rather than involvement. But if Cav underachieves, this Pag, dominated by Jon Vickers, is an unforgettable operatic experience. --Dan Davis

This DVD is in 4:3 format. Sound options include PCM Stereo and DTS 5.1 Surround. Subtitles include English, French, German, Spanish, and Chinese.