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DWGriffith
DWGriffith's stats
- Review count2
- Helpfulness votes0
- First reviewApril 15, 2010
- Last reviewOctober 17, 2011
- Featured reviews0
- Average rating3.5
DWGriffith's Reviews
Overall rating
2
/
5
Donizetti would have wept.
PostedOctober 17, 2011
DWGriffith
I'd love to join the throng and give Anna Bolena 5 stars, but it just wasn't that good. Netrebko hit most of the high notes, sort of, and managed to belt it out, but she is no bel canto opera singer. Hardly any trills, not much in the way of ornaments, and the looks are fading while the voice doesn't seem to be maturing. As to the production, the bare wall sets of the MET's premieres are getting to be all the same. And the unrelieved black of the costumes, while arguably appropriate for this death march, are not realistic for the period.
No, I do not recommend this movie.
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Overall rating
5
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5
Hamlet with a French Accent, c'est magnifique!
PostedApril 15, 2010
DWGriffith
Ah, the shimmering sound of French opera! It surely can't be the music that has kept this Hamlet from being performed more -- the music is gorgeous. It may be the fundamental shift in emphasis from the Shakespeare play that drives the opera into interesting territory that may upset Shakespeare fans.
While in the play, the only evidence of Gertrude's guilt is in Hamlet's mind, in the opera, the queen's guilt and fear is right there on the stage. Lacy Macbeth is a piker compared to this Hamlet's mother!
The confrontation between Hamlet and Gertrude that constitutes most of the third act is visceral and real, emotionally terrifying, and while in the end Hamlet indeed "leaves her to heaven," she has lost her son's respect, if not his love. And there is no comic relief, because there is no arras, and no Polonius.
Before the opening, bloggers were writing about the "luxury casting" of the great Jennifer Larmore as Gertrude, as if such was nice, but not necessary. Au contraire! No one else comes to mind who could have brought the regal beauty, the nuanced acting, and the radiant multicolored dark mezzo to project queenly command and bone chilling fear in the same notes! One reviewer of the live production observed that Jennifer Larmore almost steals the show. Indeed!
Brava Jennifer Larmore! Bravo everybody else, too!
Yes, I recommend this movie.
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