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Classical DVD review

CANDIDE Hadley, Ludwig, Gedda etc. Bernstein DGM 073 4205

Leonard Bernstein worked on Candide, his musical version of Voltaire’s novella, for many years, revising and adding to the score. Lyrics were contributed by such luminaries as Lilian Hellman, Dorothy Parker, Richard Wilbur and Stephen Sondheim. The new DVD from Deutsche Grammophon presents what was a famous video, of the concert version Bernstein conducted in London in 1989, the final year of his life. The cast is stellar — Jerry Hadley as the hero, Christa Ludwig as the Old Lady, the young Della Jones as Paquette, and Nicolai Gedda in a variety of small roles. Bernstein, as well as conducting, contributes spoken introductions and incidental comments.

Wonderful though Hadley always is, the most striking soloist here is June Anderson as Cunegonde. Candide is a sort of musical, much influenced by Gilbert and Sullivan, but Cunegonde’s Glitter and Be Gay (no pun intended) is pure opera. As for seeing Christa Ludwig, a great Wagnerian, dancing with castanets in I Am Easily Assimilated, to say it’s memorable is an understatement.

MEFISTOFELE Arena, Ramey, Benackova etc. Boito Well Go USA WD-115

I wish it could be said that modern people didn’t need to be persuaded that official ideologies have to be disproved. Voltaire in Candide thought differently, and so did Bernstein, once considered a subversive by the US authorities. One of the virtues of this DVD is that the booklet tells you which librettist wrote the words to each number. West Side Story may be Bernstein’s most popular work, but Candide is his most intelligent.

Arrigo Boito’s Mefistofele (1868, revised 1875) isn’t a well-known work today, but the 1989 San Francisco Opera production, new out on DVD from Well Go USA, is sensational. The first two scenes scour scenic motifs from Mexican Catholicism, Brazilian carnivals and Andalusian Good Fridays to produce a visual orgy of sensual piety. Invention then flags somewhat (though the Witches’ Sabbath is also fun) and the first scene is resurrected for the finale.

JULIUS CAESAR Baker, Jones, Masterson etc. Handel Well Go USA WD-165

Boito wrote the librettos for Verdi’s last two operas, Otello and Falstaff, but he couldn’t write tunes the way Verdi so effortlessly could. Even so, the music of Mefistofele is satisfactory for dramatic purposes, and here it is given a compelling performance under conductor Maurizio Arena. The leading soloists are spectacular, especially Samuel Ramey in the title role. It’s rare to find a singer so strong, and also so striking as an actor. The San Francisco audience goes crazy over him, as well they might. But Dennis O’Neill as Faust and Gabriela Benackova as Marguerite and Helen are both wonderful too. This DVD is all in all a highly recommendable product.

THE CUNNING LITTLE VIXEN Allen, Jenis, Minutillo etc. Janacek Well Go USA WD-176

Handel’s Julius Caesar is given an enormously enjoyable performance in the classic English National Opera production dating from 1984. At last available on DVD from Well Go, it could hardly be improved on. Good though the Italian-language Sydney Opera House production was [it was reviewed in Taipei Times December 22, 2005], this English-language one is better. The opera, incidentally, was performed in both languages in London in Handel’s lifetime.

Janet Baker leads the cast as a masterful Caesar, with Valerie Masterson as Cleopatra, Sarah Walker as Cornelia, Della Jones as Sextus, counter-tenor James Bowman as Ptolemy, and John Tomlinson as a menacing Achillas. Baker, already 52 when this video was made (though she looks 25), sustains her part magnificently. Her long aria How Silently, How Slyly, with its hunting imagery and solo horn accompaniment, is unendingly pleasing. In the central section the horn is replaced by tripping violins, if anything even more wonderfully, and just before the end voice and horn go off together on a sort of crazed private journey. This is the music I want to hear when I’m dying.

But Valerie Masterson is also superb as Cleopatra (disguised as the servant Lydia). On her aria Lamenting, Complaining Caesar is made to comment “Great Jove in his heaven has no melody to equal such peerless singing.” You can’t but agree — unless it’s Janet Baker’s own.

“No characters, no tunes,” said the poet W.H. Auden in dismissing Janacek’s operas. In one sense this is true, but the secret to enjoying them is to listen to the orchestra — it, not the vocal lines, contains the music’s beauty. Janacek anticipates Philip Glass (who also turned to opera) and, when given performances that balance spectacle, rhythm and brilliance of sound, his often bizarre creations readily spring to life.

Sexuality in nature is the theme of The Cunning Little Vixen (1924), and it’s consistently delightful in a 1995 production from the Theatre Musical de Paris — Chatelet. It’s child-like, but at the same time warns us all of the folly of ever completely growing up. Thomas Allen and Eva Jenis lead the cast, the majority of whom are young dancers. The pictorial quality is innocent, vivid and funny, like the comic-strip where Janacek first discovered his story. Guilt-free sex, including group sex, forms this production’s unexpected theme, especially in its dances. An anti-puritan belief in the innocent beauty of nature and life is the opera’s real message. Sex overcomes death, and life goes on for ever.

— BRADLEY WINTERTON
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