Verdi - Falstaff DVD

Advantages: Educational, entertaining and historical.
Disadvantages: Iambic pentameter isn't for everyone. Almost no extra features.

...Henry V is available on DVD in a 1989 production directed by, and starring, Kenneth Branagh. This is a direct and edgy story about England’s war with France in which the flower of the French aristocracy were slaughtered in the mud of Agincort beneath a rain of arrows from English longbow men. Derek Jacobi is the chorus who introduces the stage on which this ‘muse of fire’ will burn, and it is a modern one with electric lights and props. I’ve seen many great plays lessened by attempts to insert images and allusions of contemporary culture none of which have the slightest relevance. Thankfully – mercifully – this is not. Once Jacobi pushes open the doors on that modern set we go into a believable world in period costume and make-up appropriate to the historical tale that is about to unfold. The political machinations of the church... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Spitting Image, lots of laughs, great intro to classical music
Disadvantages: Deflates a little in the middle, wanted more

...Introduction: Sometimes the strangest and most unexpected of combinations can work brilliantly together, so I was really intrigued to see that renowned Italian maestro Claudio Abbado had insisted that his DVD of Prokofiev's "Peter and the Wolf" should use Spitting Image puppets! Somehow it seemed a rather improbable line-up: On one side as a supreme representative of "high culture", we have Claudio with his intense music-making and lofty interpretative ideas, conducting acclaimed recordings and concerts of Mahler, Mozart and Verdi to pick just a few highlighted composers from his long and illustrious career. At the other end of the cultural spectrum we have the Spitting Image team who are best known for their 80's TV series featuring bitingly satirical latex puppet portrayals of anyone famous (and infamous) from the Queen Mum... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: Superb production, fascinating footage, great music
Disadvantages: None whatsoever apart from wanting more

...at Tanglewood in 1949 which is as vivid as if you were actually sitting there playing - a real highlight of the DVD for me! Other complete pieces include Felix Weingaertner conducting Weber's "Die Freischuetz Overture" in a very sonically impressive film considering it dates from 1932. It is always much more satisfying to enjoy some longer sections of music than just having short extracts all the time, especially when this archive material is so precious and revealing. Anyone who has wondered what it is like to play in an orchestra will find the footage in several of these archive films absolutely riveting. As an orchestral violinist myself I was engrossed in Verdi's Overture to "La Forza del Destino" where even though it was filmed in 1944, the flesh-penetrating, tempestuous and passionate laser-beam gaze of legendary Italian maestro Arturo... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful