Donizetti - L'Elisir d'Amore / Eschwe, Netrebko, Villazon, Wiener Staatsoper

Donizetti - L'Elisir d'Amore / Eschwe, Netrebko, Villazon, Wiener Staatsoper | Rolando Villazon, Anna Netrebko | Laugh out loud funny

DVDs:

Donizetti - L'Elis...

	Donizetti - L'Elisir d'Amore / Eschwe, Netrebko, Villazon, Wiener Staatsoper Rolando Villazon, Anna Netrebko Virgin Classics, 2007 average customer review:based on 44 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Pure Delight!

Donizetti's enchanting comedy 'L'Elisir d'Amore' has rarely been performed with such panache and sense of fun as this beautiful evening captured during a live performance of the Otto Schenk/Jürgen Roseat production at the Vienna Staatsoper on this sparkling DVD.

Conductor Alfred Eschwé enjoys every minute of this bubbling score and the orchestra is especially sensitive to his subtle demands. The raison d'etre for creating this live recording is obviously the inimitable harmony of the leads Rolando Villazón as Nemorino and Anna Netrebko as Adina. These two handsome and talented singer/actors share a magnetism that is gracing the opera houses around the world and having seen them before only in dramatic roles on stage, it is rewarding to find they both share a flair for comedy, not only in their interaction with each other but also in their total professionalism of sharing the sense of ensemble. They are a dream match.

It is difficult to imagine a more tenderly sung 'Una furtiva lacrima' (and here the audience obviously agrees, demanding an encore!) than Villazón offers. But that is one of the highlights everyone expects. It is the manner of delivery of the entire opera that makes the Villazón/Netrebko duo work such magic. They are ably supported by the Dulcamara of Ildebrando D'Arcangelo and the Sergeant Belcore of the dependable Leo Nucci. Sets, costumes, acting, orchestral timbre and of course gorgeous singing make this an opera DVD well worth owning. Highly Recommended. Grady Harp, April 07

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Laugh out loud funny

This DVd was laugh out loud funny. I really can't take it when I hear people comment that Rolando Villazon is overacting. He is not wooden or stiff -thank god. He lets his emotion show through and he would have made a wonderful dramatic actor if God had not given him such a beautiful voice. He is absolutely the greatest thing to come along in opera for a long,long time. He has me listening to things I thought I never would have condeidered. Anna Netrebko is very good too although she has a way to come with her voice and control of it. Leo Nucci was very good although maube a little too old for this part but the scenes with him and Rolando alone are classic schtick. I had a wonderful time and this DVD puts you in a good mood.

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Best Elisir ever

In my opinion this will become a classic in the same way the Lisbon Traviata or the Milanov Gioconda became classics.
Netrebko and Villazon are pure magic together.
Don't miss this one.

FANTASTIC PERFORMANCE!

The Netrebko and Villazon pairing elevates opera at its highest degree of enjoyment. It's all that opera is supposed to be: glorious singing, great music, looks and the ACTING! Watch those two and see what one can do with a rather silly story. And watch Villazon joggling with apples WHILE singing! Were 5 stars not the maximum, I'd give them 20 stars! Not to be missed. I only wish they'd do more operas on DVD together.

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Alert the Opera Police -- Donizetti's Been Mugged!

One would be hard-pressed to find a more beautifully sung "L'Elisir..." these days. Netrebko and Villazon are both in their prime, and they have never sounded better. And I doubt there has ever been a more breathtakingly beautiful Adina than Netrebko's. But I have serious reservations about the way this 1980 Otto Schenk production has been directed. It's opera buffo, with an emphasis a little too much on the "buffo" for me.

The major culprit here is Villazon, who never stops moving and mugging for a single moment. With his Harpo Marx hair and caterpillar eyebrows, he's a walking cartoon, and he plays the character less as an open, uncomplicated bumpkin and more like the village idiot. One longs to tie his hands behind his back and yell "Don't just do something, stand there!" Thank God he calms down for "Una furtiva lagrima," which is stunningly sung and well deserving of the audience's thunderous ovation. Interestingly enough, during the encore - yes, he sings it twice; this is a production where more is always considered more - one can see the makings of a marvelous Nemorino: simple, heartfelt and devoid of schtick.

Netrebko is considerably more restrained, except for her Act 2 duet with Ildebrando D'Arcangelo's Dulcamara, which ends in unbridled silliness. This moment, along with Villazon's anachronistic happy dance in Act 1, is just one example of the way in which the singers have been given free reign to tap into their inner Tim Conways, much to Donizetti's detriment.

I think much would have been gained by Nucci and D'Arcangelo switching roles. As marvelous as Nucci is - and when is he not? - he's too old for Belcore. He would have brought a wisdom and wiliness to Dulcamara that is lacking in D'Arcangelo's full-out comic performance. D'Arcangelo is certainly funny, agile and inventive, but he's too youthful for Dulcamara, despite the fake gray in his hair. Don't get me wrong, it's a marvelous performance - but it's a marvelous performance of Rossini's Figaro. I think he would have brought a terrific, droll pomposity to the balloon-headed Belcore.

We should be grateful to have any visual record of four such major talents as Netrebko, Villazon, Nucci and D'Arcangelo. And it's obvious that the whole enterprise is being presented as nothing more than good, clean, operatic fun. But I still find more lasting pleasures - and fewer distractions - in two other ideal DVD "L'Elisir's": the gorgeous Met production with Pavarotti and Battle, and the updated version with Alagna and Gheorghiu.

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