Classical
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Mozart - Le Nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro)
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Sale Price: $24.97
List Price: $39.98
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A strange mix of beautifully performed music and a director's view trying to create a burlesque atmosphere where it does not belong. Conducted by the great classicist conductor and Mozart specialist Karl Bohm and sung by an excellent cast (with some pluses and minuses, of course), this production is worth collecting if you are willing to ignore some of the director's visualizing solutions.Leading the cast is Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, as always bringing a very nuanced and sophisticated interpretation of the Almaviva role, the likes of which you will not find with others. Every word is emphasized differently, he uses various voice colors and effects to accent the intricacies of Mozart's music. One example is how he darkens "felice un servo mio," ([to see] one of my servants happy [while I sigh with pain]). Note that he is also a very great performer of German Lieder, having been heard to sing with several voices in the same song. Well, the level of the singers' intelligence is evident in the way they use the potential of an effect or, on the contrary, they ignore it -- writes German author Thomas Mann in Der Zauberberg (The Magic Mountain, Chapter VII).It is impossible in this limited space to discuss everybody in detail. Mirela Freni sings an exceptional Susanna, but Kiri Te Kanawa as the Countess is too light and sometimes lightens her sounds even further, probably opening her mouth in a horizontal position. The director made huge efforts to mar Mozart's work and suggest just how "creative" he is: the makeup tried to make Freni ugly (luckily, this effort was not successful); Marcellina's makeup is too heavy, some characters wear exaggerated wigs, and often they are made to move too fast, like puppets, sometimes even grimacing, in a rhythm different from the score. All this does not serve the music, and, which is worse, distracts the viewer. Neither the play by Beaumarchais, which is a study in social "chaos" that precedes the restoration of the acceptable erotic order at the end, nor Mozart's opera, which includes a streak of anguish, are circus shows. But, there is worse in this world: at least, this director did not put the action on a UFO with Predator fighting ET over Susanna! So, five stars for the performed music and three for the visual effects: average four.
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