I
Am A Dancer
(1972/Film Movement Blu-ray)/Der
Messias/Handel/Mozart: Minkowski
(2020/Unitel*)/Missa
Solemnis
(2018*)/Juan
Diego Florez: Mozart/Minasi
(2019/C Major*)/Peer
Gynt/Grieg/Clug: Hewett
(2018/Unitel/C Major*)/Der
Prinz Von Homburg: Henze/Meister
(2020/BelAir/*all Naxos Blu-rays)
Picture:
B/B-/B-/B-/B-/B- Sound: B-/B/B-/B/B/B Extras: C+/C/C+/C/C/C
Main Programs: B-/C+/C+/C+/C+/C+
Now
for our latest arts and classical releases...
We
start with a vintage, classic documentary, Pierre Jourdan's I
Am A Dancer
(1972)
featuring one of the greatest male dancers of all time in his prime:
Rudolf Nureyev. Jumping (no pun intended) between backstage
practice, constant training, hard work, personal moments and extended
stage performances, it is a rich 92 minutes featuring a legendary
talent who left us way too soon.
John
Pervical is a good narrator, but in keeping with the times, it is
almost too much talk and many of these sequences would have been
better off with less or no talk. You can always mute the sound to
see what I mean. However, it is also one of the few comprehensive
visual records of Nureyev we have, making it more priceless than
ever.
It
is almost unreal how well he moves, what he does, what he is
physically capable of doing (like say, Bruce Lee) and is a once in a
lifetime talent, probably rarer. This is my favorite new release on
this list and is a must-see for anyone serious about dance, ballet
and even physical movement and martial arts, though he does no
fighting like that here. Great to see this film saved and preserved
for good as it is here.
Last
year, Ralph Fiennes made a film about him (now looking even more
accurate after seeing this documentary) called The White Crow
and you can read more about our coverage of that release at this
link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/15536/White+Crow+(2019/Sony+DVD
Next
up is Der
Messias
(2020), stage directed by Robert Wilson and conducted by Marc
Minkowski. Running 2 hours, 15 minutes, this very, very
deconstructionist presentation features music by Mozart of Handel's
Messiah
we've reviewed several times, but does not always gel or work despite
the solid talent involved. It is not to say we think Mozart did not
create an impressive version of the legendary work, but that this
stage version is just not that strong and takes deconstruction too
far. Those curious will likely want to see it, but I was
disappointed, though the singing does make up for some of its many
issues.
I
felt the same way about this combination concert and documentary
release of Beethoven's Missa
Solemnis
(2018) directed by Uli Aumuller and conduced by Frieder Bernius. For
starters, it cannot compete with this grand version we covered as an
outright performance on Blu-ray a few years ago:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/10861/Brahms+Violin+Concerto/Dvorak+Sym.+No+9/Abb
The
performance here is a simple-but-decent 71 minutes performance and
the documentary (with overlap) runs an hour. It is still fine for
what we get, but not grand, yet the people involved love the music
and can play it and sing it, as it is an opera. The conductor has an
advanced grasp of the work as you would expect, yet this is a work
that asks to be larger as the other version is. It at least makes a
nice companion to the other version I really liked and serious fans
might want to get both.
An
impressive vocalist takes on one of the great composer in Juan
Diego Florez: Mozart
(2019) running 13 tracks and running a solid 75 minutes, the length
of a CD, but sounding much better. These arias sound as fine as
ever, Riccardo Minasi does an excellent job conducting and of course,
one wonders why this is not a show twice as long. Still, this
delivers just enough and is recommended for those interested, but
just remember it is on the short side.
Next,
we finally get to cover a musical version of Edward Grieg's Peer Gynt
(2018) as the only previous version was this piece of silent cinema
from 1941 (yes, you read that right) with Charlton Heston we reviewed
years ago at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/5162/Peer+Gynt+(1941/VCI
While
we wait for a restored version of that to arrive on Blu-ray, we have
this interesting, creative, risk-taking version conducted by Simon
Hewitt and choreographed by Edward Clug based on Henrik Ibsen's
classic tale as the title character (Jakob Feyferlik) wandering
through his life, yet repeatedly visited and revisited by the
mysterious White Stag (played very interestingly by Zsolt Torok) in
this enduring fantasy as ballet.
One
of the better releases here, it runs 112 minutes and has some good
moments, but I still thought it fell short, though not for want or
trying. In this case, it starts out very well, but just cannot keep
up what it accomplishes early on. Still, it makes me want to see
more work from the people behind it.
Finally
we have Hans
Werner Henze's Der
Prinz Von Homburg
(2020) conducted by Cornelius Meister and stage directed by Stephan
Kimmig. This opera involves the title character (Robin Adams as the
Prince) who is not happy or interested in war or militarism or hate
or any state against individuality, but a better world with a better
future for all. Too bad proto-fascism is developing all around him.
Henze
was around during WWII in Germany and it was a mess, especially one
he was not going too happily support. This work, based on the
centuries-old Heinrich von Kleist play, was the ultimate response to
all that he suffered though and had happened. The good news it that
it is honest and not shy about any of its subject matter, but
unfortunately, we have seen more than a few operas dealing with Nazi
Fascism (et al) that does and shows what we see here. Guess you can
never repeat important points enough, especially lately, but the
makers were beaten to this in some respects. Yet, what else could
they do?
This
runs a decent 114 minutes and is worth a look for those interested.
The
1080p 1.33 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer can show the
age of the materials a bit in the film stock (probably Kodak) looking
a little older at times, but this 16mm film-shot film looks fine
otherwise with the most stable image, least motion blur (hardly any)
and also offers the original theatrical monophonic sound in a
surprisingly good PCM 2.0 Mono mix.
The
rest of the releases are presented in 1080i 1.78 X 1 digital High
Definition image transfers, though Missa
and Prinz
do not say this on their cases, they register as such. Fortunately,
they are all color accurate and have some good shots in each. All
five discs also offer two soundtracks: DTS-HD
MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless (save 5.0 on Florez)
and PCM 2.0 Stereo, save Missa
and Homburg,
only featuring PCM 2.0 Stereo. The multi-channel sounds better in
all cases where applicable, but sometimes the margin is not as wide
as usual.
Extras
include nicely illustrated booklets in all six releases, some of
which have trailers for other Naxos releases, while Missa
adds its hour-long documentary (overlap notwithstanding) and Dancer
adds separate on camera interviews with Terese Capucilli on Nureyev
and Fonteyn and Skylar Brandt on this film.
-
Nicholas Sheffo
