Jewels: Joyaux – George
Balanchine (Opus
Arte Blu-ray), Rameau: Zoroastre (Opus
Arte Blu-ray), Bach: Brandenburg
Concertos 1-6 (Opus Arte Blu-ray),
Strauss: Salome (Royal Opera House/Opus Arte DVD) & Bringing Balanchine Back (City Lights
Home Entertainment DVD)
Picture/Sound/Extras/Concerts:
Jewels: Joyaux – George Balanchine
B+/B+/B/B
Rameau: Zoroastre B+/B+/B/B
Bach: Brandenburg Concertos 1-6 B+/B+/B/A-
Strauss: Salome B/B/B/B+
Bringing Balanchine Back B-/B-/B-/B-
In
continuation on our coverage of Naxos titles, we are thrilled with the recent
releases of several Blu-ray discs as well as the Strauss: Salome DVD. These
are exactly the types of titles that get a format like Blu-ray truly rolling as
they are more ‘high art’ and that only helps indicate that the format is
thriving and consumers (especially classical fans) will want to be on board
with Blu-ray as soon as possible if they haven’t made the jump already. This particular batch gives us a great
sampling of the variety that is coming out to the format and fans will want to
get their hands on these discs as soon as possible.
Having
already covered quite a few operas from Opus Arte, it was a particularly great
change of pace to cover a ballet in Jewels:
Joyaux, which has an interesting history for sure (you can read all about
it inside the booklet). This particular
event took place in 2000, which was 17 years after George Balanchine’s death
(1904-1983), but his choreography lives on in this rare event, which is
captured here, and now for Blu-ray in high definition glory. The ballet is dedicated to women and the
capital cities of the great dance schools, in many respects it’s a ballet
dedicated to ballet and it pulls out all of the stops.
The
ballet features some terrific musical scores by Igor Stravinsky and Pyotr
Illyich Tchaikovsky, which is performed here by the Orchestra of the Opera
national de Paris under musical direction from Paul Connelly. This is also the Ballet of the Opera national
de Paris with Aurelie Dupont, Marie-Agnes Gillot, Agnes Letestu, Clairemarie
Osta, Laetitia Pujol, Jean-Guillaume Bart, Kader Belarbi, and Mathieu Ganio
featured and Christian Lacroix’s set and costume design and Jennifer Tipton’s
lighting design.
This is a
50GB Blu-ray disc that features a 1080i High Definition transfer that feels
like a ‘live’ production in your home.
It should be noted that since this production is a bit older in terms of
where technology was back in 2000 that it only suffers marginally from that
fact. It’s hard to believe how far High
Definition has come just in the past few years, but nonetheless the
presentation here looks finely detailed with stunning color and depth, with
only some moments of softness and perhaps a little less resolution than might
be expected, but nothing too problematic.
The audio is offered in two forms: PCM 2.0 and PCM 5.0, while both are
quite good, I tend to lean a bit more towards the 2.0 mix in this case as it
feels more natural to me. The 5.0 mix
works well, but is a bit too thin at times and the 2.0 mix pushes the sound
through in a more realistic and life-like way.
Some may prefer the ambiance that is offered with the 5.0 mix, but it’s
really all a matter of preference.
Working
as a great companion piece from City Lights Home Entertainment is the Bringing Balanchine Back disc, which is
narrated by Kevin Kline and runs 80-minutes in length. This biography deals with the influence of
Balanchine, his life, and the modern usage of his choreography, which is making
a huge return and after seeing this particular documentary it’s understandable
why that is the case. The film is
directed by Richard Blanchard and features a 5.1 mix along with interviews and
makes for a great follow up to the Jewels
disc.
Jean
Philippe Rameau’s Zoroastre is a
piece that I was previously unfamiliar with, but am certainly glad to have seen
it on Blu-ray! This is perhaps a gem
that hopefully gets some serious attention as it’s a wonderful production that
will surprise most, especially the usage here of the 18th Century Drottningholm
Theater and it’s mechanics for this production, which certainly adds to the
rawness and beauty of this performance.
Zoroastre was first performed in the mid-1700’s in Paris with libretto
by Louis de Cahusac and is the 4th and final of Rameau’s
tragedies. This particular cast includes
Anders J. Dahlin, Evgueniy Alexiev, Sine Bundgaard, Anna Maria Panzarella, Lars
Arvidson, Markus Schwartz, Gerard Theruel, and Ditte Andersen, with stage
directing by Pierre Audi, set and costume by Patrick Kinmonth, choreography by
Amir Hosseinpour, and lighting designer Peter Van Praet. The Drottningholm dancers and chorus are
featured with musical director Christophe Rousset. The opera is presented in French, but
includes English, French, German, Spanish, and Italian subtitles, which is
beneficial since this is an all-region Blu-ray disc.
Like most
of the Opus Arte titles, this one gets premium treatment as well with a 1080i
High Definition transfer that delivers a very ‘live’ appearance and runs nearly
4 hours in total, which is why a 50GB disc is offered here. The colors and contrast on this disc are
first-rate with natural expression and beautiful detail that really shines
through on the Blu-ray disc. This
particular production benefits greatly from Blu-rays ability and resolution to
fully capture the complete gamut of colors and grayscale to offer a fine
presentation. One thing that does
standout from this particular release is the usage of Dolby TrueHD rather than
PCM like we have seen on other Opus Arte titles. Here we get a Dolby TrueHD 2.0 mix and Dolby
TrueHD 5.1. Both are quite good,
although I personally am a bigger fan when it comes to musical reproduction
with the PCM mixes. The Dolby TrueHD
mixes work well here and are far from poor in any respect, but I have
discovered that the PCM audio options seem to have more resolution and bring a
more balanced audio presentation forward.
However, there does seem to be more low-end presence in the Dolby TrueHD
mixes that PCM is not nearly as proficient with, so it’s a matter of tradeoff
in any case.
Fans will
greatly appreciate the illustrated synopsis that is included, a wonderful
booklet, plus a terrific documentary called Zoroastre: Discovering an opera, which is directed by Olivier
Simonnet and is great for people like myself who have never seen this
particular opera until now. Factual, yet
informative and engaging it’s a terrific addition that will help newbies
out!
Bach: Brandenburg Concertos 1-6 is yet another dynamite Blu-ray
release that any moderate classical fan will want to have and any Bach fan
should desperately track down for their collection. When DVD first arrived over 10 years ago I
sought after several classical productions, most of them were live orchestral
pieces a few operas, but none of them really seemed to work. Often times the production was poor, they
were filmed with decent cameras, but often times received poor transfers to DVD
and had horrific sound mixes that often times were in either mono, stereo, or
really distracting 5.1 mixes. Let’s just
say that at any rate these early titles didn’t really convert many people over
to the music or the format, but I can understand why some people might find it
difficult to watch a symphony from the comfort of their chair…it’s just not the
same as being in the concert hall and hearing it live. I agree.
However, Blu-ray is really starting to convince me that concerts can be
enjoyed within the confines of the home, while this might not be my first
option, it’s certainly a viable one and also one that enables me to enjoy the
music as my own leisure and as many times as I want. One Blu-ray that will certainly be getting
repeat performance of is this Bach disc.
There are
several reasons for this, but perhaps the biggest one is that this particular
disc shines on all levels. First and
foremost I am particular fond of Bach’s concertos already, but here they are
tackled by some of the finest musicians around, which formed in 2004 and titled
themselves Orchestra Mozart, which features several prolific players in the
world including: Alois Posch, Danusha Waskiewicz, Mario Brunello, Reinhold
Friedrich, Alessio Allegrini, Jonathan Williams, Jacques Zoon, and Michala
Petri under the creative force of Claudio Abbado and the results are phenomenal. This particular recording took place at the
exquisite Teatro Municipale Romolo Valli in April 2007 and directed by Andreas
Morell and produced by Paul Smaczny.
There is a terrifically detailed booklet included that goes into more
depth with the musicians, the production, and features a few photos as
well. Giuliano Carmignola is the
featured violinist here and the 100-minute concert is perhaps one of the most
engaging, absorbing, and engulfing experienced I’ve had of late.
Offered
with a PCM 5.0 and 2.0 sound option, the mix is nothing short of amazing, in
fact it’s mesmerizing and natural as it allows for the acoustical instruments
(non-amplified instruments are always great!) to just do their work! Rather than trying to be playful with the mix,
it’s a more balanced, accurate, and detailed mix that brings forth the richness
and neutral nature of these incredible instruments. Fans should rejoice! Also pleasing is the 1080i High Definition
transfer presented in 1.78 X 1 and also natural delivering the warmth and
beauty of the state, theater, and instruments.
After
experiencing some incredible titles on Blu-ray it’s hard to imagine going
backwards to DVD technology, but Richard
Strauss’ Salome from the Royal Opera House has not yet received the
treatment, until then we will enjoy this particular 2-disc DVD set that
features one of the most unique interpretations. For those less familiar with the work, it’s a
conglomeration of several things; the first is Oscar Wilde’s bible-based drama,
which then takes its visual imagery from Pier Paolo Pasolini’s highly
controversial film Salo: or the 120 Days
of Sodom as the opera takes place in Nazi occupied Germany. From there we have Strauss’ prolific score
setting the undertone for the production as this provocative opera is raw,
unsettling, and powerful. The cast
includes Nadja Michael as Salome, plus Michaela Schuster, Thomas Moser, Joseph
Kaiser, Michael Volle, with the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House under the
direction of Philippe Jordan, stage director David McVicar. The film director is Jonathan Haswell and was
filmed for the big screen using high definition cameras and recorded for
surround sound. This production is,
despite its provocative and sometimes horrifying content, well done and deserves
serious accolades for its production!
The 1.78
X 1 anamorphic widescreen transfer looks good, but it’s obvious where the DVD
falls short compared to the Blu-ray titles that we have covered, but since this
was filmed in HD, it should only be a matter of time before it arrives on Blu
too! We can’t wait for that! Colors are solid, blacks are deep, but there
is just a softness and lack of resolution that takes us a step back from the
real life-like quality that HD on an HD format can deliver.
This opera
is sung in German with English, French, German, Spanish, and Italian subtitles,
the audio track is done right with a DTS 5.1 and linear PCM 2.0 stereo mix,
which is exactly how I prefer DVD to be done if possible. Dolby has too many limitations with the
amount of compression, here the DTS mix is full, engaging, powerful, and
ultimately delivers the goods, the PCM mix is solid too, a little weaker in the
fullness, but slightly more coherent in resolution, so it’s perhaps a tradeoff
that the listener will have to assess and determine their preference.
Also
included is a terrific and full-booklet that details the production and is
fantastic, plus we get a documentary on McVicar’s work, this production in
particular, interviews, and extensive backstage footage that is all interesting
and engaging, so fans again will be impressed with the amount of work that has
gone into making this a reality, in any format that is!
- Nate Goss
