Donizetti: Maria Stuarda [Blu-ray]

Elizabeth (Ganassi) wins again!
The previous reviwer has already noted that this is a "psycho" drama between two "ladies" and a dull-witted tenor in a Schiller play that has no connection to historical veracity. That said we can turn to the battle of the sopranos. Sonia Ganassi belted out an Elizabeth in a DVD made at Bergamo in 2001. Her rival that time was Carmela Remigio as Maria Stuarta. Remigio simply does not have the voice or the technique to carry off the blazing confrontation scene or the quiet, noble, final prayer. Ganassi in a quieter portrayal than the present one easily came off the winner. It should be noted that the tenor in that production was Joseph Calleja who looked the part and sang the part exceptionally well. In the present recording Ganassi is again in top form and is even more on spot while singing the blazes off everyone else on stage. The Maria is Fiorenza Cedolins. She comes with a reputation in standard Italian repertoire of which I've heard a few selections. Thus I was looking forward to...

The battle of the ladies
Donizetti's opera Maria Stuart is based on Schillers version, where Elizabeth and Mary are seen to be in love with the Earl of Leicester and have an angry encounter(never happened). Commissioned for the Teatro San Carlo in Naples.It is suspected that following a dress rehearsal the singers playing Elizabeth and Mary came to blows so absorbed were they in their parts. The royal patrons stepped in to stop the opera being performed.A year later it resurfaced at La Scala, Milan.A revival of this opera 20 years after Donizetti's death formed the basis of the opera when rediscovered in 1958. A newer version is the one chosen for this production which opened in April 2009 at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice. It had burned down in 1996 and was restored.

For Denis Krief stage director etc,the work is a psychodrama,a love triangle and he uses colour to signify ideas,the yellow of jealousy,deep blue of purity. The final scene is bathed in red. The staging is a maze which changes colour...

Krief brings Grief
Who is Krief? He is the guy who is overall in charge of what happens on stage with the thankful exception of the music. Thank heavens for such mercies.

If one wants to 'see' what Anachronism means, they only have to see the Stage Direction, Sets and Lighting Design of this otherwise great production of Maria Stuarda.

Whatever I want to comment on the singing, conducting and sound and video etc has already been elucidated beautifully by the two persons who wrote the comments ahead of me, Keris Nine and Dr.Rippon. They are on the dot.

I want to really comment on the Staging.
There is nothing imaginative here. The whole thing looks like a maze or labyrinth through which the actors scamper about like rats. It represents nothing... not even the so called 'trap' that both the ladies are supposed to be in. Ultimately it slides and exposes what looks like an exoskeleton of some monster or just plain scaffolding prior to concreting a slab of a construction...

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Discovering Beethoven: Symphonies Nos 1 2 & 3 [Blu-ray]

Very fine traditional interpretations
Christian Thielemann's readings of the first three Beethoven symphonies in splendid video and uncompressed audio are first-rate interpretations, though rather slow and painstakingly detail-focused. The Wiener Philharmoniker - at first in somewhat smaller complement, then, alas, in increasing strength - play exceedingly well, as can be expected. These are "traditional" interpretations, definitely not of the "historical" or "period" schools. Thielemann, however, is well aware of their accomplishments and he lets the woodwinds, brass and timpani (he often has hard sticks) shine through the rather dense strings fabric wherever he sees fit. I must admit that, after decades of listening (often uneasily) to "big band", bombastic, homogenized Beethoven, my ears opened wide with more recent developments. My reference recordings are: Norrington's 2002 Stuttgart Cycle (CD), Gielen (DVD) and, just recently discovered, Paavo Järvi's Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen cycle on DVD, which I...

He swings, he misses.
These are willful interpretations that - IMHO - say a lot about Christian Thielemann and, occasionally, something important about Ludwig van Beethoven as well.

The performances of these early symphonies themselves are episodic, to put it kindly. It's one thing to fail to successfully link the sections of a given symphonic movement together into a whole, thereby unwittingly allowing us hear the seams in a work. It's quite another thing to create seams where none previously existed. This is a real debit in Thielemann's overall approach to the earlier works, IMO, especially as his performances of the later symphonies reflect a more traditional and moderate (read: successful) approach to Beethoven.

In the plus column, Thielemann observes every repeat in every symphony, and the Vienna Philharmonic sounds wonderful throughout.

On to the works themselves:

Thielemann has no love and carries no brief for Symphonies 1 & 2. I get the feeling that CT...

A large scale 'traditional approach' done well but purists will find this a doubtful approach
This is, on the face of it, a very generous and tempting coupling of Beethoven's first three symphonies plus two overtures all on one disc. The recording company, C Major, is in my opinion one of the very best working today. As a result we get unfailingly excellent surround sound and high quality visuals with sympathetic and knowledgeable camera work. So what of the actual performances?

Thielemann is very much his own man in this important respect. What we have here is 'big band' Beethoven with a large modern orchestra. There is no effort made to reproduce in any way the sound world that Beethoven inhabited. The textures presented here are fuller and more luscious in contrast to the sparer and rawer sounds that 'authentic' instruments deliver. Thielemann favours a well upholstered sound world and for this he is much appreciated by his Viennese audiences. It will also appeal to all listeners at home who find the 'authentic' approach rather too lean for their taste...

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