{"product_id":"berlioz-h-benvenuto-cellini","title":"Berlioz, H.: Benvenuto Cellini","description":"\u003ca class=\"links\" href=\"album.jsp?album_id=559150\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eAlso available on Blu-ray\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Hector Berlioz\u003cbr\u003e  BENVENUTO CELLINI \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e  Benvenuto Cellini – Burkhard Fritz\u003cbr\u003e  Teresa – Maija Kovalevska\u003cbr\u003e  Fieramosca – Laurent Naouri\u003cbr\u003e  Giacomo Balducci – Brindley Sherratt\u003cbr\u003e  Pope Clemens VII – Mikhail Petrenko\u003cbr\u003e  Ascanio – Kate Aldrich\u003cbr\u003e  Francesco – Xavier Mas\u003cbr\u003e  Bernardino – Roberto Tagliavini\u003cbr\u003e  Pompeo – Adam Plachetka\u003cbr\u003e  Innkeeper – Sung-Keun Park \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e  Vienna State Opera Chorus\u003cbr\u003e  Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra\u003cbr\u003e  Valery Gergiev, conductor \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e  Philipp Stölzl, stage director and stage designer\u003cbr\u003e  Kathi Maurer, costume design\u003cbr\u003e  Duane Schuler, lighting design\u003cbr\u003e  Mara Kurotschka, choreographer \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e  Filmed at the Großes Festspielhaus, Salzburg, 5, 10 and 15 August 2007.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e  Picture format: NTSC 19:9\u003cbr\u003e  Sound format: Dolby Digital 2.0 \/ Dolby Surround 5.0 \/ DTS 5.0\u003cbr\u003e  Region code: 0 (worldwide)\u003cbr\u003e  Subtitles: English, French\u003cbr\u003e  Running time: 164 mins\u003cbr\u003e  No. of DVDs: 1 (DVD 9)\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003ctitle\u003e3410590.az_BERLIOZ_Benvenuto_Cellini_Valery.html\u003c\/title\u003e  \u003cmeta http-equiv=\"Content-Type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cspan class=\"COMPOSER12\"\u003eBERLIOZ \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"ARIAL12bi\"\u003eBenvenuto Cellini \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"BULLET12b\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"ARIAL12\"\u003e Valery Gergiev, cond; Burkhard Fritz (\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"ARIAL12i\"\u003eCellini\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"ARIAL12\"\u003e); Maija Kovaleska (\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"ARIAL12i\"\u003eTeresa\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"ARIAL12\"\u003e); Laurent Naouri (\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"ARIAL12i\"\u003eFieramosca\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"ARIAL12\"\u003e); Kate Aldrich (\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"ARIAL12i\"\u003eAscanio\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"ARIAL12\"\u003e); Brindley Sherratt (\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"ARIAL12i\"\u003eBalducci\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"ARIAL12\"\u003e); Mikhail Petrenko (\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"ARIAL12i\"\u003ePope Clement VII\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"ARIAL12\"\u003e); Vienna State Op Ch; Vienna PO \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"BULLET12b\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"ARIAL12\"\u003e NAXOS 2.110271 (DVD: 163:35) Live: Salzburg 8\/5-10-15\/2007 \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cspan\u003eThis is an eye-popping extravaganza in which stage business keeps pace with, and too often trumps, Berlioz’s most coruscatingly vibrant and scintillantly compelling score. Cellini appears in a helicopter at the rooftop porch of Balducci’s penthouse, framed against the New York skyline; robots help Teresa with her toilet (including shaving her armpits) as Maija Kovaleska delivers herself of her big aria with virtuosic aplomb; Ascanio, too, is a robot—Kate Aldrich deliciously does her “Tra-la-la” aria with head removed (at stage level); Pompeo is a pimp, and hookers are a significant portion of the Mardi Gras crowd; the wheedling Asian innkeeper brandishes an assault rifle; and so on. The animation of static moments—in terms of staging—is clever, entertaining, and often riveting. The Mardi Gras itself is a credibly incredible triumph of garish color, comic incident, choreographically turned hurlyburly, and drama. Even those who care little for Berlioz’s music will find themselves entranced by the spectacle, while those with some regard for the composer may be alternately delighted and appalled. Berlioz’s conception of the artist as a romantic hero is a major casualty. As Cellini, Burkhard Fritz is in heroic voice and magnificent swagger but portrays his man as a gangster; while, between Mardi Gras and his appearance at his \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan style=\"font-style:italic\"\u003eatelier,\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan\u003e the director has foisted upon him a gratuitous wound, allowing the camera to make much of his pained expressions and bloodied clothes. Why? Pompeo’s blustering aria, boasting his fencing prowess, has been transferred to Fieramosca, which makes no sense whatever as the latter is—and is played throughout to great comic effect by Laurent Naouri—a sneaking pantywaist. English subtitles render \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan style=\"font-style:italic\"\u003emaîtres ciseleurs\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan\u003e as “master engravers,” a literal translation that ignores Berlioz’s usage to mean master goldsmiths while making nonsense of the Dionysian hymn he lavished upon Cellini’s foundrymen. We never see the \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan style=\"font-style:italic\"\u003ePerseus\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan\u003e, the statue Cellini’s been commissioned to cast, instead, the mold he threatens to destroy as Pope Clement rebukes him is a picayune \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan style=\"font-style:italic\"\u003eWinged Victory of Samothrace\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan\u003e—another disturbing dissonance between Berlioz’s straightforward dramatic narrative and director Philipp Stölzl’s pointless, would-be-clever dinking. Within the often silly parameters just outlined, vocally and histrionically this production is beyond all praise. Valery Gergiev’s direction is surefire, though others—Sir Colin Davis, Sir Roger Norrington—have found deeper resonance through significant portions of the score, while the never less than virtuosic Vienna Philharmonic is massive where Berlioz is lean and sinewy. Nevertheless, one comes to the end stunned, thrilled, and viscerally moved. As the cast took richly deserved bows, I, alone in my hovel, stood and cheered! Naxos’s surround sound lets no detail of this teeming, overfull, overrich score escape, delivering all with overwhelming punch. Despite all caveats, highest recommendation. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cspan style=\"font-weight:bold\"\u003eFANFARE: Adrian Corleonis \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Naxos AudioVisual","offers":[{"title":"DVD","offer_id":52610157019416,"sku":"747313527151","price":21.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0687\/4346\/3192\/files\/1584498.jpg?v=1788467990","url":"https:\/\/hbdirect.com\/products\/berlioz-h-benvenuto-cellini","provider":"HBDirect","version":"1.0","type":"link"}