Meyerbeer - Les Huguenots / John Dew · Stefan Soltesz - Richard Leech · Angela Denning

Amazon.com

As grand opera goes, few examples of the form have the inherent grandeur of Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots. The dramatic backdrop is Mérimée's account of the 16th-century St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre of thousands of French Calvinists under the Catholic regime. The trick, insofar as there is one, is the way in which the attendant upheaval is reflected in the smallest detail of the lives of the main protagonists. This 1991 Berlin Opera production carries this process several stages further, embedding--and there really is no other word to describe the thoroughness of the process--the narrative into an indeterminate, hyper-condensed 20th-century setting. While this approach has its own pitfalls, such as the silent "pre-overture" that proposes an unsubtle comparison between the oppression of the Catholics and the persecution of the Jews in wartime Germany, it would be churlish to let them detract from what is a robust and highly memorable performance of this sometimes unfashionable opera. --Roger Thomas, Amazon.co.uk

Description

Libretto by Eugene Scribe and Emile Deschamps
German version by Ignatz Franz Castelli
Sung in German

Cast:
Magarethe von Valois: Angela Denning
Valentine: Lucy Peacock
Raoul von Nangis: Richard Leech
Graf von Saint-Bris: Hartmut Welker
Urban: Camille Capasso
Marcel: Martin Blasius
Chorus and Orchestra of the Deutsche Oper Berlin
Conductor: Stefan Soltesz

Customer Reviews:

Stampede. High school production........2006-12-23

Music and singing is excellent.
However, production is a complete trash.
I am the music lover and I can not listen to massive noise and distraction even during beautiful arias. There is lot of running, stomping, door slamming, chairs throwing and other noise making activities. Musicians and singers effort is ignored.

Very, very relevant.......2006-06-01

Despite the mediocre quality of most of the music in the opera, I was mesmerized. Here we have a story of two religious faiths, each deciding they are the true one and that God tells them that the other should die. Maybe it could be staged where the two were Sunni and Shia instead of Catholic and Protestant. The emotions and lack of logic are essentially the same. The musical highlight, for me, was the Verdian encounter between Raoul (Richard Leech) and Valentine (Lucy Peacock) in the fourth act. But overall it was a strong performance with excellent sound and video.

TAGLI A IOSA!!!.......2004-05-12

NON CONOSCO TANTO BENE L'INGLESE MA VOGLIO DIRE LO STESSO QUALCOSA SU QUESTO DVD.INNANZITUTTO CI SONO TROPPI TAGLI INAMMISIBILI (2 ARIA DEL PAGGIO/DUETTO VALENTINE-MARCEL/TRIO DEL QUARTO ATTO ECC.).IL TENORE E' SPLENDIDO IL SOPRANO CHE INTERPRETA MARGHERITA E' STRIDULO MEGLIO VALENTINE,BENE IL BARITONO IL RESTO.....L'ORCHESTRAZIONE E' APPENA DECENTE.
MA IO AMO QUEST'OPERA E TRA LA "VECCHIA" SUTHERLAND E QUESTA EDIZIONE SONO STATO OBBLIGATO ...A COMPRARE IL "MENO PEGGIO)

Just a warning.......2003-12-28

I haven't bought this dvd. However, I saw it at my local store, and on the back of it's box, it said the dvd lasted about 150 minutes. Seeing it, I just couldn't help comparing with the australian opera dvd's length...And if you take not only the farewell ceremony at the end of the latter, but also all the credits before it, it still leaves *170* minutes. Therefore, from pure logic, I would say either the conductor in this Arthaus dvd production has real fast tempi, or there were made substantial cuts to the score.

Also, from the reviews made on this dvd, the catholics in this production are dressed in fascist uniforms. Not only it may be offensive for any christian who buys it, but it also takes out what the public in Meyerbeer's time praised: impartiality. Indeed, peoples in the 19th century praised Meyerbeer for having put protestants and catholics on equal grounds. The two lovers are a catholic and a protestant, and both are good. And to Valentine's father's savagery is opposed Marcel's slightly pedant and hateful attitude toward catholics, and Valentine's husband's indignation toward the plans of massacring the huguenots. However, approaching the story of Batholomew's day massacre to the persecutions the jews suffered during the second world war is, I think, of very bad taste, and may miss the composer's point.

To that is added the fact that the opera is sung here in german instead of french, and without french subtitles...In front of all that, question yourselves just how important superior quality singing is to you before choosing between both versions of the opera...If, for you, opera's all about voice, get this dvd. But if you think the composer's view of the subject he puts into music is important, and that what's important is before all the artistic value as a whole, the australian opera's dvd, despite its slightly imperfect cast, has many more merits from this point of view.

A beautiful rendition of one of my favorite operas.......2003-12-17

I loved this rendition of The Huguenots despite the fact that in general I detest it when operas are put into medern dress and I'm used to French as the language used in The Huguenots. In addition to wonderful voices, the whole thing comes together with great meaning - it is a treatise against all sorts of religious fanatasism - and makes it's point succintly. I prefered this much more than the Australian Opera's rendition with Joan Sutherland, in which I felt the wonderful Joan did not do justice to her part.

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