Word: videos
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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With everything from Gandhi to Fly Fishing for Trout available for the home VCR, it is not surprising that video companies also have something for the opera lover. But while filmmakers have long since perfected the art of adapting plays and musicals to their medium, opera on film or videotape is in its infancy, the equivalent of shellac 78s in the age of digital CDs. Except for such movies as Franco Zeffirelli's La Traviata or Francesco Rosi's Bizet's Carmen, most videos are theatrical presentations rather than cinematic creations in their own right. Still, there is much...
STRAUSS: Der Rosenkavalier. Elisabeth Schwarzkopf as the Marschallin, Sena Jurinac as Octavian, Anneliese Rothenberger as Sophie, Otto Edelmann as Baron Ochs. Herbert von Karajan conducting the Vienna Philharmonic. Video Arts International; $79.95; hi-fi mono. Pride of place belongs to this classic, filmed at the Salzburg Festival and released in 1962. The cast is the cream of central Europe at the time: Schwarzkopf, regal but warm in what was her greatest role; Jurinac, an ardent youthful swain; Rothenberger, silvery voiced and breathtakingly beautiful; and Edelmann, a bumptious hick from the sticks. Karajan's mastery of the score so gloriously displayed...
Visually, Director Paul Czinner is content to let Rudolf Hartmann's production speak for itself. The perspective is from the center orchestra seats, with a wide view of the stage; there is little of the distracting crosscutting or ogling close-ups that later video directors have found so irresistible. One surprisingly awkward visual moment, though, occurs in the middle of the most famous line in the opera, the Marschallin's worldly wise "Ja, ja" as she withdraws from Octavian's life. Here the film leaps in mid-utterance from a long shot of Schwarzkopf to a close-up, calling attention...
PUCCINI: Turandot. Eva Marton as Turandot, Jose Carreras as Calaf, Katia Ricciarelli as Liu. Lorin Maazel conducting the Vienna State Opera Orchestra. MGM/UA Home Video, $79.95, stereo. Stage Director Harold Prince's stylishly barbaric 1983 production grimly captured the fairy tale's bloodthirsty, amoral ! quality with striking imagery: the gruesome severed head of the luckless Prince of Persia is held high on a stake, impassive masks hide the faces and emotions of Turandot and her retinue, and the ice princess makes her entrance in Act II down what must be the longest staircase in operatic history...
Advertisers argue that the main reason ads are sexier these days can easily be determined by twirling a television dial, dropping by a local movie theater or checking the sales of X-rated video cassettes. Explains Roy Grace, vice chairman of the Doyle Dane Bernbach Group: "As a society, we're becoming more accepting of overt sexuality." In an era that has seen steamy prime-time soaps like Dallas and Dynasty become popular hits, and that nonchalantly accepts frank discussions of incest and bisexuality on Phil Donahue's show, erotic ads merely reflect the tone of the times. Says John...