Tuesday, 18 November 2008

Renée Fleming in Nozze di Figaro DVD

Le nozze di Figaro. Glyndebourne Festival 1994. Production: Stephen Medcalf. Cast: Renée Fleming (Countess), Andreas Schmidt (Count), Gerald Finley (Figaro), Alison Hagley (Susanna), Marie-Ange Todorovitch (Cherubino). Conductor: Bernard Haitink with the London Philharmonics. Further information here.

There is a childlike simplicity to this Glyndebourne staging - doll-house interior, baroque furniture, period costumes. Thus, the prodution is not entirely traditional. Neither is it modern. Unfortunately it also lacks a clear take on the work.

The beautiful voice in it´s prime is surprisingly not the superb Countess I´d expected. Vocally, Renée Fleming makes too many artificially sounding portamenti and odd tempo changes. Furthermore, she has gone through a major dramatic development since this was recorded in 1994. Additionally she lacks energy and looks very heavy and exhausted (pregnant?). More energy comes from the way of Alison Hagley´s fine Susanna. Andreas Schmidt is the noble Count, with the noble and beautiful voice. And while Gerald Finley´s roguish Count from the recently released Davic McVicar production is hard to forget, he was superb even in 1994 as Figaro.

Bernard Haitink simply delivered a superbly conducted performance from the London Philharmonics with the full-bodied orchestra sound. No period-style Mozart here.

Fleming, Finley, Schmidt, Hagley - "Aprite, presto":



The bottom line (scale of 1-5, 3=average):

Renée Fleming: 4
Andreas Schmidt: 4
Gerald Finley: 4
Alison Hagley: 4
Marie-Ange Todorovitch: 3-4

Production: 3

Bernard Haitink: 5

Overall impression: 3
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4 comments:

  1. Anonymous18 November 2008 at 17:02

    Your profile says that your blog is a Mozart-free zone. Obviously not.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous18 November 2008 at 17:40

    I can't get to operas and rely on DVDs, so I really appreciate your reviews with the excerpts.

    ReplyDelete
  3. marcillac22 November 2008 at 20:02

    Frankly stunned by Fleming's disappointing Countess. I'd heard her at the Met earlier that year and was absolutely blown away. Simply the perfect Countess: full stop.

    To be sure, that was my first Figaro in the theater, but even at that time there were performances which I didn't like and her Countess could not have been (and in my experience has not been) bettered. When I saw this on VHS several year later I was surprised and at her lackluster and somewhat, as you say, mannered performance here.

    (Morris was also an excellent Figaro).

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  4. Carly23 December 2014 at 00:16

    While this is an old post, I thought I'd provide you all with an answer to the question asked in the review: Pregnant? Yes, she was pregnant at the time. 6 months pregnant, I believe.

    ReplyDelete