Bejun Mehta, Eva Liebau, Regula Mühlemann, Václav Luks, Ondej Havelka - Gluck: Orfeo Ed Euridice (2014)
Bejun Mehta, Eva Liebau, Regula Mühlemann, Václav Luks, Ondej Havelka - Gluck: Orfeo Ed Euridice (2014)
Classical | Bluray-rip 720p | Audio: Italian | Subtitles: Italiano, English, Deutsch, Francais, Espanol, Japanese, Korean | Run time: 75 mins | 2.68 GB
AVC, MKV 1280x720 (16:9) 29.97fps, 3510kbps | DTS, 48000Hz, 5ch, 1510kbps
Classical | Bluray-rip 720p | Audio: Italian | Subtitles: Italiano, English, Deutsch, Francais, Espanol, Japanese, Korean | Run time: 75 mins | 2.68 GB
AVC, MKV 1280x720 (16:9) 29.97fps, 3510kbps | DTS, 48000Hz, 5ch, 1510kbps
The Baroque Theatre of Český Krumlov Castle provides an ideal setting for one of the most important operas in music history, Christoph Willibald Gluck’s “Orfeo ed Euridice”. Director Ondřej Havelka captures much more than a stage performance: combining period details with modern psychological interpretation he chooses a cinematic approach that literally takes us behind the scenes of this unique venue. Bejun Mehta, ‘arguably the best countertenor in the world today’ (Sueddeutsche Zeitung), lends credibility to the emotions tormenting Orfeo’s heart. As his beloved Euridice, Austrian soprano Eva Liebau juggles joy and jealousy. Bringing comic relief to the work’s dark tone is Regula Mühlemann as Amore, who cheerily sends mortals zigzagging on their way to life, love – and, maybe, death. Under the baton of baroque specialist Václav Luks, the splendid soloists are supported by the Prague orchestra and vocal ensemble Collegium 1704 and Collegium Vocale 1704. This is the perfect new release to celebrate Gluck’s 300th anniversary in 2014!
Soloists: Bejun Mehta, Eva Liebau, Regula Mühlemann
Orchestra, Chorus: Collegium 1704, Collegium Vocale 1704
Conductor: Václav Luks
Director: Ondřej Havelka
Reviews: Český Krumlov Castle, a UNESCO World Heritage site, has one of the oldest working Baroque theatres in the world and as such it's a fine place to re-examine one of the most important works in the entire opera repertoire in a hopefully more authentic light. With Václav Luks conducting the period Collegium 1704 orchestra, a traditionally-informed stage production lit only by wax candles and countertenor singing the role of Orpheus, this Orfeo ed Euridice is undoubtedly closer to the original than most other productions. There are however a few caveats that can be given about the nature of the film itself.
Primarily, this production of Orfeo ed Euridice is shot as a film, which does take away somewhat from the charm of seeing it performed in a Baroque theatre. It's not filmed in the traditional manner of a live theatre performance, but it is clearly a live performance, shot over a number of takes, with perhaps a small amount of overdubs. Musically though, it sounds wonderful, the theatre creating a natural acoustic reverb rather than an amplified sound. There is rather a harder edged gut string pluck and rhythm that isn't quite so smooth, and heard this way it does present the opera in a new light.
This works wonderfully when its performed in Act I on the stage of the Baroque theatre where Orpheus mourns the death of Eurydice. It's old-style theatre, with painted forests to the wings and a sea at the back with old-fashioned pulley-operated rolling sea effects. Amore too descends in an authentically shaky manner on a mechanical cloud to give Orpheus a chance to bring his beloved back to the land of the living. Unfortunately, once Orpheus descends through the trapdoor to the Underworld, much of the remainder of the performance takes place in the wider setting of the backstage and the caverns of the castle and - other than the Elysium scene - not on the stage at all.
The locations backstage and in the wings are at least well used in this respect, retaining the candlelight illuminations, giving the underworld a suitably eerie and otherworldly appearance. Even here, with wooden beams and stone staircases, there are no anachronisms, although you would suspect that the Furies might be familiar with the "zombie shuffle" choreography of Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' video. There are also some clever touches like the play of shadows embracing and holding hands as Orpheus leads Eurydice out of the underworld that don't need to rely on special effects. The idea is nice, playing on the magic of the theatre experience and how it extends beyond the stage and takes on a life of its own, but I did find that the 'film' concept and editing distracted a little from the power of the work itself.
The original 1762 Vienna edition of the work has also been cut back slightly with most of the ballets shortened or excised entirely. The Act III Scene 3 dances, for example, are all missing. I suspect that the decision was made for artistic reasons (Bejun Mehta is credited also as Artistic Advisor here), since they get in the way of the clear narrative flow that is needed more for the film than a stage production, but such cuts aren't unusual. This is however a good account of the work that sounds wonderful, matching the stripped-back reformist nature of the work with a reduced period orchestra. The casting is also good with Bejun Mehta's sweet countertenor giving this Orpheus a suitably lyrical quality, Eva Liebau presenting a strong Eurydice and Regula Mühlemann a bright Amore.
On Blu-ray, this looks very fine indeed. There's a slightly softer edge to the image on account of it being filmed by candlelight, but it's clear and detailed with lovely tones and textures. The audio mixes are PCM stereo and DTS HD-master Audio 5.0. The mix is bright but there's a pleasant naturalness to the sound. The balance between the voices and the orchestra is different in the two mixes, the surround track seeming to make more use of reverb and give prominence to the voices, while the stereo track is more direct and evenly balanced. There are no extras on the BD25 region-free disc (a documentary on the restoration of the theatre can be found on the DVD/BD release of Domenico Scarlatti's Dove è Amore è Gelosia), but the booklet gives some background on how the film was made and the history of the Baroque theatre. There's no synopsis provided, but the plot of Orfeo ed Euridice is simplicity itself. Subtitles are in Italian, English, German, French, Spanish and Korean.
Tracklisting:
Cast:
Orfeo - Bejun Mehta
Euridice - Eva Liebau
Amore - Regula Mühlemann
Collegium Vocale 1704
Conductor - Václav Luks
Screeshots
Bejun Mehta, Eva Liebau, Regula Mühlemann, Václav Luks, Ondej Havelka - Gluck: Orfeo Ed Euridice (2014)
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My own rip