Cheap Distant Harmony: Pavarotti in China (Video) (DeWitt Sage) Price

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Customer Reviews of Distant Harmony: Pavarotti in China

Documentary For Pavarotti Fans.
I enjoyed this video the two times I've seen it but agree with Maltin that it is for Pavarotti fans and does lack depth as a documentary of western opera visiting the far east. The Chinese students were really a delight and it was fun seeing someone from China speaking fluent Italian! The occasion was taking Italian musicians/singers to perform La Boheme in China and Pavarotti singing in the Great Hall of the People in Bejing. If you are a Pavarotti fan, you'll really enjoy this video. Otherwise, it's probably a one time viewing for most people, even opera buffs. Refreshing that Chinese people, in the city at least, are familiar with western opera and like it. Seeing a short clip of Pavarotti perform in a Chinese opera was also a novelty. He travels with quite an entourage!

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The filmed concert is better!
This documentary of Pavarotti's trip to China is probably interesting if you're an uncritical fan of the man. If you're more a fan of his singing, I recommend the concert-only video of his recital in the Great Hall of the People- what an amazing looking place it is, huge and very modern, but with a gargantuan, unbelievably bourgeois central chandelier! Pavarotti is a less than interesting fellow in many ways, while he is without argument the supreme tenor of the last 100 years, greater than Caruso. There is a good deal of superstar posturing, draping of large scarves over and around himself, clowning around in his notably charming fashion. It gets a little wearisome. Part of the Great Hall concert is included in this video, but the impact of the concert-only VHS is so much greater. Pavarotti is in stupendous voice, inspired, even! It is singing that blazes and makes the world whole again! Every offering is saturated with the genius of his phenomenal communicative gifts, and matched by the voice at its ecstatic best in every way! Impossible to overstate the astonishing example of the singing art given to the world by way of a clearly enraptured Chinese audience. The travel-docu part of the film is 2 stars and largely forgettable, but the singing is way 5 stars. That makes 4 stars in my book!- the extra rating surely standing for immense gratitude at having lived while this man was exercising his rare art! Something indeed to be grateful for.

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WEST MEETS EAST AND EAST APPLAUDS.
ALTHOUGH MORE A DOCU-DRAMA OF MAESTRO'S VISIT TO CHINA WITH THE GENOA OPERA COMPANY, I ATTRIBUTE THE MAJESTY OF THE CHINESE PEOPLE TO THEIR TRADITION AS MOST EUROPEANS DO. WHEN LUCIANO,SINGING THE ARIA 'CHE GELIDA MANINA' FROM LA BOHEME HIT THE LONG HIGH C AND HELD SAME THE AUDIENCE WENT WILD GIVING A LONG OVATION BEFORE THE ARIA EVEN ENDED. LUCIANO BEING THE FIRST WESTERNER TO PERFORM IN THE GREAT HALL, AND HE FELT RIGHT AT HOME. THE POLITICIANS SHOULD TAKE HEED OF THIS. MUSIC TRANSFORM CULTURES.ALL THE PERFORMANCES ARE 'PAR EXCELLENCE'. MAESTRO EVEN DONNED ORIENTAL GARB AND PERFORMED AN ASIAN PIECE, AND WAS WELL RECEIVED. THE BEHIND THE SCENES AND LOGISTICS FOR THE DURATION INCLUDING BRINGING FOOD, STOVES,REFRIGERATORS WAS A STROKE OF GENIUS. WHEN THE ASIAN CULTURE OBJECTED TO A PORTION OF A SCENE OF LA BOHEME, A SIMPLE REWRITE SUFFICED. EVERY ONE SAVED FACE WITHOUT A CULTURE CLASH. UPON DEPARTURE AND A DESIRE TO DONATE STOVES/REFRIGERATORS ETC.; SEEING THIS WOULD BE A SLIGHT TO THE ASIAN PEOPLE, THE OFFER WAS QUICKLY WITHDRAWN. THIS IS THE SIMPLE 'TRADIZIONE' WE ALL NEED TO RETURN TO. I ORIGINALLY VIEWED THIS VIDEO IN 1987(1986 VERSION) AND MOST RECENTLY SEPT. '99.. I ENJOY THIS VIDEO, VIEW OFTEN AND SHOW TO FRIENDS/FAMILY TO SEE IF THEY DISCERN THE UNDERLYING BENEFIT. I GIVE 'DISTANT HARMONY' TEN STARS.