Cheap Donizetti - Roberto Devereux / Julius Rudel, NYCO (Video) (Kirk Browning) Price

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Customer Reviews of Donizetti - Roberto Devereux / Julius Rudel, NYCO

Great bel canto opera
This opera is very dramatic - the Great Queen Elizabeth spurned. They say 'hell hath no fury like a woman scorned', so can you imagine a great queen being spurned - great operatic material in my opinion, and Beverly Sills does it complete justice with good acting and incredible singing. This video explains her superstardom quite well. The supporting cast is more than adequate and pleasing. Someone mentioned John Alexander's shaved eyebrows - just to explain - this is one of the earlier video recordings of live opera and the singers are made up to appeal to the live, far away audience, not to the television audience. In modern times, more attention has been given to applying the makeup for television when the opera is being filmed. Actually, the eyebrows give me a 'Shakespearean theatre' feel - I think I like them. <
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>Also, someone asked why Alexander doesn't take his final bows. I'm sure he did at the end of Act II, but they didn't show all of the bows between acts, and then he probably went on home, since he doesn't appear in Act III. That is generally the way it is done - if you don't appear in the last act, you can take your bows early and go home. <
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>The video and sound quality are adequate.

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Lesser Donizetti
I felt this opera and this production were inferior to others I have heard or seen. I am homosexual, so it was not homophobia that made me disgusted to see that at least Roberto had apparently plucked his eyesbrows and was wearing mascara. Everyone's acting was pleasant, Sara's husband made me hate him so he was good, Sara was good enough, Sills' was an extremely self-indulgent regal queen, dismissing people disdainfully, indifferently with a flick of the wrist, pushing people out of the way, all in exquisite character I thought. In fact, she made a nice contrast between the selfish pampered queen and all too human woman, I thought. However, she spent the first 1/3 of the opera in a fury and the last 2/3 in agony. It got tiresome and repetitious, but that's what was written. I was very uncomfortable with Roberto all the way around. The music wasn't as good as I'm used to and have come to expect from Donizetti I thought, though I've never heard anything by him I actually disliked. You really had to listen for the tunes (caught one, that was all), and that last high note that goes sailing up to the balcony (the kind that Sutherland was famous for) was indeed the last note, the last note of the whole show, there were no others! I won't succumb to the temptation to comment on the reviewer who compared the acting of (who else?) Callas, Sutherland and Sills. There are sopranos today that are more convincing than all three of them! One last word on the music. I'm going to keep and watch this DVD again, probably I think many times, because I feel there is more to be gotten out of it than I did at one time through (though I have the opera on CD also with Sills and always thought I liked it, in fact I have all the 3 queens with Sills on CD, and when the us postal service condescends to get Maria Stuarda to me, I'll have all three on DVD too, Stuarda an obscure Italian group that is supposed to be very good, I hope so). On the other hand, if I'm as disappointed on subsequent viewings/hearings as I was with the first, I may put this DVD alongside Don Carlos and cut my losses.

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This Is What Opera Is All About: Long Live The Queen
This DVD, also available on VHS, was filmed in 1975 at the Wolf Trap Festival. Stars the incredible soprano Beverly Sills in the role of Queen Elizabeth I of England, tenor John Alexander as the title hero Roberto Devereux and bass baritone Richard Fredericks as the villainous Duke of Nottingham. The opera is a collector's treasure of opera and a must have for fans of the diva Beverly Sills. It is undoubtedly her greatest performance. She began to sing the role in 1969 and took the world by storm through the early 70's, impressive not only for her ability to sing so demanding a vocal role, but also singing all three Tudor Queen operas of Donizetti- Anna Bolena and Maria Stuarda were the other two that preceed Roberto Devereux. In the mid 70's, the medium of television and film was beginning to reach the opera crowds. Joan Sutherland did it in the 80's and opera films such as the 1979 Don Giovanni starring Kiri Te Kenawa and Raigero Raimondi was becoming popular. Beverly's other opera films, taped performances for the Wolf Trap and for the New York City Opera include Jules Massenet's Manon, which is possibly her second best performance next to this. Also available is Donizetti's Daughter Of The Regiment sung in English, Rossini's Barber Of Seville and Verdi's La Traviata. All worth the purchase.

The part of Queen Elizabeth in this opera is as vocally difficult to sing as Norma of Bellini's opera. Although the part calls for a dramatic, big voice, Sills proved to the world that a light instrument can be trained to dramatic heights. She is on fire as the Queen, all passion, from love in the aria "L'amor suo" to coloratura spectacular in "A Ritorno Qual Ti Spera". In Act 2, her soft romantic side fades as she discovers that Roberto Devereux, the object of her affection, loves another woman, Duchess Sara (sung by the mezzo soprano Susan Marsee in a superb performance). The Duke of Nottingham, previously a friend and loyal supporter of Robert Devereux, become jealous also when he learns of his romantic link with Sara, his arranged wife. He, together with the Queen and the entire court, conclude Act 2 with a fiery ensemble "Va La Morte" that totally brings the house down. Beverly Sills is at her strongest in this dramatic act, as she rages in majestic fury and orders his death sentence. In the last part, she regrets her rash decision and attempts to save him, but it's too late. Devereux is executed and Queen Elizabeth begins to die that very day, as she mourns and laments with bitterness the final arias.

This is Beverly Sills at the height of her career. She earned a cover in Time magazine for this performance. She looks back and remembers the Golden Age that this was for singers like her. Currently, recordings of Beverly Sills which have long been LP albums are finally making it into the compact disc market. Available now are "Beverly Sills The Great Recordings", "The Art Of Beverly Sills " "Plaisir D'Amour" "Sillsiana" "Lucia Di Lammermoor" "La Traviata" "Manon" "Tales Of Hoffman" "Barber Of Seville" "Rigoletto" "L'Assedio Di Corinto" "Ballad Of Baby Doe" "La Fille Du Regiment" and the opera in which she sang Cleopatra which launched her career in '64-65 Handel's Julius Caesar. Check them out. You will fall for the voice of Beverly Sills.