Cheap Gounod - Roméo et Juliette / Alagna · Gheorghiu · Anton Guadagno (DVD) (Barbara Willis Sweete) Price

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Customer Reviews of Gounod - Roméo et Juliette / Alagna · Gheorghiu · Anton Guadagno

Gounod meets Bergman and nobody wins
I was appalled by this video. If the intent was to attract younger audiences (read: viewers with ADD)to opera, viewers would be surprised to learn that it's actually a five-act opera that runs for close to three hours. This is a slash and burn affair benefitting the Alagnas; the supporting cast has little to do except look Nordically detached and sing a few lines here and there.
There's a good case to be made for limning this opera into a chamber piece but the setting doesn't do it any favors. Almost as comical as the setting is the staging: everyone is clothed in drab grays and browns and at one point Juliette is seen singing in a field (of wheat???!)surrounded by Bergmanesque extras frozen into position looking stage right. The director takes advantage of the castle by having Gheorghiu do a lot of running around: up and down staircases, around the castle battlements and through courtyards. Even if this isn't three hours, I was exhausted.
Alagna and Gheorghiu sound fine; this is really a vehicle for them and everyone else seems like an afterthought.
If it's a full production you want, you will be far better served watching the ROH production with Alagna and Vaduva, another Romanian soprano, who captures Juliet's adolescent edginess and passion. She may not have Gheorghiu's glamour but she's a far more believable and adorable Juliet. And it's great production, conducted by Sir Charles Mackerras.

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A half occasion
I'm really surprised that, in 2003, is still possible to see films like this: Gounod's magnificent opera here is cut by a butcher (running time 73 minutes, against the three hours of any integral recording!!!) who is trying to restore the 40s and 50s mode for b movie based on opera.
It's really a shame, since we have the most beautiful Romeo and Juliet of the century, Alagna and Gheourghiu, giving a marvellous and poignant musical and theatrical superb performance, but what a frame! the set (supposed to be in Verona but here in Eastern Europe, in a Snow-White-looking castle really funny)is near to amateurish (as well as frame characters, the out-of-tune Laurent and Mercutio) and the production is relly a bad trick to Gheorghiu and Alagna's exceptional performance. What a waste!!!A performance of the couple in their last Salzburg show would have been thousands times better then this!!!Anyway, their singing is worth enough to purchase the dvd.