Alban Berg - Wozzeck DVD Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra

This listing is for Alban Berg - Wozzeck DVD Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra. 

Actors: Toni Blankenheim, Sena Jurinac, Richard Cassilly, Hans Sotin, Peter Haage

Director: Rolf Liebermann

Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1

MPAA rating: Unrated (Not Rated)

Media Format: Multiple Formats, NTSC, Full Screen, Subtitled

Run time: 1 hour and 46 minutes

Release date: April 24, 2007

Subtitles: English, Spanish, Italian, French, German

Studio: Arthaus

Number of discs: 1 

In his autobiography Opera Years Rolf Liebermann wrote: Of all the film versions of operas in which I was involved, my favourite has always been Wozzeck, mainly because the interpreters and location were so convincingly authentic. Berg's Wozzeck is quite possibly the greatest opera of the 20th century. This video is a film version made by artists connected with the Hamburg Opera during the period when composer Rolf Liebermann was the company's imaginative and effective Intendant (General Manager). Generally I prefer to see a live performance when an opera gets filmed, but this version is an amazingly effective example of a film with the soundtrack pre-recorded and the singers lip-synching to it as they act. I've read (I don't remember where) that the film follows Berg's own prescriptions as to how he wanted the opera to be filmed if it should ever happen -- after all, he lived into the age of the "talkie". In practice this means that the orchestral interludes mostly seem to move between the locales of the scenes they connect, so that the production has a seamless quality as the tragedy unfolds. The film was made in an old German fortress that looks like a seedy town of the mid-19th century in which the source drama takes place. The acting is extremely good and very naturalistic, which makes for wonderful and effective contrast with some other video versions that are far more expressionistic. (I've used both to contrast different approaches in a course I was teaching.) I first saw this production about 35 years ago, when it was only available on film; the transfer to DVD is very well done, and though the sound may not be the absolute latest in fidelity, it is excellent for the period. I was delighted to find that it is now available on DVD. This DVD is a first-rate version of "Wozzeck," and one that presents the opera very effectively and with excellent singing and acting.

Reviews:

• Visually superb, and muscially impressive. A wonderful performance, rich in verbal detail and beautifully sung. -- OPERA NEWS July 2007

• The DVD includes an audio track on which you can hear the score without dialogue or sound effects, making all the more apparent the influence of Berg's operas on the intricate, heavy-panting, expressionistic language of Rosenman's orchestral writing, something the Juilliard-trained composer readily acknowledged. -- Los Angeles Times, Mark Swed, June 17th, 2007

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