Lucrezia Borgia

Starring:Edwige FeuillÃ¨re, Gabriel Gabrio, Maurice Escande, Roger Karl, AimÃ© Clariond, Philippe HÃ©riat, Jacques Dumesnil, Max Michel, Louis Eymond, Jean Fay (III), RenÃ© Bergeron, Gaston Modot, Antonin Artaud, Marcel Chabrier, Georges Prieur, Louis Perdoux, Yvonne Drines, Mona Dol, Jeannine Fromentin, Josette Day
Director: Abel Gance
Studio: Image Entertainment
Product Type: DVD

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This 1980 Covent Garden production of Donizetti's opera based on the infamous dramatic heroine was undertaken so that one of the few sopranos who would dare tackle the fearsome range of Lucrezia Borgia--Dame Joan Sutherland--could do so in a setting amenable to her talent. And tackle it she does. This might not be the definite Lucrezia (a slight nod would go to Montserrat Caballe's 1965 RCA audio recording), but Sutherland shows she has the sheer chops to overcome Donizetti's piling on of difficulty after vocal difficulty. From the prologue's "Com e Bello," Sutherland never lets up through her gripping final scene of intense anguish and melodrama. Richard Bonynge conducts the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House with aplomb, and the supporting cast--Alfredo Kraus, Anne Howells, and Stafford Dean--performs ably in Sutherland's wake. --Kevin Filipski

Description

Dame Joan Sutherland and tenor Alfredo Kraus star in Donizetti's tale of sixteenth century opulence and decadence. Joan Sutherland is unquestionably the unsurpassed Lucrezia of all-time, and this production at Covent Garden showcases her incomparable coloratura technique. Bel canto specialist Richard Bonynge conducts The Orchestra of the Royal Opera House in this historic performance.

Cast - Lucrezia Borgia - Joan Sutherland
Gennaro - Alfredo Kraus
Maffio Orsini - Anne Howells
Alfonso d'Este - Stafford Dean
The Royal Opera Chorus
Chorus Master - John Barker
The Orchestra of the Royal Opera House

Customer Reviews:

Dreadful, though no fault of Joan Sutherland.......2007-04-03

I recently purchased this DVD, with high hopes. A few years ago, I saw Sutherland's Lucrezia Borgia from Opera Australia, on VHS. I assumed that the currently available DVD from the Covent Garden production would be an even better treat. Boy, was I wrong- and disappointed!

It is painfully evident that there was scant rehearsal time for this particular staging of Lucrezia Borgia. The chorus is wooden, stiff, and expressionless. Even worse is the heavy reliance on the prompter for just about all of the singers. Even the great Alfredo Kraus makes no attempt to disguise it. At one point, he is singing onstage with the Maffio Orsini of this production, Anne Howells. Both just stand there, staring intently, singing by rote. It is an embarrassing, amateur moment made only worse by the close-up view that filmed productions afford.

In just about all respects, the Opera Australia version I remember outclasses Covent Garden's. The one advantage the Royal Opera House has is a bigger budget. Joan Sutherland is given better costumes (though I admit that her costume-and-mask ensemble is weird to look at). Also, she is given an A-list tenor to sing with, Alfredo Kraus. Unfortunately, by this point in Kraus' career, his voice had a somewhat dry quality to it. There are moments of glory, but too often his waning vocal estate betrays him. Still, he is an bel canto legend, and it's nice to see him paired with Sutherland.

Every other singer in the production deserves to be thrown to the lions. Stafford Denan, as Alfonso d'Este, is howlingly awful. His muffled, patchy, woolly singing isn't even worthy of a minor opera house, much less Covent Garden. His extended duet with Joan makes you feel bad for the diva, who had to share the stage with such a dullard.

Anne Howells, as Maffio Orsini, is only a shade better. Her voice has a covered quality, and her pitch is wayward. I couldn't help but think of Margreta Elkins, who sang Maffio Orsini in the Opera Austalia prodction. Elkins is in another class altogether. She sang a wonderful drinking aria (Il Segreto Per Esser Felici). In fact, she even interpolated a particularly florid cadenza, which brought the house down. Howells, on the other hand, sings "come scritto", and barely eeks it out at that.

The complamari roles are badly sung, too.

So, is this DVD worth it? Yes, if only for La Stupenda. Thankfully, videotaped opera performances became standard by the time Joanie hit her late prime. If you want to enjoy Sutherland on purely vocal terms, there are her studio recordings from the sixites and seventies. However, though her voice (somewhat) changed by the early eighties, her acting became much improved. My favorite moment in the whole DVD is when Joan sneers at Alfonso d'Este. Acting ability aside, it is Joan's consummate professionalism and rock-solid bel canto technique that matter the most. It's too bad that the polite British audience doesn't give the diva any extended applause. Then again, had this been an Italian audience, the hissing and booing for the other singers, Kraus aside, would have been unbearable.

As a final point, I think that what weighs the production down even further is Richard Bonynge's conducting. Perhaps due to lack of rehearsal time, the orchestra sounds downright pedestrian, with no vigor or excitement.

Voice good, mask ridiculous.......2007-03-22

Of course we listen to opera for the great singing, and Joan Sutherland has that, but the "masked ball" glasses she wore for most of the first act were really distracting. She looked like a cartoon character.

Plus she's an incredibly huge person, and that thing she had on her head, something between a headress and a hat, I'm not even sure what to call it, made me go stand in the kitchen and just listen instead of watch.

Give me Anna Netrebko or Renee Fleming, who at least look like an ingenue, if you're going to produce made-for-the-screen operas. When you get that fat, you need to stay in the studio.

I was disappointed I could't add this CD to my itunes library. It only plays on the DVD player.

The One........2007-02-09

This is the only record on dvd of this opera that i have found...and for me is enought...
Joan Shutherland is the best Diva in this roll and is memorable her performance.
The same for Alfredo Kraus.
BRAVO!

Superb Sutherland...but.........2006-08-03

For the viewer whose review is titled "THis is better than Sutherland's Lucia 1983"...I have ABSOLUTE pitch, and I can assure you that the last recorded E Natural from Dame Joan came in 1971's "Lucia" studio recording. Although, of course, she continued to sing E-flats til at least 1986.

Divine music performed by magnificent Singers.......2005-08-23

As Donizetti's admirer, I always thought that Lucia de Lammermoor and L'elisir d'Amore are the masterpieces of Donizetti' operas. But after watching Lucrezia Borgia, especially performed by Joan Sutherland and conducted by Richard Bonynge, I come to a different opinion. This opera is as beautiful and splendid as the other two above, only maybe not so frequently performed and wellknown. Especially as this opera is performed by such magnificent singers, Joan Sutherland in her prime years,and tenor Alfredo Krauss also in his prime years, who are singing and acting so beautifully to be a joy to listen as well as watched.
Joan Sutherland supported by Alfredo Krauss as her lost son, Gennaro, sung in such a way that they matched each others beautifully and harmoniously. It is especially seen in the scene of the meeting between Lucrezia as the unknown mother and Gennaro as the lost son, so sad and touching that tears come to your eyes. There is also, the rich voice of mezzo-soprano Anne Howells who sung as splendidly as Gennaro's friend, Maffio Orsini and the deep clear voice of bass barione Stafford Dean as the jealous husband Duke of Ferrara singing in his best. The choir sung to a full harmonious sound also add to the contribution of the magnificent performance. All in all, everything in this opera, from the beautiful and melodiously music, arias and choruses up to the peformance and background scenery itself gave such delightful and enjoyable satisfaction in watching this performance.
I recommend this opera for Donizetti lovers as one of my favourite performances.

Average customer rating:

Interesting Movie from an Earlier Era

Lucrezia Borgia
Starring: Edwige Feuillère , Gabriel Gabrio , Maurice Escande , Roger Karl , and Aimé Clariond
Director: Abel Gance
Manufacturer: Image Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
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ASIN: 6305907730
Release Date: 2000-07-04

Description

Directed by silent film pioneer Abel Gance, "Lucrezia Borgia" (1935, 93 min.) blazes onto the screen with the story of one of history's most ruthlessly ambitious families. With the same high style and exquisite attention to detail that Gance demonstrated so breathtakingly in "Napoleon," "Lucrezia Borgia" has been called an exuberant display of Gance's extensive filmmaking prowess. Also included are two rarely seen shorter silent films directed by Gance: "Au Secours!" (1923, 31 min.) uses experimental editing and photography to illustrate a man's adventures in a haunted house. "La Folie Du Docteur Tube" (1916, 14 min.) is a highly advanced experimental comedy about a mad scientist who discovers a sneezing powder that can alter someone's physique. This film, which uses mirrors to create distorted images, is considered by many to be the first appearance of the avant-garde in French cinema.

Customer Reviews:

Interesting Movie from an Earlier Era.......2001-12-17

I got this movie on a lark, although I tend to like early pre-censorship B+W films. The film told a story without the hang-ups of worrying about what the audience would think and considering it is from another era, I found it to be a most interesting film. I had to watch parts of it twice to catch some subtle nuances, which made the film even more enjoyable. If you like early B+W films, I highly recommend this one.

Biography - Lucrezia Borgia: Pretty Poison

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A favorable look at one of history's most maligned women
Pretty Poison, it must be good.

Biography - Lucrezia Borgia: Pretty Poison
Starring: Lucrezia Borgia
Manufacturer: A&E Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000F6ZCAM
Release Date: 2006-04-25

Customer Reviews:

A favorable look at one of history's most maligned women.......2004-06-26

A product of the Italian Renaissance, Lucrezia Borgia's name has been synonymous with evil for over half a millennium, but this video reveals little truth to the scandalous stories associated with her name. She was certainly an unusual woman, the illegitimate daughter of the man who, when Lucrezia was 11, became Pope Alexander VI. Actually, I learned as much about late 15th century Italy as I did Lucrezia Borgia in this documentary. It is hard to imagine a Roman Catholic cardinal with three illegitimate children becoming pope, but of course the history of the papacy throughout the Middle Ages is less than sterling. Borgia deeply loved her father, and he loved her. It didn't stop him from using her as a pawn in his own political manipulations for power, however. She was to be married, in fact, at age 11, but her father's plans changed when he became the pope. At age 13, she did become a bride, but the marriage was doomed from the start. I was shocked to learn that the pope, like many fathers of brides in that era, attended the wedding night ceremonies (behind a sheet) to make sure that the marriage was consummated. This becomes quite ironic given the fact that Lucrezia's father soon had the marriage annulled. This move was the impetus of the gossip and scandal that would hang over Lucrezia forevermore, as her first husband responded angrily and accused his wife of having an incestuous relationship with her father. The pope's enemies took up these charges and added new ones: by age 16, Lucrezia was supposedly a depraved young woman who poisoned her enemies with arsenic, even bearing a special ring equipped with a tiny needle for subtly delivering the poison.

Lucrezia's life went from bad to worse when one of her brothers was killed; the murder was never solved, but another brother, Cesare, was suspected of the crime. At 16, Lucrezia was married to a son of the king of Naples (another politically motivated marriage); this immediately became a true love affair that produced a child but ended rather quickly when an assassin murdered her husband (again, suspicion fell on her brother Cesare). A third marriage was arranged soon thereafter, and Lucrezia was forced to leave her son behind and move a considerable distance away from Rome to live with a family that shunned and disliked her. She had a platonic love affair with a poet but eventually found happiness with her husband, dying during the birth of the couple's sixth child. She was greatly mourned by her husband and the people of the area.

According to this video, there is basically no truth behind any of the awful scandals and accusations that have tainted the name of Lucrezia Borgia all these many years; the historians interviewed here identify her as an extraordinarily unfortunate but by no means an evil woman. Unfortunately, the documentary does not cover as much material as it could have. The dark deeds committed by her brother Cesare and the lascivious nature of her father, Pope Alexander VI, are not explored in detail, there is no mention of charges that Lucrezia had incestuous relationships with two of her brothers, and not a hint is dropped about a rumored pregnancy during Lucrezia's time in a convent after the end of her first marriage (of course, there seems to be little truth to the charges of incest and early pregnancy). Frankly, from what I saw here, I cannot understand why this woman has been treated with such malevolence over the years; any search for evil in the Borgia family should focus on her brother Cesare and, to some degree, her father, Pope Alexander VI. It is a credit to Lucrezia that she remained loyal to family members who used and abused her for their own selfish reasons. With so much information left unexplored, this interesting look at the life of one of history's most maligned women seems, in the end, to be a little less than definitive.

Pretty Poison, it must be good........2000-11-05

I haven't actually seen it but hell, any movie called Pretty Poison with Lucrezia Borgia must be good, Right? I give it 5 stars. Now where's my 50 bucks.

Young Lucrezia Borgia / Lucrezia giovane PAL DVD

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Young Lucrezia Borgia / Lucrezia giovane PAL DVD

ProductGroup: DVD
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Joan Sutherland Collection (La Fille du Regiment/Les Huguenots/Lucrezia Borgia/Merry Widow/Dialogues of the Carmelites/Adriana Lecouvreur) - Amazon.com Exclusive

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Joan Sutherland Collection (La Fille du Regiment/Les Huguenots/Lucrezia Borgia/Merry Widow/Dialogues of the Carmelites/Adriana Lecouvreur) - Amazon.com Exclusive
Starring: Joan Sutherland , Anson Austin , Heather Begg , Gregory Yurisich , and Gordon Wilcock
Director: Peter Butler (IV) , Virginia Lumsden , and Brian Large
Manufacturer: Kultur
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B00007C665
Release Date: 2002-11-12

Description

La Fille Du Regiment
Joan Sutherland's legendary performance in the Opera Australia production of Donizetti's masterpiece of operatic comedy. "La Fille Du Regiment" seems to burst over with Gallic wit and charm. It tells a atale of young love-frustrated, then victorious-and gave the composer Donizetti ample chances to write military rhythms, pastoral mood music and passionate love exchanges, as well as to create a role that any prima donna with a sense of humor and a lot of technique would fight to perform. The story centers on the waif Marie, who is adopted by a French army regiment, falls in love with a Tyrolean youth called Tonia, but is carried off to live with the Marquise of Berkenfield who plans to turn her into a genteel lady and marry her to an aristocrat. But at the final curtain the Marquise (who turns out to be her long lost mother) relents and lets her wed Tonio. Also starring Anson Austin, Gregory Yurisich, Heather Begg, Gordon Wilcock, and Marie-Claire. Richard Bonynge conducts the Elizabethan Sydney Orchestra, and the Australian Opera Chorus.

Les Huguenots
In tradition of grand opera, Dame Joan Sutherland's farewell perfromance to the operatic stage in Les Huguenots is a gala triumph of spectacle and drama. This technically complex production captures the tragedy of the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre, as well as the splendor and romance of 16th century France. Sutherland's glorious soprano voice is just one of the many brilliant highlights of this acclaimed performance, a revival of director Loft Mansouri's highly praised 1981 production. Often referred to as "The Night of the Seven Stars," Les Huguenots is a demanding production that requires the presence of seven major talents to sing the lead roles. For this reason, it is not often performed, but it is a most fitting end to the career of "La Stupenda," one of opera's brightest stars.

Lucrezia Borgia
Dame Joan Sutherland and tenor Alfredo Kraus star in Donizetti's tale of sixteenth century opulence and decadence. This Royal Opera production showcases Joan Sutherland's incomparable coloratura technique. Bel canto specialist Richard Bonynge conducts the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House in this historic performance.

The Merry Widow
Joan Sutherland sparkles in the lead role of Lehar's delightful operetta in this Opera Australia production from the Sydney Opera House. Turn of the century Paris provides the glittering setting for this operetta, first performed in Vienna in 1905 and here given by the Australian Opera in the English version by Christopher Hassall, with Sutherland as widow Anna Glawari. The face of Pontevedro, her native country, hangs perilously on her marriage plans - if she weds a foreigner, the state will lose the benefit of her enormous wealth and will be left bankrupt. An Embassy plot to marry her off to the debonair Count Danilo Danilovitch is complicated by the secret affair which has developed between the French Attache, Camille de Rosillon and the Ambassador's wife, Valencienne. This light hearted tale of political and amorous intrigue unfolds amidst the gaiety of Parisian high society. Ronald Stevens sings Danilo, with Anson Austin as Camille and Anne Maree McDonald as Valencienne. The Elizabethan Philharmonic Orchestra is conducted by Richard Bonynge.

Dialogues of the Carmelites
Poulenc's only full-length opera is firmly rooted in the post World War II era. Based on the historical events of the time of the French Revolution, this story of a community of Carmelite nuns who go to the guillotine rather than renounce their calling can be received in many ways. Poulenc's warmly melodic and lyrical score is wholly dramatic and gripping, and Joan Sutherland, recreating the role she sang at the opera's British premiere in 1958, sings the second prioress with commanding moderation. This production serves the inspiration of Poulenc in every important particular of style, economy and theatrical force. Richard Bonynge conducts the Elizabethan Sydney Orchestra. Sung in English.

Adriana Lecouvreur
Cilea's romantic opera, based on the story of the renowned French actress Adrienne, is given here in a live recording of a lavish production by John Copley, which features the great Dame Joan Sutherland. Her luminous singing and dramatic power are finely matched by a strong cast, including Austin Anson, Heather Begg and John Shaw. The innate lyricism of the score is beautifully captured by conductor Richard Bonynge and enhanced by sets and costumes recalling the late nineteenth century.

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