Handel - Theodora / Peter Sellars Â· William Christie Â· Upshaw, Hunt, Daniels, Croft Â· Glyndebourne Opera

Starring:William Christie, David Daniels, Lorraine Hunt Lieberson
Studio: Kultur Video
Product Type: DVD

Editorial Review:
Amazon.com
After an overture played on baroque period instruments, this opera about the persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire opens with a televised press conference by the business-suited Roman governor of Antioch. This paradox epitomizes a bold and spectacularly successful interpretation that merges modern visuals with 18th-century music performed in period style.

The music (glorious, vintage Handel) is entrusted to William Christie, one of the most respected living conductors of early music. His phenomenal cast is musically and theatrically right on target. The staging, by Peter Sellars, has Roman legionaries garbed as a SWAT team with automatic weapons. The Roman governor is a totally political animal with a drinking problem. Dawn Upshaw and the amazing David Daniels, Christian victims, are executed not in a pit of lions but strapped to tables for lethal injections.

Amazon.com

After an overture played on baroque period instruments, this opera about the persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire opens with a televised press conference by the business-suited Roman governor of Antioch. This paradox epitomizes a bold and spectacularly successful interpretation that merges modern visuals with 18th-century music performed in period style.

This treatment not only gives dramatic impact to music that began life as an oratorio; it universalizes the subject into an indictment of any government that persecutes minorities. --Joe McLellan

Description

For his 1996 Glyndebourne staging, radical American director Peter Sellars takes George Frideric Handel's penultimate English oratorio - a tale of self-sacrificial love between a Christian virgin and a Roman imperial bodyguard in fourth-century, enemy-occupied Antioch - and, by resetting it in modern-day America, transforms it into a timeless parable of spiritual resistance to tyranny and persecution. Starring Dawn Upshaw, David Daniels, Frode Olsen, Richard Croft, and Lorraine Hunt.

Customer Reviews:

Exquisite Lorraine Hunt Lieberson.......2007-04-27

The oratorio Theodora would be interesting containing as it does some of the Handel's most fabulous arias. With Lorraine Hunt Lieberson playing Irene, the DVD is on another level. She is just perfection, the emotion and artistry of her performance is beyond words- a wonderful, wonderful artist.

I can only hope we get to see some of her other celebrated roles- Dido in the Met "Les Troyens" would be my top of my wishlist.

In Honor of Lorraine Hunt Lieberson.......2007-04-25

As somewhat of a purist - OK - elitist, I'm surprised to find I enjoyed almost every minute of this long performance, Sellars' stage gimmicks and all. Handel's glorious arias dominate, and the exceptional audio and video quality make the 207 minutes an experience to enjoy rather than endure for the sake of being able to watch.

But even if the audio and video were not as good as they are, this disk is a treasure to me because it remains a close encounter with both the stage presence and peerless voice of Lorraine Hunt Lieberson. Her character, Irene, is on-stage a good deal, especially in Act I. Superior close-up camera work focusing on her lets us see the heights of her dramatic presence we'd never match for closeness from a theater seat.

While she's good, I don't believe Dawn Upshaw as Theodora holds a candle in this performance to Hunt Lieberson's Theodora on the McGegan CD recording. On a fluke, I managed to get the DVD/Upshaw performance of "Angels Ever Bright" almost in synch with a CD/Hunt Lieberson track from her first Handel album. It's in the same key, and I created an almost contrapuntal/echo effect where I think Hunt Lieberson's depth of passion and that unique, haunting vocal quality blow Upshaw away. I doubt I could do that again if I tried for an hour!

Perhaps I am encouraged to hope that some who wouldn't think they'd enjoy an opera house experience might be willing to watch this eminently accessible recreation of Handel's artifice blest with a contemporary stage twist, while sacrificing nothing of vocal mastery.

I also hope interest in Lorraine Hunt Lieberson's career will spur releases of many treasures from her performances those of us not privleged to hear in person still want to share.

Handel's greatest work? 6 Stars!!.......2007-03-19

Handel, when asked towards the end of his life what he thought his greatest work was, replied "Theodora". It's his next-to-last oratorio, and it is of such transcendant beauty that words fail to describe it. Everything that can be said about this performance has already been said better by others, so I won't even try. Peter Sellar's direction may not be to everyone's taste, but he had the vision to turn this English "Oratorio" into a viable stage piece, crucially giving Lorraine Hunt the opportunity to give her greatest dramatic performance. She's the star of this show, even if everyone else surpasses themselves as well. A sublime, overwhelming recording of Handel's greatest work. Not to be missed.

A must-have for opera fans.......2007-03-06

Although I am fairly ambivalent about most of the music (other than a few of the typically beautiful Handel arias and some of the choruses) in this Opera/Oratorio and about the staging and direction of Sellars, this DVD showcases the tremendous artistic power of Daniels, Hunt Leiberson, and Croft, as well as the perfection of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. As were others, I was somewhat unimpressed with Dawn Upshaw in this role, but I thought her acting was first-rate, especially in the VERY moving duet with David Daniels at the end of the 3rd act - and I actually loved the costumes, especially the white tee shirts and white pants of the hero and heroine.

The late Lorraine Hunt Lieberson.......2006-10-18

I have nothing to add to the reviews of those who have found this a superlative, moving 'gesamtkunstwerk'. All four soloists are excellent, as is the orchestra and dramatic interpretation of what is, after all, an oratorio.

I have just found out that Lorraine Hunt Lieberson died of cancer on July 3, 2006. A life all too short! Her performance in this production shows just what was lost with her passing. This is yet another reason to obtain it and witness for yourselves.

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