Rossini - Semiramide / Conlon, Anderson, Horne, Metropolitan Opera

Starring:June Anderson, Marilyn Horne, Stanford Olsen, Samuel Ramey, Young-Ok Shin, John Cheek, Jeffrey Wells, Michael Forest
Director: Brian Large
Studio: Image Entertainment
Product Type: DVD

Editorial Review:
Amazon.com
Bel canto can be translated as "pretty singing," and that definition seems tailor-made for this production, which offers grace, charm, and a fine-tuned sense of style in abundance to compensate for its limited psychological and emotional impact. The four principal singers are all specialists in the bel canto style, and this opera has played a key role in building their substantial reputations. Their singing is more spectacular than their acting, but that is what bel canto is all about. Those who want gut-wrenching situations and passionate emoting should try the verismo style. Meanwhile, for its sweeping musical imagination and technical wizardry, Rossini's epic about royal assassination and misdirected lust in the ancient Babylonian empire deserves a place in any inclusive opera collection, and we are not likely to have a better video Semiramide recording in the foreseeable future.

Amazon.com

Bel canto can be translated as "pretty singing," and that definition seems tailor-made for this production, which offers grace, charm, and a fine-tuned sense of style in abundance to compensate for its limited psychological and emotional impact. The four principal singers are all specialists in the bel canto style, and this opera has played a key role in building their substantial reputations. Their singing is more spectacular than their acting, but that is what bel canto is all about. Those who want gut-wrenching situations and passionate emoting should try the verismo style. Meanwhile, for its sweeping musical imagination and technical wizardry, Rossini's epic about royal assassination and misdirected lust in the ancient Babylonian empire deserves a place in any inclusive opera collection, and we are not likely to have a better video Semiramide recording in the foreseeable future.

Description

Filmed at New York's Metropolitan Opera, John Copley's production of Rossini's last, longest and most elaborate work for the Italian stage brings together what many consider the definitive contemporary cast, led by Marilyn Horne and June Anderson. Semiramide, a strong and melodious work, is one of Rossini's greatest dramatic operas, offering a fine challenge to the superb contralto and soprano bel canto singing of Ms. Horne and Ms. Anderson. Sanford Olsen, Samuel Ramey, Marilyn Horne, June Anderson. James Conlon conducts the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus. 220 minutes.

Customer Reviews:

Stunning.......2007-05-08

This has become my favorite opera, mainly because of this performance. Every character is superbly played. The music is a beautiful as can be imagined. Sanford Olson has one of the greatest tenor voices I have ever heard and his role is magnificent.

Eccomi Alfine ... At The Met.......2006-12-12

Most listeners would agree, I think, that "Semiramide" is an opera whose success in performance rests almost exclusively on the singers of its two leading roles. So difficult are these roles that the opera is almost never done. In the 60's, though, first in Los Angeles in a concert version, and then in the 70's at the Chicago Lyric in a fully staged production, the opera was unforgettably brought back into the repertoire by the spectacular Joan Sutherland and the incomparable Marilyn Horne. With typical slowness of response during that time, the Met ignored their triumphs. By the time the Met did get around to staging the work, Sutherland had already stopped performing the title role, and Horne, who was cast, nevertheless was nearing the end of her own Rossini singing.
Nonetheless, this Met version preserved on DVD still has merits. Horne, for instance, is disappointing in spots only by comparison with her own earlier freer-voiced and more astonishingly ornamented performances. June Anderson, singing the title role, is fully competent, but her performance is more competent than memorable. Nothing in her coloratura fireworks or legato singing could be called truly ravishing here.
Samuel Ramey, as expected, gives a fine performance, but the opera does not rise or fall based on his role.
In conclusion, it is disappointing that no videotaped or DVD performance of this rarely done opera exists with Sutherland and Horne in their glorious primes. What we have instead is this good performance (4 stars), but one which must fall short of the mark for those in Los Angeles or Chicago who experienced great ones.

Around 3 1/2 hours long.......2006-02-11

Whew! I watched it standing up, sitting down, piecemeal, while making decaf and just glancing at the subtitles (which were sparse anyway). This thing was interminable! But it was also absolutely beautiful. I've never heard anything like it. I've got Sutherland on CD, so already knew I liked it. But this was beyond all expectations. When the 3 principles got together for trios (or duets or solos), they blew me away. I liked the plot which even the idiotic Amazon staff reviewer was glad to tell you all about in case you hadn't seen it before and don't like surprises. What a dunderhead! This is in my opinion the jewel of Rossini's career (and the only opera by him that I've heard that I like, I greatly dislike the little artificial vibrato he invented and used incessantly), just as Una voce... is the jewel of Barber. This opera was pure bel canto, a coloratura's dream, and Horne and Anderson milked it for all it was worth. Incidentally, only once, at the end of a choral piece, did Anderson end up, with a Sutherland up to the balcony leap. It was a great disappointment to me, with that music and that voice that she didn't do it more often. I might as well have been listening to Caballe. If you've got the stamina for a 3 and 1/2 hour opera however glorious, I overwhelmingly recommend this opera and this production of it. Also, for what it's worth, the costumes and colors were beautiful too. The scenery was as spare as the subtitles. I wish people would stop giving away plots, fortunately I watched the show before I read the reviews. It's such a jerky thing to do.

Musically and visually gorgeous, but a dramatic flop.......2003-10-27

The sets and backdrops are up to Met standards, i.e., gorgeous and sumptuous. I have no reason to complain about the music and singing. Horne's deep voice is stunning in its power--more on the other aspects later. I haven't heard Anderson before, but her singing here gives me no reason to doubt promo claims that she IS Semiramide.
Alas, as drama this performance left me unmoved. Two huge problems: there is no way costumes and headdresses can tart up Horne to be a young pubescent warrior about to take over the throne of the greatest world power of its day. I realize this is partly Rossini's fault requiring a female voice, but Horne is too short, too fat, too old--in a word, too matronly.
Second big problem: Anderson can't act. In the ghost scene at the end of Act one, she is supposed to be acting horrified. Instead, her gestures and expressions are standard operatic, "oh poor pitiful me." The opera is full of opportunities for subtle psychological games by Semiramide: cunning, betrayal, lust, greed, revived maternal love. She only gives us pointing, heart grasping, throat clutching gestures. Yuk. I've watched enough opera on video to know that there are plenty of great singers who are also great actors. The only exception is at the beginning of Act 2, with Ramey as Asshur. It is as if Ramey's maleness brings out her female wiles--for about five minutes.
Apparently, this opera is meant to be heard rather than seen.
Singing: 5
Visuals: 4
Acting: 2
Overall: 3

Semiramide is the best Rossini opera!!.......2003-04-24

This DVD of Semiramide is fantastic!! The singing and the music were very beautiful. June Anderson is a great Semiramide, and Marilyn Horne with a beautiful mezzo-voice was amazing as Arsace.
The rest of the cast was incredible!! You should get this DVD because the music of Rossini was beautiful. It's the best!!

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