![Voices of Our Time: Felicity Lott [DVD]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/519R50WV6TL.__AC_SX300_SY300_QL70_ML2_.jpg)
This song recital from the Theatre Musical de Paris - Chatelet, recorded in 2002, is something rather special. It is a delight from start to finish, encompassing 24 songs by 24 different composers, but unified by the theme of Night and Day. Felicity Lott is by any measure a great soprano and fully justifies her place in this collection of DVDs entitled 'Voices of Our Time'. She has had huge success on both the concert platform and opera stage in the English, French and German repertoire. Here she sings examples of this full range of her experience and skill. She is in excellent voice and dresses elegantly but differently in the two halves of the recital to emphasize the unifying theme.
The programme is essentially light-hearted, but there are some fascinating items here including the vocal version of Saint-Saens 'Danse Macabre', lieder by Mahler, Brahms, Schumann, Hugo Wolf and Richard Strauss, melodies by Ravel, Bizet, Berlioz, Debussy, Hahn, Satie, Faure and Roussel, and English songs by a wide range of composers including Ralph Vaughan Williams. Interestingly there is no Offenbach even though Felicity Lott is an accomplished performer of that composer's music. She does, however, sing one of Sullivan's most exquisite songs from the Mikado 'The sun whose rays are all ablaze' as one of her encore items. The main programme concludes with a truly memorable and masterly performance of Cole Porter's great song 'Night and Day' using a piano introduction by Schubert. The accompaniment is in the hands of one of the world's greatest accompanists, Graham Johnson, and so this item and all the programme are played with the greatest taste and musicality. The evening concludes with a humorous but truly lovely song by Andre Messager 'J'ai deux amants'. As a French speaker since her youth and with many years of performing experience in French repertoire Felicity Lott clearly performs those items in a manner which is hugely appreciated by her French audience, but she is equally accomplised in the English and German songs.
The programme and most of the items are preceded by short interviews with either Felicity Lott or Graham Johnson, giving fascinating comments and insights into the programme choices, about the songs themselves and nice personal comments about Dame Felicity's career and performances. The only slight drawback to the disc is that whilst these interviews are banded separately so that it is possible to skip them, there is no menu option to watch the recital without them. On repeated viewing it would be nice to be able to just watch the recital and not to have to keep using the remote control to skip these interviews, but this is only a minor problem.
This DVD is very well produced, as is the case with the whole series from Le Chatelet. Unusually for recital DVDs, but immensely welcome, is the fact that there are subtitles for all the songs in English, German, Spanish, French and Italian. Above all in song recitals subtitles are essential and it would be good if other producers of recital DVDs realised this. The disc is an all regions PAL DVD in 16 : 9 widescreen format and with excellent Dolby digital sound with options of LPCM stereo, Dolby 5.0 or DTS 5.0 surround sound. The total running time including the interviews is 91 minutes.
他の国からのトップレビュー
P. Markham
Delightful recital of songs on the theme 'Night and Day'
2011年11月3日に英国でレビュー済みAmazonで購入
mr john scott
Superb.
2017年4月27日に英国でレビュー済みAmazonで購入
