![Hansel Und Gretel [DVD]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51W4kx4E5JL.__AC_SX300_SY300_QL70_ML2_.jpg)
If you've already seen the Metropolitan Opera's production starring Judith Blegen and Frederica Von Stade, or Georg Solti's, with Gruberova and Fassbaender, then you've seen the best.
I so much enjoy the delicious music and story of Hansel and Gretel, that I just had to see what Franz Welser-Most and the Opera House of Zurich would do with it.
I'll get to the point. Here's the good, the bad, and the ugly of this production:
The Good:
1. Liliana Kikiteau and Malin Hartelius sing and act beautifully--they look good too.
2. In the first scene, extra children (from the Children's Chorus) are invited into the house by Hansel and Gretel. It may help the audience to feel more involved with Hansel and Gretel as playful children, dancing with the other kids on the stage.
3. The fantastic (in the "fantasy" sense of the word) stage design and costumes are by the unique childrens book illustrator, Maurice Sendak, author of "Where the Wild Things Are." Can anyone imagine a more appropriate artist than Sendak?
4. Martina Jankova's exquisite singing and reassuring gestures to the drowsy children give new life to the Sandman's role. She's the best Sandman ever.
The Bad:
1. All the extra children who are on stage with Hansel and Gretel during the "Dream Pantomime," add little or nothing, and confuse the intended role of the angels watching over the sleeping pair.
2. There is no choice of subtitles--the English subtitles are there--like 'em or not.
3. In an attempt to give the Mother a role with more depth, they seem to have tried to give her a psychological identity connection to the Witch. Intriguing idea but it doesn't work very well.
4. The Witch should have been positioned onstage closer to the oven, to make more believable the idea of tricking her into showing how to put things in the oven.
The Ugly:
In this opera, "the ugly" is, of course, the Witch. Volker Vogel, the first tenor I've seen to portray the Witch does a beautiful job of being an ugly Witch. The Witch has to be ugly and menacing to make the story work, and Vogel succeeds.
If this is your first (or your children's first) experience with this lovely musical story, I hope you'll start off with the two productions I mentioned earlier. They are more true to the original fairy tale, but if you sample those two, and, like me, are still hungry for more, you'll enjoy this one too.
他の国からのトップレビュー
Mr John Haueisen
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
2006年7月25日にアメリカ合衆国でレビュー済みAmazonで購入
Jesse Knight
THE TWO CHILDREN COULD NOT BE BETTER. PARENTS LEAVE SOMETHING TO BE DESIRED
2006年9月23日にアメリカ合衆国でレビュー済みAmazonで購入
