SuperHeroBooks - Handel - Hercules / Shimell, DiDonato, Spence, Bohlin, Ernman, Kirkbride, Les Arts Florissants, Christie, Luc Bondy (Opera de Paris 2005)

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Manufacturer: Bel Air Classiques
Starring: William Christie, William Shimell, Joyce DiDonato, Malena Ernman, Ingela Bohlin
Directed By: Luc Bondy, Vincent Bataillon

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Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: DVD
EAN: 3760115300132
Format: Classical
Label: Bel Air Classiques
Manufacturer: Bel Air Classiques
Number Of Discs: 2
Number Of Items: 2
Publisher: Bel Air Classiques
Region Code: 0
Release Date: 2006-01-10
Running Time: 190
Studio: Bel Air Classiques
Theatrical Release Date: 2004

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Summary: Opera? Oratorio? Greek Tragedy?
Comment: The late Renaissance humanists who self-consciously "invented" opera had it in mind that they were re-birthing classical Greek drama. Hence the development of recitativo and chorus. Hence also the curious device of having a singer, often a minor character, report the most significant moments in the drama as "off-stage" actions. By the middle of the 17th C, however, such humanist purism had been forgotten; action had taken center stage, and the da capo aria had re-established the primacy of music over drama and words.

Handel wrote his great Italian Baroque operas chiefly early in his career. Then, when the finances of opera productions in England faltered, he reworked much of his earlier Italian cantata music into the form for which he is most famous, the English-language oratorio, a form which features close attention to text, use of a chorus as a commentary on the textual narrative, and almost exclusively "reported" drama, often indirect in that one 'character' reports the sense of another. A third-person narrative, if you will.

Hercules was written as an oratorio, not an opera. With a sure sense of history, director Luc Bondy has realized the deep affinities between this oratorio and the dramas of Sophocles, thus belatedly achieving the aims of the 16th C humanists. This Hercules is as close to a Greek drama as any stage-effort of our times, and as such it's a powerful piece of moral theater. I find it perplexing that the man who wrote the achingly sincerely pious Messiah also wrote a work that is utterly pre-Christian in its moral content. Hercules is a pagan drama through and through.

Seen as a Greek drama, the bare stage and indifference to costuming of this production are totally appropriate. The only further step toward Attic simplicity would have been to put the cast in masks. (Frankly, I'm glad that step wasn't taken.)

For a modern audience, of course, it's the music that justifies the production, and this is some of Handel's finest music in his later style, less embellished than his Italian cantatas but more intense in its musical rhetoric. The five principals are all gifted with mighty vocal instruments - beautiful voices - and sing every passage with sure technique. William Shimell as Hercules and Joyce diDonato carry the dramatic load effectively, while Malena Ernman, as the attendant Lichas, nearly steals the musical show with her superb, athletic contralto. Her aria describing the suffering of Hercules, after he dons the fatal shirt stained with the blood of Nissa, is the most spell-binding moment of the oratorio.

Conductor William Christie is surely the luckiest man in the world - the happiest in his occupation - as revealed by the glimpses we get of him leading his Arts Florissants orchestra and chorus. There he stands, smiling approval, looking exactly like a benign sea-turtle in a Pixar spectacular. Every performance of Baroque opera, on stage or on DVD, that I've heard under his baton has been stunningly good. Les Arts Florissants plays this flamboyant score flawlessly; listeners will be "blown away" (cath the pun?) by the elegant horns and oboes. Bassoonist Claude Wassmer does a nice job also, if I may say so.

Inventive, insightful, thrilling - a first-rate piece of work!

Customer Rating:

Summary: An incompetent staging of a minor work
Comment: After reading all the five-star reviews of this DVD, I may never read Amazon's customers' reviews again. This is an formless, meandering yawn of a stage rendering of a piece that should be sung and not theatrically realized.

Indeed DiDonato suffers eternally and Shimell has a commanding presence and voice, but the rest of the cast is completely useless. The chorus is simply embarassing.

I wish I could get my money back, but I do love opera which Handel's "Hercules" is not and was never supposed to be. Handel was not very impressed by opera and didn't write "Hercules" with operatic conventions and aspirations.

Beware of Amazon's false prophets!!

Customer Rating:

Summary: Great performance, hard to find.
Comment: I'm not sure how many opera companies perform this great work, but
it is hard to find on DVD. I have the CD with Anne Soffie Von Otter & David Daniels, also a "5 star" perormance.

If you like any of Handel's Operas (I consifer this an Opera) you must give this a try. Just about every Aria & Chorus is a winner that will stay with you for a long time. I paricularily like: Lichas: "No Longer, fate, relentless frown"; Hyllus: Where congeal'd the northern streams; Chorus of Trachinians: O filial piety; and Iole: How blest the maid ordained to dwell. The staging is very well done and acting is superb!!

Customer Rating:

Summary: One little addition to the other reviews
Comment: I absolutey love reading the reviews that Amazon customers write. They often have a great influence on what I purchase.

I couldn't agree more with the glowing reviews already given for this DVD. Beautiful voices, terrific singing, great acting, good-looking cast, good directing, and a wonderful orchestra with an outstanding conductor.

The only reason I'm giving only four stars is that I thought prospective buyers might want to know about how the production itself LOOKS. The set is very spare which is not necessarily a great disadvantage, but the apparel of the cast and chorus is pretty much what you'd see out on the street. The production looks like a rehearsal. It sounds like it's wonderfully ready for very lucky audiences, but gee whiz!

However, I highly recommend this excellent DVD.

Customer Rating:

Summary: Expert Cast Lends Passion to a Relentlessly Dark Staging of Handel's Mythic Oratorio
Comment: Luc Bondy's decidedly Spartan approach to one of Handel's more intriguing and epic oratorios may disappoint some Baroque purists, but there is no stopping the dramatic resonance of the piece. "Hercules" examines the power of jealousy and its fatalistic ramifications using the last hours of the mythic hero's life as the central focus of the story. Wrapped in the composer's wondrous, mood-shifting music for well over three hours, the 2004 Festival International d'Art Lyrique d'Aix-en-Provence production, recorded at Paris' Palais Garnier, is marked by an extremely theatrical sense of character-driven drama. TV director Vincent Bataillon captures this volatility fully on the 2006 two-disc DVD set and the performance itself benefits significantly from a solid cast lending their voices to some of the composer's most breathtaking arias. Despite its tepid London debut in 1744, the oratorio has understandably raised its standing among Baroque aficionados to become one of Handel's most respected works.

Baritone William Shimell plays the title role in a rather brutish monotone that sometimes overshadows his character's aching vulnerability, even though his singing is mainly superb. At certain moments, such as his big air in Act II, "Alcides' name in latest story", he reveals an innate ability to convey not only his character's imminent fate but also a strong heroic sense. Regardless of the title, the oratorio is dominated by Hercules' distraught wife Dejanira, and mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato runs with the opportunity with a feverish performance that takes advantage of her theatrical vibrancy and vocal agility. Her climactic scene of madness, showcased in the air, "Where shall I fly?", perfectly reflects DiDonato's total commitment to the role. As Hyllus, tenor Toby Spence is marginally less impressive in capturing his young character's callow feelings toward his father's young captive, Iole, but he still manages to conquer the most prominent of the virtuoso runs in his many arias with great dexterity. With unsullied purity, soprano Ingela Bohlin affectingly sings Iole, the object of Dejanira's jealousy, while in a trouser role, mezzo-soprano Malena Ernman is able to bring out a palpable masculinity in the smallish role of Lichas the Herald.

Another powerful asset to this production is the masterful baton of Baroque specialist William Christie, who vividly leads the period instrument orchestra of Les Arts Florissants. Yet, with the combined power of the performers and musicians, including a powerfully diverse chorale, the overall gray-toned darkness of the production becomes wearing over its marathon run. Even in the jubilation of the final chorus celebrating the marriage of Hyllus and Iole, there is a pervasive somber note sounded by the melancholy sets. Compared to Peter Sellars' legendary 1996 rethinking of Handel's "Theodora" (also on DVD) in a modern-day political setting, this staging does not take as many artistic risks in plumbing the emotional depths of this classic work. Granted, "Hercules" is not as powerful an oratorio, but I just wish Bondy trusted a little more variation in his vision. For all that, this is still a most worthwhile record of the composer's underappreciated work.

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