Product Description

The Zefferilli film versions of the two operas about passion, jealousy, betrayal, and revenge.
Genre: Music Videos - Classical
Rating: NR
Release Date: 14-JUN-2005
Media Type: DVD

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11317 in DVD
• Brand: Unknown
• Released on: 2005-06-14
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Classical, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish, German, French, Italian
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .28 pounds
• Running time: 140 minutes

Customer Reviews

Double Delight--Scary, yet Beautiful
Rarely is it more appropriate to put two works on the same DVD.
Pagliacci and Cavalleria Rusticana are two tales of the deadly results of jealousy. In both of these, one spouse is manipulated into murdering the other spouse.

Both are not stage productions but instead are filmed by Franco Zeffirelli, in the incomparable style you would expect of him. The "Tuscan sunset glow" and Italian countryside make this teatro verissmo even more real for us.

Placido Domingo (Canio) and Teresa Stratas (Nedda) give us an unforgettable pair of star-crossed lovers. Their singing and acting are spectacular. Besides what you would expect--that Placido's "Vesti la giubba" is gut-wrenchingly tearful, Zeffirelli has enhanced the production with insightful close-ups such as when Nedda is putting on her make-up, because "the show must go on." It's a ghostly parallel to "Vesti la giubba" as she looks into her mirror, and sees a ghostly white reflection.

Please see this film. Your spine will tingle even more than you already felt when you first heard Enrico Caruso sing "Vesti la giubba." It's a scary yet beautiful, non-stop runaway ride towards disaster.

Just a Novice and I Loved It
I am not a sophisticated critic, familiar with different recordings and nuances of opera - I just love to listen and watch. What I most loved were Zeffirelli's wonderful landscapes, colors and settings that set off the singing. Placado Domingo, so familiar, just blends into his roles and his superb voice seems effortless. I found the young Stratas so sexy and vulnerable, Wow! ... and Obraztova solid and sour and pitiful, as called for. I could watch it again - that is what counts for me.

A strange fateful combination
This is a strange combination of short works fated to live together on the operatic stages of the world: one brilliant piece and one hardly above the level of a talented student. Having known these works for better than a half century, I find that "Cav" sounds worse to me as time passes. "Pag" is a brilliant piece of music theater and sounds better all the time. The irony is that neither composer produced anything else of lasting value after these works. Zeffirelli is a great director and film maker and the casts are excellent in all ways. My problem is that I don't like to see films of opera. I like to see the physical effort it takes to sing because that's where you see the real skill of the singers. You can also truly see how the composer, with his sense of musical pacing, understood the theater. The faults of "Cav" can be masked by interesting camera work...in fact the first 15 minutes of this short work has virtually nothing contributing to the drama. And before the final scene the composer throws in a sweet meditation which dilutes whatever tension he created in the previous scene. One wonders if "Cav" would have held the stage as long as it has without "Pag" to lean upon. The second half of the DVD is more impressive since the tension never lets up in Leoncavallo's work. "Pag" also features the ultra charismatic singing actress Stratas and Domingo whose work simply never falls below a level of artistic merit which most singers cannot even approach. Frankly the best "Pag" I ever saw was a live broadcast from the Metropolitan also featuring Stratas and Domingo. During the final scene Domingo took a fall and injured his leg causing cancellation of several subsequent performances. Now that was an electric night! I do not feel that this film, with all its dramatic touches, is up to that broadcast, But it appears to be the best that's currently available. I am aware than many people love "Cav" but I know I will only watch the second half of this DVD.