Search - Igor Stravinsky - Le Rossignol (The Nightingale)/ Dessay, McLaughlin, Urmana, Grivnov, Schagidullin, Naouri, Mikhailov, Conlon on DVD

Frank E. (realartist) from HENDERSONVLLE, NC
Reviewed on 12/26/2008...

For music lovers, and especially those who dreive pleasure from such works as Stravinski's Firebird Suite. This music, this opera, is profoundly modern-that is to say, you don't come away humming a catchy tune the way you might from an opera of the Bel Canto era of the 19th century. If you love that era of masterful works in the louvre, and the endless inventive melodic line of the Romantic era in opera and orchestral pieces, you will find yourself hungering for melodies. This is what might be described as "Twelve Tone"..which seems to throw out the notion of "beginning, middle and end"...a return to a familiar home key. Nonetheless, the music does lend itself to dreamscape visuals. And in this DVD they positively abound. It is an endless parade of visually intriguing imagery all created by CAD , computer graphics; and very cleverly so. All the thmeatic material draws upon Chinese motif- a sort of modern day electronic devices managerie "chinoiserie". It will leave an indelible impression with you. Old school folks will stil find themselves wishing for a melody in some kind of key. Aimless meandering of notes aside...this is a tremendously inventive artistic accomplishment. I see that "nightingale" seems to based upon a poem by H.C. Anderson.

Stunning objet d'art finds its way to the public

Matthew P. Bruno | Seattle, WA USA | 11/10/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"As I watched this DVD with giddy anticipation, already a lover of Stravinsky and even his much-maligned opera "Le Rossignol" - one he started and then abandoned in order to start and complete his triptych of ballets, L'oiseau de feu, Petrouchka, Le Sacre du printemps, only to return to Rossignol as a man with a very different harmonic and rhythmic vocabulary, thus creating something of a stylistic collision between Act 1 and Acts 2 and 3 - I kept shaking my head in sweet disbelief that this production was green-lighted for director Christian Chaudet, so dazzlingly creative is his vision, his colorfully whimsical and yet artful application of CGI-based environments and chinoiserie; a visual feast beyond compare that will forever change the way you look at porcelain china :), and yet all very much in the service of Stravinsky's score. In the liner notes, Chaudet admits that the music is in no way the soundtrack to his film, but commendably, the images are the soundtrack to Stravinsky's music. And yet, the film transcends the opera genre, being in no way a literal depiction of the libretto, and for that matter could find a happy home in any families' collection of adventurous Miyazaki films (perhaps even alongside an animated Disney title like Alice in Wonderland). And all of this is to say nothing of Natalie Dessay's ethereally beautiful Nightingale, with fine contributions from all of the cast, including a well-paced and perfectly colorful rendering of the score by James Conlon and the Orchestre de l'Opera National de Paris. Bravo!"

Classical Animation

Arch Llewellyn | 01/27/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I tuned into this midway through late one night on PBS and had to find out what it was. The mix of live action and CG is totally captivating, no small achievement in this age of big-budget special effects. I especially appreciate how the imagery, which cleverly integrates a campy Orientalism with the paraphernalia of the digital age, has a brash, disturbing edge to it that matches Stravinsky's music. This isn't your grandma's Hans Christian Andersen, and I don't think Stravinsky wanted it to be. Christian Chaudet deserves a lot of credit for finding a way to re-enchant these classics while staying true to their spirit. Well worth watching."

Extraordinary and Beautiful Re-imagining

Paul Homchick | San Francisco, CA | 07/23/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This amazing film blends 3-D computer graphics with live action and it is simply brimming with creativity and ideas. The tips of hundreds of violin bows appear out of the mist-covered ground. We inhabit a weird yet wonderful world run by an all-powerful "man behind the curtain" who happens to be personified by two black gloves manipulating an enormous control console. "He" has hundreds of assistents sitting in front of computer screens, typing away in rhythm with the music. There are Gigantic Chinese Urns inhabited with dancing girls instead of Genii. There are courtiers who appear as heads inside of Chinese lanterns. There are crowds of black-gloves applauding wildly and pointing at the scenery to get some bit of stagecraft done. There is a cigarette-smoking death (Violeta Urmana), in league with a mad flying, clicking bar-code applier, and there is the Nightingale (Natalie Dessay) who sings most beautifully, and makes a present of a cellphone to the Great Emperor. Does all of this sound weird? Well, I suppose it is... a bit. But it is also stunning, moving, and, yes, even awe inspiring."