Search - Ravel: L'Enfant Et Les Sortileges & L'Heure Espagnole / Maurice Sendak, Glyndebourne Festival Opera on DVD

Delightful

A. Lupu | Rochester, MN USA | 07/22/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I have to confess that I didn't know too much about these two operas when I bought the DVD. I was happily surprised. Although the recording is somehow old (1987), the sound is Stereo only and the image is 4:3, I enjoyed it very much. The production is very imaginative without being overwhelming, the singers do a real good work singing and acting (and even dancing!) and the music is just magnificent, as would be expected from a genius like Ravel. This is the only DVD available in the US that I know of. I can only hope that new productions will be recorded on DVD and Blue-Ray. L'Enfant is one of those short operas that require imagination, perfect for a production where new technology can only enhance it.
Regrettably Kultur didn't include any notes with the DVD. What a shame!
Highly recommended for enjoyment and to know these two short opera jewels.
"

Les Deux Maurice ...

Giordano Bruno | Wherever I am, I am. | 09/21/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"... Maurice Ravel and Maurice Sendak! A match made in Heaven, although I don't think they could ever have met, even in dream-time. "The Spanish Hour/Clock" was composed in 1907; "The Boy and the Enchantments" in 1924. But Sendak's stage designs and costumes suit Ravel's music perfectly, and Ravel's naughty boy is the meoldic prototype of the boy in Sendak's classic "Where the Wild Things Are."

These two short operas -- 'serenatas' really -- were staged and filmed at Glyndebourne in 1987. The film quality and camerawork are somewhat shoddy but the magical stage values and the charm of the music overcome any reservations. "L'Enfant et les Sortileges" portrays a spoiled brat left alone to do his studies and punished by his own naughty fantasies. "L'Heure Espagnole" is a droll tale of cuckoldry in the manner of Boccaccio or Chaucer. Ravel's musical wit is delicate, light of touch and of heart, as fresh as an impressionist painting of a girl in a flowered frock. Any parent who can't be as charmed as a child by Sendak's "Wild Things" should be reported to some child protective service; likewise any grown-up who can't be amused by these two musical children's books."