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Rimsky-Korsakov: The Tale of Tsar Saltan

4.6 out of 5 stars 41 ratings

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January 22, 2018
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  • Product Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.74 x 5.41 x 0.43 inches; 3.52 ounces
  • Media Format ‏ : ‎ NTSC
  • Release date ‏ : ‎ January 22, 2018
  • Actors ‏ : ‎ Valery Gergiev
  • Studio ‏ : ‎ MARIINSKY
  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0751W3MGD
  • Number of discs ‏ : ‎ 2
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 out of 5 stars 41 ratings

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
41 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers find the DVD's color palette appealing, with one mentioning its glorious bejeweled costumes. Moreover, the production quality receives positive feedback, with one customer praising Gergiev's work and another highlighting the fantastical sets. Additionally, customers enjoy watching and listening to the performance.

5 customers mention "Color palette"5 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the color palette of the DVD, with one mentioning the beautiful bejeweled costumes.

"...we picture in a Russian opera......glorious bejeweled costumes, colorful, fantastical sets, etc...." Read more

"...opera to watch enjoy and understand due to the subtitles, this colorful fantasy led by Valery Gergiev is joy to watch and listen to...." Read more

"A truly outstanding production. The costumes are VERY colorful and detailed...." Read more

"...Not R-K's best (reviewers said, and I'd agree) but it was nice to see...well done by Gergiev and the Marinsky guys and gals. Recommend." Read more

3 customers mention "Enjoyment"3 positive0 negative

Customers find the DVD enjoyable to watch and listen to.

"...subtitles, this colorful fantasy led by Valery Gergiev is joy to watch and listen to...." Read more

"...a "like" of Russian culture or rare operas, this is a great one to watch. I deducted a star for the lousy video directing." Read more

"Delightful, colorful, enthusiastic performance!!!" Read more

3 customers mention "Production quality"3 positive0 negative

Customers praise the production quality of the DVD, with one customer highlighting the fantastical sets and another noting the well-executed work by Gergiev.

"...in a Russian opera......glorious bejeweled costumes, colorful, fantastical sets, etc...." Read more

"A truly outstanding production. The costumes are VERY colorful and detailed...." Read more

"...best (reviewers said, and I'd agree) but it was nice to see...well done by Gergiev and the Marinsky guys and gals. Recommend." Read more

Top reviews from the United States

  • Reviewed in the United States on February 2, 2024
    The production capitalized on the fairy tale elements of the story. I particularly liked the pop-up storybook opening to each act. It reinforced the whimsical quality of the story. A very pleasant way to while away an afternoon during winter.
  • Reviewed in the United States on May 27, 2022
    For years I’ve had the works of rimski korsakov to enjoy and fall in love with , and for a great while I’ve had the orchestral suite to opera to revel in, but now finally having the opera to watch enjoy and understand due to the subtitles, this colorful fantasy led by Valery Gergiev is joy to watch and listen to. I hope others will fall in love with this performance the way I have.
    One person found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on December 18, 2017
    I saw this exact production at the Mariinsky back in 2013 with a different cast, and I enjoyed it back then and was hoping the production would find its way on video, so I am happy it did, and overall I like the performance. However, I agree with the other reviewer about the video director. She cuts back and forth between characters too much and there were several moments in the BluRay where the picture was blurry for a second before it came in focus. Never in a commercial and professional video have I seen the video get blurry. Normally multiple cameras are filming, and she should have chosen the best shots. At one moment a character was downstage off to the side and you could see the microphone that was capturing the sound. I feel that was unprofessional for a taped video. If this were piped into a movie theater live as it is happening I would overlook that, but for a professional, commercial release I feel the video director made some huge mistakes.

    Probably the biggest "star" by Western standards in the production is Albina Shagimuatova as the Swan Princess, and she does a fine job. However, the voice that impressed me the most was Irina Churilova as the Tsaritsa Militrisa! What a warm, full-bodied soprano always with rounded tone and no forced sound. From her first lines I thought, "This soprano might be a Norma in the making!" and I googled her name and saw that she has indeed sung Bellini's Norma in Graz and will sing it again in Santiago. Great voice. Hope it doesn't crash and burn like so many promising singers today.

    I believe the cartoon scenes mentioned in the previous review were shown during the actual performance. I can't 100% remember but I think they were. They seem very familiar, so they are part of the actual performance on stage even though this video makes it look like they were interpolated later because some graphic designs like boxes come onto the screen and show bits of the cartoons and the orechestra so it doesn't seem like it was part of the staged production and seems added on when you watch the video, but I believe these cartoon scenes were actually shown on the semicircle screen during the interludes. Maybe someone else who also saw this live could confirm this or correct me.

    The production is everything we picture in a Russian opera......glorious bejeweled costumes, colorful, fantastical sets, etc. I remember being so happy to see this rarity in person especially since it is famous for the "Flight of the Bumblebee" moment......that is the one world famous moment. However, the Swan Princess has quite a lovely aria which gets reprised everytime she comes on stage with a violin trill. Anna Netrebko recorded the aria on her Russian arias cd years ago.

    If you have a love or even a "like" of Russian culture or rare operas, this is a great one to watch. I deducted a star for the lousy video directing.
    15 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on October 30, 2019
    A truly outstanding production. The costumes are VERY colorful and detailed. The scenery, given the limitations of a stage production, is also great albeit a bit spartan. Singing is wonderful, especially the leads. Chorus is also great. The "special effects", such as the soldiers marching out of the sea could be better, but adequate for a stage production. The only distraction, for me, was the peasant girl/tsarista is a bit older and plumper than one would expect for a young maiden; her singing is good though.
    3 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on February 4, 2018
    Delightful, colorful, enthusiastic performance!!!
  • Reviewed in the United States on December 12, 2017
    This is a spectacular, traditional Russian fairy-tale production with lavish costumes in dazzling, almost garish colors. Vladimir Firer’s set designs rely on Ivan Bilibin's original illustrations for Pushkin's fairy tale, as used in a 1937 Russian production. Stage Director Alexander Petrov used an intelligent concept by adding six silent, masked supernumeraries (dancers, actually). Like the Kuroko of Kabuki theatre, they are invisible (in some scenes) to the characters on stage but aid to move along the plot by giving singers props, carrying the Bumblebee or even dancing. They add a supernatural feeling to the proceedings, like mysterious forces of destiny, but they are more decorative than intrusive and do not hijack or distort the traditional Russian aesthetics. The singers’ movements are sometimes stylized but are otherwise straightforward traditional, probably not much different from what the Moscow audience saw on opening night in 1900. After watching this enchanting blu-ray a few times I am convinced that this opera is a masterpiece of the first order, revealed here for the first time in all its glory. Its obscurity in the West is due to cultural and language barriers - it requires a familiarity with a Pushkin fairytale practically unknown in the West, and a full appreciation of its charms depends on understanding its Russian libretto more heavily than most operas.

    Saltan presents no exceptional challenges to the forces required to stage it, singers, conductor, orchestra and chorus, assuming the availability of a real bass and native Russian singers. Yet it's a hard sell. This is the first time since 1959 that this opera is released in Russian in any (commercial) format, and there have been only two officially released recordings in Russian, both from 1958/9, only one, the Nebolsin available on CD. Other than in Russia and in former Soviet republics it is produced in German-speaking countries maybe once every ten years but nowhere else AFAIK, though the Mariinsky brought this 2005 production to London in 2008 (why does London get more Russian operas than New York?). I simply feel grateful to have lived long enough to enjoy this video; it's one of those rare performances that make me feel that life is too short for all the pleasures it has to offer.

    Each tableau, as well as the three wonders in the last act are introduced by a brash little trumpet tune (mimed wonderfully by the six kuroko mentioned above). This is a musical device announcing you are about to partake in a bylina (or starina), a traditional Slavic epic narrative poem; it also underlines the fantastic (as in anti-realistic) nature of the proceedings. The curtain rises on the prologue, and here we initially run into problems - it is not immediately clear what is going on, unless you are already familiar with the story, as most Russians and other Slavs are. The prologue is a problematic introduction to the opera because it has too much text with a lot of digressions that establish the style but do not focus clearly, at least initially, the story-line. The three sisters are sitting spinning yarn on a winter’s snowy night in a village isba (a Russian log hut) with svat'ya baba babarikha (humorously rendered as barbarikha) in attendance, holding a black cat (svat'ya - Сватья - has no parallel in English; it’s a mother of one's son-in-law or daughter-in-law). You are supposed to understand that the two older sisters are comic villains, in the manner of Clorinda and Tisbe in Rossini’s “La Cenerentola”, the younger one a Russian Cinderella prototype (pure, innocent and a victim) and barbarikha an evil old witch. This is obfuscated here by two factors. One is the casting: Tatiana Kravtsova who sings elder sister (later cook) looks older than Elena Vitman’s barbarikha, who has a hard time inhabiting the role of an evil old witch. This immediately throws the whole basic foundation of the story off balance, but only initially. The second confusing element is the short-attention-span, incompetent video direction of Anna Matison, the same Anna Matison who is responsible for the similar video direction of Mariinsky’s 2014 “Golden Cockerel” recently released blu-ray. In this prologue, Anna Matison seems unable to tell which sister is singing when and therefore the camera is initially sometimes on the wrong sister (it’s not easy to tell preparing for the performance, because it’s not marked in the libretto, only in the score). The problem with the hyperactive video direction comes and goes. In climactic, intense moments she cuts every second (!) to underline the state of agitation, but in general the stupid, intrusive video direction does not manage to ruin this video. Once the Tsar enters the story and its fairytale character come into focus and proceed smoothly from here on.

    The first orchestral interlude that follows is in the form of a droll march depicting Saltan’s departure for wars, changing into picturesque battle music. This blu-ray uses segments from Lev Milchinand and Ivan Ivanov-Vano's 1984 Soyuzmultfilm traditionally animated film "The Tale of Tsar Saltan" (Ска́зка о царе́ Салта́не). The problem is that the film was not made to follow the opera or even the music of the interludes: the musical interludes in the opera are specific descriptive musical summaries of parts of the plot, and the first two describe events that are referred to but not covered in the opera. The segments of the film shown with the musical interludes (interspersed with shots of Gergiev and the orchestra - it is very well done) do not correspond exactly to what the music is describing, so, on the one hand, this is not helpful in deciphering what the musical interludes are describing, but OTOH it is very charming and helps immensely to clarify the nature of the characters and style (you immediately “get” that barbarikha is an evil old witch, the Tsar has problems with anger management and that the prince and Swan-Princess are a stock fairytale perfect young, handsome couple). The only musical interlude where the film segment matches 90% of what the music is describing is the last one, preceding the last scene, which describes mostly the three wonders. I actually recommend watching the 53 minute film before watching this blu-ray - it helps enormously to clarify the convoluted story and gives you an idea of the composer frame of reference. If you have an ear for languages it also gives a good idea of the musicality of Pushkin’s verses which the composer aimed to illustrate in his score. It’s available on youtube - copy this “Пушкин Сказки | Pushkin Skazki | The Tale of Tsar Saltan with English Subtitles” and paste it in YT search. (The English subtitles are helpful despite a terrible translation - the bumblebee is translated as “mosquito”...)

    In the first act, the Director has the business with the forging and replacing of the letter take place on stage in the background. This gives those on stage not singing something to do, but does not help to clarify the story. Those familiar with the story may enjoy this, but Video Director Anna Matison feels that she has to capture EVERYTHING all the time and fails miserably.

    The cast does not have a weak link (vocally). This is an ensemble work, so no singer dazzles and there is no clear Italian division between lead and comprimario roles (same in Cockerel). Tsar Saltan is actually not the biggest role (Prince, Princess and Tsaritsa Militrisa are much longer roles). The prematurely departed Edward Tsanga was promoted here from Jester, which he sang in London 2008 to Tsar. His only significant contribution (in the last scene) is very well delivered, though his bass is lighter than Ivan Petrov’s or Lavrenty Yaroshenko’s. The agony of his remorse (and Gvidon’s detailed transformation from anger to compassion and forgiveness) is truly touching. In fact, as staged here the last scene is a successful emotional and theatrical climax as the tensions created by the cruel deceit and all the injustices in the plot escalate and come to a head here, with the son immediately confronting the cruel, deserting, neglecting father. The recognition of the father-son and husband-wife and the reconciliation are so well staged and acted that the impact transcends here the bidimensional character of the fairytale format. Other vocal standouts are Denis Begansky’s booming Jester, Vasily Gorshkov’s stylish old man, and Mikhail Vekua’s Gvidon. Vekua has an attractive timbre and impressive reserves of power - he compares favorably with Vladimir Ivanovsky’s typically Russian thinner voiced Gvidon on the 1958 Nebolsin. Albina Shagimuratova is a known quantity from other roles: a wonderful coloratura with a rich, full sound, genuine morbidezza, superb agility and a large amplitude. She does not get to display all her assets here because the role of Swan-Princess doesn’t ask for much. Irina Churilova is an innocent youngest sister and touching mother and Tsaritsa Militrisa. The audio (stereo only, no surround) uses body mics and stage mics in the mix very successfully, as tested on both speakers and headphones. Voices retain their amplitude (you can clearly hear Mikhail Vekua’s Gvidon pushing from light voice to full dramatic mode and back) and they move on stage. The sound is rich and is not compressed: the dynamic range is large. As a result, the singers do not sound all equally loud, and some voices are bigger than others - Varvara Solovyova's middle sister is barely audible sometimes, as happens in a real performance - there is no evidence of abuse of the analogue limiters to homogenize the stage (voices) tracks, as is unfortunately done at the MET. The orchestra/stage balance is perfect. (Sound Producer - Fedor Naumov.)

    Since this work is so precious to me I was looking forward with a lot of anxiety to watching this release, trying to guess if it would succeed in doing justice to this unusual work. I have to admit that Gergiev caused me the most foreboding based on his 2014 Cockerel (and because he is so unpredictable). He does not disappoint here: he has a good grasp of the various moods, with wonderful progression from the lyrical to the extrovert, dramatic pageant. His shaping of musical phrases is detailed, rhythmic passages are exhilarating, climaxes are thrilling - this is the work of a conductor who is in full command of his powers, who believes in the score, knows and understands it and has a good night with good concentration. The orchestra has a rich, gorgeous sound and is very well miked - you cannot hear this sound on any Saltan available in any form. Kill me, but I don’t think Nebolsin is better. This IMO is the best R-K opera performance Gergiev has given us so far. I think this score works best at a very brisk pace (not that Gergiev is slow). If you want Golden Age brisk pace check Sergei Yeltsin’s 1956 live Kirov on youtube (search “Tale of Tsar Saltan Yeltsin 1956 LIVE” on YT), but this brisk pacing was more common then than now, it can task the singers and chorus and could have exposed Gergiev (had he employed it) to criticisms of driving too hard/ being aggressive.

    After repeat viewing of this release, I am deeply impressed by what was achieved here. Most of us have never heard (let alone watched) a Saltan of such quality. The music is very tuneful - if you don't warm up to it on first hearing give it a second and third try. OTOH, if you don't like Sadko or Cockerel, it might be a waste of time. This blu-ray gives so much joy, even bliss, I had a sensation of sweetness in my mouth watching it (literally). It feels like the most wonderful music. I learned Russian only in order to understand this libretto, a masterpiece by itself.

    Saltan is in many ways a precursor to the Golden Cockerel. Most of the characters in Saltan are precursors to characters in Golden Cockerel. The Swan-Princess is a proto-Queen of Shemakha, both regal and exotic; Tsar Saltan is a proto-Tsar Dodon, both idiots; Barbarikha a proto-Amelfa, both cruel and manipulating. All these Saltan-Cockerel pairs require the same voice types. The sadism of the rulers and the self-acknowledged subservience and stupidity of the common folk appear in germinal form in Saltan and are further developed in cockerel. Compare these two examples, one from the end of Act I of Saltan, the other from act III of Cockerel:

    Saltan - BARBARIKHA (furious): ...and the people are all just windbags. /Wait then for the Tsar’s return, /and you’ll see how he’ll treat you. PEOPLE (confused): What are we, really, nothing, /We just tried to help. Cockerel - AMALFA: There will be a bloodbath for you. (the people in the crowd scratch their backs and grin stupidly). PEOPLE: We are yours/ soul and flesh/ if we get beaten/ that's just the way it is.

    The war motive from the latter work appears in germinal form in Saltan.

    The characters in Saltan are fairy-tale cartoon characters - they are developed and more detailed in cockerel. This makes Saltan unique in that it is the only opera based on a fairytale that retains its fairytale character in the transition to opera. If you think of Cenerentola or Hansel & Gretel (or Cockerel), the characters and the story grow and develop into real fully delineated characters in a real drama with a plot that proceeds in a way that enables empathy and derives from human actions and reactions. Saltan is different. The librettist Vladimir Belsky followed Pushkin's couplets. These rhymes give the text a rhythm that I would characterize as inexorable, for lack of a better word. This is one factor that shapes the sense of time or progression in Saltan - the other being the cartoon quality of the characters. As a result, the sense of time or of dramatic progression in Saltan is like that in dreams, in primary process thinking, and in fairytales. Characters appear and transitions happen abruptly and with little regard to the constraints of logic, neither are they anchored by developed dramatic motives, developed characters or explicit psychology. You cannot say that about Cenerentola or even Hansel & Gretel. As a result, I'd argue that Saltan is the only real Children's Opera. There is a Youtube video of a Ukrainian performance from Kiev of Saltan (cut into several videos) with a lot of children in the audience. It was shot from the audience and picked up the children's reactions. Initially, they make random childish noises of distracted, annoyed kids, but then something magical happens - there comes a point where they suddenly tune in to the opera's wavelength, they "get it", they snap into attention and respond to the proceedings in a way you rarely see even in Hansel & Gretel (admittedly, H&G is often staged nowadays in a way that is unsuitable for kids to watch anyway).

    The problem with Saltan is the challenge of translating it. Several of R-K's librettos are difficult to translate with their archaic (partly old Slavonic) forms, but Saltan is simply impossible to translate completely while retaining its rhythm. Even educated native Russian speakers have a hard time with parts of this text. In addition to archaic language filled with poetic linguistic formulas, it has pseudo-folk language and poetic, archaic pseudo-slang and difficult to translate cultural terms. There was no English reading-translation for more than 100 years (Lyle Kevin Neff prepared a singing-translation for an Indiana University production in 1987, but it's not available for sale or online) until I published online my humble attempt to decipher this wonderful text (you can find the link to download my translation, including the original text and a transliteration on Wikipedia under "The Tale of Tsar Saltan (Rimsky-Korsakov)" - "libretto").

    If you want to compare this release to a more straightforward traditional staging (no subtitles) search “Опера Н.А. Римского-Корсакова "Сказка о царе Салтане" on YT. This production is from Vladivostok and shows how a provincial theatre can mount a successful production of this opera in Russia with third tier forces (they use a digital keyboard in the pit).
    18 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on June 18, 2018
    Pretty enjoyable off-the-radar opera that i just oredered last month on a whim. Not R-K's best (reviewers said, and I'd agree) but it was nice to see...well done by Gergiev and the Marinsky guys and gals. Recommend.
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  • Reviewed in the United States on May 24, 2022
    Excellent.

Top reviews from other countries

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  • Stéphane LEGRAND
    5.0 out of 5 stars La critique du Tsar saltan
    Reviewed in France on December 12, 2019
    LYSIDAS.- Ceux qui possèdent Tcherniakov, Warlikowski et Castelucci voient d’abord, Madame, que cette représentation pèche contre toutes les règles de l’art.
    URANIE.- Je vous avoue que je n’ai aucune habitude avec ces messieurs-là, et que je ne sais point les règles de l’art.
    LYSIDAS : Hélas, Madame, que dites-vous là ? Comment vouloir parler justement d'un spectacle sans tenir compte des révolutions dont sont responsables ces mages de la théâtralité ? Comment peut-on encore en 2020 monter un opéra tel qu'il a été écrit ? Permettez-moi d'évoquer ici la Carmen qui a permis au génial Tcherniakov de démonter très finement le burn-out d'un jeune cadre "dynamique, forcément dynamique" ! Songez au Roi Roger du sublime Warlikowski et à ses impayables Mickey ! Songez à la Flûte Enchantée qui a permis au désormais incontournable Castelluci d'entendre ce que personne n'avait entendu, n'avait même pensé y chercher avant lui: le cri primal de toutes les Clytemnestre opprimées par leur mari !...
    URANIE : Que viennent faire Mickey chez Szymanowski et Clytemnestre chez Mozart ?
    LYSIDAS : Allons, allons ! Il faut dépasser cette vision cloisonnée de l'art. Tout est dans tout et réciproquement. Il s'agit aujourd'hui de prendre la mesure des questions, des "trois blessures" que notre monde a connues, comme l'a si bien dit... Ah! son nom m'échappe, mais il vous sera facile de le retrouver.... , Et non plus de radoter une histoire, comme on se contente de le faire dans ce « spectacle » du Tsar Saltan ? Cela n'intéresse plus personne. En tous cas, cela ne m'intéresse pas, moi, ni, je m'en porte garant, aucun des membres du cénacle que je me flatte de fréquenter..
    URANIE : Et le public ?
    LYSIDAS : Que vient faire le public ici ? Et d'abord, a-r-il un avis, votre public ? Qu'il se contente de remercier les gens du bel air, ceux qui donnent le ton et savent pousser des ah! aux beaux endroits !
    URANIE : Ne croyez-cous pas pourtant que ce public, que vous méprisez, a son mot à dire ? N'est-il pas heureux de suivre l'intrigue de ce qui est appelé « conte »par son auteur. lui-même ? Un conte est fait pour raconter, non ? Et quand de plus les merveilleux décors et costumes de Bilibine sont restitués avec toute la richesse nécessaire, ne tombe-t-on pas sous le charme de cette œuvre magique ? Ne redevient-on pas l'enfant qui s'émerveille devant un beau livre d'images ?
    LYSIDAS : Tout beau, madame ! Si j'étais que de vous, je m'en voudrais d'avoir l'esprit à ce point engoncé dans la frivolité ! Vos propos ne laissent pas de révéler une incapacité presque viscérale à aborder les fondements mêmes de la théâtralité contemporaine. Aussi n'oserais-je pas mettre sur le tapis les problèmes de la direction d'acteurs, ici furieusement absente.... J'aurais trop peur de vous ennuyer en traitant une question qui vous paraît,rait, je gage, superfétatoire . Hélas ! Charmante Uranie, me faudra-t-il toujours déplorer la faiblesse de vos lumières ?...
    URANIE : En effet, je n'ai jamais très bien compris ce qu'on entendait par "direction d'acteurs" ! Vous citiez tout à l'heure Castelucci. On m'a traînée un jour au Parsifal qu'il a monté à La Monnaie : Le premier acte se déroulait pour les trois quarts dans l'obscurité la plus complète, et au troisième, Parsifal marchait sans arrêt sur un tapis roulant.... Dans ces conditions, où réside-t-elle, votre fameuse direction d'acteurs ?.... Certes, dans Saltan, les acteurs ont des attitudes un peu conventionnelles mais certaines scènes sont remarquablement chorégraphiées. L'un dans l'autre...
    LYSIDAS : Il est dit, décidément, que nous ne nous entendrons jamais.... Vous reconnaîtrez en tous cas que musicalement....
    URANIE : Musicalement, j'ai été très satisfaite : l'orchestre sonne admirablement, rutilant quand il le faut, poétique quand c'est nécessaire. Et les solistes, sans être exceptionnels, sont tous convaincants dans leur rôle..... La distribution est importante, et le théâtre peut compter sur ses propres forces. N'est-ce pas remarquable ? Et l'opéra de Paris peut-il monter Les Huguenots ou même Faust avec une distribution uniquement française ?
    Molière aux enfers
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  • Martin Pitchon
    5.0 out of 5 stars awesome! not very good singers
    Reviewed in Canada on June 21, 2018
    awesome! not very good singers though
  • I. Zaneres
    5.0 out of 5 stars sheer Fantasy
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 14, 2018
    The advantage of a fantasy story is that you can get away with anything.
    The plot such as itis involves three sisters who are jealous of a fourth one putting her in a barrel with her baby son and throwing it in the sea.
    It is interesting to note that although the baby prince grows to maturity throughout the adventure, other cast members do not age at all. In fact mothers and daughters and assorted male characters including the Tsar do not change in about 30 years. The female characters however related all seem to be the same age. well it is a fantasy.
    Also involved are a swan who tuns into a princess, well don't they all!
    One rather good idea it to have a cartoon synopsis of each act during the entre act music, with a few odd shots of the orchestra to pad it out.
    islands appear out of the sea, and cities magically appear on the islands, and crown you Tsar if you are lucky.
    The costumes are absolutely magnificent and assail the eye with colour.
    The music is flamboyant and does credit to Rimsky Korsakov and includes the Flight of the Bumble Bee. Nothing to do with the DVD, but my gather could whistle it, but referred to it as The Plight of The Fumble Bee.
    Enough rambling , The booklet is glossy with casting and synopsis, but is short of timings and individual piece credits
    There are two discs one for high definition and the other for normal players.
  • Wolfgang Thomas
    5.0 out of 5 stars bin sehr zufrieden !
    Reviewed in Germany on May 26, 2024
    bin sehr zufrieden !
  • 竹内 伸一
    4.0 out of 5 stars すぐに配達された
    Reviewed in Japan on October 6, 2024
    キレイな品で、満足しました