La Forza Del Destino

Unique vision,a somber, subdued Forza, possibly the best in the series so far
Traditional performances from the past of this magnificent grand opera where Verdi even beat Meyerbeer in his own game,
were a mixed bag of monks walking around with lighted torches, colorful Spanish crowd scenes with dances, drinking songs and soldiers marching around. They were audience pleasers, so the average people got their money's worth.

For Verdi's 200th anniversary this certainly wasn't good enough. The very talented designer, Stefano Poda took this opera much more seriously and given it a new meaning, actually the meaning it always should have been there, but wasn't. The opera is about dark fate pursuing the seemingly helpless characters, about resentment, obsessive revenge and the ultimate destruction, such as War. There is also a strong element of Religion and people's escape into it for protection and consolation. All these elements are omnipresent in the dark hued, but monumental sets of monolithic slabs, sometimes pitch black and sometimes shining in...





Click to Editorial Reviews

Symphony No. 4 / Pelleas & Melisande [Blu-ray]

Magical disc
The standout here is the magnificent performance of the Schoenberg early tone poem Pelleas and Melisande. Written before (depending on your point of view) Schoenberg lost the plot and went 12 tone, it is a wonderful post Wagnerian masterpiece somewhat similar to the equally magnificent first two parts of Gurrelieder. (Now THAT would be a gem on Blu-ray!) This young orchestra play like champions and both works are played and recorded magnificently. We already have several excellent Blu-ray recordings of the Mahler but this is as good as any and with the Schoenberg it is a disc not to be missed.





Click to Editorial Reviews

Songs of the Wanderers

breathtaking DVD
This video is one of the finest examples of pure beauty. I have never seen a video like this one before. And it's not only the dance itself, there's also excellent lighting and camerawork. All in a perfect harmony. The music is quite repetitive, but also in perfect harmony with the dance. Of course this is modern dance. People expecting to see classical dance won't get what they were thinking to pay for. But by modern dance standards, this is the best. Cloud Gate Dance Theatre has won lots of prices for their performances all over the world, if you'll see this video, you'll know why.

IMpressive dance performance
Great dance performance merging elements from East and West, Georgian folk music with chinese Tai-Chi and meditative themes.
NOt for trigger ready remote control freaks or people who do not know the difference between rice and corn, or between Georgia and Romania.

Heavenly!
I was absolutely delighted to see the performance of the Cloud Gate Dance Theater of Taiwan last November in Brazil and have lost track of how many times I have watched the DVD... It is a marvellous dance show that may raise deep questions about one's purpose in life. If you're a wanderer, you just can't miss it!

Click to Editorial Reviews

Jeanette MacDonald in Performance: Princess of Opera & Operetta-– The Voice of Firestone

A Rare Single-Performance Release and Much Fun
When the Voice of Firestone programs were being released on videos, one of the last to be put out was the one and only appearance of diva Jeanette MacDonald. Other offerings contained 3 or 4 appearances by the specific star, and producers figured few would pay full price for just a single show. However, they risked it and Jeanette's one-performance video proved to be one of their best sellers. The entire show is a delight, especially the live aspect that finds a dancer accidentally jerking Jeanette in the wrong direction and her charmingly waggling her finger at him later in the song, "naughty naughty." Also, the lighting of the show was especially flattering to the 47-year-old singer. She arrived at the broadcast studio to find they were still using the harsh, primitive TV lighting that could make a teenager look haggard. She quickly phoned her husband, Gene Raymond, and he arrived to instruct technicians in more sophisticated Hollywood methods, allowing the beautiful Ms. MacDonald...

Save your money
What a disappointment. Jeanette sings only three songs and none of them real favorites. Yes, she appears lovely as ever and graceful but the show is dominated by the orchestra playing pieces. Very little of substance from Jeanette.

Vibrant and Vivacious
This is a treat for fans of Jeanette MacDonald - her appearance on a 1950 "Voice of Firestore" television program. She is in fine form as she sings, dances and engages her audience with charm and grace. The lighting is uneven, and she is reported to have instructed the crew how and where to focus the lights, since she moves about the stage as she sings - unlike other performers who were more static. The entire program is great fun and representative of her film and stage career, but perhaps the most interesting is the "Italian Street Song" where one of the chorus boys tugs her arm as she moves away from him, jerking her. She responds by continuing the song and wagging her finger at him as she holds the final high note for an impossibly long time. MacDonald fans will be delighted to add this historical disc to their library.

Click to Editorial Reviews

My Dog Tulip [Blu-ray]

I laughed--I cried
So much more than a book about a man and his dog--I laughed, I cried. I laughed more than I cried as the author's way with words grew on me. Several months ago I heard about this book and author for the first time. The book was out of print and I could not find a copy online. I stumbled upon this new edition while browsing online and am so glad that I "waited" for this new version. The book is very attractive and unusual and I enjoyed the introduction which is new too. I'm now reading another book in this same new collection about the author's life--My Father and Myself--it puts My Dog Tulip into a new perspective and I may have to re-read it and if I do, I think I might cry more than I laugh this time around. Although when I looked again at the cover I had a private laugh. I'd recommend this book to almost anyone of any age. Parental guidance perhaps for My Father and Myself.

"a marvel of brilliance and shockingness"
In fact that was from a review of some 45 years ago, but it will do for a title.

I think My Dog Tulip is possibly the best book about dogs I have ever read. It doesn't suprise me to see that Elizabeth Marshall Thomas (The Hidden Life of Dogs) has written the introduction to the current edition, as Ackerley opened up some of the territory she was to explore. They remind me of each other quite a lot.

In the first scene of My Dog Tulip, Ackerley meets a little old lady wheeling a little dog around the park in a pram. The dog is dressed up in a blanket and she is cooing to him like an invalid. It's obvious that this highly anthropomorphised canine is the sort of dog Ackerley wants NOT to portray. He commented at the time that he wanted to restore beastliness to beasts, and as E.M. Forster put it, Tulip is 'a dog of dogdom', not just 'an appendage of man.'

My Dog Tulip lampoons the British middle class as well as human anthropocentrism in general. Ackerley's technique of combining...

Hilarious and Touching
It's hard for me to understand how some of the reviewers could have failed to appreciate Ackerley. If you've ever owned any kind of pet at all, this book is a must. To be sure, it's not for the squeamish--Tulip's romantic life is the one of the chief topics, and the author minces no words describing the tactics deployed by Tulip, her many canine suitors, and even her owner himself in his attempts to produce true-blooded offspring. But Ackerley approaches even this sensitive subject with both humor and a strange sweetness. He once wrote that Tulip was his true love, the only creature who loved him and whom he could love unconditionally, and after you read the book, you understand why. Tulip's character--defensive, offensive, protective, delicate, beautiful, affectionate, and ever-so-vital--is as moving as any portrayal of a mere human. Unmissable.

Click to Editorial Reviews

A Haunting at Silver Falls

A Haunting at Silver Falls
This was a pretty good movie that is geared towards kids from ages (approx.) 8-13. The acting was good and it was simplistic enough. Basically, it's a murder mystery and ghost story. The movie revolves around teens (no sex, no real drug taking, no soft porn), and the villains were the adults. It reminded me of stories my daughter used to read around the age of 10, such as R.L. Stine's Fear Street, ect. All in all a pretty good movie for the age group I mentioned.

As an adult I like films that are geared for adults, such as "MaMa" or "Bag of Bones". I rated this movie four stars for the benefit of older kids looking for something "clean cut" in the category of "haunted." That's a hard thing to find nowadays.

SHOCKINGLY NOT TOO SHABBY...
My expectations were lower than low for A Haunting at Silver Falls. I've seen too many horrible ghost movies in the past 10 years to even count, so I figured this would be nothing new. And though it's not technically anything "new", it does feel rather unique, which is asking a lot of movies nowadays. For the first half hour I was not as optimistic, however. The beginning of the movie really put me in the mind of Twilight (which is sooo NOT a good thing!) Too many hints of high school romance, too much focus on a teenage girl adjusting to her new home life, too much blandness. The decent acting was the only thing keeping my eyes on the screen, but I'm glad I continued watching because once the movie picked up I ended up really enjoying it. The twist at the end is what really peaked my interest - totally made the whole girl-growing-up-dealing-with-love-and-ghosts thing seem almost fresh once again. Sure, you've seen a lot of this story in a million other movies already, but compared to...

A Good Surprise
You see so much crap these days, and then expect the worst of the movies churned out. This was not one of those mishaps. A Haunting at Silver Falls was an unexpected surprise. I love a good ghost story and this movie didn't disappoint.

Click to Editorial Reviews

Beatrice Di Tenda

Theodossiou sings well
Beatrice di Tenda is really a wonderful opera, and I wish it were given more performances. In terms of commercial DVD's there is little choice out there, we have the 2002 Zurich production with the lovely Edita Gruberova, and now this performance from Catania 2009. The main point of interest here is the soprano, and in the title role we have Dimitra Theodossiou although I think she manages the role fairly well, she may not be to everyone's taste. Her voice is not as flexible as Gruberova or dare I say Sutherland, and she really has some problems with intonation, she seems to take it all in stride and punches along with little sense of belcanto line hitting some thrilling if out of tune high notes along the way. I admire her for making the effort at this stage in her career, she is obviously more comfortable singing the early Verdi roles, and Bellini's long lines seem to challenge her at times. The rest of the cast support her well, if not memorably, and the production is boring and...

Beatrice Di Tenda
I'd been waiting for an "upgrade" from my DVD of Bellini's Beatrice Di Tenda for some time now ... not that the Zurich Opera/Edita Gruberova offering from TDK was bad, but ... well, my review of that DVD is only a few clicks away.

After my initial viewing of this new Blu Ray version of the opera, I am glad I didn't get around to selling my Zurich recording.

My overall first impression is that these two versions (the only two versions presently available) are basically, for different reasons, on par with each other.

Concerning this new offering from Dynamic, first among its strong points are that it is a Blu Ray release, and the audio and video quality are fine indeed. The three standard sound formats are offered, and my choice of the HD DTS sounded very good. The video image is what one has come to expect as well ... which leads me to another positive aspect of this Blu Ray disk - the colorful dresses worn by Ms. Theodossiou, Ms. Lo Monaco, the...



Click to Editorial Reviews