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Leos Janacek: From the House of the Dead - Festival Aix-en-Provence 2007
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About Leos Janacek: From The House Of The Dead - Festival
Product Description Janác ek s rarely performed final opera From the House of the Dead is brought to the stage by acclaimed director Patrice Chéreau and legendary conductor Pierre Boulez, serving as the third collaboration between the celebrated team behind the famous best-selling DVD Ring also on DG. This production, commissioned by the Aix-en-Provence Festival, has been widely hailed as one of the operatic highlights of the new millennium. Harrowing and unforgettable; one of the great Janác ek interpretations of our time. The Guardian Amazon.com Few operas match Janáceks From the House of the Dead for sustained intensity and raw emotional power, especially effective in this 2007 Aix-en-Provence Festival staging. The opera is an ensemble work requiring an evenly matched cast of singing actors and a first-class orchestra under the baton of a conductor who masters Janáceks but tricky rhythmic patterns, gritty folk-based melodies, and brilliant orchestration. Thats what it gets in this staging by Patrice Chéreau and conductor Pierre Boulez, whose precision and attention to detail amplify the overwhelming power of the score. This is one of those rare operas where nothing much happens yet leaves you certain that it has revealed important aspects of life. Without conventional arias, it delivers the power of such "highlight" moments through dramatic monologues and a continuous stream of orchestral music that illuminates characters and situations. In this late work completed months before his death, Janácek does in a mere 100 minutes what others strive to do in much longer time spans. Sharing the honors is a superb cast that brings the opera to life. You may despise what these people have done to land themselves in the Siberian gulag of Dostoyevskys novel, but Janáceks libretto, almost entirely taken and re-ordered directly from the book, makes you sympathize with their degraded state and shocked at the cruelty to which they are subjected. Janácek focuses on six of the prisoners and several relate their stories. These are uniformly well done, with the first act monologue of Luca, a tale of how he murdered a prison commander, a gripping experience. Its balanced in the final Acts story of Shiskov; a grim tale of how he murdered his wife when she revealed her love for the villainous Filka, who turns out to be none other than the prisoner known as Luca. Filka/Luca is powerfully sung and acted by Stefan Margita, Shiskov by Gerd Grochowski. Olaf Bär sings the nobleman, a political prisoner roughly stripped of his clothes and belongings and whos freed in the last Act. He becomes a father figure to the pallid, retiring Alyeya, brilliantly realized by Eric Stoklossa, teaching him to read and write and ministering to him as he lies feverish in the prison hospital. Special mention must be made of John Mark Ainsley, in the role of Skuratov, who murdered a rich man who wanted to marry his sweetheart. Chéreaus stage direction masterfully focuses attention where it needs to be, and keeps the dramatic arc flowing in ways that allow the audience to follow the action not easy on a stage filled with secondary characters, nearly all male and all in either shabby prison clothes or green guards uniforms. Thierry Thieu Niang staged the two brief plays within the opera, prisoners performances mirroring some of their tales, bursting with depravity. The sets by Richard Peduzzi are fitting too, movable walls that reach to the top of the stage and enclose the prisoners in a claustrophobic setting. Film director Stéphane Metges camera placements and cutting are virtually always on target, blending the personal stories in a larger context. Extras include a 48" film that includes revealing scenes of Boulez and Chéreau in rehearsal. This is a must-have for anyone interested in 20th century opera. --Dan Davis From the House of the Dead is an all-regions disc in 16:9 ratio. Sound options include PCM Stereo and DTS 5.1 Surround. Sung in Czec
