Opera, Ballet and Classical Music discs - Page 30

Last night we heard the Northwest Mahler Orchestra and Chorus do Mahler's 3rd in Benaroya Hall in Seattle, conducted by Alexander Prior, all of 18 years old. It was actually a very good performance, save for a few of the typical festival orchestra problems. For the most part, the very young principal trombone and trumpet players nailed their solos, and they had a former SSO concertmaster, Ilkka Talvi, to play the violin solos. (Read Talvi's Wikipedia entry to learn of his falling out with Gerard Schwarz and the SSO. It got very ugly.)

Meanwhile, we watched the Abbado Mahler 9 Blu-ray the other day. Another wonderful performance, beautifully played and recorded.

The Valencia Ring is the best sounding recordings of those operas that I've ever heard.

I listened to the OpusArte SFO Merry Widow (a 2001 performance, details here: http://www.amazon.com/Lehar-Merry-Bl...2027067&sr=1-1 ) a few days ago and to parts again yesterday with my ear plugs, trying to find out exactly what is wrong with it.
To start, it is an odd DTS-HD MA 4.0 given on the box, but there is some sound from the rears, so it seems like a 6.0. The center is definitely silent. At first, the orchestra is recorded quite ok, but it falls short when we get to the voices. The male principals wear mics over their ears, the females have their mics hidden in the cleavage as seen briefly at Kirchschlager's. In addition, there are (I think very directional) stage mics every 2 to 3 feet along the stage. But the balance between the body mics and the stage mics is the problem, i.e. the stage mics pick up too much relative to the body mics. (You hear the shuffling of the feet very well.)
Whenever the singers move their heads while singing, the loudness of their voices fluctuates quite a bit, depending whether they sing towards a mic or sideways. In addition, Skovhus is louder recorded and fluctuates less, Kenny is softer recorded and fluctuates more. When the chorus is singing, she is hardly audible. The others are somewhat in the middle, not quite as loud as Skovhus, but louder than Kenny.
I checked the stereo track briefly and it is the same.
This constant up and down make this a less satisfying audio experience and I can't recommend it.
Then I remembered, that the Decca LA Traviata Blu-ray with Villazon and Fleming also suffered from this variability of the voices and I looked up the credits on both disks.
While the Merry Widow has 11 people (6 audio engineers!) involved with audio, "Audio Post Production" is given as Ken Hahn and yes, he is also the "Sound Mixer" for the Traviata production. Coincidence or responsibility?

I gave this a good review a few weeks ago and I like it even more after listening to it again. But I need to correct my original statement of "no body mics". I've seen now a mic under Taven's headband and the last scene also shows a transmitter on Mireille's hipp. So it's a very good recording but with body mics.

To Lee: You can buy this one without hesitation, well recorded and a pleasure to watch.

Conductor to male singer: "Get your face out of her chest!"

Response: "Just trying to make sure my voice is heard clearly.... yeah, that's it..."


R Kreutzer: Thanks for the recommendation. I put up a comment about the "Ring" on Amazon and also read yours there.

Lee

I watched Siddhartha from the POB last night. A modern ballet, the details can be found here: http://www.amazon.com/Siddharta-Blu-...2577928&sr=1-1
Rather then giving you my description, you can watch a bit on youtube here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8020lz8f7w
There are a few more clips on youtube. Be ready for dancers with motorcycle helmets.
So it might not be for everybody.
Picture is sharp and the video direction is ok. But it is often a dark stage. Your blacks will be tested.
The orchestra is recorded very well. Soundstage extents may be 3 feet on either side beyond the front speakers and the 2 percussion groups give your speakers a workout. Strawinsky, Prokofiew, indonesian gamelan, Siegel Schwall Blues Band, Stanley Kubrick's 2001, Rocky Horror Picture show and so on came to my mind.
I am a fan of Dupont/Le Riche and the POB in general and I like their dancing although the various scenes didn't make much sense in terms of a story.

This one is easy to recommend, I don't think anybody will dislike this one:
http://www.amazon.com/Chopin-Dame-au...2664869&sr=1-1
It is well recorded, beautiful Chopin, stage is well lit so the picture sparkles and the dancing is also fine. Act 3 is on a second disk, so OA hasn't squeezed it to make it fit.
More bits equals better picture.
Letestu is not my favorite, but you can't find fault with her in this performance. Some lifts are a bit awkward, but that is on account of the long dresses and John Neumeier. I used to go to his Sunday Matinees way back in the seventies when I lived in Hamburg, Germany.

After watching La Dame aux Camelias with that beautiful picture, Sylvia by the Royal Ballet was a big let-down and I can't really recommend it.
http://www.amazon.com/Sylvia-Blu-ray...2759992&sr=1-1
I watched it now twice and here are my observations. Right from the start, when the orchestra is shown, the picture is too dark and yellow. When the curtain goes up, the wide stage shot looks almost like SD rather than HD. That shot was thankfully soon eliminated from the used camera positions. The lighting throughout the performance is in yellow, rather than white. In combination with the umbra/dark green background, it sucks the life right out of the picture. It didn't let me concentrate on the dancing and just enjoy the ballet but rather kept my mind dwelling on whether I should return this one.
When I looked at it the second time, I got over the poor picture quality and watched Darcey Bussell's dancing, which is quite fine and it would be worth owning, were it not for that poor picture quality. Note to producers: "White Light!!!"
Sound is LPCM Multi (5.1 according to the box) and quite o.k., applause from the front.
Then I slipped the Royal Ballet's Sleeping Beauty into the player and a much better picture. White Light, none of that yellow stuff.
So now we know of another way to screw up a Blu-ray. Stage lighting Mark Jonathan

EuroArts' new Achúcarro BD contains performance from Berlin Philharmonie with BPO/Rattle (Falla: Noches en los jardines de Espana). But this is upconverted SD!!!
The 90 minutes Madrid concert is HD.
48/16 sound.

Is this the same disc that was just reviewed at Blu-ray.com reviews?

They say this about the picture: "This is one of the nicest looking concert Blu-rays in recent memory, with really brilliant clarity and sharpness. Amazing detail shines throughout this presentation, including everything from being able to see the shadows of individual harp strings on the harpist's score to (perhaps less appealingly) individual hairs on the back of Achúcarro's hands. Colors are appealing and lifelike, with good, accurate fleshtones, strong black levels and very good contrast. This is a very well directed enterprise, with lots of excellent coverage of both Achúcarro as well as the orchestra in the opening segment." Link

But their screenshots with the orchestra look like an upconverted SD, as you suggest.

Blu-ray.com didn't catch the channel misalignment of the Magic Flute or the channel reversal of the Rheingold, but then again, none of the reviewers on Amazon did either. I take the reviews with a grain of salt now.
But upconverting SD should be mentioned in the promotional material. Truth in advertising is long gone...

I think he needs to see the eye doctor...

To blu-ray.com's credit, they gave Sylvia only BBB for video quality vs. BBBB for Sleeping Beauty. I would rate the 2 more like BB vs. BBBBB, but at least they saw a difference between the 2, while on Amazon 6 reviewers gave Sylvia 5 stars.

Too many reviewers (especially the "amateur" ones on Amazon) rate performance recordings by virtue of sentiment and emotion. In the instance of reversed/missing channels, I believe the reviewers put these discs on as quasi-background music and don't pay sufficient attention to the actual technical qualities of the production.

I sincerely hope for better.

Lee

Lee,
I figure less than 5% of all households have decent audio set-ups from what I see on TV and in the photo gallery. I can't even convince my brother to move his surrounds to where they should be.
People even don't want to hear when recordings are bad. My negative yet true review of the Magic Flute is considered "Not Helpful" by 5 of 6 readers on Amazon who bothered to vote. Go figure.

I agree and it's unfortunate that potential buyers don't know if the review is from a legitimate enthusiast or a hobo living under a bridge with a boom box.

Apathy is not limited to home theater....

BTW, my review of the Ring is listed under my wife's name (her Amazon account). You'll know it when you see it.

Lee

Yes, I read it and guessed that.
We'll keep on telling as it is, enjoy the good one's and return the bad one's.

Well, here's a good one. I recently purchased a copy of Strauss' Elektra (at Target for much less than Amazon). This is from the 2010 Salzburg Festival with Iréne Theorin in the title role with support from Waltraud Meier as Klytämnestra (wait til you see what happens to her at the end), Eva-Maria Westbroek as Chrysothemis, and the great René Pape as Orest. Daniele Gatti conducts the Weiner Philharmoniker and the stage direction is by Nikolaus Lehnoff who created a very successful production of Parsifal a few years ago.

So I popped it in the very late the other night just to check the audio and video quality. I figured I'd watch for five minutes, tops. Well, Elektra had me at Allein! (Alone!). Her opening line that invokes her murdered father, coupled with her phantom presence, was so compelling I had to stick around just to find out what dark corner of the universe this girl was emerging from and how far her obsession would take her. I watched the whole thing straight through.

If you know the story of Elektra from Greek Tragedy, well, opera doesn't get any more tragic than this. Once the story takes hold of you, look out. But what music Strauss composed! - at times dissonant and unworldly, at other times sublimely beautiful, almost poetic. How the lyrical climax in the recognition scene can be filled with such emotional intensity, and still manage to strike a chord of tenderness is a tribute to Strauss' gift of composition. There is more in my review at Amazon, but this is one of the best in my collection.

That's why we do this. To be transported by great performances that are captured with high technical value.

Lee

I like all the ts crossed and the is dotted as much as anyone, but most of all I want a vital performance reasonably well presented. The channel reversal on Rhinegold is not nearly as serious as you make it out to be. I have a great system with ten foot projection and I really didn't notice it. The stereo placement isn't like the Solti Ring. It's more like the slightly diffuse perspective from the audience. The balances and dynamics are excellent and the conducting and singing are top notch. Feel free to pick your nits, but when it comes to the Valencia Ring, the Amazon reviews are pretty accurate.

Let's agree to disagree on this one and leave it at that.

Agreed.

Lee

For the Mariinsky BDs, Amazon UK lists their classification as "U". Does that mean it's not region-protected? If not, does anyone know about their region coding? Thanks!

Watched Luisa Fernanda yesterday afternoon. Details here: http://www.amazon.com/Luisa-Fernanda...3933013&sr=1-1
I had seen a few arias from it on Amor, Vida de Mi Vida, http://www.amazon.com/Amor-Vida-Mi-Z...3937955&sr=1-1 ,
courtesy of Netflix and decided to buy Louisa. (dneily recommended Amor some time ago and I also found it enjoyable.)

Picture is fine. It is a somewhat minimalist staging but well lit.
The good news is that Andy Rose is responsible for the audio (LPCM 5.1). So the soundstage reaches halfway between the front corner speakers and the surround speakers, orchestra and voices are well recorded. You can see a mic. on the countess above the right ear, the others are all well hidden. Voices move with the body, applause from the surrounds, just the way I like it.
You can see parts of it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-0WkrJh_PI
Plenty of beautiful melodies. How much longer will we have a chance to get Placido Domingo on a blu-ray? The tenor here is Jose Bros, he gets deservedly almost as much applause as Domingo and the female voices are also all fine. Recommended.

This stands for "Universal" and means the material is o.k. for children to watch.
Can't help with the Region Code. I'll wait 'til it is available in the US.
But good that we have another chance at Jewels...

All Regions.
http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/Mariinsky/MAR0015