Monteverdi in cinema - 1 This is the story of Orpheus, who went to the underworld of the dead for his beloved Eurydice, told through music and singing.
The film-opera “Orpheus” by the famous opera director Jean-Pierre Ponnel is the first of the trilogy he staged to the music of the Italian Renaissance composer Claudio Monteverdi, which also includes the operas “The Coronation of Poppeia” and “The Return of Ulysses to the Homeland”.
And although in all Monteverdi operas (as was customary at that time) the plots are taken from ancient Greek mythology and ancient history, in Ponnel they are presented in the scenery and theatrical stylization of the Baroque period - so probably would have staged operas in the 17th century - with pompous gods in lush wigs and graceful peasant women in openwork lace.
For all the undoubted stage merits of the production, not to mention the music itself, from the point of view of our time there is a significant drawback - this is the vocals. But not in the sense that he's bad. Simply large, academically staged voices of tenors and baritons are more suitable for the performance of the monumental operas of Verdi and Puccini, rather than the light and elegant music of Monteverdi.
The choice of singers is explained by the fact that the operas of the early period from the beginning of the 19th century were almost completely forgotten for more than a hundred years. Interest in them began to return to the second half of the 20th century. Then the corresponding technique of singing began to slowly recover on the peripheral platforms. Ponnel, apparently, did not venture to use unknown to a wide range of Baroque performers, and preferred stars with the usual listener of the 70s academic vocals.
Nevertheless, opera lovers will be interested in this interpretation, where Orpheus with a lyre suspiciously resembles Sadko with harps.
8 out of 10