Search - Verdi - La Traviata / Levine, Stratas, Domingo on DVD

Another Stratas triumph

Richard | Minneapolis, Mongolia | 02/27/2010

(4 out of 5 stars)

"To begin with, Zeffirelli has done a hatchet job on the score. Almost half an hour of music is thrown out. That is unfortunate since the performance is quite admirable. Domingo is still a young man and of course sings gloriously. Cornell MacNiel is also at the top of his form.

But the center of the production is Teresa Statas' Violetta. The woman is a superb acting singer. She deserves the mantle of Callas - and like Callas the voice is a little sharp. But she will break your heart. She concentrated on a few roles and thank goodness many of them are available on DVD - Salome, Seven Deadly Sins, Boheme. If you do not know this artist you are in for a great discovery.

Four stars for her performance. It would have had five if Franco had kept his hands off the score."

Not for operatic fans.

A. F. S. Mui | HK | 06/19/2009

(3 out of 5 stars)

"This film of Verdi's 'La Traviata' is not on par with other films by Franco Zeferelli on, say, Cavaliar Rusticana, Pagliacci, Otello.

Why? Apart from the musical cuts already pointed out, the casting of Placido Domingo as Alfredo is also problematic.

Being a spinto tenor, Domingo is undoubtedly too big-voiced for the role, as well as being to massively mature, as compared to the fragile and delicate Teresa Stratas.

Otherwise, Stratas's singing is also problematic. Her Sempre Libera lacks coherence and color, devastated also by the direction of Zeferelli when the entire scene was being shot. There was not one jot left of the vocal theatricals that associate with this all too well-known scene and aria.

Visually Stratas was a great Violetta. But that's about all there is with regard to the casting.

The sets are great, but the film is paling out on DVD and the visual effect is really mediocre.

High time a better modern version be shot, if a film is what is being wanted by the viewers amidst dozens and dozens of La Traviata productions currently available on DVD."