Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

As soon as the Wiener Philharmoniker play the first bars of the Overture, we know that we are going to be in for a looooong evening. Nikolaus Harnoncourt's tempi are extremely slow and will remain so for the next three hours and sixteen minutes (excluding credits and curtain calls). This is a good ten minutes more than his previous efforts in Zurich (on DVD) and in Amsterdam (on CD). It is about 15 minutes more than the average performance, 25 minutes more than Gardiner or Mackerras. This in itself, would be nothing special if Harnoncourt was able to inhabit his tempi, to draw meanings to them. Unfortunately, he doesn't. The reason for this lies in the fact that the music does not really lend itself to "contemplative" visions. "Le Nozze" is first and foremost a comedy, the pace is supposed to be reasonably brisk on stage: Nozze is not Parsifal and the big risk of a slower, more dramatic approach means that the piece is deprived of its meaning: your turn a slice of life into a meaningless, inanimate musical object, beautiful at times but completely devoid of life. The big finales at the end of each Act (pick any: I, II, III or IV) will be the saddest example of this static musical direction. The music does not move, the musical material remains motionless, and ultimately one loses interest in front of such a stubborn view of "Le Nozze di Figaro". By conducting "Le Nozze" this way, Harnoncourt lends a sympathetic hand to the production of Claus Guth. An extremely good, profound stage director, Guth is much more at ease with tragedy than comedy (Fliegende in Bayreuth, Zaide/Adama in this M22 collection). He therefore turns Nozze upside down and offers us a grim, petit bourgeois world that is unilaterally grey and evolving around a big staircase - Claus Guth LOVES staircases. In this Ibsenian, Bergmanian world, the Count is a pathetic middle-aged bourgeois cheating on his wife, the countess a cheated wife with no nobility whatsoever, and these three hours are just an isolated, one even feels almost a common routine in the uninteresting lives of these extremely unsympathetic characters. One feels that the cast has been chosen with this musical/staging project in mind. It evolves around the dark-toned Susanna of Anna Netrebko, great sounding but Susanna is not Violetta: however, she fits perfectly Harnoncourts's and Guth's designs. Dorothea Roeschmann has a big voice, but there is no nobility in her Countess: listen to Te Kanawa or Fleming, and you'll know what I mean. Again, in light of her position in the "concept", it makes sense. The Count of Bo Skovhus is very tired. A pronounced vibrato has invaded the voice and his is simply not nice to hear, but this is again in line with the concept. Schaeffer was very successful even if she is not my cup of tea: I prefer a mezzo-soprano Cherubino. Selig barks, McLaughlin is a fun Marcellina. The only one who refuses to play Harnoncourt's game is Ildebrando d'Arcangelo. He is very often ahead of the orchestra but he has a beautiful voice and he tries to impose his conception of the character at all costs, despite the conductor and despite the staging. Brian Large directs the video: the numerous close-ups on Miss Netrebko - even when she is not singing are extremely annoying after a while. Let's face it: there are not a lot of good reasons to own this Figaro. I'll stick to Haitink/Fleming in Glyndebourne (NVC Arts). Deutsche Grammophon has two very good performances in its catalogue: a film by Jean-Pierre Ponnelle (Prey/Freni/ Boehm) and a very good performance by Gardiner and Terfel. Harnoncourt should always be commanded for his sense of experiment and his permanent willingness to take risks, but here the experiment blows in his (and our) face. Avoid.