Placido's Greatest Roles: ANDREA CHENIER

Placido Domingo : My Greatest Roles - Vol.4 Verismo Opera [DVD] [2011]

Video snippet
ANDREA CHENIER by Umberto Giordano

Conductor Julius Rudel - 1985(LI)
Orchestra - Covent Garden
Chorus - Covent Garden


Andrea Chénier - Plácido Domingo
Carlo Gérard - Giorgio Zancanaro
Madeleine di Coigny - Anna Tomowa-Sintow
La mulatta Bersi - Cynthia Buchan
La Contessa di Coigny - Patricia Johnson
Madelon - Anny Schlemm
Roucher - Jonathan Summers
Il sanculotto Mathieu - Rodney Macann
Fouquier Tinville - John Gibbs
Un Incredible - John Dobson
Pietro Fléville - Gordon Sandison
L'abate - Alexander Oliver
Dumas - Roderick Earle
Schmidt - Eric Garrett
------------------------------------------------------------------
DVD (Video) - Warner Vision 5046 68357-2 (2004)ª


For reviews from my travels, see www.operaduetstravel.com

Volume 2 of My Greatest Roles - Verdi

Plácido Domingo as Otello, Manrico (IL TROVATORE) and Ernani. Volume 2 of Plácido Domingo - My Greatest Roles is really great.

Verdi's OTELLO from the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden with Kiri Te Kanawa as Desdemona and Sergei Leiferkus as Jago. As wonderful as that version is I just happen to love the Zeffirelli film with Katia Ricciarelli and Justino Diaz. But of course the video from ROH gives one all the music.

Then it is Verdi's Ernani. I have had this on VHS for many years. The recording is from La Scala in Milan with Mirella Freni, Nicolai Ghiaurov and Renato Bruson. And heart-throb Plácido Domingo as the bandit Ernani. Not only is it on DVD but also on CD Verdi: Ernani. Ernani is not Giuseppe Verdi's most exciting opera or has the best melodies but it is a Verdi work and therefore important and add to Plácido Domingo creating one of his best works... Maybe it is enough just to have the whole opera on CD.

The best moments in Volume 2 all come from IL TROVATORE. It is from Vienna State Opera. It is old, the vision, but AH, so real. Raina Kabaivanska might not be your favorite Leonora but still she is wonderful. Piero Cappuccilli is wonderful as Di Luna. Marvellous. Fiorenza Cossotta as Azucena, there is nothing like her. And Plácido, oh, he is OK. Or even wonderful. But the whole impact of this Trovatore, I still feel it.

So go get Volume 2 just for Trovatore or Otello or Ernani or just buy one of them. Or not...







And of course, then it is DVD no 4 with Plácido telling how he feels about Otello, Trovatore and Ernani. I haven't watched that yet.

And have bought this Volume 2 myself. So now I have bought from Amazon, the documentary, Volume 1,2 and 3. But I was sick so I haven't watched no 3 yet.
For more reviews from my travels, see www.operaduetstravel.com

Volume 1 of My Greatest Roles - Puccini

Three great masterpieces, Tosca, Manon Lescaut and La Fanciulla del West and Plácido Domingo in great form. What more can one ask?

The DVD set boasts of being the first ever DVD release of the live Tosca from Time and Settings of TOSCA. It is a wonderful Tosca with Plácido Domingo as Cavaradossi, Catherine Malfitano as Tosca and Ruggero Raimondi as Scarpia. In the original settings in Rome: act 1 in the church Sant'Andrea della Valle, act 2 in Palazzo Farnese, act 3 in Castel Sant'Angelo. Recorded July 1992.

Or you can buy the 2-DVD Set with Booklet, Box Set, Featurette, Interactive Menu, Scene Access, Storyboards, Trailers. You need multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player to view it in USA/Canada since it is a PAL DVD.


Then you have the 1976 opera film with Plácido, Raina Kabaivanska and Sherrill Milnes. This film was also recorded on location in Rome but naturally not live. As a bonus you get Plácido's son Plácido junior as the shepherd boy.


Then another great masterpiece, Manon Lescaut from the Royal Opera House, Coven Garden, London. Plácido Domingo is Des Grieux, Kiri Te Kanawa is Manon Lescaut and Thomas Allen as Lescaut. Recorded May 1983. It is just the perfect Manon Lescaut recorded. It is challenged only by the La Scala recording with José Cura and Maria Guleghina.

The third opera is LA FANCIULLA DEL WEST where Plácido Domingo is the perfect Ramirez bandit who falls in love with Minnie (Carol Neblett) and is instantly hated by the Sheriff Jack Rance (Silvano Carroli). Other versions with Plácido: Puccini - La Fanciulla del West / Zampieri, Domingo, Pons, Bertocchi, Maazel, La Scala Opera and I did not like this one. Puccini - La Fanciulla del West / Daniels, Domingo, Milnes, Croft, Laciura, Fitch, Slatkin, Metropolitan Opera which is OK but I prefer the ROH version (recorded May 1983)


VOL. 1-MY GREATEST ROLES-PUCCINI is just the best buy. I love it. I don't regret buying it even though I have bought the DVDs of Fanciulla and Manon Lescaut before and I have a TV recording of the Live Tosca.

For more reviews from my travels, see www.operaduetstravel.com

Placido Domingo - My greatest roles (documentary)

I have just watched the documentary My Greatest Roles with Plácido Domingo (80 minutes) and it is a must for the Domingo fanatic. For others there are better documentaries about Plácido with better insights into roles. If you are thinking about buying the series of whole operas on DVD you can get the idea of the quality of some of the operas from this DVD, or you can go to  www.placidodomingo.tv. In the documentary we see short excerpts of Carmen, La Gioconda (Vienna State Opera), Ernani (La Scala), La Fanciulla del West, Andrea Chenier (ROH), Tosca (times and settings of Tosca), Les Contes d'Hoffman (ROH), Samson et Dalila (San Francisco), Lohengrin (Vienna State Opera) and Otello (ROH).


video



If you want to enjoy opera highlights of Plácido Domingo then Great Scenes with Plácido Domingo is much better. No Domingo interview but a full hour of high moments of opera.


video

"An opera compilation from Placido Domingo. Includes: 'Die Fledermaus' (Strauss), 'Manon Lescaut' (Puccini), conducted by Sinopoli, 'Les Contes D'Hoffman' (Offenbach), conducted by Pretre, 'La Fanciulla Del West' (Puccini), conducted by Santi, 'Andrea Chenier' (Giordano), conducted by Rudel and 'Ernani' (Verdi), conducted by Muti."

For more reviews from my travels, see www.operaduetstravel.com