Boito-Mefistofele (Ramey, Benackova, San Francisco Opera, Arena) (1989) (NTSC)

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General		Extras
Category	Opera	Booklet
Rating
Year Of Production	1989
Running Time	159:12
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (79:31)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Language Select Then Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Brian Large
Studio Distributor	RM Associates Select Audio-Visual Distrib	Starring	Samuel Ramey Gabriela Benacková Dennis O'Neill Judith Christin Emily Manhart Daniel Harper Douglas Wunsch
Case	Amaray-Opaque
RPI	$69.95	Music	Arrigo Boito

    Arrigo Boito (1842-1918) is better remembered today as Verdi's librettist on his final two operas, Otello and Falstaff. But Boito himself was a composer too. His only extant completed opera Mefistofele was disastrously premiered in 1868, the police closing the theatre after just two performances. There was a near riot partly because of the radical style of the work, as well as because of its excessive length, but the main reason was that Boito had severely criticised current Italian opera in a series of articles, which has set him against the musical establishment. Nevertheless a revised, shorter version of the work in 1875 was a success, and it has remained in the repertory ever since.

    The work is still very long by the standards of Italian opera, and has not achieved the success of Gounod's version of the Faust legend, premiered just 9 years before this version. It is also influenced by Wagner, being of a long and continuous form within each act and lacking the sort of big arias that generally distinguish Italian opera. Nevertheless there are many memorable tunes, often for chorus rather than the principals, such as the music for celestial choir which appears in both the prologue and the epilogue. There is also a memorable love duet for Faust and Elena (Helen of Troy). In some ways the prologue is reminiscent musically and dramatically of the church procession sequence in Cavalleria Rusticana.

    This excellent performance from the San Francisco Opera dates from 1989. While the production is not entirely traditional, there are not so many of the self-conscious modernisms that distract the viewer from many contemporary productions. The costumes and the use of what look like opera boxes on stage works well, though the appearance of numerous men in dinner suits does not. The singers are all excellent, notably the bass Samuel Ramey in the title role. He spends much of the time stripped to the waist but fortunately for the viewer he is in much better shape than the average opera singer. He sings extremely well, with a steady voice and much gusto. Thankfully this dress style does not extend to the Welsh tenor Dennis O'Neill, who is in fine voice. Both Margherita and Elena are sung well by Gabriela Benacková.

    Although this opera is very long for an Italian opera it is very enjoyable in this performance, and builds to a moving climax.

Video

    The performance was recorded on analogue video, and is shown here in the original aspect ratio of 1.29:1 in NTSC format.

    Being shot on video 18 years ago, the picture quality is not up to the standard of more recent opera recordings. The video is as sharp as the technology will allow, but it isn't very detailed. Colour is acceptable, with the predominance of red in the production giving the chroma bug in my equipment a field day. The video is a little dark, the stage lighting not as bright in some sequences as would be ideal.

    There are no film artefacts of course. There are numerous video artefacts, with a lot of chroma noise and low level noise in the backgrounds. There is also a slight ghosting, which in some shots looks like edge enhancement but clearly isn't, as the ghosting is more pronounced on one side than the other.

    Optional subtitles are provided in English, Italian, German, French and Spanish. The English subtitles are good, in clear white font and easy to read. There is a spelling mistake repeated more than once (Mephistopholes instead of Mephistopheles).

    The opera is contained on a single RSDL-formatted disc, the layer break placed at 79:31 during a brief break in the music and therefore not too disruptive.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The sole audio track is in Italian and is Linear PCM stereo at a bit rate of 1536Kbps.

    The recording is very good without being outstanding. The voices are well captured and the orchestral sound has plenty of bass and body. I had to turn the volume up above my normal reference level to get a decent level of sound. There is some detail lacking in the orchestra. The soundstage is limited, with some stereo separation that doesn't include a lot of movement of voices between the speakers. The choir is clear but a little recessed in comparison with the soloists.

    There is a slight steeliness to the voices, probably emphasised slightly by compression. There is a distortion at 135:02 which sounds like it was caused by the mikes being overloaded. There are no problems with audio sync.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Booklet

    A 36-page booklet contains some black and white photographs of the production, credits, track listings, a brief synopsis and an essay repeated in several languages.

    Although the cover art differs, this release looks to be identical to the same release in Region 1 and Region 2.

    A good performance of this opera, and although the staging might not be to all tastes the singers and orchestra give it their all.

    The video quality is average.

    The audio quality is just above average.

    The only extra is a booklet.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall