Verdi-Falstaff (Royal Opera) (2001)

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General		Extras
Category	Opera	Scene Selection Animation Menu Animation Featurette-James Naughtie Opera Synopsis Featurette-Bernard Haitink Comment Interviews-Cast & Crew-Bryn Terfel; Graham Vick Featurette-Covent Garden Tales: The Backstage Crew
Rating
Year Of Production	2001
Running Time	135:48 (Case: 157)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (72:08)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Language Select Then Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Graham Vick
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Bryn Terfel Roberto Frontali Kenneth Tarver Robin Leggate Peter Hoare Gwynne Howell Barbara Frittoli Desiree Rancatore Bernadette Manca di Nissa Diana Montague
Case	Soft Brackley-Transp
RPI	$34.95	Music	Giuseppe Verdi

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	Italian Dolby Digital 4.0 L-R-LS-RS (448Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	Unknown	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English French German	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Verdi's last opera, finished eight years before his death, Falstaff was first performed in La Scala, Italy in 1893. His second comedy opera (the first was a flop), Falstaff is widely regarded as one of his finest works. Lacking the complexity or stirring overtures of Wagner, whose star was in its ascendancy at the time of Falstaff's  first performance, it nevertheless combines a flowing and delicate orchestral backdrop with the humanity and humour of the central players. The libretto, penned by poet-contemporary of Verdi, Arrigo Boito, masterly distils the essence of the Falstaff character from Shakespeare's Merry Wives of Windsor and Parts 1 & 2 of Henry IV.

    This performance celebrated the re-opening of London's Royal Opera House at Covent Garden after a major upgrade of the backstage machinery. No longer having to rely on ropes and pulleys handled by an army of stage-hands, the new stage has scenery changes handled by computer controlled robotics (and the odd stage-hand when the computer stuffs up!!!) Taking lead role as Falstaff, Welsh baritone Bryn Terfel is supported by a strong cast and the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House conducted by Bernard Haitink.

    Taking care to evoke the middle-age Italian atmosphere of the novellas, upon which Shakespeare based the Merry Wives of Windsor, director Graham Vick succeeds in conveying the bawdiness, viciousness and ultimately the comedy epitomised by Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.

    The opera comprises three acts each with two scenes and for those unfamiliar with the tale an operatic synopsis is provided as an extra by BBC commentator James Naughtie. The opera opens with the bumbling, obese, flatulent Sir John Falstaff (Bryn Terfel), replete with whale sized beer-gut, berthed half-naked in bed in his bachelor pad in the local pub (The Garter Inn). Castigated for several misdemeanours by the landlord and local doctor, the penniless Falstaff hatches a plan to win the favour of two of the local ladies about town (aka rich b****es) by writing love letters and arranging a secret liaison with Alice Ford (Barbara Frittoli), the wife of  a local squire (Roberto Frontali). Falstaff's tryst is foiled and revenged by the ladies' counter-plots which ultimately leads to Falstaff being dumped into the local river in a laundry basket. Further evidence of female intrigue and vindictiveness is provided by the ladies again luring Falstaff to a site of further humiliation at a midnight rendezvous. He is persuaded to attend the site of a witches sabbat dressed as Herne the deer-headed god and then subsequently attacked by a posse of the Ford clan and followers, dressed as assorted nymphs, dryads and other mythical nasties. The aim of the exercise is to generally impress the overall superiority of women by way of superior intellect, integrity and moral fibre. Falstaff redeems his pride, in the finale, by pointing out that basically, without the baddies, such as himself, the morally and politically-correct superior gender would have no-one to crow over and take pride in putting down!

Video

    The video is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and is 16 x 9 enhanced.

    The transfer is very clear and sharp. There is good shadow detail in the main feature but quite severe low level noise and lack of detail in the audience viewed at the commencement of the Second Act.

    Colours were rich and bright and the primary hues of the set and costumes were well portrayed with no noticeable bleed.

    Aliasing was evident throughout the transfer, mostly of a minor nature, but occasionally was severe enough (eg conductor's lectern at 34:15 or ladies headgear at 18:53) to be irritating. There was edge enhancement visible around the headgear at 36:33 but this was not intrusive. Macro-blocking and a minor degree of posterization of the plain backdrops (eg 2:08) proved a minor distraction. Seemingly filmed on video, there were no film or film-to-video artefacts evident.

    The subtitles were sufficient to convey the meaning of the spoken Italian and are available in English, French and German.

    The RSDL transition change occurs at 72:08 and is short-lived though not particularly well placed.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    There is a single audio track of the music and sung dialogue in Italian recorded in Dolby Digital 4.0 (L-R-LS-RS). Yep, quadraphonic sound is revived (!) with no centre channel nor sub-woofer support.

    The dialogue quality was excellent and even for this non-Italian speaker, words could be made out clearly and related to the English translation via subtitles.

    Audio sync was not a problem at all with this transfer, and was completely spot on.

    The surround channels were used sparsely, mostly for audience clapping and minimal reverberation. Occasionally, the strings were given a bit of an airing through the rear channels which didn't really fit in with the rest of the audio mix..

    Unless you play back this DVD via a digital link and your processor redirects low frequency effects, you won't hear anything from your subwoofer. (Or alternatively you might have a bass driver linked to your front main speakers via a high channel link). This omission isn't a problem in view of the light nature of Verdi's score but would be sorely missed from the Ring Cycle!.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu

Synopsis

Interview with Bryn Terfel

    Four minute interview with the acclaimed Welsh baritone. You'd have a hard job picking him as Falstaff as the make-up (grey wispy locks and 10-tonne belly) is so good.

Interview with Bernard Haitink

Interview with Graham Vick

Covent Garden Tales

    Details on the Region 1 version of this DVD are scant, but other than a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack (which could well be exactly the same as the 4.0 L-R-LS-RS we have received), the discs appear similarly featured.

    The video quality, though marred by a few MPEG artefacts was otherwise excellent

    The audio quality was very good.

    Overall, this is recommended for the opera fan. Others seeking entertainment should probably stick to The Mikado.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall