Opera on DVD

gagelle

Super Member
Last night I watched more than half of an opera by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht called Rise and Fall of the House of Mahagonny. The performance was by James Levine's Metropolitan Opera, recorded in1979. The video and music quality are superb. I was again surprised by how much better DVD music sounds on my Oppo Blu-ray player than most CD music. Or, it may be the mastering. I don't really know. There was so much depth and realism to the music that it sounded better than some of my real experiences at opera houses.

I was at first concerned about buying an opera on a plain DVD rather than a Bly-ray, but this edition made me realize that many DVD recordings are as good or better than some Bly-ray.

I found the opera very intense and emotionally draining even though Kurt Weill's music is brilliant and exuberant. I think that the juxtaposition of Weill's music with BB's lyrics give the piece its unusual artistic force. The score is impossible to categorize. Weill has invented a new genre of music. For one with a good audio system, it is worth watching just to experience the dynamism, realism and inventiveness of his score.

After its performance in 1930s Germany, the audience wildly cheered. But Brecht claimed that they misunderstood the opera. He fled the country after Hitler had it shut down.

I'll do a follow-up after I finish watching it and as always, welcome anyone's input.
 
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I have about 100 operas on Laserdisc and maybe about 60 on DVD, and none on BluRay so far. I favor the LD versions due to the sound quality (PCM, same as CDs) and even with an inferior image quality (I´m taking into account same releases on both media, like R. Strauss´ Elektra conducted by Karl Böhm). Whenever I watch one of these operas in my collection, I post them on the classical music thread.
 
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