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DVD : FalstaffIn association with Amazon.comstarring: John Del Carlo, Teresa Ringholz, Richard Croft (II), Delores Ziegler, Jake Gardner directed by: Claus Viller, Agnes Meth  Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Binding: DVD EAN: 4006680100227 Format: Full Screen, NTSC Number Of Discs: 1 Theatrical Release Date: 1996 Sales Rank: 224446 Related Items:
Editorial Review: Amazon.com: Thanks to Peter Schaffer's Amadeus, Antonio Salieri has been immortalized as the mediocre musician who probably poisoned Mozart in a fit of jealousy over the latter's immense talent. While history has been less than kind to Salieri, occasional stagings of his operas and recordings of his works show that this ignorance is not entirely justified. His opera Falstaff is one of several based on Shakespeare's immortal comic creation, and while not as memorable as Otto Nicolai's The Merry Wives of Windsor or Verdi's immortal Falstaff, Salieri's version passes its two hours onstage with a pleasing comic touch. This 1995 performance from the Schwetzinger Festspiele in Germany is proof positive that Salieri's operas can hold their own onstage. Director Michael Hampe stages the farce at a brisk but never breakneck pace, and he and his designers conjure up a plausibly comic world. John de Carlo looks exactly right as the overbearing knight whose eye for the ladies leads to his comeuppance, and he sings with brio. Conductor Arnold Östmann and the Radio Symphony Orchestra Stuttgart play the bright-sounding score with panache. Visually, this Falstaff looks great, and aurally, the stereo mix is quite good. Since this is an opera that's rarely recorded, let alone heard, this disc is a must for fans of 18th-century music. --Kevin Filipski Average Rating:
 Rating:  - Sparkling Salieri!This production is about as sparkling a work as I've seen in quite some time. Salieri's score shows very heavy influences of his rival, Mozart, in particular his overture reminded me a good bit of Nozze di Figaro. It's perhaps easy to see (or hear) why Mozart outshone Salieri. Mozart (we know) was genius who accomplished the unbelievable and amazing in such a brief span of life. Nonetheless, Salieri is very worthy of exploration and his works, this in particular, should be heard by modern ... Read More Rating:  - Salieri is not MozartThis DVD is nicely presented visually, but I found the sound on my admittedly ancient TV to be quite distorted. It seemed as if the sound was recorded at a level above what the recording equipment could take. Most of the singers including Falstaff seemed reasonably accurate, but the apparent distortion made the quality seem mediocre. The dialogue was quite good and the comic acting was excellent. On the other hand, the quality of the music was just not very good. Maybe everyone should hear Salieri's ... Read More Rating: - A very pleasant surprise"Not very good" was how a friend of mine many years ago described the music to a certain opera he had just heard on a CD. Perhaps if he viewed the new Arthaus Musik DVD release of Salieri's Now granted that it comes nowhere close to the standard set by the Verdi opera and it lacks the great beauty of the Vaughan Williams "Sir John in Love," it is almost as good as Nicolai's "Merry Wives ... Read More Browse for similar items by category:
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