List Price: $32.98You Pay Only: $29.68 You Save: $3.30 (10%)Prices subject to change.
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Aspect Ratio: 1.77:1
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: DVD
EAN: 0807280134391
Format: Color, Widescreen, NTSC, DTS Surround Sound
Label: Arthaus Musik
Manufacturer: Arthaus Musik
Number Of Discs: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Arthaus Musik
Release Date: September 30, 2008
Running Time: 134 minutes
Sales Rank: 16978
Studio: Arthaus Musik
Theatrical Release Date: 2008
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Editorial Review:
Amazon.com:
This 2007 production of Verdi’s La Traviata from Milan’s La Scala, with world-class singers and Lorin Maazel on the podium belongs among the best of the many fine DVD versions available. Its prime draw is soprano Angela Gheorghiu, whose 1994 Covent Garden assumption of the role of Violetta catapulted her to stardom. She doesn’t quite match the emotional power and vocal beauties of that performance but Gheorghiu does give us an intensely drawn portrait of the role and her voice remains in fine shape. Her acting has always been extraordinary and at La Scala she fully encompasses the doomed heroine; the last Act deeply touching. Her Alfredo Germont is Ramon Vargas, whose beautiful tenor voice and sensitive singing please the ear with sweet tones and individual phrasing that bring Verdi’s lines to life. Roberto Frontali as Alfredo’s father, the elder Germont, exhibits an imposing baritone voice, shading it beautifully in the scene where he convinces Violetta to give up his son. Frontali also shows commanding stage presence in the scene where he upbraids Alfredo for his ungentlemanly behavior. Supporting roles are well taken and the La Scala orchestra’s contributions are positive, with some fine wind solos. Maazel paces the opera well and conjures beautifully shaped Preludes to Acts One and Three, which embody some of Verdi’s loveliest string music. The staging is traditional in Liliana Cavani’s production, originally mounted in 1990 but still looking fine, albeit with some bits of superfluous stage business for the principles to occupy the eye and distract the ear. Dante Ferretti’s lavish set designs are fitting, although one can question the presence of a bed and a billiard table in the drawing room of Violetta’s country house. Gabriella Pescucci’s costumes are suitable, but some of the military officers in the banquet scenes appear to be clad in doorman’s uniforms. Paola Longobardo’s video direction is excellent: No extraneous camera movements to draw attention away from the stage and close-ups of the singers are usually head-and-shoulders shots well framed with ample space to keep the singers in context. Cuts within an aria are excellently timed as well, on the beat or at a point of mood change. Despite heavy competition from Gheorghiu’s Covent Garden DVD, Renee Fleming’s San Francisco Traviata, and the often weirdly modernistic Salzburg production with Netrebko and Villazon, this fine La Scala DVD is a serious contender. --Dan Davis
La Traviata is an all-regions disc in 16:9 ratio. Sound options include PCM Stereo and DTS 5.1 Surround. Sung in Italian, subtitles include English, French, German, Italian and Spanish.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Prima Donna Assoluta?
Four and 1/2 stars actually, if Amazon provided that option. The sets, costumes, conducting, and singing of Vargas and Frontali are as fine as the other commentators here have claimed them to be. I draw the line, though, at the raving over Gheorghiu. It's unusual ever to hear the role of Violetta sung anywhere near close to perfection, and one doesn't experience it, sorry to say, in Gheorghiu's performance. The role calls for a prima donna assoluta, and what may have been intended by this designation was that great rarity, a singer who combined the coloratura skills demanded in Act I with the large, warm body of tone called for in Acts II and III. The role calls, that is, for a Galli-Curci coupled with a Tebaldi. It is in the demands of Act I that Gheorghiu falls way short of ideal. Nobody, I believe, would seriously argue that her "Sempre Libera" in this performance is one of extraordinary brilliance. Though the emotional scene preceding it is convincing, the aria itself is marred by coloratura passages more gulped or yelped than beautifully or memorably sung. One can argue that the aria's concluding top note is only an option, but it doesn't follow that its absence is therefore not a disappointment, since it provides a perfect climax to the escalating, feverish energy coming just before it. It's been mentioned that Gheorghiu looks immodestly self-satisfied in the curtain calls after Act I. Unfortunately, I think there was at this point much for her to be modest about.
Happily, Gheorghiu ... Read More
Rating: - All three principals shine but it's Angela Gheorghiu's show
In Gheorghiu's 1994 performance of La Traviata from Covent Garden (also on DVD), her singing of Violetta is fresh and captivating but you're aware that she's concentrating on the music (which is not a criticism). In this 2007 La Scala production, thirteen years more mature as a performer, she just lets loose while at the same time achieving extraordinary precision in her phrasing and in her interpretation of the role. Her performance can only be described as a "tour de force." She performs the role as if she owns it. I've never seen "E strano" and "Sempre libera" sung with such unbridled confidence. The expression on her face during the curtain call to Act I tells us she knows she nailed it. Immodest, she is not (as another reviewer pointed out).
But don't let that put you off because onstage, where it matters, Gheorghiu gives one of the most dominating opera performances I've seen. Every note is sung with clear intention. Her one minute "aria," the cry "Amami, Alfredo," accompanied by fiery orchestration, dominated by the timpani (which reappears with heartrending effect in the final bars of the opera), is worth the price of the DVD alone. It's a powerful and heartbreaking moment.
As if Gheorghiu's performance were not enough to recommend this production, I think it offers the best threesome available in Traviata on DVD. As Alfredo, Ramon Vargas may not be as expressive an actor as, for example, Rolando Villazon, but Vargas creates a touching and vulnerable Alfredo and ... Read More
Rating: - Excellent TRAVIATA Despite Controversy
Puccini - La Boheme (The Metropolitan Opera HD Live Series)
The opening night of this production at La Scala last year was greeted by controversy that got the star soprano and conductor lustily booed by the angry audience. The Italian papers came up with some speculations as to why that nasty audience response happened. When I first looked at the cover of this DVD, the first thing I noticed was the pretty picture of Angela Gheorghiu ; the next, the names of Ramon Vargas and Roberto Frontali were printed significantly smaller than the names of the soprano and conductor Lorin Maazel. I thought it was in bad taste and slighted the other two principals who are top Verdi singers of this generation with distinguished operatic careers. After listening to the performance on this DVD, I thought I had a better take on the controversy than those Italian papers. My theory is that the soprano and conductor hatched a
scheme to do something on that first night performance that would surely enrage the passionate La Scala audience and make themselves the wronged victims. In a subsequent performance used for this DVD, they performed tremendously, and the guilt-ridden and contrite boo birds apologized with huge ovations for them, which was the object of their plot to sell this DVD. But to further reward the conspirators by printing their names much larger than everyone else is going too far. Having said that, the performance here is superb.
Despite some negative comments in the papers about ... Read More
Rating: - A Superb Traviata
This new DVD from Arthaus faces formidible competition from Gheorghiu's first Violetta on Decca; this was her "double" debut, both on DVD and CD. It was her first undertaking of the role and clearly she meant to make it her own. The conductor, Solti, allows for the second verses to arias that are either frequently cut (O mio rimorso and Addio del passato) and includes the cabaletta to Di provenza--not one of Verdi's most inspired moments.
This new DVD uses sets that were new in 1990 although I don't think anyone could lodge a complaint in this area: they are opulent, plush and quite gorgeous. The conservative opera goer will have no complaint here. If memory serves me correctly this is the same production that featured Tiziana Fabriccini, an interpretation that was very controversial, Roberto Alagna and Paolo Coni and conducted by Muti. It should be re-released by whoever has the licensing rights.
Gheorghiu matches all the excellences of her earlier performance. She always looks stunning, sings beautifully and is an accomplished actress. I can't think of any other singer who has this role in her repertoire could match this diva. Yes, it's true that she doesn't take the optional high D at the end of the first act aria, but that's what it is: an option. Her performance is nuanced and touching. I have heard some of Fleming's performance but I find her superficial and dramatically utterly uninvolved. (A downside to the LOs Angeles DVD is Bruson who in his prime was a baritone ... Read More
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