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So for my birthday my sister gave me, among other things, the Villazon ROH Don Carlo, which except for the title role (taken by Rolando Villazón instead of Roberto Alagna) is the same in both staging and singers as the Met 2011 Don Carlo that I adore so much, so that I could have my own copy of Furlanetto, Poplavskaya, and Keenlyside, all of whom I thought were fantastic. They are fantastic here too and I am both happy I own this DVD (I really like to own my Own Copies of things) and happy that there exists a second recorded performance of these guys together because I am obsessed with them and would honestly watch every night of their performances if I could.
So, Villazon! ( In which I get super nitpicky about both Villazon and Alagna. )
There are some tiny differences in the staging in the ROH ( um, yes, I'm kind of obsessed, what else is new; lots of about Keenlyside/Rodrigo, of course )
One of the unfortunate differences (for the ROH) between the Met and ROH is that the Met has much better videography, and, I mean, if I'm noticing then it must be pretty obvious. The Met videography has a good sense of all the important things going on in a scene and what things need to be focused on -- for example, in the auto-da-fe while Carlo and Filippo are having their standoff, Rodrigo isn't singing but it's actually really important for us to have some idea of what Rodrigo is doing/thinking at this point, otherwise the scene loses a lot of its meaning. In my opinion, anyway :) And in the Met, we see a good deal of Rodrigo's reactions, whereas in the ROH video we don't see nearly as much of it. Or, in Restate, in both ROH and Met versions, when Rodrigo cries out, "La pace e dei sepolcri!" it's played as Filippo stepping menacingly towards Rodrigo, and it's a really powerful moment. The Met videographer shows Filippo's movement, but the ROH videographer chooses to close-up on Furlanetto, which, I mean, isn't the worst choice in the world, but it loses the whole momentum of that menacing moment. Anyway, I think it's almost entirely due to the videography that when I watched the Met I was riveted, and when I watched the ROH it was great but not quite to that level of omg-must-watch-entire-thing-NOW (except, of course, for everything with Rodrigo :D )
So, Villazon! ( In which I get super nitpicky about both Villazon and Alagna. )
There are some tiny differences in the staging in the ROH ( um, yes, I'm kind of obsessed, what else is new; lots of about Keenlyside/Rodrigo, of course )
One of the unfortunate differences (for the ROH) between the Met and ROH is that the Met has much better videography, and, I mean, if I'm noticing then it must be pretty obvious. The Met videography has a good sense of all the important things going on in a scene and what things need to be focused on -- for example, in the auto-da-fe while Carlo and Filippo are having their standoff, Rodrigo isn't singing but it's actually really important for us to have some idea of what Rodrigo is doing/thinking at this point, otherwise the scene loses a lot of its meaning. In my opinion, anyway :) And in the Met, we see a good deal of Rodrigo's reactions, whereas in the ROH video we don't see nearly as much of it. Or, in Restate, in both ROH and Met versions, when Rodrigo cries out, "La pace e dei sepolcri!" it's played as Filippo stepping menacingly towards Rodrigo, and it's a really powerful moment. The Met videographer shows Filippo's movement, but the ROH videographer chooses to close-up on Furlanetto, which, I mean, isn't the worst choice in the world, but it loses the whole momentum of that menacing moment. Anyway, I think it's almost entirely due to the videography that when I watched the Met I was riveted, and when I watched the ROH it was great but not quite to that level of omg-must-watch-entire-thing-NOW (except, of course, for everything with Rodrigo :D )
