Handel: Messiah Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.0

Handel: Messiah Blu-ray Movie Review

Nothing screams "Christmas" like suicide!

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman September 26, 2010

What’s Christmas without at least a smattering of Handel’s Messiah? Major metropolises worldwide feature sing-along Messiahs where the unwashed (and vocally untrained) masses get to try their hand at the Hallelujah Chorus, among other delights. Of course, Christmas and the holidays in general have also long been known as a time for increased depression for the lonely and bereaved. I’m not sure if that is part of the subtext of this frankly completely bizarre quasi-operatic staging of Messiah by Claus Guth, Konrad Kuhn and Christian Schmidt. You smarter than average readers (and I’m sure that’s all of you) probably are thinking to yourselves, “Wait a minute—isn’t Messiah an oratorio?” Why, yes, yes it is. But when has that ever stopped the artistically creative from realizing their “vision”? Here that vision involves a man who has committed suicide (we even get to see his slit wrists—several times in fact) and the consequences that action has on his distraught family. This Messiah also includes some weird quasi-ASL (sign language) from what I can only guess is supposed to be a deaf mute girl, as well as a funeral we get to visit not once, but twice, and the almost Monty Python-esque Ministry of Silly Walks vision of our recently departed "hero" (for wont of a better term) doing one of the weirdest dances (if you can call it that) down one of the many hallways that fill this production’s rather interesting scenic design. It’s Christmastime, everybody!! Time to celebrate the good news!!

The intriguing rotating set is one of the better things about this 'Messiah'.

Oratorios are the odd duck of music theater. While there are certainly relationships to opera, the oratorio is obviously a concert piece without the intrinsic dramatic elements of most music theater. Handel was a master at this musical form, often crafting his huge concert pieces from Biblical sources. While Messiah (very often misattributed as The Messiah) was originally written and performed during Lent, it’s become a staple of Advent and Christmas musical programming for generations now. Split into three parts, Messiah contrasts Old Testament prophecy against New Testament accounts of Jesus’ birth, life, crucifixion and resurrection. Considering the piece’s Lenten genesis, one could almost see at least some logic in stage director Claus Guth’s decision to opera-ize the piece by creating a storyline around death. While the bulk of Messiah does in fact deal with trial, sin and redemption (and carries at least the subtext of mortality within virtually every scriptural passage), what may confound the modern viewer is the very preconception that Messiah is about life, redeemed and made pure. To therefore craft a two and half hour “entertainment” around suicide seems rather willfully inappropriate.

So much of modern opera, either newly written works or the revisionism which is so rampant at the most au courant houses worldwide, is drowning in self-conscious irony. Let’s do The Abduction of the Seraglio in leather clad, bondage S&M costumes! Let’s place Pelleas and Melisande at the Arctic Circle! While that proclivity is often lamented (at least by me), it at least has the artistic integrity of taking a piece that was meant to be dramatically interpreted and staged to begin with. With Messiah, we’re dealing with an entirely different genus, and slathering on this kind of irony after the fact seems provocative in the worst sense of the word.

The real shame here is that this is for the most part an admirably sung and played performance of Handel’s masterpiece. Richard Croft’s tenor is gorgeously liquid and beautifully burnished. Susan Gritton and Cornelia Horak provide brilliant high ends as our sopranos without ever devolving into stridency. Bejun Mehta (son of Zubin’s cousin) is an absolutely amazing countertenor, with a clarity and nuance which is astounding at times. Florian Boesch has the appropriate gravelly tones required of Handel’s bass writing, but he can’t quite handle the florid melismas the role requires. Sadly, the boy soprano Martin Pöllmann is not in great voice in his soli, perhaps attributable to nerves. The Arnold Schoenberg Choir sound marvelously rich and well modulated, and the Ensemble Matheus plays brilliantly, and often very smartly, under the direction of Jean-Christophe Spinosi. And so I kept asking myself, “Why?” Why denigrate this marvelous piece, especially when these performers are so obviously capable of giving us a moving and meaningful performance within the confines of the form Handel and his librettist Charles Jennens originally intended?

If this approach strikes many of you as odd (to say the least), at least there’s a really interesting production design to take your mind off the bizarre directorial choices at work here. We find ourselves in a series of long halls which then open up to reveal a variety of different rooms. Working with a giant rotating stage at the Theater an der Wien, set designer Christian Schmidt has created a formidably fluid approach to scene changes, something that never keeps Handel’s music from moving forward propulsively. In fact the set design is one of the most memorable things about this production, which unfortunately is also unforgettable in more regrettable ways.

Handel: Messiah Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Messiah looks decently sharp with an AVC codec in 1080i and a 1.78:1 aspect ratio onthis Blu-ray offering from C Major and Unitel Classica. Colors are somewhat muted throughout, part of the intentional design of the piece, but detail is exceptional, to the point where you can see the latex makeup of the suicide victim's slit wrists (isn't that nice to know?). There are some minor artifacting issues in this interlaced video, notably some failure to resolve the patterns on the suitjackets of both the men and women. The entire production is just slightly bathed in a purplish hue, perhaps a reflection of the wall color in most of the sets. This does give the fleshtones a somewhat odd appearance at times. Overall, though, this is a very good looking production, if you can stand to look at it.

Handel: Messiah Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Luckily, the performance and recording are top notch here, with two lossless offerings, a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.0 (yes, 5.0) and an LPCM 2.0 stereo fold down. The singing here is for the most part absolutely gorgeous. I was especially struck with Croft and Mehta, who had the hairs on my neck standing at attention more than once. The force and majesty of their timbres is gorgeous and the DTS track reproduces everything beautifully. Mehta's clarity in his extreme upper register is really marvelously rendered on the DTS track. The orchestra fills the surrounds nicely and while there isn't an overabundance of ambient hall reverb, there's a decent enough spaciousness to the recording that captures the gist of a live performance. Some of Handel's extremely florid writing makes individual words (and even syllables) hard to decipher, so I recommend using the optional English subtitles if you need a little help.

Handel: Messiah Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

No supplements are offered on the Blu-ray. A rather apologetic essay is contained in the insert booklet.

Handel: Messiah Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Why? Why make a mockery of Messiah? Especially when you have singers and performers of this caliber? My advice: if you get this disc, simply put it in your Blu-ray player, but don't turn on your television. You'll get one of the most beautifully performed presentations in recent memory (with one or two exceptions) without having to watch this travesty of a "reimagining."