Mantovani: Siddharta Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.0

Mantovani: Siddharta Blu-ray Movie Review

This is not your father's 'Siddhartha,' nor indeed your father's Mantovani.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 11, 2011

The vagaries of surnames sometime create strange bedfellows. When you have a surname like mine, which exists in all kinds of variant spellings, you get used to clarifying that you are not related to either George S. (one “f”) or Stanley (two “n”’s). But when a surname is exactly the same as someone else’s, it can create annoyance and even antipathy, as Richard Strauss’ famous hatred of being linked with Johann and Josef aptly proves. What, then, is one to think of ultra modern composer Bruno Mantovani, who shares a surname with one of the icons of the “easy listening” movement of the post-World War II era? In fact, that Mantovani lays claim to being one of the very few artists of that period who rose to fame on the strength of a sole moniker, no full name necessary, perhaps for the best, considering that it was quite a mouthful: Annunzio Paolo Mantovani. As incredible as it may seem, the easy listening Mantovani was Britain’s best selling recording artist until the advent of the Beatles, and his iconic “cascading strings” sound (developed by arranger Ronnie Binge) made Mantovani’s many best selling records instantly identifiable. Bruno Mantovani on the other hand is about as far away from the “easy listening” category as you can get. He works in a soundscape highly redolent of another iconoclastic French composer, Edgard Varèse, building huge strata of sound out of blocks of brass, strings and especially percussion instruments. Huge waves of sound, well, cascade over the listener in Mantovani’s bracing ballet of Siddhartha, a piece which will most likely appeal to those more versed in the often astringent world of contemporary music, as well as to those more tolerant of modern dance techniques seeping into a classical ballet milieu.

The 1960s and early 1970s saw a renewed interest in Eastern mysticism and religions, perhaps fostered by the very same Beatles who dethroned the mononym Mantovani from his best selling artist perch. That in turn ushered in a tangentially related interest in the writings of the German novelist Herman Hesse, who blended a typical German “heaviness” with Eastern glyphs and a mystical ambience in such works as The Glass Bead Game and, of course, Siddhartha, a book which more or less became required reading for hordes of high school students in that era. That book helped to introduce the story of the Indian prince who forsook all earthly pleasures on his quest for an ascetic enlightenment, an enlightenment which ultimately came to him, transforming him into one of the most epochal figures in the history of religion, the Buddha.

Unfortunately those unfamiliar with either Hesse’s work or the story of Siddhartha Gautama are probably going to be mightily confused by a lot of what transpires in the ballet version of Siddhartha. This is a piece that relishes its own minimalism, at least with regard to staging, but that dearth of material also robs the piece of context and thus keeps it from having much of a visceral impact on the audience. This is abstract ballet at its most abstruse. Without the notes accompanying the piece, what is the audience to make of the football helmeted, spandex clad “spacemen” who writhe around the floor under a gigantic planetary pendulum in the ballet’s opening moments? Only in reading the notes included in the Blu-ray’s insert booklet are we let in on the fact that these spasmodic creatures are the embodiment of the forces of evil who will beset Siddhartha on his quest.

This is also an extremely lascivious piece which will either shock or perhaps even titillate certain audience segments. Siddhartha (the superb Nicolas Le Riche) moves through an assortment of assignations of both the heterosexual and homosexual variety as the ballet wends its way through a series of some sixteen tableaux. The once and future God-man gives in to temptation in any number of ways, all in his quest to relieve the suffering of Mankind. Of course, more cynical minds may be saying to themselves as they watch Siddhartha’s sexual exploits, “Hey, let me relieve the suffering of Mankind already!”

Siddhartha comes most fully alive in its dancing with a series of very expressive pas de deux, moments which most fully show off the abilities of choreographer Angelin Prelojocaj. These sequences are alternately incredibly lyrical and graceful or vigorous and athletic, but they move in a way that some of the corps’ more bizarre elements don’t. Perhaps strangely for a ballet, the most memorable aspect of the choreography may well be the arms. Arms pulsate, undulate and beckon, becoming the most archetypal trope for the spiritual yearning at the core of this piece, much more so than the legs or feet, the more typical focal points for many ballets. Against all of this the challenging score of Bruno Mantovani lurches and slams against the proceedings like vicious waves taking a shore hostage. This is not music for the tame of heart or ear, but it is at times incredibly exciting and it should certainly be appreciated by any fans of Varèse.

This is certainly one of the more distinctive looking and sounding pieces that ArtHaus Musik has released on Blu-ray. Though the production design by Claude Lévéque is notably spare, it contains a number of unusual elements, such as the gigantic truck chassis which supports one of the pas de deux that should keep many viewers engaged. When co-star Aurélie Dupont appears in a number of flowing dresses, it’s literally as if a fresh breeze enters the stage, and her apparel flows and billows beautifully as she gracefully moves about the stage. But the bottom line of Siddhartha is that no amount of grace can probably alter the fact that many viewers and listeners are going to be mightily confounded by this piece, and wonder if they themselves will ever be relieved of their own suffering.

Mantovani: Siddharta Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Siddhartha arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of ArtHaus Musik with an AVC encoded 1080i transfer in 1.78:1. While this transfer is suitably sharp and well defined, the production design itself is curiously dark and drab, leaving large areas of the stage cloaked in a murky blackness. While black levels are very solid, with excellent delineation between the upstage area and downstage, equally dark, costumes, there's a certain monchromatic element to this production that may leave some viewers underwhelmed. The best thing from a color standpoint are the sudden flashes of hue we get in some of the female costumes. Otherwise, we're almost entirely in a land of blacks and whites, with some middling grays and beiges thrown in for good measure. Close-ups of the dancers do reveal a wealth of fine detail, including some increasing perspiration as the night wears on.

Mantovani: Siddharta Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Whatever individual listeners may think of Bruno Mantovani's pulsating and dissonant score, few audiophiles should be disappointed by the renderings of that score courtesy of the two excellent lossless tracks offered on this new ArtHaus Musik Blu-ray. Both the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix and the LPCM 2.0 stereo fold down offer absolutely bracing, viscerally palpable fidelity that erupts across the soundfield from the very first battery of the tympani and assorted percussion instruments as Siddhartha gets underway. The score offers gigantic strata of sound, assembled very much in the way that Varèse did in his iconic pieces in the early to mid-20th century, and the DTS track supports these absolutely gargantuan waves of sound effortlessly. Percussion is placed rather well if not overly discretely around the soundstage, and that and the propulsive brass work are probably what will be most memorable, for either good or ill, to most listeners the first time through this score. Dynamic range is exceptional, if skewed toward the "bigger" moments that Mantovani's writing requires.

Mantovani: Siddharta Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Unfortunately no supplements are included on this Blu-ray, other than the expected insert booklet essay. This is a piece that really could have benefited from some background information, both about the Siddhartha story itself, as well as how these collaborators approached the source material and decided to adapt it to the medium of ballet. An interview with Mantovani would have been most appreciated as well.

Mantovani: Siddharta Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Siddhartha is certainly unique and will probably strike some as a really interesting melding of modern dance and classic ballet techniques set to some extremely sonically challenging music. Others will probably be aghast with its incomprehensible libretto and that selfsame challenging score. If you have any feeling for the iconoclastic work of Edgard Varèse, you're probably a step ahead of most people, at least in terms of being able to more easily digest Bruno Mantovani's approach to layering sound. Nothing will probably prepare you for the patently odd dance elements here, blended with a minimalistic production design which is probably meant to feel timeless, but which instead robs this piece of the cultural context for which it is crying out. But still this is an intriguing piece, and I personally found the music exceptionally interesting, so, as a Varèse lover myself, this Blu-ray comes Recommended, albeit with some major caveats.