Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro 4K Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		0.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.5
Overall		4.0

Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman February 27, 2017

Salzburg is one of the coolest towns in Europe, one that a lot of film lovers like to visit courtesy of its connection to The Sound of Music, one of the most iconic and legendary musical films of all time. Those with a love of music a bit older than Richard Rodgers’ have another reason to love Salzburg, though, for it was of course home to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and there is still an impossibly tiny set of rooms Mozart lived in that you can tour. Also in this incredibly scenic village is the Haus für Mozart , a similarly small concert venue (with a rather fascinating past—interested parties are encouraged to Google it) which played host to this production of Le Nozze di Figaro as part of 2015’s Salzburg Festival. Now the concert video has been released as what is to my knowledge the first 4K UHD presentation of a live opera. Le Nozze di Figaro regularly ranks at or near the top of all time favorite operas, as can probably be seen by the rather large number of “standard” 1080 Blu-ray releases it’s received, which include Mozart: The Marriage of Figaro, Mozart: Le Nozze Di Figaro, Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro, Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro, Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro, Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro, Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro, Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro, and the 1080 Blu-ray release of this very version.

It’s maybe just a little odd that one of the crown jewels of buffa could be constructed out much the same plot conceit that animates the pretty turgid historical drama The War Lord, but the ancient practice of droit du seigneur is at the core of this opera’s plot dynamics, whereby Susanna (Martina Jankova) may need to submit (sexually) to Count Almaviva (Luca Pisaroni) on the night of her planned wedding to Figaro (Adam Plachetka). Rounding out the romantic entanglements in various ways are the Count’s unhappy wife, Countess Rosina Almaviva (Anett Fritsch) and visitors Marcellina (Ann Murray) and Dr. Bartolo (Carlos Chausson). Adding to the farcical ambience are Cherubino (Margarita Gritskova) and a few other tangential supporting characters.

Disguises, mixed up identities, secret identities and even one en travesti role (Cherubino) add to the chaos that slowly but surely accrues in this effervescent and ebulliently melodic piece, one which has offered a number of “standards” to the operatic repertoire, including of course its energetic Overture, which even non-aficionados of Classical fare are apt to recognize. This handsome production features a rather impressive two level set denoting the Manor house and splits the “door slamming” proclivities of the plot between the levels quite effectively. Director Sven-Eric Bechtolf has reset the action to the aftermath of World War I, something that neither adds to nor detracts from the opera's fizziness. While the cast is game, I’m going to engage in a bit of agism by suggesting that Jankova is perhaps just a trifle long in tooth to be essaying Susanna, at least against Plachetka’s Figaro. The singing is uniformly excellent if inadequately mic’d (see the audio section, below), and the Vienna Philharmonic sounds fantastic under the baton of the perhaps slightly pretentious at times Dan Ettinger (he knows when he’s on camera, folks), who conducts from the keyboard and provides some good continuo.

Note: Those who don't consider themselves opera experts may be interested to look into another opera, The Barber of Seville (there are various version, but Rossini's is the best known and most popular and contains a ton of music even casual listeners will recognize). The source material for both The Barber of Seville and The Marriage of Figaro present the same characters at different times in their lives and watching both of these (start with Barber) makes for a kind of interesting double feature where characters change and grow.

Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Le Nozze di Figaro is presented on 4K UHD courtesy of EuroArts and Unitel Classica with a 2160p transfer in 1.78:1. As happened with Michael Schenker's Temple of Rock: On a Mission - Live in Madrid 4K, this release does not include a standard 1080p Blu-ray, and so I am unable to provide even representative screenshots (the absence of a Blu-ray disc is also why the video score for 1080p quality is set to 0). This is an appealingly detailed presentation, though, one that has occasional issues with crush (especially in some of the shots taken in the orchestral pit), but which otherwise offers some really sumptuous tones, like a red hunting jacket or purple bathrobe that show up in various scenes, while also rendering some fairly precise, close knit patterns, like the throw on the bed chamber or Figaro's green striped vest, very cleanly and clearly. It's easy to spot paint that has been applied to some of the flats to make them look distressed, and as the opera wears on, and especially when some of the action is "upstairs" where it's assumedly closer to the light batteries, there's quite a bit of perspiration evident on several of the singers' faces.

Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Le Nozze di Figaro features DTS-HD Master Audio 5.0 and LPCM 2.0 tracks in the original Italian. There are some balance issues at play here but unlike some opera discs I've reviewed, I don't think these are endemic to the mix itself but perhaps due to microphone placement. There's a subtle but noticeable uptick in volume of the singers when they're on the second level of the manor house at stage right, which leads me to believe inartful microphone placement is at least partially to blame for some inadequate projection (especially on the part of Jankova). This is perhaps only a niggling qualm in what is a generally beautifully, even robustly, sung and played performance. The orchestral forces are managed quite effectively and there's some fun placement of various instruments in discrete channels (pizzicato strings on the left, to cite just one example). Clarity and fidelity are both excellent throughout the presentation.

Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The Digital Opera Guide advertised in bright red on this release's cover turns out to be a fairly traditional set of pop up text pages that offer some background as well as (text) "commentary" from director Sven-Eric Bechtolf. The Guide is available in English, German and Japanese, either with or without accompanying subtitles of the libretto in that particular language (subtitles for these and other languages are available separately under the Setup menu). It's interesting enough, though I suspect these may have been translated a bit inefficiently since there are some odd sentence formulations and at least a couple of errors in terms of pronouns and even some of the general plot dynamics. One way or the other, while some of the staging information from Bechtolf is new, any diehard Mozart fan or lover of this particular opera is not going to find anything overly earth shattering, since at least some of it is (supposedly) simply clarifying various plot points. The liner notes in the insert booklet also mention another supplement helpfully entitled More which is supposedly accessible via the Pop Up Menu, which the liner notes state will stop playback and offer more information. Pressing the Pop Up Menu button on my remote simply brought up the Pop Up Menu (wonder of wonders!), which featured only the standard setup and Opera Guide options. (If this turns out to be operator error on my part and someone else is able to find this additional supplement, let me know and I'll happily update the review.)

Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Le Nozze di Figaro is a wonderfully fun and even funny opera, and it receives a slightly but not fatally updated production here, one that's buoyed by some ebullient orchestral playing and some generally fine singing despite occasional balance issues. As someone who has long championed high res audio oriented releases, I'm excited that 4K UHD offerings of various concert fare, whether operatic or otherwise, are being offered to the public and it's my hope that releases like this one find an appreciative audience. Recommended.