Rating: 
Summary: Good enough
Review: Come on, guys. This is just about as good as you're gonna get nowadays. Yes, the ol' girl is past her prime. Yes the tenor is squally. But when will you hear a better cast? Not in our lifetimes, I'll bet! (Though try the Opera D'Oro CD with Corelli and Sutherland.) The production values are pretty good. Orchestra is fine. Most of the cast hit most of the notes. Let's just admit that we don't have singers anymore who can perform "The Night of the Seven Stars." If you want to see this opera, this is it. Okay?
Rating:
Summary: A event to be remembered
Review: Dame Joan obviously could not be compared to her prime at her farewell performance. However, that was a very good decision to say farewell to all her fans in this glorious and very seldom performed opera.She still had a very good stage presence and did not have to "die or go mad " at the end.The final farewell scene was impressive, I don't think any opera singer ever had such a sumptious farewell occasion. It showed how her fans loved her and would missed her.That was in sharp contrast to how Pavarotti bid farewell to her fans in New York.Both occsions would be well talked about and remembered.I wished they have taped the OONY concert performance of the same opera at Carnegie Hall last year.That was a memorable performance.
Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful opera, passable production.
Review: I will tell you from the start, I know a good amount of things about the great masterpieces of opera: I have heard Wagner's Lohengrin, Tristan und Isolde, Der Ring des Nibelungen and Parsifal, Verdi's La Traviata and his four last works, Richard Strauss' Salome, Elektra and Rosenkavalier, Berg's Wozzek, as well as a bunch of other things. I can therefore say that I know what "Grand" opera is. And "Les Huguenots" is.Meyerbeer has for long been disregarded as a great composer, and this because many other composers who now have a tremendous success (especially Schumann and Wagner) have made fun of him and ridiculised his musical skills. Today, peoples still find something bad to say of his music. Let me try to pop their balloons. First, according to Meyerbeer bashers, his "melodic invention" is inferior to Bel-cantists, especially Verdi. His arias are, apparently, too short. I beg to differ. The only mistake Meyerbeer ever made in his arias was not to repeat himself. The arias in "Les huguenots" are, if you repeat their melodies like Verdi does in "Rigoletto", "La traviata" or "Il trovatore", are pretty much of similar length and expressivity. As an example, if you take, say, Raoul(the tenor)'s romance "Plus blanche que la blanche ermine" and make him repeat it completely, with other lyrics, we obtain an aria as long as "La donna e mobile", except with better orchestration. It is, however, comprehensible they may SEEM shorter, but their musical value is in no way inferior. If you want a longer aria, just play it's part of the dvd again; it'll do just like Verdi in his middle-period arias. And for those who say this composer couldn't create complex melodic episodes, just take the 16 minutes long love-duet that ends the fourth act of this opera! Also, it would appear that Meyerbeer's operas are too pompous, give an exterior effect, and rely on "effects without causes", to quote Wagner. It supposedly threathens the building of the acts of his operas. Only a misunderstanding of the very essence of the "Historical grand opera" can lead to such beliefs. Meyerbeer's operas are deeply humane, showing how individuals at a given historical moment influence and see their lives be influenced (often tragically) by it. It is normal Meyerbeer includes "pompous" or "cause-less" episodes in his opera, to create a picture of society at that time, and thus put into relief the human drama that later unfolds before our eyes. The perfect example would be the finale of act 3, where women wish happy days to a newly married couple, while the bride must hide her pain about being married to someone else than the one she loves (don't worry, she's more strongly built than Lucia of Lammermoor). Finally, some say such works could only appeal to the french middle-class "bourgeoisie" of the time, which had inferior musical tastes, only wanted big spectacles, etc. Well, it would then mean the territory of France extended at that time from Chicago to Moscow! Having said what I felt necessary about Meyerbeer, I will give a few words about the production of this dvd. All sets are beautiful, but the singing is a mixed bag. John Pringle (Baritone) and Amanda Thane (Dramatic soprano) give very good performances. Anson Austin, the leading tenor, is in no way a Placido Domingo, but for a role as difficult as his, he manages pretty well. Clifford Grant (Bass) barfs his words more than he speaks them, but the singing itself is all right, though it may take time to get used to it. John Wegner (Bass I think) has a far too light voice for his role, I think, but he doesn't sing as long as some other main characters. Joan Sutherland (Coloratura soprano) is quite shaky (it is, after all, her last role), but still listenable. All of them (even Joan Sutherland) have good acting on their side, and only Grant, Sutherland and Thane have slight troubles at times with french diction. Subtitles are only in english, and the translating is quite passable. Good stereo sound, good conducting, good acoustics. The first scene of the fifth act was omitted, and what remains of it is considered as part of the fourth act. To conclude, if you like operas with vivid and energetic orchestration, powerful chorus pieces, elegant yet expressive melodies, human dramas, grandiose finales and merry cathartic fun, this opera should be your next buy. Meyerbeer was the most successful composer of his time. We must now preserve his works, instead of denigrating them, for they are as important to french opera as Wagner's lyric dramas to germans and Verdi's last four operas to italians, and can be justly qualified as true musical powerhouses.
Rating:
Summary: In Response to Unfair Reviews
Review: I'm getting pretty sick of all these people trashing Huguenots. I admit, Les Huguenots isn't Star Wars or even Tristan und Isolde but it is still truly a great undervalued opera. Before Wagner and Verdi transformed and magnified the opera, Meyerbeer, a Jew, was THE big opera composer. Wagner, in fact, was highly jealous of Meyerbeer's success, attacking him savagely in his infamous treatise, "Judaism in Music". Historically, Huguenots is a fascinating and all-to-rarely seen work, somewhere between the glittering bel canto of Rossini, Donizetti and Bellini, the french opera comique of Auber and Boieldieu, and the "Grand Opera" of Verdi, Wagner, and their successors. It is truly a "grand" work, its length being considerable and its subject matter and scope being equally enormous. In fact, it opens with the delightful Roccoco charm of "La Dame blanche", and ends with a French dramatic grandeur that reminds me of "Les Miserables". That said, it also contains some of the most delightful and glittering (not to mention difficult) music ever written. Musically (although perhaps not dramatically) Act II deserves particular attention, with Sutherland's breathtaking coluratura. Les Huguenots will be valued by any fans of Sutherland, French Romantic or Roccoco opera, or anyone intersted witnessing a wonderful but neglected musical (not to mention historical) document.
Rating:
Summary: A blow for art
Review: In act 1, I was hoping for Marcel and his priggish little puritanical protestantism to get their comeuppance. By the 4th act I was so horrified by the catholics (I should have guessed) that though I still detested Marcel and his good little coven of huguenots (French protestants, calvinists), I didn't know what to think. Then came the last scene. Valentine changes faiths. When she's dead, her father starts to cross himself, then just in despair and defeat, stops in the middle of it and drops his arm. I hope this was in Meyerbeer's libretto. What a perfect case for tolerance. I am an Atheist. Sutherland was wonderful, I applauded with the audience, what a marvelous farewell from a marvelous talent and apparently a marvelous person. All the singers were excellent. In particular the page, whose coloratura was thrilling in the first 2 acts. The chorus alas was wooden and moth-eaten. And such a big one in as I recall every act. I enjoyed this very much although as a rule I dislike and avoid discussions about religion (either pro or con) unless I can do all the talking. And I usually don't say much. It's all nonsense. Gruesome, horrific nonsense as this opera, which is based on history, demonstrates. And this is only one example that happened 500 years ago. Look as this morning's newspaper. Sutherland shone, as did the page. Everyone was excellent. The music was glorious. Oddly only Sutherland and the page had coloratura parts, but they ran with them. I've disclosed a lot about the plot (including the ending). I hate people who do that. Only I didn't do it to prove I watched the thing (or whyever people do that), I did it to support my case. That someone (Meyerbeer and his librettist?) was through art striking a blow for tolerance.
Rating:
Summary: The Mortality of a Goddess
Review: In early sixties Sutherland had sung in La Scala the role of Marguerite as a true Vocal Paganini with a voice created by God himself. That night she was accompanied by "Gods" like Ghiaurov, Corelli, Simionato etc while at the audience there was the unbelievably snob, regarding other people's performances, Maria Callas (she never attented "boring" second class performances). This DVD's performance is 20 years later when Sutherland's voice had lost what made her so unique, her agility. And unfortunately when Callas lost her high notes we still had to worship the archetypical drama, the ingenius phrasing and the vocal colorising... when Sutherland lost her agility we were left with a bad diction and a phrasing that was never serving the drama but only the needs of the coloratura. Also in this recording we have 2 major flaws. Meyerbeer wrote this opera not for common voices. Valentine is a role that had been created especially for Cornellie Falcon, a remarkable soprano "falcon", that is why even Simionato had difficulties in singing it. In this DVD instead of "Gods" we get second class voices who are not suited for Meyerbeer's writing. That is the case many times with Sutherland's recordings, instead of being accompanied by singers of her status she was accompanied by... I also have to mention the incredibly bad taste of decorating the Sydney Opera with balloons. An Opera House is not a circus (La Stupenda always had a bizarre sense of humour if not a truly bad taste!!!) 5 stars because Sutherland even with no agility will always remain one of the very few vocal Goddesses of the 20th century.
Rating:
Summary: The Mortality of a Goddess
Review: In early sixties Sutherland had sung in La Scala the role of Marguerite as a true Vocal Paganini with a voice created by God himself. That night she was accompanied by "Gods" like Ghiaurov, Corelli, Simionato etc while at the audience there was the unbelievably snob, regarding other people's performances, Maria Callas (she never attented "boring" second class performances). This DVD's performance is 20 years later when Sutherland's voice had lost what made her so unique, her agility. And unfortunately when Callas lost her high notes we still had to worship the archetypical drama, the ingenius phrasing and the vocal colorising... when Sutherland lost her agility we were left with a bad diction and a phrasing that was never serving the drama but only the needs of the coloratura. Also in this recording we have 2 major flaws. Meyerbeer wrote this opera not for common voices. Valentine is a role that had been created especially for Cornellie Falcon, a remarkable soprano "falcon", that is why even Simionato had difficulties in singing it. In this DVD instead of "Gods" we get second class voices who are not suited for Meyerbeer's writing. That is the case many times with Sutherland's recordings, instead of being accompanied by singers of her status she was accompanied by... I also have to mention the incredibly bad taste of decorating the Sydney Opera with balloons. An Opera House is not a circus (La Stupenda always had a bizarre sense of humour if not a truly bad taste!!!) 5 stars because Sutherland even with no agility will always remain one of the very few vocal Goddesses of the 20th century.
Rating:
Summary: The Grand Opera Masterpiece On DVD
Review: Joan Sutherland is a popular soprano with a following of many admirers. She has appeared in various operas now available on DVD, among them Lucrezia Borgia and La Fille Du Regiment. In the 60's and 70's Joan Sutherland grace the opera stage with her numerous sold out performances and her winning "big" voice. She was motivated to sing opera in an effort to rival Maria Callas or to follow in her footsteps. Here, she plays the role of Marguerite De Valois, the warm-hearted and freethinking French princess. Giacomo Meyebeer's operas were the trend at the time in Paris. His style "grand opera" is rarely performed today. It features lavish scenery, special effects and spectacle, crowd scenes, great singers and dramatic orchestral music. Much of these operas "L'Africaine", "La Prophete", "Robert Le Diable" were very big productions that cost a lot to produce- tales of intense drama, romance, tragedy, history, religion, etc. These operas were ancestors to Wagner operas. In fact, Meyerbeer was himself a French Wagner of his day. Les Huguenots (French Protestants) is set in the late 1500's. Queen Elizabeth I was ruling England and the heart of Europe was divided between Protestants and Catholics during the Reformation. In France, there was a bloody massacre that has become known as the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre. Many Protestants or Huguenots were killed in cold blood in the public streets. During these troubling times, Raoul the tenor hero falls in love with Valentine, the soprano heroine. The lovers are doomed from the beginning. They both come from opposing religions and rival families. A marriage would have been inevitable. But the clever Marguerite De Valois (Joan Sutherland) devises a plan to get them married and offers the help of both Protestant and Catholic religious leaders. Joan Sutherland's Marguerite looks a lot like Queen Elizabeth I in case anyone has already figured out. Unfortunately, like in most romantic dramas of this period, the lovers do not have a happy ending. But the story is exceptional, the singing brilliant and the music to die for.
Rating: 
Summary: Save your money unless....
Review: Ladies and Gentlemen -- Unless you want a memento of Dame Joan Sutherland's last performance, I agree with another reviewer who said DO NOT BUY THIS DVD. The opera is boring and senseless, the production and direction is acceptable at best, and the singing -- well, lets just say it leaves much to be desired except for Amanda Thane. Clifford Grant was painful to listen to most of the time and while Anson Austin (tenor lead) has most the notes, he has no clue how to sing convincingly. Dame Joan was shaky and only appears in Acts 2 & 3 of this 5 act opera. Acts 4 & 5 are mislabeled as only Act 4 on the DVD insert. If you want to see La Stupenda in something worthwhile, try the Norma or Anna Bolena with the Canadian Opera Company or her Lucia from the Met. MAYBE, the only redeeming thing on this DVD is the 28 min. credit cue point at the end when she is on stage AFTER the performance is over.
Rating:
Summary: Save your money unless....
Review: Ladies and Gentlemen -- Unless you want a memento of Dame Joan Sutherland's last performance, I agree with another reviewer who said DO NOT BUY THIS DVD. The opera is boring and senseless, the production and direction is acceptable at best, and the singing -- well, lets just say it leaves much to be desired except for Amanda Thane. Clifford Grant was painful to listen to most of the time and while Anson Austin (tenor lead) has most the notes, he has no clue how to sing convincingly. Dame Joan was shaky and only appears in Acts 2 & 3 of this 5 act opera. Acts 4 & 5 are mislabeled as only Act 4 on the DVD insert. If you want to see La Stupenda in something worthwhile, try the Norma or Anna Bolena with the Canadian Opera Company or her Lucia from the Met. MAYBE, the only redeeming thing on this DVD is the 28 min. credit cue point at the end when she is on stage AFTER the performance is over.
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