Product: Rimsky-Korsakov: May Night (2010)
Rating: 2.0
delightful music; fine musicians; dismal production; poor sound
I was familiar with this charming, tuneful folk-style opera, rarely produced outside of Russia, thanks to my old LP set on DG, & looked forward to finally "seeing" it. But most of what I saw on this DVD was bewildering: a giant ladder upstage for no apparent reason in Act 1; doors & rooms referred to in the text that were nowhere to be seen; cagelike bars dominating the set in Act 3, again for no apparent reason; physical actions the characters sang about but didn't do. All very confusing, & I had to consult the stage directions in the LP set's libretto to remind myself about what was happening.The costumes added to the confusion, unrelated to the time specified (the Mayor refers to having personally served Catherine the Great) or to any other time, for that matter. The costumes spanned the gamut from the 18th century to the present, suggesting that instead of having new costumes created for this production (other thsn the gauze wraps of the Rusalki chorus), the director simply raided the company's warehouse of costumes from other productions to oufit the cast.Another serious flaw on this DVD is the artificial,over-reverberant sound, the fault no doubt of an over-enthusiastic studio engineer trying to "enhance" the acoustic ambience.All that said, the music is first-rate Rimsky-Korsakov, the singing & orchestral playing excellent. The musicians deserved better.