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Sat, 02 Sep 2006

Gounod, Faust

Charles Gounod, Faust
Francisco Araiza, Ruggero Raimondi
Gabriella Benackova, Walton Gronroos
Orchester der Weiner Staatsoper
Chor der Weiner Staatsoper
Erich Binder
Directed by Ken Russell
2 DVD's, Deutsche Grammophon

Here we have 2 DVD's of sumptious opera directed by Ken Russell who also made features on Liszt, Mahler, and Tchaikovsky as well as a TV thing on Elgar and something else on Andrew Lloyd Weber.

The production date of this Faust was 1985. There are a few things finding their way out of the vaults and onto DVD, and why not? Some projects are more deserving than others but this strikes me as one of the deserving ones as a great deal of attention had been paid to the visuals in the first place. Where someone just set up a camera at the front, the results are not always very interesting.

Gounod's well-known opera of the story of a suicidal philospher making a pact with the devil is more than ably performed and recorded here and is well worth a look for those who like this genre of opera. (Baron K)

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