Cavalli: Ercole Amante (Blu-ray Review)

When was the last time you actually had fun at the opera? Well, prepare yourself for the carnival ride that is 'Ercole Amante'.

You think your family is dysfunctional? Take Hercules’ crew—please. The half-god, half-mortal strongman has problems galore, woes which tended not to make it into any of those Steve Reeves Italian opuses from half a century ago. You have to go several centuries further back, in fact, to get to Francesco Cavalli’s little known and very rarely performed Ercole Amante, a wonderfully silly (at least in this production by the Nederlandse Opera) piece which takes nothing seriously as ...

Video

I get occasional complaints from some readers who want these usually live-for-television HD tapings to look more like feature films. They decry the typical 1080i resolution as if it were a throwback to VHS days. All I can tell them is I find a lot of Opus Arte's AVC encoded 1080i 1.78:1 images absolutely spectacular, if at just a hair less than full 1080p splendor. Ercole Amante is one of the best opera releases we've been treated to from an image standpoint, with absolutely jaw-droppi...

Audio

Likewise, the DTS-HD MA 5.1 recording is, to put it simply, practically perfect in every way. Cavalli's music is frankly lesser known than the major composers who more frequently dot Opus Arte's releases, but this performance, helmed by conductor Ivor Bolton leading the marvelous Concerto Köln, is a model of Baroque floridity grounded by a more classically restrained balance, especially in the gorgeous choral singing of the Nederlandse's chorus. This is a warm and inviting soundtrack with exc...

Supplements

Several excellent supplements are on disc 1 of this two-BD set. Along with the expected illustrated synopsis (which due to Ercole's rather labyrinthine plot runs well over 10 minutes) and cast gallery, there are 10 minutes each devoted to costars Pisaroni and Johannette Zomer. A 29:27 Making of featurette rounds out the extras....

Final Words

We reviewers tend to be an awfully jaded lot at times. But every so often a wonderful little surprise comes down the pike to reawaken our love and enthusiasm. Ercole Amante is a near perfect soufflé, wonderfully melding Cavalli's gorgeous music with an outlandishly expressive physical production. Thank Heaven (literally in this case)--it's time to have fun at the opera again!......

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Cavalli: Ercole Amante (Blu-ray Review)