Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #33546 in DVD
• Released on: 2005-11-15
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 2
• Formats: AC-3, Classical, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, NTSC
• Original language: Italian
• Subtitled in: German, English, Italian, Spanish, French
• Running time: 179 minutes

From Amazon.com
For much of the late 20th century, Leontyne Price was the leading exponent of Verdi's heroic soprano roles--among the most demanding vocal and dramatic categories in opera. One of her specialties was Leonora, the tormented heroine in La forza del destino (The Power of Fate). Her classic performance, combined with some of Verdi's most soaring and energetic music, did much to justify this flawed but compelling masterpiece--a thud-and-blunder melodrama about war, duels, violent death, guilt, vengeance, and concealed identities in which, following a tried and true operatic formula, nearly everybody dies at the end. There are also comic scenes.

A Metropolitan Opera production of La forza del destino starring Leontyne Price should be a basic item in any collection seriously dedicated to Verdi. This would be an even better production if it had been recorded earlier, when her voice was richer and more precisely controlled, but it is clearly a case of better late than never. The supporting cast is capable and sometimes exciting, but frankly no match for the all-star ensemble supporting Renata Tebaldi and Franco Corelli in a 1958 performance at the San Carlo Opera in Naples available only on VHS. That production is filmed in black and white; no subtitles are provided and the video's technical quality is primitive. But it captures the opera's emotional energy and epic scope. --Joe McLellan

On the DVD
Bonus: picture gallery ("La Forza Del Destino" at the Met)
Trailers

Synopsis
This video captures the performance of this tragic Verdi opera as it is performed by the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide

Customer Reviews

Abandon all hope ye who enter here!
This recorded performance is a document of everything that was wrong with the MET in the 80s. As a matter of fact, it's a document of everything that was wrong with opera in the 80s: vast dinosaur productions starring famous singers past their prime; Levine's orchestra so big and brassy that you couldn't hear the singers if you wanted to; ancient sets and costumes that look like Miss Haversham's aborted wedding party.

It's actually a good thing that travesties like this were recorded: Not so easy to take our amazingly gifted younger singers for granted; not so easy to forget the musical poverty Italian opera fans endured during the 80s. Just listen here to the fanatical "bravas" after Price whoops and saws through number after number. You'd think they'd been stranded at the airport for years listening to nothing but planes taking off. Oh, and this opera is in Italian, though you wouldn't know that from LP's mushy diction. I'm sorry, but better to do a concert performance than pretend that this sort of thing is theater. Alas, opera as porn. It would be funny if it wasn't so painful. Giacomini and Nucci are just as bad when you can hear them over Levine's din.

It's amazing to realize that the Eaglens and Gorchakovas of our time trained during these lean years. One can only hope that these wonders will be recorded and that opera will find new audiences who will justify its future. Sooner than later, somebody is going to realize that DVD and opera is a marriage made in heaven, and new releases will invigorate both. Until then, cover your ears when they turn this one on.

La Forza Del Destino
This is the first DVD opera conducted by James Levine
in which we have been disappointed. Ms. Price is too mature to play the
part and there is a lack of vitality in the production. A poor choice
of cast in our opinion.

A Tribute to a true Diva
Although La forza del destino is not my favorite opera by Verdi, it does showcase Leontyne Price's magnificent voice. At times it almost seemed as if the composer had written it for her. As for the DVD, it is wonderful to be able to view the opera singers up close (something one never sees on the stage, even with opera glasses)and see the emotion on their faces. The lighting was quite dramatic, although I was a bit disappointed in the sets and expected much more from the Met (as I have seen far better and grander sets at the local operas where I live). All in all though, I highly recommend this DVD to anyone who admires Leontyne Price, as well as to anyone who hasn't had the opportunity to see her perform. Brava!