Mozart - Mitridate, Rè di Ponto - Winbergh, Kenny - HarnoncourtDVD9 - NTSC - 4:3 - All Regions - Italian - LPCM, DTS 5.1 - 124 min. -
Subtitles: Italian/English/German/French/Spanish/Chinese
Produced 1986, released on DVD 2006
Gösta Winbergh · Yvonne Kenny · Ann Murray · Anne Gjevang · Joan Rodgers · Peter Straka · Concentus Musicus, Wien Nikolaus Harnoncourt · Staged and directed by Jean-Pierre Ponnelle
. . . it is probably the best of those that did appear. Ponnelle makes masterly use of the Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza, his chosen site for the staging, in terms of astute and novel camera-work to project the drama, which is enhanced by Pet Halmen's heavily embroidered 18th-century costumes, in which the principals look magnificent. Nikolaus Harnoncourt leads a performance that excises a couple of arias and mercifully pares away some of the recitative, allowing the drama to proceed at a compelling pace, as does his direct, almost severe conducting and the superlative playing of his Concentus Musicus. Then in their absolute prime, Yvonne Kenny and Ann Murray, as the thwarted lovers Aspasia and Sifare, sing with innate feeling and welcome fluency. Anne Gjevang as the scheming Farnace uses her voluminous contralto to notable effect. At the centre of the drama is the lordly, impetuous king of the title, taken with histrionic force by the late, lamented Swedish tenor Gösta Winbergh. Record Review / Alan Blyth, Gramophone (London) / 01. June 2006
See Details at Deutsche Grammophon
