Offenbach - Ritter Blaubart (Felsenstein Edition) - Voigtmann 19732*DVD9
NTSC - 4:3 - PCM - German - 139min.
Subtitles: German, English, French, Spanish
Arthaus 2009 - 100MB rar archives - 3 recovery volumes - Megaupload
Performer: Sire de Barbe-Bleue – Hanns Nocker, Boulotte – Anny Schlemm, King Bobèche – Werner Enders, Queen Clémentine – Ruth Schob-Lipka, Princess Hermia (Fleurette) – Ingrid Czerny, Prince Saphir (Daphnis) – Manfred Hopp, Popolani – Rudolf Asmus, Count Oscar – Helmut Polze, Alvarez – Hans-Otto Rogge, Isaure – Irmgard Arnold, Héloïse – Evelyn Bölicke, Eléonore – Eva-Maria Baum, Rosalinde – Christa Noack, Blanche – Ute Trekel-Burckhardt
Conductor: Karl-Fritz Voigtmann
Orchestra/Ensemble: Berlin Comic Opera Orchestra, Berlin Comic Opera Chorus
This is a motion picture by the legendary theater director Walter Felsenstein of Offenbach's Barbe-bleue ("Bluebeard") in German. First produced on stage by Felsenstein and the Komische Oper Berlin in 1963, it proved so popular that the East German government used it as a cultural export. Ritter Blaubart, as it was known, traveled around the world, and was eventually performed 369 times before it was retired. Nine years after it was launched, and 163 performances into its life, Felsenstein took up the task of converting it from stage to film. It wasn't to prove easy, as the director wanted fresh, creative solutions to problems brought on by the change of medium. He was ultimately pleased with the result, however, and it certainly has all the hallmarks of a professionally directed motion picture rather than an awkward attempt at one. In fact, the opening sequence--an exceptionally long and accomplished tracking shot created as a prelude to the operetta, purportedly showing a busy backstage filled with technicians before the staging of Ritter Blaubart--could easily be an homage to the late Max Ophuls, the great French film director, whose signature tracking shots and mix of wit with worldly cynicism were well known. The operetta grows into the film. The pastoral first act is obviously and deliberately stagy, poking fun at the shepherds and shepherdesses of countless French operas since the early days of 18th-century opéra comique. By the second act, with its dungeon beneath Bluebeard's castle and Bobèche's royal throne room, we are fully immersed in realistic settings, even if they are obviously part of the parody world emphasizing typical Offenbach themes: mindless aristocratic protocol, court servility, cuckolded husbands, etc. --Amazon
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