DVD 7298 KOENIGSKINDER (Humperdink)

Big disappointment. Would have loved to HEAR this opera. Sounds like this is a house mike and not well-placed.

This is a modern dress production of the opera similar to Hansel und Gretel but with a sad ending. The picture is clear and there are right and left pans of the stage, but no closeups--so it was hard to recognize that the redhead in the first scene is Liliana Nikiteanu as the witch. Isabel Rey is the goose-girl under the spell of the witch and Jonas Kaufmann is the prince. Oliver Widmer is the fiddler. (I didn't recognize the rest of the cast and there are few credits before and none after the performance.) The singing is excellent but the DVD sound is inconsistent, soft singing fading; thus four stars instead of five. Rey and Kaufmann are excellent actors, very touching together. They transcend the minimal sets.