Giacomo Meyerbeer\u2019s 1820 opera inspired by England\u2019s 15th century Queen Margaret receives a bold and startling modern-day adaptation via director Alessandro Talevi\u2019s 2017 Festival della Valle d\u2019Itria production, now available on DVD.
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Much of the production is based within a punk-chic fashion show, with the characters wearing brilliantly outrageous theatrical garb while pacing the catwalk. Modern technology and contemporary obsessions with reality TV and social media also invade the proceedings, with video cameras and cell phones occupying the hands of cast members. Remarkably, the experiment pays off \u2013 the complex plotlines involving Middle Ages monarchial turf wars, disguises and regal egos fit into the bump-and-grind strutting of the present-day fashion sphere. <\/p>\n
Guilia De Blasis is a commanding physical and vocal presence in the title role, while Gaia Petrone is equally memorable as Isaura, who is driven to excessive extremes to regain the love of her husband, the Duke of Lavarenne, left her for the widowed queen. In the scene-stealing comic supporting role of Michele Gamautte, Marco Filippo Romano brings a powerful blast of melodic mischief in a wonderfully disruptive turn. <\/p>\n
This presentation marks the DVD debut of Meyerbeer\u2019s rarely-revived \u2013 and while we can hope that a more traditional interpretation will find its way before the cameras, this playfully imaginative riff is a delightful treat for today\u2019s audiences. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Giacomo Meyerbeer\u2019s 1820 opera inspired by England\u2019s 15th century Queen Margaret receives a bold and startling modern-day adaptation via director Alessandro Talevi\u2019s 2017 Festival della Valle d\u2019Itria production, now available on DVD.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":28002,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,12],"tags":[1979,1980,1437],"class_list":["post-28001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-a-indie","category-movie-reviews","tag-margherita-danjou","tag-meyerbeer","tag-opera"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28001"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28001\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28003,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28001\/revisions\/28003"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}