Agrippina

Agrippina; Exceptional Playing, Inconsistent Video Quality

by Brian J. Hay

What saves this set is the quality of the performance.

Annemarie Kremer is wonderfully convincing in the title role. Her 'Agrippina' is lustful, manipulative and conniving and irresistibly sensual. Renate Arends is a delightful (and delectable) 'Poppea'. Quirjin De Lang projects a wide spectrum of emotion in the role of 'Ottone'. Michael Hart-Davis is in fine comic form as 'Nerone'. Piotr Miciski is a hilarious 'Claudius'. Jan Alofs voice resounds with an authoritarian ring in the role of 'Lesbo'. The passion in Clint van der Linde's soars above the stage as he sings the part of the smitten 'Narcissus'. Robbert Muuse makes a wonderful 'Drama King' of 'Pallante'. There's no one voice in this ensemble that stands head and shoulders above the rest. All of the vocalists are uniformly strong, both as singers and actors. That's rare in ensemble productions.

The photography and cinematography are excellent. Director Rob van den Berg had a clear sense of how the piece should be shot so as to insure strong flow of the narrative set by Stage Director Eva Buchmann. The camerawork, by Ruud Dirske, Frits Schrijvers and Rob Ijsbrandy, makes excellent use of both the lines created by the sets and the movements of the characters themselves. The lighting by Kees van de Lagemaat is great. The foregrounds shine with the radiance associated with the old Technicolor process. The backdrops are subdued but clear. The effect is consistent throughout the production and it creates a wonderful atmosphere.

And then there's the work of the Combattimento Consort of Amsterdam. Their musical performance is stunning. This group literally puts the "I" in the word inspired. Every note this group plays is filled with passion. Every musical phrase is spiced with drama. Their musical punctuation is clear and sharp. Their performances of the ballads flows like the gentlest river. They don't simply play the piece. For this performance they become the piece. Jan Willem de Vriend has a fantastic group of musicians on his hands. All that we in North America can ask is 'where have they been all these years'.

From there on things are inconsistent at best and a mess at worst. On the unit I have the video skips intermittently. The jumps' aren't big ones and they don't throw the sound out of synchronization with the images but they are noticeable. Backtracking over a hiccup and replaying the segment eliminates the jump (until the next one appears) so the problem is probably with the format of the disc itself. The player I have is pre-set for NTSC but it reads PAL. The fact that the DVD is formatted for Region 2 (PAL) wasn't included in the pre-release information supplied by Amazon. It probably wasn't their fault. They can only work with what they have and they'd have had no reason to question what they were given. Still, that issue should have been corrected at the source, preferably before the DVD was released.

The subtitles are lousy. And that's not an issue related to the disc format. It's just slipshod workmanship. It's true that the video was created for widescreen TV's but that doesn't explain this goof-up. The point size of the text is so small that the text is hard to read even when the image is zoomed to the third power. By then half of most of the characters' heads are cropped off! It's ridiculous. What Jurjen Stekelenberg was thinking when he did this can only be guessed at.

The 'extras' on the disc are interesting but flawed as well. The documentary about the way the work was produced is fascinating. The interviews were enlightening even if they had to be read in the form of subtitles. There's detailed information about all of the performers. But the aspect ratio on some of the footage used in the mini-bios is off. Did they think this wouldn't be noticed or did the budget just run low? Sheesh!

This disc is sort of like an Albatross with a gilded plume. When it was first released in North America many (DVD) players couldn't play it because it was formatted for Europe. Now that many players adapt to different regions the problems with the technical side stand out like a beacon. It's a good production of a strong work but there are issues that make it a test of patience. But, the musical performance is fabulous.

That makes the rest worthwhile.

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