3/5 Interesting, but disappointing
  by Barry J. James (Honolulu, Hawaii United States)
I have to admit upfront that I bought this DVD as I wanted to see a performance from the recently constructed opera house in Valencia designed by architect and engineer Santiago Calatrava. I was not disappointed as, for a couple of minutes during the opening titles, the fantastic and futuristic architecture of the new building was dramatically featured, very much in the way that the Sydney Opera House is seen in productions from that venue.

For the most part, I enjoyed this production. The orchestra and singers, to this untrained person, seemed very acceptable. However, the sets could definitely have been more interesting and three-dimensional, better props and some additional lighting (I realize it is set in a grim and depressing prison) and something other than gray costumes on everyone, would also have helped. I also did not appreciate the special photographic effects where images were superimposed on one another and some close-ups seemed out of focus.

Overall, I think the production on this disk definitely deserves three stars but, in several places, it is so much better than this would imply.


3/5 Fidelio, Back There Somewhere, In the Distance....
  by Randy Buck (Brooklyn, NY USA)
I agree with the previous reviewer here, this issue's a disappointment. Mehta's conducting features some eccentric tempi, and the seasoned cast, while on the ripe side for some of these sloooooooow renditions, acquit themselves nobly enough. My problem was two-fold; first, the sound balance is problematic. The orchestra's bright in both overtures, but the singers sound like they're all in Florestan's dungeon; no matter how I cranked up the sound, muffled and distant, rather than lively and sparkling, was the order of the day. And further adding to the detachment in the second act is the scrim used for the computer-generated projections that get us down, down, down to the prison cell. Between the muted sound and the gauzy singers, not much dramatic heat gets generated. If you like green, though, add a star to the above rating; in this production, Beethoven seems to have fallen into the Emerald City. The audience in Calatrava's new house seemed much happier with these goings-on than I, so perhaps the DVD production itself adds to the problems.

3/5 Okay but disappointing
  by G. Stefan Lazar (San Francisco, CA USA)
I was looking forward to this but ended up being disappointed. There is nothing really wrong with the performance but it has no spark, no life. That is immediately evident with the overture. Mehta's conducting leaves much to be desired. The only good singing comes from Salminen and Meier (of course) but even she doesn't seem to be up to her normal sky-high standards of performance. A caution, something didn't seem right with the sound and when I put headphones on I found that the channels were reversed. I am waiting for my replacement and hopefully it was only a fluke on my copy and not the whole initial pressing. An old practice his resurfaced - the Leonore Overture #3 is played between the 2 scenes of Act 2. My top choice remains the Vienna production on DGG with Kollo/Janowitz/Popp and Leonard Bernstein conducting.

UPDATE: My second copy had the same problem as the first -- reversed channels. I'm returning it for a refund this time.