Operavox

This television series from the United Kingdom combines traditional opera with various animation techniques. Contains six segments from the operas: Carmen, Barber of Seville, Turandot, Magic Flute, Rigoletto, Das Rheingold. Traditional puppet animation (by Natalia Dabizha) is used for the Barber of Seville (Rossini) applying a suitably comic tone to the excerpt. Mario Cavalli utilises live action footage, and then paints over the images for his animated segment from Carmen (Bizet). For Rigoletto (Verdi) the dark themes of the opera are ably evoked with stop action puppet animation by Barry J.C. Purves. Other animators include: Gary Hurst (Puccini’s Turandot), Valeri Oganov (Mozart’s The Magic Flute), and Graham Ralph (Wagner’s Das Rheingold). The musical performance is by the Welsh National Opera and features various singers in each segment. Barber of Seville: Donald Maxwell, Peter Bronder, Patricia Bardon (singers), Gareth Jones (conductor) ; Das Rheingold: Phillip Joll, Penelope Walker, Janice Watson (singers), David Seaman (conductor) ; Carmen: Jean Rigby, Adrian Thompson, Donald Maxwell (singers), Julian Smith (conductor) ; Turandot: Jane Eaglen, Edmund Barham, Janet Watson (singers), Wyn Davies (conductor) ; Rigletto: Jonathan Summers, Rosemary Joshua, Anthony Mee (singers), Wyn Davis (musical director) ; The Magic flute: Neill Archer, Alwyn Mellor, John Connell (singers), David Seaman (conductor). Some images of nudity and violence make this DVD unsuitable for young children.