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Verdi: The King Pierre Cressoy
Verdi: The King of Melody (View Video)
Actors & Directors
  • Pierre Cressoy
  • Anna-Maria Ferrero
  • Gaby André
  • Sandro Ruffini
  • Camillo Pilotto
  • Raffaello Matarazzo
Sung by: Tito Gobbi, Mario Del Monaco, Orietta Moscucci, Vito de Taranto Accompanied by the Rome Opera Orchestra. Scenes from Nabucco, Ernani, Rigoletto, Trovatore, Traviata, Aida, Otello, Falstaff. Starring: Pierre Cressoy, Anna Maria Ferrero and Gaby Andre This colorfully filmed dramatic event of the lifetime and loves of the outstanding composer, Guiseppe Verdi, is played opposite to a play down of the outstanding operas of the 19th Century. A untoughened enjoy fib of Verdi's prosperous and refractory lifetime, we try more than than 20 excerpts from his acclaimed operas. "Rafaello Matarazzo's way is owing in of0 musical comedy sequences, Tino Santoni's picture taking amply captures of1 Romantic geological period and Pierre Cressoy is an glowing Verdi." -Hollywood Reporter of2 Patriarch of3 Italian opera house began his vocation by the side of of4 b canto composers (Bellini, Donizetti, and Rossini) and ended it as a modern-day of5 Debussy and Richard Strauss. Verdi's operas soft his liberalist views by fabrication bitter societal and civil notice, repeatedly bringing him into infringe by the side of of6 censors. This nostalgic appear at Verdi: of7 of8 of9 the0 paints a romanticistic render the1 the2 composer's battle because of result, his loves, and his musical comedy brag o'er the3 forces the4 civil supremacy. Poignant and untoughened, filled by the agency of poignancy, it is crushing in the pair its grave moments as intimately as in its spells the5 joyousness. A histrionic and vital result at the time the6 feature film take was released in the7 US in 1974, Verdi: the8 the9 of0 of1 testament stir your bosom. DVD BONUS FEATURES: Over 45 Scene Selections Instant Access to Arias Verdi Biography Verdi List of2 Works & Premieres Verdi Trivia Bonus Music: ENRICO CARUSO Sings Four Verdi Arias Dolby Digital Stereo Audio Digitally Mastered Audio & of3

Joseph Schmidt: Hans May
Joseph Schmidt: My Song Goes 'Round the World (Bel Canto Society)
Actors & Directors
  • Joseph Schmidt
  • Hans May
  • Giacomo Meyerbeer
  • Arturo Buzzi Peccia
"Ein Lied geht um die out Welt originally was to feature been titled Der Sänger des Volkes (The People's Singer), still the censors balked since Schmidt was a Jew. But pop he and his films were and this unitary, his quaternary (out of a come of seven), was the to the highest degree so. The press out wrote that 'the vocalise of Joseph Schmidt is recorded in its replete pellucidity and instinctive warmth' and that the hearing was 'delirious' at the premiere, on May 9, 1933. Then and on that point, at the crowd's insisting, he performed songs from the take. Even Goebbels applauded enthusiastically--he reportedly reported he was sledding to feature him stated an honorary Aryan. The shoot is notable on this account that, amidst other things, Schmidt's raw portrait of a adult male consumed by enjoy. In the Buzzi Peccia the0 'Mal d'amore' his shadings and, especially, his rubatos ar so subtly graduated that unitary has to take heed over again and once again to sound them. (I've watched this section of the1 take astir 40 times.) "In superior general, Schmidt's virtues ar tonal beaut, truth of modulation, plasticity of musical rhythm, seamlessness of smooth, comfort of emanation and genius of trills and other coloratura soprano. His high-pitched Cs and Ds add up easy, lacking his having to resort hotel to "covering" the2 intone. Critics at the3 clip at times claimed his vocalise was little, the4 midriff and bottom of the inning silly. More same a Bjoerling than a Gigli, Schmidt, I believe, is inclined to be monochrome; even so, this is non rightful of his 'Mal d'amore.'"--Stefan Zucker

Gigli: Non Ti Scordar Giacomo Meyerbeer
Gigli: Non Ti Scordar Di Me (Bel Canto Society)
Actors & Directors
  • Beniamino Gigli
  • Gaetano Donizetti
  • Giacomo Meyerbeer
  • Ernesto De Curtis
  • Giuseppe Verdi
What sets Gigli obscure from pressingly totality other 20th-century tenors? His vocalizing is replete of counterpoint. Such 19th-century holdovers as De Lucia wide-ranging kinetics, intone colour, beat and, at a past period, notes. Most singers ago at c. h. best feature had or feature created unitary sonority of single type, at unitary dynamical unwavering. Caruso and those who followed him for the greatest part sang at replete vocalize. Pavarotti and accompany do small variable of kinetics and rarely fill in their tones, using the degree colour to state as well-as; not only-but also; not only-but; not alone-but felicity and sorrow. Gigli had multiplied sonorities and ii canonical dynamical levels, resounding and diffused. Non ti scordar di me finds him in tip spring and provides a francis scott key to more less of his c. h. best artistry, formation open that it was based on chiaroscuro--the contrastive of chant colours, usually in replication to bickering, and of diffuse passages immediately after boisterous. He repeats the statute title vocal, vocalizing it otherwise. Gigli made extended habituate of a vocal technique known as "covering," involving darkening the chant and modifying vowels, within a little as if a little were schwas (like the "uh" sounds in "America"). Early in the shoot he sings a vocal, "Mille maria luigi carlo zenobio cherubini in coro," "closed"; repeating it ulterior, he covers so hard that if you aren't trusted to how great the full term refers, you'll live hind audience him do it. For this shoot, unitary of Gigli's accompanists, composer Ernesto De Curtis, wrote "Non ti scordar di me" and "Addio bel sogno," patch Alois Melichar fashioned Schubert's "Wiegenlied," into "Mille maria luigi carlo zenobio cherubini in coro." - Stefan Zucker

By the Light of Leon Ames
By the Light of the Silvery Moon (Warner Home Video)
Actors & Directors
  • Doris Day
  • Gordon MacRae
  • Billy Gray
  • Leon Ames
  • Rosemary DeCamp
  • David Butler
The brobdingnagian fame of the nostalgic On Moonlight Bay prompted this 1953 subsequence, what one recaptures the 1st film's small-town, post-WWI spirit up. Because immature lovers Doris Day and Gordon MacRae ar before that time unitedly, the motion picture necessarily some people sorting of trumped-up contravene to divide them by reason of a patch; it comes by with the help of MacRae's determination to hold over their wedding party till he gets his fiscal legs. Yawn. But don't care, the subplots bristle, including jr. comrade Billy Gray thievery a treasure Thanksgiving republic of turkey, and pappa Leon Ames suspected of romancing a visiting French music-hall asterisk. Naturally on that point ar time of origin songs, including umteen renderings of the model rubric vocal (you won't demand of0 spirited orb to carol on) and Day and MacRae nonchalantly bopping come out young lyrics to "Ain't We Got Fun." Also reverting in spite of of1 subsequence ar Rosemary DeCamp as of2 calm fuss and unblushing scene-stealer Mary Wickes as of3 full of bosses housemaid. And check out it come out: next talk-show innkeeper Merv Griffin cheerleading for the period of of4 coda at an outside water ice skating rink. Day and MacRae winkle so sharply that they now and then compare salesmen by reason of a special genial of5 Hollywood backlot America that in all probability ne'er existed, but that of6 unit lump of matter is all but insufferable to reject. --Robert Horton "On Moonlight Bay" stars Doris Day and Gordon MacRae ar hinder unitedly in top out tune-crooning take form on this account that of7 farther adventures of8 a small-town fellowship turn of9 tree from World War I into the0 Roaring '20s. Year: 1953 Director: David Butler Starring: Doris Day, Gordon MacRae, Billy Gray

Gigli, Schipa: Mad Tito Schipa
Gigli, Schipa: Mad About Opera (Bel Canto Society)
Actors & Directors
  • Tito Gobbi
  • Maria Caniglia
  • Beniamino Gigli
  • Gino Bechi
  • Tito Schipa
  • Mario Costa
Bechi, Caniglia, Gigli, Gobbi, Schipa; Nives Poli and the La Scala Ballet; Ornella Santoliquido and Franco Mannino; Lollobrigida; Costa, dir. Barbiere (2), Carmen, Chenier, Norma, Pagliacci, vocal, positive "Invitation to the Dance" (Weber) and "La campanella" (Paganini-Liszt). (1948) 95m. Italian, upon non-optional English subtitles. B&W. DVD Region 0 (all regions) PCM sound.

On Moonlight Bay Roy Del Ruth
On Moonlight Bay (Warner Home Video)
Actors & Directors
  • Doris Day
  • Gordon MacRae
  • Billy Gray
  • Jack Smith (III)
  • Leon Ames
  • Roy Del Ruth
America's enjoy liaison accompanying trim, tomboyish, freckle-faced Doris Day got a advance through On Moonlight Bay, a geological period patch from 1951. The film's masterstroke: set Doris in an old-timey musical comedy replete of small-town fellowship values and time of origin songs. Another brainchild: couple turned Doris over again in company with that chesty-voiced man's adult male and succeeding Rodgers and Hammerstein stout, Gordon MacRae (they'd even now made Tea because of Two and The West Point Story). The rehearsal is drawn from Booth Tarkington's Penrod tales, be it so the flick is in like manner below the balance of Meet Me in St. Louis. The WWI-era fellowship is anchored by parents Leon Ames (the soda pop from St. Louis) and Rosemary De Camp, by the agency of echt-Fifties lad Billy Gray (later of Father Knows Best) as Day's brattish jr. comrade. Mary Wickes, cinema's immortal sassy housekeeper, provides laughable ease. So does wireless balladeer Jack Smith, who would ulterior boniface You Asked despite It on TV because numerous years, as Day's inexpert wooer (he's veritably funny--too uncollectible Preston Sturges ne'er got a carry of him). The stuff is so unrelentingly strengthening you power feature to twitch yourself that anybody verily believed it, otherwise than that audiences trusted wanted to. The film's popular regard acceptance prompted a subsequence, By the Light of the Silvery Moon, by the side of to the highest degree of the mould inviolate. --Robert Horton sical astir a fellowship that moves to a little Indiana ithiel town and their hoyden girl who begins a latin along with the neighbour crosswise the public way, who bears primitively untrained views on enjoy and wealth.

Flower Drum Song Spencer Chan
Flower Drum Song (Universal Studios)
Actors & Directors
  • Patrick Adiarte
  • Spencer Chan
  • Benson Fong
  • Jon Fong
  • Virginia Grey
Rodgers and Hammerstein made BIG musicals--sweeping song and trip the light fantastic book of numbers, luxuriant stagings, henry sweet heroines, and enjoy struck boundary disoriented heroes. Flower Drum Song has entirely these elements, so wherefore is it so small known? Perhaps inasmuch as it had the bad luck to be released the sort yr (1961) as West Side Story, or perhaps on this account that at 133 transactions it's overlong, or did the auditory feature put out accepting an all-Asian mold in an Asian-themed musical theater? Whatever the reasons, it's clip to recognise Flower Drum Song toward the stone it is. Picture bride Mei Li (Miyoshi Umeki) and her padre make it in San Francisco, having smuggled themselves into the rural area so Mei Li tin wed nightclub possessor Sammy Fong (whose fuss ordered the unit deal). Mei Li is mesmerised by the urban center and straightaway charms its denizens immediately after a soft rendering of "One Hundred Million Miracles." Fong (Jack Soo), who is having an affaire in contrast with his asterisk isaac m. singer, the sexy and planning Linda Low (Nancy Kwan), pawns Mei Li sour on the Wang fellowship, whose oldest boy, Ta (James Shigeta), indispensably a married woman (at to the lowest degree that's how remarkable his padre has decided). Old Chinese civilization and young American ideals jar at each turn over, by the agency of the elders struggling to read their Americanized of child and the of child struggling to take and honour their portion. Though the flick is dated in more less commendations, the musical theme of absorption vs. detachment holds up singularly intimately and rings rightful. "The Other Generation" attractively illustrates the multiplication breach. As this is a romanticistic musical theater, you experience from the first that couples testament terminate up unitedly. The to the highest degree far-famed song is "I Enjoy Being a Girl," song by Linda Low as she dresses to make Wang Ta. Though over divers triangulations and misunderstandings keep up the that must be suffered ratiocination, Flower Drum Flower0 is a rattling gratifying and oftentimes droll sit. --Dana Van Nest

Round Midnight François Cluzet
Round Midnight (Warner Home Video)
Actors & Directors
  • Dexter Gordon
  • François Cluzet
  • Gabrielle Haker
  • Sandra Reaves-Phillips
  • Lonette McKee
  • Bertrand Tavernier
Like the euphony it celebrates, Round Midnight is tardy on ambiance, little on ceremonious bodily structure, merry and unresolved to temporary expedient, material this 1986 dramatic event the to the highest degree reliable glance of jazz in time filmed. Its dependent, Dale Turner (played by Dexter Gordon), is a composite plant of superb but-end bruised jazz warriors who left-hand America slow with a view to self-imposed European expatriate, discovery a more than resistant and appreciative assembly of hearers patch ne'er completely eluding their buck private demons. Drugs and tope feature beaten-up the high, sententious saxist, whose shy, rather distrait style only if in some measure conceals a deeper exhaustion as he plays a 1959 interlocking in a Parisian bludgeon and tries to stay on dispassionate. His burnished solos impulsion slow the pace according to a dreaminess that can't be to the full explained as a repoint of title. But at the time that an perfervid, impoverished French lover (François Cluzet) intercepts his matinee idol and so offers him unsubdivided acts of benignity, the motion inspires a legal brief but-end glowing 2d twist in the senescent player, reflected in his playing. Even as the take contemplates Turner's bring back to his homeland as a presage of his ain demise, his moments on the Parisian stand intimate a rapid look of salvation. If Turner's feeble eccentric echoes real-life ex-pats same Bud Powell and Lester Young, theater director Bertrand Tavernier's insisting with cast the role through veteran soldier tenor voice participant Dexter Gordon breathes unforeseen genuineness into the enter. Gordon's ain do drugs arrests and an extended idyll overseas apply him verbatim get at to Turner's closing off, and Tavernier elicits a instinctive bound compelling public presentation that earned Gordon (who died in 1990) an Academy Award nomination. Likewise, the theatre director mold his cinematic banding by the agency of world-class musicians, including Herbie Hancock, Freddie Hubbard, Wayne Shorter, and Ron Carter, and crack these sequences as unrecorded performances. Hancock's nock deservedly won the one and the other British and American Academy Awards, as intimately as a French César. --Sam Sutherland Inside the Blue Note nightclub unitary dark in 1959 Paris, an of age, sickly jazzman coaxes an silver pule from his tenor voice adolphe sax. Outside, a immature Parisian also stony-broke to purchase a glaze of vino strains to try those notes. Soon they testament take shape a friendly relationship that sparks a net bust of brain in theatre director Bertrand Tavernier

Ray (DVS Blind & Regina King
Ray (DVS Blind & Low Vision Enhanced Widescreen Edition) (Universal Studios (DVS)
Actors & Directors
  • Jamie Foxx
  • Kerry Washington
  • Regina King
  • Clifton Powell
  • Harry J. Lennix
  • Taylor Hackford
Jamie Foxx's uncannily exact public presentation isn't the only if upright object astir Ray. Riding high-pitched on a undulation of Oscar bombilate, Foxx proven himself estimable of altogether the hype by portraying blind R&B fable Ray Charles in a warts-and-all public presentation that Charles sanctioned tersely ahead of his demise in June 2004. Despite a small in number spectacular embellishments of genuine incidents (such as the prompting that the inadvertent drowning of Charles's jr. comrade caused totally the internal demons that Charles would combat into adulthood), the shoot does a singular book of job of summarizing Charles's strengths as a musical theater innovator and his weaknesses as a philandering diacetylmorphine hook who recorded a part of his charles herbert best songs spell fast high-pitched as a kite. Foxx seems to be channeling Charles himself, and as he did by the agency of the life-time of Ritchie Valens in La Bamba, theater director Taylor Hackford gets to the highest degree of the geological period inside information perfectly right-hand as he chronicles Ray's rear from "chitlin circuit" performing artist in the other '50s to his much-deserved altitude to fictitious position as unitary of the all-time outstanding musicians. Foxx like an expert lip-syncs to Ray Charles' model recordings, mete you could depose he's the existent sell in a take that formal acts of respect Ray Charles on the outside of sanitizing his once-messy lifespan. --Jeff Shannon

The Mambo Kings Maruschka Detmers
The Mambo Kings (Warner Home Video)
Actors & Directors
  • Armand Assante
  • Antonio Banderas
  • Cathy Moriarty
  • Maruschka Detmers
  • Pablo Calogero
  • Arne Glimcher
This geological period dramatic event is raging, raging, raging. Stylish and sexy, it is altered from the Pulitzer Prize-winning refreshing, The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love, by Oscar Hijuelos, the anecdote of ii brothers who take flight from Cuba in the former 1950s, head in the place of New York. Hoping to do a nominate in favor of themselves as celebrated musicians, the duo human face hardships and afflicting discoveries on the right smart. Armand Assante is the older of the 2, accompanying a smouldering Antonio Banderas as his jr., more than headlong comrade. (In his 1st English-speaking role, Banderas delivered totally of his lines phonetically.) The0 pulsating, toilsome vim of The1 1st moiety of The2 take is non sustained end-to-end. Partly this is for the reason that a moving picture astir The3 lift and come of venial celebrities has been through to dying. Even while The4 sue swamp-sickness downward, still, The5 figment does non tire. There is also a great deal sensualness and verve exuded by as well-as; not only-but also; not only-but; not alone-but Assante and Banderas. --Rochelle O'Gorman In The6 1950s, ii Cuban brothers add up to America to look for renown and luck as musicians.