Coq D'Or [Blu-ray]

'Le Coq d'Or,' Kabuki-style. A Feast for Eye and Ear.
'Le Coq d'Or' was Rimsky's last opera, premièred as late as 1909. The story comes from Pushkin, but he'd been given the idea for the opera by a contemporary fairy-tale illustrator, I. Bilibin, whose cartoon of the Tsar Dodon - 'emperor of the whole earth' - was a satire on the expansionist longings of recent Russian Tsars; the Russo-Japanese War had just ended and the Russions had lost, to their amazement. Because of the obvious satirical political comments in the libretto, the première was actually delayed by a few years and indeed Rimsky died before ever seeing it staged. 'The Golden Cockerel' masquerades as a fairy-tale opera, that genre so beloved by the Russians, but the audience knew what the underlying import was, even after the Tsar's censors had forced changes to soften the satire.

Be that as it may, this production can be viewed without all the political baggage as a sumptuous and fantastic fairy tale set to music. I will not recount the plot except to say...

Le Coq d'Or kabuki-style
To add to J. Scott Morrison's excellent review of this work... I have been a longtime admirer of Rimsky-Korsakov's score and found this DVD to be something of a revelation.

My introduction to classical music occurred when my father brought home a $3.99 LP of Le Coq d'Or at a local grocery store; I was sixteen. (Hugo Rignold and the London Philharmonic Orchestra on Alshire, if you must know.) Why? I have no idea. He didn't especially like classical music. But, intrigued, I listened to it once, twice, thrice, began to pick up the themes and melodies, and found I actually liked that kind of music. So this work has a special significance for me.

I saw it staged in a wonderful production in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles in 1978, and have since wished to have it on videotape - now I do.

My only complaint is the minimalist settings and the kabuki style makeup and acting. Being the only recording of this work, I would have preferred a more...

Not to be missed
I want to endorse completely the lengthy reviews by Scott Morrison and Wes Clark. This is a fantastic (in two senses of the word) opera and is beautifully staged. Regrettably, it is performed only rarely--the only other recent major performance that I know of was at the Bregenz Festival several years ago--though a quarter of a century ago the New York City Opera used to perform it when Beverly Sills and Norman Treigle were members of the company. The Chatallet performance recorded here was originally a co-production with the San Francisco Opera, but SFO cancelled (or, I hope, postponed) it for financial reasons. In the absence of opportunities to see Coq d'Or in person this DVD offers a wonderful alternative for those not acquainted with the story to experience a wonderful opera visually as well as musically. I have long loved the music (on CDs), it is Rimsky Korsakov's best in my view, and it was pure delight to finally experience the whole opera via this DVD. I cannot give it a...

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