Admeto

Handel's 1727 opera is based on Euripides' tragedy about the king of Thessaly, whose wife Alceste saves his life by dying in his place. So where does director Doris Dörrie choose to set this mounting from the 2009 Göttingen Festival? In Japan, during the samurai period, a conceit that allows her to employ butoh dancers of the Mamu Dance Theatre, who prowl about the stage along with the characters, symbolizing their emotional states. Unfortunately, this oddball choice contributes little to the work, and when Hercules, who rescues Alceste from Hades, turns up as a sumo wrestler (with William Berger encased in a foam-rubber fat-suit), the result is simply risible. If that weren't enough, toward the close the characters are suddenly transported to an 18th-century English manor house! The perversity of the staging is doubly unfortunate, because Admeto is one of Handel's greatest operas, and the performance here is musically noteworthy. Although the lengthy score is cut somewhat, the period-instrument orchestra plays well under Nicholas McGegan, and the production boasts some excellent singing, particularly from countertenor Tim Mead as Admeto and sopranos Marie Arnet and Kirsten Blaise as Alceste and Antigona, the two women who vie for his love. Unfortunately, the only other DVD version available (see review in VL-5/07) is also undermined by poor staging, so while this new version features excellent sound in DTS 5.1 (DTS-HD 5.1 on the Blu-ray version) and PCM stereo, it really cannot be considered as more than a stopgap until a more faithful rendition comes along. Extras include the behind-the-scenes featurette “Baroque & Butoh.” An optional purchase. (F. Swietek)