While I was piling on five productions in three German cities last week
(report coming, of course), the San Francisco Opera's HD film of "Samson
et Delilah" unspooled hither and yon, garnering at least one "sharply
negative" review.  Was it really this bad?

"Compared to `Rondine,' it was terrible.  The mix (orchestra/singers)
was absolute crap, and the scene-shot choices for many scenes was just
all wrong.  Way too many closeups...  like `Rondine'.  Apparently, all
the cool stuff done in the editing - fades and split screens - stuff was
nixed by the producer.  I gotta say, it was embarrassing to sit through
it.  The overall sound quality was about as good as a cheap VCR copy,
the video was grainy, compared to `Rondine'.  Apparently pieced together
from three performances to make Olga happy."

Janos Gereben
www.sfcv.org
[log in to unmask]

             ***********************************************
The CLASSICAL mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R)
list management software together with L-Soft's HDMail High Deliverability
Mailer for reliable, lightning fast mail delivery.  For more information,
go to:  http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html