Amor, Vida de Mi Vida (review) Alicia M. Doyle

Notes, Volume 66, Number 3, March 2010, p. 646 (Review)

Published by Music Library Association DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/not.0.0332

For additional information about this article https://muse.jhu.edu/article/376377

[ This content has been declared free to read by the pubisher during the COVID-19 pandemic. ] 646 Notes, March 2010

Amor, Vida de Mi Vida. DVD. Jésus Lopez-Cobos / Mozarteum Orchester Salzburg. With Plácido Domingo and Ana María Martinez. Medici Arts, 2009. 2072478. $32.49.

This DVD is a live recording of works be or particular importance in the mo- performed during two nights at the Salz - ment. While interesting visually, this is burger Festpiele (Großes Festpielhaus) in acoustically unnerving, because when an in- August, 2007. Packaged as a collection of strument is featured, not only does the excerpts from zarzuelas, the performance camera linger on the instrument/section, features Plácido Domingo (tenor), Ana at the same time, the audio of that particu- María Martínez (soprano), and the lar instrument is also momentarily ampli- Mozarteum Orchester Salzburg under the fied. This has the unfortunate side effect of baton of Jesús López-Cobos. throwing off the ensemble balance written Born in Spain to parents who made a ca- into the composition. reer in zarzuela performance, Plácido Overall the DVD is an easy sell. All of the Domingo moved with his family as a child pieces selected are lushly scored, with a fo- to Mexico, where his parents had formed a cus on melody, consistently dramatic, yet zarzuela company. The works on this conservatively pleasant, harmonies, and a recording reflect his family’s heritage and preponderance of dance rhythms. Addi - business and are understandably sentimen- tionally, the works have a common thread tal. The repertory on the DVD is comprised of “exotic” flair exhibited mainly by semi- of instrumental pieces, arias, and duets ex- stereotypical “folk” sounds (chromatic cerpted from twenty-one works, most of melodies, dance rhythms, and the use of which are truly zarzuelas (The jota from castanets). Even the work by Lecuona is Manuel de Falla’s ballet El sombrero de tres marked by recurring inclusion of Afro- picos, ¡Soleá!- ¿Me llamabas, Rafaeliyo? from Cuban percussion, and the Léhar is a waltz! Manuel Pennella’s opera El gato montés,and Watching the entire DVD in one sitting is “Lippen Schweigen” from Franz Léhar’s perhaps not recommended as the works operetta Die lustige Witwe are the outsiders.) are all quite similar and saturation will All but two of the works (those by the come quickly. Waiting for the soloists to Cuban composer, Ernesto Lecuona and the walk on and off the stage also becomes Austro-Hungarian, Léhar) on the DVD are quite tedious when watching continuously. from Spanish composers. However, if you are looking for an excel- Despite the fact that the zarzuela as a lent chapter or two of a video to introduce genre has its roots in Baroque Spain, no the zarzuela genre in a music appreciation early works are represented in this particu- course or some sort of event in which pa- lar recording. Drawn strictly from the nine- trons with a love of music, but little music teenth and twentieth centuries, the earliest experience are being addressed, this video work on the DVD is “Al pensar en el dueño is ideal. The music is all extraordinarily ap- de mis amores,” from Ruperto Chapí’s proachable; there is no shortage of catchy Las hijas del Zebedeo (1889), and the most melodies, toe-tapping dance rhythms, and recent work is “No puede ser” from Pablo several unmistakable references to the ex- Sorozábal’s La tabernera del puerto (1936). otic (mostly) Spanish origins. The orches- The concerts were nicely but convention- tra looks great, the close ups of the instru- ally filmed and the venue is pleasant, if a mentalists are wonderfully posed (one bit on the ordinary side. Domingo and Ana could even use the video to approach the María Martínez sing with a subtle Castilian subject of rotary valve trumpets!) and the accent, and the orchestra performs master- close ups of the singers are at an appropri- fully with López-Cobos at the helm. During ate angle so as to not be uncomfortable. the pieces that feature the singers, the cam- Subtitles are available in German, English, era stays mainly on the Domingo and/or French, and Spanish. This is definitely not Martinez, alternating shots of the audience a filmic production, but rather a television- at appropriate moments. During the instru- style work, and for what it is, it delivers. mental works there is more variety in the camera angles, with the focus zooming in Alicia M. Doyle on the instruments that were perceived to California State University, Long Beach