Donna Serpente

My first impression of the opera is the prominent role of the orchestra. The most interesting music is played by the orchestra, followed by the chorus and then the individual protagonist. It feels like the protagonists are there to get us into this fairy tale more than the music itself. There are some nice arias, but the best music is left for the orchestra, which does a very good job in this production. The whole is not a master piece, but worth watching it.The libretto is based on a playwright by Carlo Gozzi. A fairy-tale opera that poses many challenges to the stage director. It is wonderfully staged with very bright colors were most of the scenes are created by lighting instead of conventional staging. In fact there are very few props on the stage. The lighting and the colors made it a really fairy tale. Very creative and effective.The sound recording of this Blu-Ray is excellent as well as the video recording, a treat to listen and to watch.Note: This production appears to be the same of a previous DVD. Conductor and singers are not the same.

There are no great arias or individual numbers , but it makes for a pleasant evening's entertainment.

The story is of a fairy who wants to marry a human. The king of the fairies sets some stringent conditions, failure will mean that she will be turned into a snake then eventually go back o being a fairy.The set is some fifteen foot chunks of structure with concave slopes , These slide about and are sometime sat on. slid on or hid behind The costumes are colourful, fantastic and imaginative although the snake costume of Miranda is only a mask that does not vaguely resemble a snake.The music is big with a wide range of instruments. initially I was impressed but I soon found it rather wearingwith too little variation. There are no memorable arias but plenty of sung dialogue. There are some elements of Shostakovitch. Prokofiev and Janacek within the orchestration.There are male dancers in colourful skirts and topless who spend an inordinate amount of time dancing and performing mild acrobatics, sometimes to orchestral intervals , at other times behind the action. I found this pointless and does not have anything to do with the plot.There is a sub plot of a city affected by Miranda which produces the citizens complaining em masse, there is no mention of this in the synopsis.A low-light is when Miranda has to sacrifice her children in a fire they are lowered behind a red silk curtain .You might be pleased to know that at the end there is a happy ending, but until that arrived I kept checking to see how much longer I had to endure.The glossy booklet gives a rather poor synopsis, but good timings and section information, and a comprehensive cast list. It could be a long time before I try this one again.