I’ll be brief. This release is bitterly disappointing. Maskarade is the Danish national opera, as charming, melodious, witty, and winning as Smetana’s The Bartered Bride. The story, about conflict between the generations and the triumph of young love, is timeless. This performance, featuring the finest Danish soloists, musicians, and conductor, is unbeatable. The staging has humor and eye-appeal. It’s thoughtful, vivid, not overly literal, but never disrespectful of the work. So what’s the problem? The video production is simply unwatchable. Who wants to see an opera in which the action is constantly interrupted by crosscutting to the orchestra and conductor doing their thing in the pit? It shatters any pretense of a coherent story happening on stage, and as a strategy for home viewing, particularly for viewers not familiar with the work, it’s so incomprehensibly stupid as to leave one dumbfounded. Maybe, if we’re lucky, Dacapo will release this performance in an audio-only format. Then we’ll have something to talk about.
