Sei in: Cinema e Medioevo ® Indice alfabetico dei film |
THE SORCERESS
1993, regia di Barbara Willis Sweete
Scheda: Nazione: Olanda - Produzione: Nederlandse Omroepstichting - Distribuzione: Lynx Images Releasing - Musiche: dalle opere Alcina, Giulio Cesare, Amadigi, Rinaldo e Ariodante di Georg Friedrich Händel - Formato: Color, film tv - Durata: 50'.
Cast: Kiri Te Kanawa, Andrew Kelley, Jeannette Zingg, Wilbert Hansen, Christopher Hogwood.
Plot Summary, Synopsis, Review:
IMDb
-
allmovie.com -
bullfrogfilms.com -
nytimes.com -
rottentomatoes.com -
umanitoba.ca: «...The
great Kiri Te Kanawa is a benign Alcina, a much gentler creature than Handel's
original enchantress who used her black powers to turn admirers into trees and
other inanimate objects. This is fortunate, as Dame Te Kanawa is far too
sympathetic to be a convincing Queen of the Night. An improbable plot is held
together by magnificent singing, music and dancing. Alcina stages a ball where
she bewitches a handsome young courtier, Ruggiero, stealing him from his beloved,
Bradamante. His transformation as a captive of Alcina is marked by his
metamorphosis from a bewigged baroque gentleman to a black prince with the
removal of his wig and shining clothes by Alcina's sinister catlike minions.
Bradamante, however, is not easily thwarted. She steals Alcina's magic staff and
entrances Ruggiero in turn. Alcina calls on the Spirits of Darkness to avenge
her but finds her powers gone with her staff. Powerless, she laments. In the
meantime Ruggiero has second thoughts and, as the agents of darkness steal back
to Alcina with her wand, so does Ruggiero. The story-line provides a foil for
Dame Te Kanawa's arias and some excellent dancing by the Scapino Ballet of
Rotterdam that ranges from the minuet to the menacing movement of the cats.
Sumptuous costumes, lavish sets and exquisite music contribute to an inspired
production. The sublime music of Christopher Hogwood and the Academy of Ancient
Music issues from a subterranean podium that allows interesting shots of the
singer and the orchestra through its separating lattice».