Product Overview
Menotti - The Medium / Powers, Alberghetti, Savona, Dame, Morgan, Schippers / OPERA IN TWO ACTS BY GIAN CARLO MENOTTI / Symphony Orchestra of Rome Radio Italiana conducted by THOMAS SCHIPPERS / DVD
Format: NTSC
Run time: 80 Minutes
UPC: 089948421894
- Aspect Ratio : 1.33:1
- MPAA rating : NR (Not Rated)
- Product Dimensions : 0.7 x 7.5 x 5.4 inches; 3.68 Ounces
- Media Format : Multiple Formats, Classical, Color, NTSC, Full Screen
- Run time : 1 hour and 20 minutes
- Release date : June 25, 2002
- Actors : Marie Powers, Thomas Schippers, Leopoldo Savona, Belva Kibler, Beverly Dame
- Language : English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono)
- Studio : Video Artists Int'L
- Country of Origin : France
- Number of discs : 1
The acclaimed 1950 film version of Menotti's supernatural thriller starring Marie Powers, Anna Maria Alberghetti, and Leo Coleman.
Filmed in 1951, this must be one of the oldest opera videos in existence. Making allowances for the limited technical resources of that era, it is still one of the best. Composer-librettist Gian Carlo Menotti was also a great operatic stage director, and he commits his work to film with finely detailed, deeply understanding attention. He should have directed more films. The soundtrack, pre-stereo and barely hi-fi, is nonetheless adequate. And the black-and-white cinematography may actually be more suited than color to the dark moods of this spooky verismo masterpiece.
It is a simple story with enormous psychological overtones: Madame Flora, a fraudulent medium, begins to believe her own deceptions and has a nervous breakdown after she feels a cold hand touch her during a séance. Marie Powers fills this complex role brilliantly, assisted by an excellent, well-directed supporting cast. Menotti's operas ran successfully on Broadway. This one shows why
