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Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: DVD
EAN: 0014381697421
Format: Animated, Classical, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
Label: Image Entertainment
Manufacturer: Image Entertainment
Number Of Items: 1
Picture Format: Academy Ratio
Publisher: Image Entertainment
Release Date: April 04, 2000
Running Time: 184 minutes
Sales Rank: 94912
Studio: Image Entertainment
Theatrical Release Date: 1994
Editorial Review:
Description:
An unforgettable journey into opera and animation. Operavox is state-of-the-art animation techniques, spellbinding music and unforgettable stories distilled into 30-minute films full of invention, emotion and fun. Breaking free of the confines of the stage, their extravagant visual style brings a new accessibility to these long-established masterpieces. Contains scenes of animated nudity and graphic violence--parental discretion advised. Operas included: The Magic Flute (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart), The Barber of Seville (Gioacchino Rossini), Carmen (Georges Bizet), Das Rheingold (Richard Wagner), Turandot (Giacomo Puccini), Rigoletto (Giuseppe Verdi). 180 minutes.
Amazon.com:
An ambitious experiment by the BBC that ultimately fails, Operavox attempts to condense six famous operas into animated half-hours. The limited time forces the filmmakers to present the stories in clunky English translations, while reducing the celebrated scores to musical mincemeat.
The stop-motion animators come the closest to succeeding. Barry J.C. Purves captures the malevolent pleasures and crushing sorrows of the court of Mantua in his atmospheric rendition of Verdi's Rigoletto. Natalia Dabizha's softer, more traditional puppets give Rossini's The Barber of Seville the feeling of a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta, but she manages to preserve a suitably comic tone. Valeri Oganov treats Mozart's sublime Magic Flute as if it were an episode from Yellow Submarine, while Graham Ralph tries to turn Wagner's Das Rheingold into Heavy Metal, with Freya in a Frazetta-esque bikini.
Mario Cavalli paints over live-action footage for his singularly ugly--and barely animated--version of Bizet's Carmen, while Gary Hurst's retelling of Puccini's Turandot boasts chinoiserie backgrounds that are more interesting than the animation in front of them. The performances by the Welsh National Opera under various conductors are adequate at best, with the singers painfully overtaxed in what should be the most beautiful moments. Unrated; suitable for ages 13 and older for nudity, violence, drinking, and adult themes. --Charles Solomon
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Rigoletto is worth price of DVD
The "Rigoletto" segment is amazing. Ornate & historically accurate costumes and sets, magnificent lighting and cinematography, and eloquently expressed emotion - from puppets. For general audiences, a PG-13 rating is appropriate, although our daughter viewed and loved it at 9.
The abridgement streamlines the convoluted plot into a form more easily digested by younger viewers, and possibly most modern audiences as well. The father loves his daughter, the daughter feels ashamed, the ... Read More
Rating:  - Opera for little ones.....not really...read on
Simple put, I have seen most of these Operas in one iteration or another. I actually bought it for my daughters (3 and 5) after seeing an excerpt of "Barber of Seville" on a cable station. My wife and I love the ballet and Opera and want our children to do the same.
The stop action puppeteering on "BoS" is amazing and suitable for little ones, who might appreciate the arts. That being said, the rest of the Operas are questionable (for little eyes). Since the girls have seen "Carmen", and ... Read More
Rating: - Operavox.
Operavox is a series of six animated operas- Verdi's "Rigoletto", Bizet's "Carmen", Rossini's "The Barber of Seville", Wagner's "Rhinegold", Mozart's "The Magic Flute" and Puccini's "Turandot". Each of the operas has been adapted into half-hour animations- each one in a different style and translated into English, to make the story easier to follow.
Even as a teenager with a keen interest in music, I find that Operas are too long and too involved to take much interest in; however, Operavox ... Read More
Rating: - Awesome! A great intro to opera.
I know that lots of people where disappointed with these 30 minute cartoon versions of 3 hour operas, but I guess I just loved 'em.
I'm 13 and for years I have been shoved into an image of opera as uptight garbage for people with a strange taste for boredom, but while searching thru the DVD section at my library, I found OperaVox and my mind just opened up to opera. I discovered operas to have exciting storylines, beautiful characters, and music that is much more than a bunch of Italian gobbledygook. ... Read More
Rating:  - Disappointment
I had eagerly anticipated this disc, but was greatly disappointed in the quality of the sound and the animation. Each of the segments was animated in a different style, and some of them worked OK but some did not work well at all. The Rigoletto, for example, was entertaining and imaginative, but the Magic Flute was disorganized and the story line was almost missing. The Carmen was probably the best of the bunch and the Turandot was probably overall the worst--bad, in fact.
The sound was disappointing ... Read More
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