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List Price: $24.99Amazon.com's Price: $21.99 You Save: $3.00 (12%)Prices subject to change.
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Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: DVD
EAN: 0014381956122
Format: Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Full Screen, NTSC
Label: Image Entertainment
Manufacturer: Image Entertainment
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Image Entertainment
Region Code: 1
Release Date: June 10, 2003
Running Time: 115 minutes
Sales Rank: 34453
Studio: Image Entertainment
Theatrical Release Date: September 29, 1996
Editorial Review:
Description:
An unforgettable chronicle of the redemptive power of love, this is a mesmerizing musical rhapsody from the Broadway team of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine. In 19th century Italy, handsome soldier Giorgio, is embroiled in a steamy affair with lovely, and married, Clara. Giorgio is transferred from Milan to a remote military outpost where he comes into contact with the ailing, homely Fosca, his commanding officer's cousin. Fosca falls instantly and deeply in love with Giorgio, who resists her affections. Gradually she reveals, and Giorgio learns to appreciate, what is truly beautiful about herself. This highly acclaimed Broadway musical features extraordinary performances from Donna Murphy (The King & I), Marin Mazzie (Ragtime, Kiss Me Kate) and Jere Shea (Damn Yankees). A haunting study of obsessive love, this striking production offers a visual and musical feast that will linger in your heart and soul forever! Winner of 4 Tony Awards: Best Musical, Best Actress (Musical) - Donna Murphy, Best Book (Musical) - James Lapine, Best Original Musical Score - Stephen Sondheim
Amazon.com essential video:
Based on the Italian movie Passione d'amore, Stephen Sondheim's Passion is a story of obsessive love. Giorgio (Jere Shea), a soldier, and Clara (Marin Mazzie), a woman with a husband and child, are deeply in love, but their idyllic happiness is disrupted when Giorgio is transferred to another post. Here he meets Signora Fosca (Donna Murphy), a homely and ill woman who is the cousin of the regiment's commanding officer. Fosca soon falls in love with Giorgio and pursues him relentlessly, saying 'Loving you is not a choice / It's who I am.' He is repulsed and resists her advances, but eventually he succumbs to the power of her love.
Rather than a succession of individual songs strung together by dialogue, Stephen Sondheim's score is a constant flow of gorgeous music. (The original theater program listed no individual songs.) The plot is conveyed by song, some dialogue, letters between the characters, and a group of soldiers that serves as a Greek chorus. The result is more of a chamber opera than a conventional musical. Passion won Tonys for Best Musical, Best Score, and Best Book of 1994.
This video is a stage production filmed for American Playhouse with all of the original Broadway principals, though not before a live audience. To suit television audiences, the producers weakened the opening love scene by removing the nudity of the stage version; instead Mazzie awkwardly tries to keep herself wrapped in sheets as she sings to Giorgio of her bliss. Murphy gives a powerful, Tony-winning performance as Fosca, Mazzie is in glorious voice as Clara, and Shea brings a pretty voice, a pretty face, and a wooden personality to Giorgio. --David Horiuchi
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Lapine Shines, Sondheim Falls Short
I love Sondheim. He is a god to me. Every work of his I've ever seen is one I've loved - Into the Woods, Sweeney Todd, Company, Sunday in the Park With George. I ordinarily credit him with all the greatness of each musical, despite the profound efforts of his collaborators - Lapine, Furth, Wheeler, etc. - because I always feel that his score and his lyrics so perfectly capture the entire essence of the characters and the play itself that the writers deserve very little credit. However, that is ... Read More
Rating:  - Sondheim's Masterpiece!
This is undoubtably Sondheim's masterpiece. An almost 2 hour rhapsody beautifully sung, acted, staged and filmed.
This is a must for every Sondheim fan!!!
Rating: - I love this work...
I love all Sondheim but this is my favorite.
The one thing that would make my life perfect (well,almost) would be if the concert performance from Jazz at Lincoln Center were also released on DVD so I could have both, with their different emphasis, to enjoy.
Till then this is the more "human", the other walks into catholic mysticism, of the two great performances and it's devastating.
Rating: - True Passion
I have had the recording of Stephen Sondheim's Passion for quite some time now. I love Sondheim, but I never could really get into the music very much. The notes and tempos are extremely irregular and are veyr hard to remember, so it seems you are hearing it for the first time every time you listen to it. But then I saw this DVD and I realized the brilliance of the music and the show itself. It plays perfectly into the story. I shouldn't be able to remember the music very well, I shouldn't think it ... Read More
Rating: - How Can Anyone Not Like This Show?
First, I must say that comparing Sondheim shows to each other is ridiculous. Would you tell a plumber that you liked his sink installation in one house more than in another? Each piece is completely different and should be judged on its own merits.
Passion explores the themes of love and beauty from a darker perspective than we are accustomed. The performances are quite good--particularly Donna Murphy's portrayal of Fosca. With the DVD, you get a chance to get closer to Fosca and experience ... Read More
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