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In Reply to: RE: The non-Eurotrashed Aida posted by Amphissa on October 18, 2009 at 08:23:06
. . . I had already graduated, but I had friends who were taking his classes. In regard to your point about heroic/young/beautiful figures in the libretto whose roles are assumed by 300-pound singers, Ducloux (according to my friends) was apparently a believer in filming actors to lip-sync with pre-existing soundtracks sung by the 300-pound opera singers. In fact, one friend told me that Ducloux had visions of filming the Ring cycle in Arizona, with Hollywood actors lip-syncing the sound track. He was concerned exactly with what you mention: there's often a dramatic disconnect between what the various libretti suggest (or explicitly state) should be the qualities of the characters and the actual appearance of these characters on an operatic stage.
Of course, these kinds of opera films with lip-syncing actors have been tried, and not to universal acclaim. There was a series which took Decca-London soundtracks and then used a cast of Czech actors to lip-sync for the films. These included "Eugene Onegin" (Solti recording used as a soundtrack), "A Village Romeo and Juliet", and "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District". As I say, the acclaim for these films was far from unanimous, but they do show that others are concerned about the same problems you mention.
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