Messages

Mark Thomas: "I have a dreadful recording, seemingly made using two cans and a piece of string in a swimming pool, of a 1995 BBC broadcast of the complete work, conducted by Barry Wordsworth."

I suspect you may be thinking of the 1981 Reading University production, a poor quality in-house recording of which (coupled with a marginally better in-house of Stanford's "Much Ado About Nothing" from 1985 given at Jeanetta Cochrane Theatre) has been in circulation among some collectors for some time now. My copy is sourced from cassette tapes, two sides of which were apparently blank (!); thus, "Act 4 of Much Ado and Act 2 of Travelling Companion are missing" (to quote directly from the notes provided with the recordings).  Barry Wordworth conducted the excerpts that were broadcast on BBC Radio 3 in 1995 as part of the series "Britannia at the Opera."

Yeah, I subtitled that poor quality video of "Mathis" a couple of years ago.  As the original contained large Spanish hard-subs (subtitles burnt into the image) I made the questionable decision to try to cover them as best I could with the English placed within an ugly black border, compounding the ugliness with oversized text.   

Trying to read English subs with another language visible underneath struck me as very distracting, which is why I opted for the border.  Still,  I don't think I would do that now...   

Hopefully a better quality copy of the original video will surface.  Then again, the performance cut almost the entire 6th tableau, if I'm not mistaken. 

I wish I could locate a video of one of the more recent stagings.  Better still, perhaps one will eventually be released on DVD (preferably without excessive regie antics). 

Hey, thanks for the message!  I appreciate it.  I get an email whenever someone responds to this thread, which is how I responded so quickly.

Yes, my plan all along was to create a DVD containing BOTH the original, abridged version and the composite.  The English and Russian subtitles for the composite are complete.  It took us a whole year, during the course of which I exchanged nearly 1000 emails with my Russian friend Andrew!  I wanted the translation to be as accurate as possible and hounded him with a million questions.  All that is remaining is for me to finish the video editing, so that the composite is watchable.  But the main emphasis was getting the translation right and the audio editing as smooth as can be.

I'll be posting the disc at Mediafire, diced into 200 MB parts via winrar (as you know, I used to have some of my other custom-subbed opera videos there, but I have since taken most of them down). 

Of course, Mike knows this already; but for anyone else reading these words, these are "fan-projects," and are distributed gratis.   

I've started posting some of the finished projects to YouTube, and I currently have no less than 10 different subtitle projects (all of operas not commercially available on DVD) in various stages of completion.  A few of these are being translated into English for the very first time, in collaboration with various internet acquaintances around the globe.

http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCINvl6FrNmN-zIsjtIAOc7w/videos?flow=grid&view=0

[Eduard Nápravník - Dubrovsky (1960) Abridged, English, Russian and German subtitles]

Eduard Nápravník - Dubrovsky (1960) Abridged, English, Russian and German subtitles


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RX3Q1F4-Qo4


Eduard Nápravník (1839-1916)
"Dubrovsky"
Opera in 4 acts, 5 scenes. Op. 58
Libretto by Modest Tchaikovsky (based on an unfinished novel by Alexander Pushkin).

Andrey Dubrovsky - Georgy Dudarev
Vladimir, his son - Sergei Lemeshev
Troekurov - Alexei Ivanov
Masha, his daughter - Vera Kudryavtseva
Prince Vereisky - Pavel Mokeev
Superintendent - Mikhail Tyuremnov
Assessor - Vladimir Popov
Desforges - Nikolai Timchenko
Shabashkin - Roman Krasnoyurchenko
Yegorovna - Anna Vassilieva
Arkhip - Evgeny Korneev
Grishka - Ivan Zorin
Anton - Leonid Boldin
Tanya - Ruslana Oreshkina

Choir and Orchestra of the Moscow Academic Musical Theatre
Conductor - Peter Slavinsky

This is the original telefilm, with custom English subtitles, of an abridged version of the opera (so far as is known, this is the first time that this opera has ever been translated in English).

It is directed by Vitaly Golovin, who earlier in the same year directed a condensed version of Anton Rubinstein's "The Demon," also with Sergei Lemeshev and available here (with custom English subtitles):  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XX9CU8bQKuI.

Subtitle Credits:

Translated from the Russian by Andrew Zavodskikh, Andrei Lozinski and Paul Greif.

The French text in Act III was translated by Natalie Greenly.

Subtitle timings by Paul Greif.

The spoken credits were translated by Philipp Reznikov (http://sub-opera.narod.ru/), who also subtitled the extracts from Pushkin's original narrative (substituting the equivalent lines in English from the translation by T. Keane, first published in 1894).

The Russian subtitles (forthcoming) were transcribed by me from the vocal score published in 1972 and were proofread by Andrew.

The German subtitles (forthcoming) are transcribed verbatim from a German/Russian vocal score published in 1902.

To view subtitles, click "CC" on bottom right of player. I recommend you use the most updated version of Google Chrome.


Upcoming Composite Version:

The cuts to the score come "fast and furious" in the original telefilm. Consequently, this abridged version of "Dubrovsky" will soon be followed by a special composite version of the same video, but with as much of the excised music reinstated as possible and fully subtitled in English and Russian. The composite incorporates all of the remaining music from the 1960 recording sessions that served as the basis for the telefilm, as well as additions from two other recordings (the only other recordings of the entire opera in circulation): the 1949 studio recording with Ivan Kozlovsky and a 1966 live recording with Vladimir Kravtsov. These restored sections of music will be accompanied either by still photos from the telefilm or footage from the classic 1935 non-opera Soviet film version of Pushkin's original story (the original telefilm already contains numerous excerpts from this film), as well as other Russian films from the period.

The purpose of the composite is to create as complete a video presentation of the opera as possible, fully subtitled in English, Russian, German, etc. (if anyone would like to volunteer to translate the subtitles into a language of your choice, please contact me). There were, however, numerous cuts to the score (some amounting to many pages) in all of the sources listed above and for which no recording could be located. It is probable that these sections have never been recorded at all. These missing sections will be noted in the subtitles.

Despite the absence of these sections, the composite is still about 55 minutes longer than the original, abridged version presented here.

Anton Rubinstein's many unrecorded and unperformed operas would be a first choice for me.

Hello Alan,

Thank you.  I just checked on the files at Media Fire and they all seem to be there.  But if for some reason someone is having difficulty accessing a part, I can always re-post it at another link (provided I know the parts needed, of course).

Thanks very much!

Paul

I have posted several clips to YouTube. Please note, though, that the final video
quality will be much better than what is represented here (I quickly
slapped together the video and subs in order to provide a preview of the
project, and the method I used degraded the quality). The audio on
YouTube is also a bit out-of-synch, a problem not present on the actual
video.
Re: the subtitles, for the preview I arbitrarily selected MS Sans-Serif
and the size is a bit small. This will be corrected later.


"Know, I Wasn't Broken By Illness, My Son..."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57QPg3w1PxE

"O, Give Me Oblivion, Dear..." 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvDE-yy_DzQ

"I Have Gone Too Far..."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efogMDVxfIg

I hope to finish this project by the end of the summer. I am also
working on an English, Russian and Ukrainian subtitled video of Mykola
Lysenko's "Taras Bulba" (in collaboration with two native
Ukrainain/Russian speakers).

Additional projects that I have been working on simultaneously the past
year include a custom DVD containing two versions of Riccardo Zandonai's
"I Cavalieri di Ekebu" with English and Italian subs. One version is
sung in Italian and the other in Swedish (which is only fitting, as the
opera is based on the classic Swedish novel "Gosta Berlings Saga" which
is situated in rural Sweden in the 1830s).
Also in the final stages is a custom English, Russian, Spanish and
German (!) subtitled DVD of the 1990 Bregenz video of Catalani's "La
Wally" (in collaboration with some opera friends), a custom-subbed DVD
of the 1981 RAI tv broadcast of Donizetti's "Maria de Rudenz" (the video
is a composite I created from two different sources, both of poor
quality), et al.

The projects have been taking me a long while as, in my enthusiasm,
I foolishly opted to do so many at once!

Thanks for the kind words!

I am currently in the final stages of a custom-subbed DVD of Eduard Nápravník's "Dubrovsky," after an unfinished novel by Pushkin and with a libretto by Modest Tchaikovsky.

I have posted several clips to YouTube. Please note, though, that the final video
quality will be much better than what is represented here (I quickly
slapped together the video and subs in order to provide a preview of the
project, and the method I used degraded the quality). The audio on
YouTube is also a bit out-of-synch, a problem not present on the actual
video.
Re: the subtitles, for the preview I arbitrarily selected MS Sans-Serif
and the size is a bit small. This will be corrected later.

"Know, I Wasn't Broken By Illness, My Son..."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57QPg3w1PxE

"O, Give Me Oblivion, Dear..." 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvDE-yy_DzQ

"I Have Gone Too Far..."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efogMDVxfIg

I hope to finish this project by the end of the summer. I am also
working on an English, Russian and Ukrainian subtitled video of Mykola
Lysenko's "Taras Bulba" (in collaboration with two native
Ukrainain/Russian speakers).

Additional projects that I have been working on simultaneously the past
year include a custom DVD containing two versions of Riccardo Zandonai's
"I Cavalieri di Ekebu" with English and Italian subs. One version is
sung in Italian and the other in Swedish (which is only fitting, as the
opera is based on the classic Swedish novel "Gosta Berlings Saga" which
is situated in rural Sweden in the 1830s).
Also in the final stages is a custom English, Russian, Spanish and
German (!) subtitled DVD of the 1990 Bregenz video of Catalani's "La
Wally" (in collaboration with some opera friends), a custom-subbed DVD
of the 1981 RAI tv broadcast of Donizetti's "Maria de Rudenz" (the video
is a composite I created from two different sources, both of poor
quality), et al.

The projects have been taking me a long while as, in my enthusiasm,
I foolishly opted to do so many at once!

[Eduard Nápravník's "Dubrovsky"]

Greetings,

This is just a note that I am currently completing a special custom-subtitled DVD of Eduard Nápravník's "Dubrovsky" (in collaboration with several native Russian-speakers). The final DVD will contain two versions: the abridged 1961 telefilm and a second composite version of the same video (the only video of this opera out there) with most of the excised music reinstated from audio sources and fully subbed in English and Russian (some cuts to the score are missing from all extant recordings). The added audio will be accompanied by still photos from the 1961 film, as well as shots taken from the classic 1935 Soviet non-opera film of Pushkin's novel (the 1961 film already contains some exterior shots borrowed from the 1935 film; so I am merely adding a few more shots to complement the added music). This is probably the first time that this opera has been translated into English.

I am also working on an English, Russian and Ukrainian subtitled video of Mykola Lysenko's "Taras Bulba" (in collaboration with two native Ukrainain/Russian speakers).

I have also posted to the download section two of my rare opera subtitle projects from last year.  I have many others, as well (if anyone is interested).

[Eduard Nápravník's "Dubrovsky"]

Greetings,

This is just a note that I am currently completing a special custom-subtitled DVD of Eduard Nápravník's "Dubrovsky" (in collaboration with several native Russian-speakers). The final DVD will contain two versions: the abridged 1961 telefilm and a second composite version of the same video (the only video of this opera out there) with most of the excised music reinstated from audio sources and fully subbed in English and Russian (some cuts to the score are missing from all extant recordings). The added audio will be accompanied by still photos from the 1961 film, as well as shots taken from the classic 1935 Soviet non-opera film of Pushkin's novel (the 1961 film already contains some exterior shots borrowed from the 1935 film; so I am merely adding a few more shots to complement the added music). This is probably the first time that this opera has been translated into English.

I am also working on an English, Russian and Ukrainian subtitled video of Mykola Lysenko's "Taras Bulba" (in collaboration with two native Ukrainain/Russian speakers).

I have also posted to the download section two of my rare opera subtitle projects from last year.  I have many others, as well (if anyone is interested).