Bellini - I Capuleti e i Montecchi (Pietro Mianiti, Valentina Farcas, Paola Gardina) [2005]

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Bellini - I Capuleti e i Montecchi (Pietro Mianiti, Valentina Farcas, Paola Gardina) [2005]

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Originally produced by the Ravenna Festival 2001, this version was recorded live in November 2005 in Ravenna's Teatro Alighieri, with young singers under the musical direction of Pietro Mianiti. The singing is generally fine, though Mianiti's tempos are quite slow, and the Italian cast's idiomatic handling of the text is a delight. But the visual elements are what drive this DVD. With scenery and virtual images by Ezio Antonelli and video direction by Giovanna Nocetti, there are so many stunning looks created with fades, double exposures and slow-motion techniques, it's almost impossible to know what was actually seen in the auditorium. The scenery and special effects are based on the works of the Italian Renaissance painter Vittore Carpaccio, and projected frames, arches and columns place the whole thing in a kind of magic box, where museum pieces seem to come to life.
I recommend dispensing with the mediocre English subtitles and concentrating on the fascinating stage pictures. Romeo makes his entrance silhouetted in a bright magenta light, and after his great aria and cabaletta, "Se Romeo t'uccise un figlio," he and his enemies disappear with a flash of capes in a slow-motion fade into the shadowy, pink unknown. Giulietta's "O quante volte" takes place in a forest, with dappled sunlight and thick greenery, all computer-generated. She gendy holds a candle in a bowl, and her face glows mysteriously. Leaves drift and fall in swirls.
For the most intense moments, director Cristina Mazzavillani Muti keeps the focus on her singers. Valentina Farcas as Giulietta and Paola Gardina as Romeo are bodi fine singing actors and capture the intensity of the final scene with genuine pathos and convincing anguish. As Tebaldo (a conflation of Shakespeare's Tybalt and Paris), tenor Giacomo Patti shows promise; Gabriele Spina is a sympathetic Lorenzo, and Roberto Tagliavini's Capellio needs only the ripeness of age. Mention must be made of the gorgeous clarinet solo played onstage by Laura Magi Strelli.

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Bellini - I Capuleti e i Montecchi (Pietro Mianiti, Valentina Farcas, Paola Gardina) [2005]

Close