Bianca e Fernando, commissioned for the inauguration of the Carlo Felice Theatre in 1828, was composed at the start of Bellini’s career as one of the most important opera composers of the 19th century. The superb music for this dramatic story of filial love, wicked intrigues and triumph over tyranny was received with the ‘jubilation and admiration of the citizens of Genoa’ and greatly admired by the likes of Donizetti, earning Bellini recognition throughout Italy and beyond. This acclaimed first modern performance brings to light precious lost pages of music, reviving the original ‘splendid celebration’ of its premiere.

Classical Music

The story of Shakespeare's star crossed lovers has been adapted and retold by composers, librettists, playwrights, and choreographers for centuries. Since the Renaissance, everyone seems to have put their own spin on the story. This release features Vincenzo Bellini's frequently overlooked gem "I Capuleti e i Montecchi." This work is unique in that it is not simply a retelling of Shakespeare's story set to music. Rather, the opera tells the account of the last 24 hours in Romeo and Juliet's lives. Desperation and melancholy draw to a tragic cataclysm as the young lovers choose to end their lives. This production, directed by Christof Loy and conducted by Fabio Luisi, originates in Zurich, and was wonderfully received by both audiences and critics. Joyce DiDonato dazzles in the role of Romeo alongside Ukrainian soprano Olga Kulchynska, who plays Giulietta.

Also available on Blu-ray

A jewel of bel canto, and Bellini’s last masterpiece, I puritani encapsulates every major theme held dear by the Italian romantic generation: a love triangle, quid pro quos, a shattered love affair leading to madness, set in Cromwell’s England with its lot of political rivalries. It is also an ode to resistance and to freedom, echoing the political struggles that the Italian peninsula was facing in the 1830’s. But it is mainly a testament to Bellini’s unique musical brand, a genius combination of melodic brightness, post-Rossinian ornaments, and a profound and melancholic lament that owes much to traditional Neapolitan songs. It is therefore one of the most vocally demanding operas of the repertoire, and to face this challenge, the Teatro Real of Madrid called on four exceptional singers : the great diva Diana Damrau is Elvira, Javier Camarena is Arturo (both triumphed at the Metropolitan Opera of New York in the same opera in early 2017), as well as baritone Ludovic Tezier and bass-baritone Nicolas Teste. Catalan director Emilio Sagi offers a staging both elegant and simple, and bel canto expert Evelinò Pido, along with the Teatro Real Orchestra and Chorus, brings forth every nuance of this immense and unforgettable score.

This is not simply a recording of Norma as staged in January 2018 at the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa. Its real value is that it is the superb conclusion to the career of Mariella Devia, one of the finest Belcanto singers of our time, which makes the present recording an ideal artistic testament that pinpoints Mariella Devia's total eminence at the end of a long, hard-won career. That career began officially 45 years earlier as Lucia di Lammermoor at the Toti Dal Monte Competition in Treviso in 1973- a role in which Devia would become the standard by which others would by judged. At the beginning of her career, Devia had to emigrate to the USA. Thrown in at the deep end, Mariella Devia’s professionalism proved that this emerging young Italian was a force to be reckoned with. She got her Italian break in 1984 with Rossini’s Adelaide di Borgogna. Mariella Devia took the step toward Norma in 2013 in Bologna. She proved not only that she could carry the role from start to finish with no hint of loss in consistency but that her class was intact throughout. Her one-of-a-kind Norma achieved impact mainly through her singing, and her approach to expression prized the intimate and the subtly incisive over all-out hyperbole. Over the next five years, she consolidated the role even as she cut back on public appearances, performing it more than any other part. The results heard on the present recording speak for themselves.

Classical Music

Federico Sacchi; Patrizia Ciofi; Danilo Formaggia; Nicola Amodio
The Bratislava Chamber Chorus
Orchestra Internazionale d’Italia/Luciano Acocella, conductor
Denis Krief, director

NTSC All Regions
DTS 5.1; PCM Stereo 2.0
Color Picture: 16:9 widescreen
Duration: 136 minutes
Subtitles: Italian, English, French, German, Japanese

WORLD PREMIERE DVD RECORDING

This is the version of I Capuleti e i Montecchi made for La Scala, where it was first staged on 26th December 1830, featuring two female voices in the roles of Romeo and Juliet. This opera is usually performed with a tenor as Romeo, but at La Scala Bellini found a different singing troupe which obliged him to cast not the en travesti warrior of Rossinian manner (like Tancredi, Arsace, Malcolm) but a wholly female Romeo, ardent and authoritative yet at the same time languid, sensual and soft. The choice of this Capuleti at the 2005 Martina Franca Festival was also dictated by the availability of Patrizia Ciofi. This great specialist of romantic belcanto had never been offered the role of Giulietta in Capuleti, a role, which is absolutely ideal for her vocal talents.

BELLINI: Norma (1831 Edition for 2 Sopranos)

Bellini: I Capuleti e i Montecchi (Live)

BELLINI, V.: Operas (Complete)

Joan Sutherland is known for her great recordings made during the sixties of Donizetti and Bellini alongside powerhouse Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti. Sutherland, however, had other remarkable stage partners. Among them was Alfedo Kraus. This live recording was made in San Francisco in 1966. The partnership of Alfredo Kraus and Joan Sutherland in this opera is a matchless experience, and makes listeners realize the formidable performing needs of the Italian Romantic Opera.

Bellini: Norma [1958]

Bellini: La sonnambula (1957)

Bellini: I puritani (Recorded Live 1961)

Classical Music

Star soprano Sonya Yoncheva sings the towering role of Bellini's Norma – a priestess torn between love and duty – in a timeless tale of love and betrayal, set in a fanatically religious and war-torn modern society. The spectacular production by Àlex Olle for The Royal Opera also stars Joseph Calleja as Norma's former lover Pollione, leader of the forces occupying her country, Brindley Sherratt as her domineering father Oroveso, and Sonia Ganassi as Adalgisa, her greatest friend and unwitting rival in love. Royal Opera Music Director Antonio Pappano leads this superb cast, the Royal Opera Chorus and Orchestra of the Royal Opera House in one of the greatest works of the bel canto repertory.

Classical Music

BELLINI: Capuleti e i Montecchi (1830 La Scala version)

Vincenzo Bellini was among the most important Italian opera composers of the early 19th century, and the quintessential representative of its bel canto tradition. Despite his enduring renown, his official operatic debut Bianca e Gernando was known only in its revised version of Bianca e Fernando until this rediscovery and revival at Bad Wildbad in July 2016. Set in the ducal palace of Agrigento and with its tale of secretive plots and triumph over tyranny, this original version of the opera presents both unknown music and significant differences from the revised version, giving its dramatic shape a distinctive new character.

Also available on Blu-ray

Premiered in Milan on 6 March 1831, La Sonnambula is regarded as Bellini’s first true masterpiece. The opera teils the story of Amina, who is to marry Elvino, but sleepwalks into the room of Count Rodolfo the night before her wedding. Upon hearing of this deplorable incident, Elvino calls off the wedding. Although Rodolfo confirms her innocence, Elvino remains steel-hearted, until Amina sleepwalks again… This new production of La Sonnambula dazzles with lovingly detailed and imaginative sets which repro­duce a Swiss alpine resort in the 1930s (Bellini himself set the action in a Swiss village). Complete with a majestic mountain panorama, a cable car and a grand salon, not to mention the colorfully dressed resort guests, the settings deploy an enchanting picture book of visual surprises. Director Bepi Morassi interweaves subtle details that reflect the social realities of today, such as a marriage contract.

Vincenzo Bellini
LA SONNAMBULA

Count Rodolfo – Giovanni Battista Parodi
Teresa – Julie Mellor
Amina – Jessica Pratt
Elvino – Shalva Mukeria
Lisa – Anna Viola
Alessio – Dario Ciotoli
A Notary – Raffaele Pastori

Teatro la Fenice Chorus and Orchestra
(chorus master: Claudio Marino Moretti)
Gabriele Ferro, conductor

Bepi Morassi, stage director
Massimo Checchetto, set designer

Recorded live from the Teatro La Fenice, 2012

Picture format: NTSC 16:9
Sound format: PCM Stereo / DTS 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Subtitles: English, German, French, Spanish, Chinese, Korean
Booklet notes: English, German, French
Running time: 132 mins
No. of DVDs: 1 (DVD 9)

Bellini: La sonnambula (1955)

ROMANTIC ARIAS • Nino Machaidze (s); Michele Mariotti, cond; Bologna Th O • SONY 88697841742 (73:00 Text and Translation)


Arias from MASSENET Manon. GOUNOD Roméo et Juliette. BELLINI Adelson e Salvini. La Sonnambula. ROSSINI Il Turco in Italia. DONIZETTI Lucia di Lammermoor. La Fille du régiment. Linda di Chamounix


Although Georgian-born soprano Nino Machaidze has been a member of the prestigious young artists development program at La Scala in Milan and actually made her leading-role debut there in 2007, she didn’t make a real splash in the international opera scene until she filled in for a pregnant Anna Netrebko as Gounod’s Juliette in a summer Salzburg production in 2008. (An obviously pregnant Juliette would really have made a splash!) After her success there, Machaidze has followed up with debuts at several prestigious opera venues, including both coasts in the U.S., appearing in Rossini’s Il Turco in Italia at the Los Angeles Opera and as Gilda in Rigoletto at the Metropolitan Opera. Machaidze’s lyric coloratura repertoire and her sultry Slavic beauty have led to the inevitable comparisons with superstar Netrebko. Here the young Georgian singer presents a debut album of well-known Romantic arias.


Among the program are two French arias from the Gounod opera of the two ill-fated lovers mentioned above, and the delightful “Adieu, nôtre petite table” as Manon sings goodbye to her furniture in Jules Massenet’s opera named for the heroine. The other six selections on the disc are bel canto and coloratura showpieces, a repertoire with which Machaidze seems the more comfortable. Instead of the usual mad scene from Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor , we get the lovely act I entrance scena and aria for Lucia, “Regnava nel silenzio.” A beautiful aria from Vincenzo Bellini’s obscure first opera, Adelson e Salvini , “Dopo l’oscuro nembo,” is probably better known to operagoers as Giuletta’s “Oh, quante volte” after Bellini reused the tune in his I Capuleti e I Montecchi. Two extended scenes, one from Donizetti’s La Fille du Régiment and the other the wonderful finale from Bellini’s La Sonnambula, here demonstrate Machaidze’s ability to span a range of emotions and a range of musical styles culminating in spectacular coloratura fireworks.


As to vocal production, Machaidze has all the breathtaking high notes and the vocal agility to sing florid passages with which only the young are blessed for too short a time. She does not possess the tonal beauty and solid security in her top range that Netrebko enchants us with, but both sopranos have the dusky, rich sound in the lower register often found with Slavic singers. Machaidze has been criticized in some live performances for occasional intonation problems, but one hears little of that here. The young coloratura sings very well, her Italian better than her French.


Booklet essays and complete texts are provided in English, German, French, and Italian. Sony takes advantage of the photogenic Machaidze with nine glamour photos. The Bologna Teatro Communale Orchestra is no doubt long familiar with these operatic chestnuts and supports the singer in excellent fashion. Machaidze bears watching and hearing; she is one of the young guns on the opera horizon. You will enjoy her work on this fine CD.


FANFARE: Bill White

Famous horn player Felix Klieser presents Italian arias on his instrument, the follow-up project to the Pop Chart award-winning album "Baroque Arias for Horn". He is joined by the Italian orchestra I Solisti di Pavia, recorded in the famous Teatro Fraschini at Pavia. The album contains well-known opera arias from Rossini, Verdi, Puccini and Italian songs like O Sole Mio and the Nino Rota's film music from "The Godfather". All tracks have been newly arranged for Felix Klieser and the ensemble.

The story of Shakespeare’s star crossed lovers has been adapted and retold by composers, librettists, playwrights, and choreographers for centuries. Since the Renaissance, everyone seems to have put their own spin on the story. This release features Vincenzo Bellini’s frequently overlooked gem “I Capuleti e i Montecchi.” This work is unique in that it is not simply a retelling of Shakespeare’s story set to music. Rather, the opera tells the account of the last 24 hours in Romeo and Juliet’s lives. Desperation and melancholy draw to a tragic cataclysm as the young lovers choose to end their lives. This production, directed by Christof Loy and conducted by Fabio Luisi, originates in Zurich, and was wonderfully received by both audiences and critics. Joyce DiDonato dazzles in the role of Romeo alongside Ukrainian soprano Olga Kulchynska, who plays Giulietta.

Classical Music