I Capuleti e I Montecchi was Bellini’s sixth opera and followed
Zaira, his first real failure, premiered in Parma in May
1829. After the disaster of Zaira, Bellini took a holiday
with his lover before returning to Milan in June 1829 to meet
various theatre impresarios. Alessandro Lanari, who worked in
association with Venice’s La Fenice theatre, wanted to introduce
the composer to the city. He would have liked to commission Bellini
to write a new work for the forthcoming Carnival Season commencing
on 26 December 1829. However, this was not possible, as both Persiani
and Pacini had already been commissioned, with Romani booked to
provide the libretto for each. The ever-shrewd Lanari was aware
that Pacini had also accepted a commission from Turin and may
not fulfil his obligations to Venice. With this in mind he offered
Bellini a revival of Il pirata under the composer’s personal
supervision for January 1830. To this opportunity Lanari added
an understanding that if Pacini did not deliver, Bellini would
be invited to fulfil the commission for a new work.
Bellini went to
Venice in December 1829 and Il pirata was given to acclaim
on 16 January 1830 by which date Pacini had failed to turn up.
With Pacini’s opera scheduled for the last week in February
Bellini signed a contract on 20 January. With the Carnival Season
ending on 22 March time was short for composer and librettist
and both took short cuts. Romani revised and simplified a libretto
titled Giulietta e Romeo that he had previously written
for Nicola Vaccai and which had been staged in Milan in 1825.
With barely six weeks to the premiere Bellini also did some
recycling.
The story suited
Bellini’s artistic sensibilities. He also saw an opportunity
to use music from the failed Zaira. Charles Osborne (‘The
Bel Canto Operas’. Methuen 1994) suggests that Bellini re-used
nearly half the music from Zaira for his new opera. Straight
plagiarism was much too risky and Bellini worked very hard at
adapting the old music much of which underwent major changes
of structure and key. This perhaps helps to explain why Bellini
never sought to revise the earlier work. He also used several
other melodies from Zaira in both Norma, and to
a lesser extent, in Beatrice di Tenda.
Bellini’s I Capuleti
e I Montecchi was eventually premiered, a little later than
planned, on 11 March 1830. It was an immediate and immense success
and was performed eight times in the ten days left before the
end of the season. After the third performance a huge crowd
preceded by a military band playing music from his operas conducted
Bellini to his lodgings! The opera was seen twenty-five times
at La Scala, opening its Carnival season on 26 December 1830,
and elsewhere in Italy, before quickly spreading abroad.
The story predates
Shakespeare and appears to have been derived from an earlier
novella. Set in thirteenth century Verona the opera tells the
tragic story of Romeo, a Montague, who loves Giulietta, daughter
of Capellio, leader of a rival faction whose son has been killed
by him. Despite Giulietta returning Romeo’s love Capellio determines
to marry her to Tebaldo, one of his own faction. Romeo attempts
to persuade Giulietta to go away with him but she refuses to
leave her family. Lorenzo persuades Giulietta to take a potion
that will make her appear dead. Lorenzo is unable to convey
this information to Romeo who, hearing her funeral dirge as
he prepares to fight Tebaldo, rushes to her tomb and takes poison
himself. Giulietta revives as Romeo dies. She in turn falls
dead across his body.
I was looking out
at the blowing blizzard as this issue arrived for review, thinking
that I should have been, except for family illness, sitting
in the sun. Somewhat despondent I thought I would listen to
a brief extract to see how the recording sounded. I was so gripped
by the verve and vivacity of Fabio Luisi’s conducting in the
drama of the first scene that my spirits were immediately lifted.
They went even higher when I heard the fresh and ringing flexible
lyric tenor of Joseph Calleja (CD 1 tr.3) matched by the strong
implacable tones of Tiziano Bracci as Capellio (CD 1 trs.3-5)
and, later, Robert Gleadow’s sonorous and sympathetic Lorenzo
(CD 2 trs.2-3). But I Capuleti e I Montecchi is more
about the two female principals and I went on to the rest of
the first act with its long duet between Romeo and Giulietta
after Lorenzo brings then together and Romeo pleads with her
to leave with him. My mealtime went by the board as I listened
to the whole work! But emotion is no basis for rational analysis,
which I hope is in part the basis for my reviews. Somewhat reluctantly,
I put the discs aside for a few days before sitting down with
full critical faculties in over-drive.
First of all I confirmed
and reinforced my first impressions in respect of the male singers
and Luisi’s well-paced conducting. Yes, he starts with fast
tempi but he also knows how singers breathe and express themselves,
particularly women, who in this performance, in best bel
canto tradition, decorate the words and often soar above
the stave. In the opening recitative of the act one duet, along
with its catchy tune, the tessitura for Romeo is quite high,
likewise that for Giulietta. Elina Garanca as Romeo has no difficulty
with the tessitura whilst Anna Netrebko warbles in the vocal
stratosphere with equal facility whilst also decorating the
vocal line and later exhibiting an admirable trill (CD 1 tr.15).
As the duet continues (trs.16-18) the vocal skill of the two
singers is commendable as each fully represents the nuances
and emotions of the words as they duet in unison. They finish
with a joint diminuendo to die for. I was following the libretto
and here lies the only criticism of the whole: there are times,
particularly in this long duet, when it is difficult to differentiate
the voices. It is a fact that the ranges of the soprano and
the lyric mezzo have much overlap, with the centre of the voice,
its upper or lower extension, and particularly its timbre, determining
singers’ preferred designation and fach. As I noted in my recent
review of Elina Garanca’s disc of Bel Canto Arias (DG 00289
477 7460 GH) her timbre is distinctly on the light side and
matches her top extension. Meanwhile, Anna Netrebko’s voice
is capable of much variety of expressive vocal colours, particularly
in her lower voice making her interpretation more womanly than
the adolescent ingénue that is often the norm. In vocal terms
this skill complements Netrebko’s flexibility and soprano extension
in the creation of a very well thought out interpretation. In
the final scene in the tomb, the vocal distinction between the
two divas is less of an issue, with each giving full vent to
their expressive skills and with the vocal timbres as well as
dramatic separation more distinct (CD 2 trs.12-14).
As I note in my
review of the performance of I Capuleti e I Montecchi included
in the recent Complete Operas of Bellini on the Dynamic label
(see review)
there was a period when it was policy to cast two light sopranos
for the roles of Giulietta and Romeo and even a tenor as Romeo.
In both the theatre and on record it is more usual to have Romeo
sung as a trouser role by a mezzo. The 1984 live EMI recording
from Covent Garden paired the light coloratura of Edita Gruberova
and the lean tangy mezzo of Agnes Baltsa (EMI CMS 7 64846 2).
The RCA recording of 1997 features the very light voiced Eva
Mei alongside the distinctly darker, but flexible, Vesselina
Kasarova. The third CD of that issue includes the final scene
from Vaccai’s earlier opera of the same name that Maria Malibran
chose to insert in 1832 as she did not think Bellini had provided
her with appropriate display opportunities (RCA 09026 68899
2). These extracts illustrate that although displaced by Bellini’s
opera, Vaccai’s creation has many strengths.
Although the booklet
shows the singers in informal day dress and located as for a
studio recording, this performance is denoted as a live recording
from the Vienna, Konzerthaus. As there are neither stage noises
nor applause I assume it was a concert performance with the
downside of these facets being patched out. The result has all
the benefits of frisson but without the intrusive interruptions
and extraneous noises. The whole is admirable and realistic
with the orchestral sound bright and forward and the singers’
voices slightly recessed. The discs are presented in multicoloured
opening box format with a picture of the two divas on the front.
There is a full libretto with translations in English, French
and German as well as an extended essay and synopsis in the
same languages.
It is in act two
in particular that Bellini exhibits the flowering of the long
and near-seamless cantilena, allied to dramatic effectiveness,
his hallmarks in the works that followed, particularly La
Sonnambula, (with Bartoli and Florez, to be reviewed), Norma
(see review)
and I Puritani (see review).
Their apogee is to be found here in the final scene (CD 2 trs.12-15)
wonderfully realised by the chorus, soloists and the orchestra
under Fabio Luisi who relishes the Bellinean melody and cantilena
without losing the drama of the whole.
This performance
becomes a benchmark for future recordings.
Robert J Farr