Vincenzo BELLINI (1801-1835)
I Capuleti e I Montecchi - Lyric tragedy in two acts (1830)
Romeo, head of the Montecchi, in love with Giulietta – Agnes Baltsa (mezzo);
Capellio, head of the Capuleti - Gwynne Howell (bass); Giulietta, a Capuleti
in love with Romeo – Edita Gruberova (soprano); Tebaldo, a Capuleti, Giulietta’s
intended husband – Dano Raffanti (tenor); Lorenzo, a physician and friend
of Capellio – John Tomlinson (baritone)
Orchestra and Chorus of the Royal Opera House, London/Riccardo Muti
rec. live, ROHO, Covent Garden, London, April 1984
EMI CLASSICS 6406372 [58.36 + 71.24 + bonus disc]
I Capuleti e I Montecchi was Bellini’s sixth opera and followed Zaira,
his first real failure 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, 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. However, Lanari was aware that Pacini had
also accepted a commission from Turin and might not fulfil his obligations
to Venice, so he offered Bellini a revival of Il pirata under the composer’s
personal supervision for January 1830 on the understanding that if Pacini
did not deliver, Bellini would be invited to fulfil the commission for a new
work.
Il pirata was given to acclaim at La Fenice 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, the contracted librettist, 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.
The story suited Bellini’s artistic sensibilities but with barely six weeks
to the premiere he also took short cuts. He saw an opportunity to use music
from the failed Zaira. Charles Osborne (The Bel Canto Operas.
Methuen 1994) suggests that Bellini recycled nearly half the music from Zaira
into his new opera. Straight plagiarisation 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 extensive re-use of music from Zaira 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.
Set in thirteenth century Verona the story predates Shakespeare whilst Romani’s
libretto shows signs of his awareness of the English dramatist’s version.
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 the Carnival season at there on 26
December 1830, and where Bellini had to adapt the music to accommodate two
mezzo-sopranos in the leading roles. This perhaps influenced Claudio Abbado
to cast the tenor Giacomo Arragal in the role alongside Renata Scotto as Giulietta
in a production at La Scala. With the necessary transpositions it certainly
removed the romanticism from the role and is generally considered a failure.
The original flourished in Italy and abroad for some years before fading from
the stage. This live recording was made of a new production at London’s Covent
Garden over several performances in April 1984. The version seems to be that
of the original at La Fenice without any of the later additions or amendments.
The music is an early example of Bellini’s plangent elegiac melody that reached
its apotheosis in the composer’s Norma and I Puritani. Muti
never over-drives the tempi, as was often his wont with other composer’s music.
This allows the recurring leitmotif for the lovers to keep impacting on the
emotions each time it intrudes in its various manifestations and dramatic
situations. Both female soloists are well matched. The Greek mezzo Agnes Baltsa,
who had debuted in 1968 as Cherubino, has a particular light tangy quality,
which, despite the many heavy Verdi mezzo roles in her repertoire, she still
exhibits here. This allows for the lightness and shade of Romeo’s varying
emotions to emerge as well as ensuring that she does not overpower the lighter
flexible coloratura of Edita Gruberova who portrays the youthful Giulietta
with some distinction. The final scene as Romeo enters the tomb and asks for
the coffin lid to be lifted (CD 2 tr. 16) and then pours out his grief to
the apparent lifeless corpse (tr.17) before taking poison (tr.18) illustrates
to perfection Baltsa’s skills of singing and characterisation. The following
duet as Giulietta revives brings the best out of Gruberova’s interpretive
skills with the two voices intertwining in their desperation.
The lower voiced Capellio and Lorenzo are well taken by Covent Garden artist
Gwynne Howell and, Wotan to be John Tomlinson, respectively. I personally
do not particularly like the somewhat bleating tone of Dano Raffanti as Tebaldo
(CD 1 tr.4). However, the biggest drawback of this performance is the dry
acoustic of Covent Garden and the recessed sound, aggravated by stage movement.
As far as audio recordings are concerned, I found the live concert performance
with Elina Garanca and Anna Netrebko under Luisi’s baton very satisfying (see
review).
The two appeared at Covent Garden in their respective roles in 2009 and I
live in hopes that a performance was videoed, although I have heard no positive
news of that. Meanwhile the only video I know is that from Dynamic and from
which the audio recording included in that label’s Complete Operas of Bellini
is derived (see review)
from a performance from the 2005 Martina Franca Festival where both the female
roles are taken by sopranos.
The bonus CD-ROM has a synopsis and full libretto with translations in English,
French and German.
Robert J Farr
Stage noise and recording limitations are a significant drawback here.