MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2023
Approaching 60,000 reviews
and more.. and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


DVD REVIEW

Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger


alternatively Crotchet

Amilcare PONCHIELLI (1834-1886)
La Gioconda (1876)
La Gioconda, a street singer - Andrea Gruber (soprano); Enzo Grimaldi, exiled Genoese prince in love with Laura - Marco Berti (ten); Barnaba, sadistic spy who lusts after Gioconda - Alberto Mastromarino (bar); Laura Adorno, wife of Alvise and loved by Enzo - Eildiko Komlosi (mezzo); Alvise, one of the Heads of the State Inquisition - Carlo Colombara (bass); La Cieca, blind mother of Gioconda - Elisabetta Fiorillo (alto)
Orchestra, Chorus and Corps de Ballet of the Arena di Verona/Danato Renzetti
rec. live, Arena di Verona, Italy, June 2005
Director, set and costumes by Pier Luigi Pizzi
Video Director Tiziano Mancini
Recorded in High Definition. dts digital surround sound, Linear PCM 2.0. Vision 16:9 Colour. NTSC
DYNAMIC 33500 [2 DVDs: 162:00]



My colleague Robert Farr gives a fine précis of Gioconda's action in his 2006 review of this release.  Gioconda has always been somewhat controversial, its plot being rather convoluted. It has rarely been hailed as a masterpiece, yet taken for what it is – an unashamed and superbly fashioned  melodrama – it offers much. On disc, Callas (now on Naxos) and Milanov offer searing versions. To be able to experience the work as stagecraft offers a further window into the work's strengths - yes, and weaknesses - and to this extent the present Dynamic DVD is more than welcome.
 
This is an Arena di Verona performance, yet strangely there are moments when one becomes aware of a very real intimacy to the various interpersonal exchanges. The staging can tend towards the over-dark, emphasising the intensity of the emotions on display. Huge steps - a great operatic stock-in-trade! - dominate the opera's opening; they are steps to a church, it transpires. The initial confrontation, between Barnaba and Gioconda, works principally because of the excellence of baritone Alberto Mastromarino's Barnaba. Mastromarino's voice is appropriately dark of hue yet is focused; more, Mastromarino is very much inside his part.
 
Andrea Gruber is the tremendous Gioconda. As my colleague suggests, there is occasional evidence of stress to her voice, at which points she sounds tremulous, but there is no doubting her involvement, especially in the famous Suicidio. Gruber maintains her intensity throughout the opera, investing her text with a multitude of shades and meanings. A pity her stage mother, known in the opera as La Cieca and taken here by alto Elisabetta Fiorillo, is on the wobbly side vocally, although Fiorillo's 'Voce di Donna' reveals excellent legato. A high point comes in the shape of the opening of Act 3, the scene between Colombara and Komlosi. Komlosi is wonderfully strong in her higher registers - some might find her vibrato a little too much - while Colombara is another to reveal a lovely legato. In fact Komlosi is one of this production's real stars - her acting in Act 2 is completely believable. Almost as believable, in fact, as Andrea Gruber's final act, wherein she reaches her peak. Her rendition of the line 'Enzo, amor mio' is heart-stopping.
 
Marco Berti's Enzo, a Genovese nobleman,  is slightly disappointing. His 'Cielo e mar' - as he awaits the arrival of his love, Laura - is merely adequate and not really what this marvellous aria deserves. Much better is Mauro Buffoli's Isepo, whose monologue, 'O Monumento' is as black as Ponchielli's Iago-equivalent demands it to be.
 
The chorus is superb, as are the dancers for the 'Dance of the Hours'. Conductor Donato Renzetti has more than the measure of the score, and it is his sure and sensitive direction that to a large measure ensures the success of this performance. That Pier Luigi Pizzi is director and set and costume designer perhaps explains the consistency of this staging's conception. I hope many will see this DVD and enjoy it, for that may lead to increased cries for regular stagings of Gioconda in the UK. I would love to see this opera live – in the meantime, the present account offers a real emotional experience.
 
Colin Clarke

see also review by Robert Farr

 


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 

Return to Review Index

Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.