BELLINI I Puritani (Benzi)

Record and Artist Details

Composer or Director: Vincenzo Bellini

Genre:

Opera

Label: Naxos

Media Format: Digital Versatile Disc

Media Runtime: 191

Mastering:

DDD

Catalogue Number: 2 110598-99

2 110598-99. BELLINI I Puritani (Benzi)

Tracks:

Composition Artist Credit
(I) Puritani Vincenzo Bellini, Composer
Adam Palka, Sir Giorgio Valton, Bass
Ana Durlovski, Elvira, Soprano
Diana Haller, Enrichetta di Francia, Mezzo soprano
Gezim Myshketa, Sir Riccardo Forth, Baritone
Heinz Göhrig, Sir Bruno Robertson, Tenor
Manilio Benzi, Conductor
René Barbera, Lord Arturo Talbot, Tenor
Roland Bracht, Lord Gualtiero Valton, Bass
Stuttgart State Opera Chorus
Stuttgart State Orchestra
Vincenzo Bellini, Composer
melodrama? Like poor Elvira, betrothed to an uninteresting Puritan but drawn to the riskier chap with the fancy hat and silky hair, this production from the Staatsoper Stuttgart jumps from sobriety to wildness, and from a (kind of) clarity to studied disregard for realism or characterisation.

In the transfer from claustrophobic theatrical production to DVD/Blu ray release, the inconsistencies are off-putting. Jossi Wieler and Sergio Morabito have decided that the opera’s implausibilities show us ‘Elvira’s dream factory at work’. The setting is more 20th-century Amish than 17th-century Puritan, with strip lighting hung over a stylised, bare set by Anna Viebrock. Sometimes the kin of Ana Durlovski’s Elvira are a proper bible-bashing, frightening lot; at other times they are twitching zombies – a difficult mode for this vocally chiselled group to plausibly slip into. Meanwhile, the dream factory is at work, producing chimeras in the guise of René Barbera’s Arturo, the Cavalier, and Diana Haller’s Enrichetta, Charles I’s widow, who are in full 17th-century fig. They aren’t real, and Elvira will never find happiness in their world.

The flight into a historical fantasy is a decent idea but there is too much gestural theatre here; fine performances are boxed into sloppy choreography. It just doesn’t feel joined-up. Perhaps Elvira is the only real person at all? Well, that only helps us so much. Current opera-producer clichés to tick off include a lot of dress-up (Elvira is often buttoning up her smock-dress or casting it off) and graffiti daubed on walls, only for it to be painstakingly washed off later.

It clearly made an impact on stage. Perhaps this was because the voices are very strong, and the incisive conducting by Manlio Benzi is idiomatic and propulsive (this version of the score includes all the music played at the Paris premiere). Durlovski’s slightly covered tone puts a nice pallor on Bellini’s long-breathed lines: she shapes phrases vividly and darts happily through ‘Vien, diletto’. Barbera’s heady, airy tenor suits Arturo’s music perfectly – no mean feat. Haller adds mezzo swagger in the walk-on/walk-off role of Enrichetta and the baritone Gëzim Myshketa is a stylish if occasionally overwrought Riccardo.

It is a testament to the depth of talent in Stuttgart’s ensemble that its company bass Adam Palka can make such a good fist of Giorgio, Elvira’s dominant confidant. Too young for the part, Palka nonetheless sings with focus and nobility and, partnered by Myshketa, that barnstorming duet ‘Suoni la tromba’ still sparks shivers.

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