Vincenzo Bellini - I Puritani 2x DVD 2001 / Directed by Andrei Serban, Toni Bargalló / Recorded live at the Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona / Conducted by Firedrich Haider / Edita Gruberova, José Bros, Carlos Álvarez

UPC 5450270012459

REGION 0 PAL DVD

MADE IN GERMANY

AUDIO: LPCM Stereo, Dolby 5.1, DTS 5.1

SUBTITLES: English, German, Frenc, Italian, Spanish (Catalan)

Total Runtime: 159 minutes

English Summary:

A performance of Bellini's opera recorded at the Gran Teatre Del Liceu in Barcelona. Friedrich Haider conducts.

Orquestra Simfònica i Cor del Gran Teatre del Liceu,
Friedrich Haider

Director: Andrei Serban

Recording Date: 8 February 2001

The "Queen of Coloratura", Edita Gruberova, is the undisputed star of this recording of I Puritani from the opera house in Barcelona. Her interpretation of Bellini's Elvira has certainly become one of her showpieces and her superb technique, her top notes and exquisite pianissimos and her amazing command of coloratura make her the focus of this production. The audience rewarded her with long enthusiastic ovations after her the mad scene in the second act, when her heart breaking rendering of the elegiac "Qui la voce sua soave" and the dazzling coloratura in the fast cabaletta undoubtedly sets her name next to the great Elviras of the 20th century.

TDK captures on DVD Andrei Serban's production of Bellini's gloomy masterpiece. Originally made for Welsh National Opera, in a co-production with Netherlands Opera, and premièred in Cardiff in March 1982, it was taken up by the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona as part of the Bellini bicentenary celebrations in 2001. In his staging, Serban maintains an ever-present mood of conflict: the drama is clearly played out in a closed community, under threat, and the bare designs - a linear fort, a single coach in the ice - serve to glorify the voices, the focus of this bel canto work. Michael Yeargan's design emphasizes the Puritan aesthetic, and a touch of red in Elvira's flowers, amid the prevailing blacks, browns and whites, makes a striking impression.

This stellar cast from 2001 includes José Bros making his debut in the role of Lord Arturo Talbo, as well as the formidable talents of Spanish baritone Carlos Álvarez.

Opera Cast:

Lord Gualtiero Valton - Konstantin Gorny

Sir Giorgio - Simón Orfila

Lord Arturo Talbo - José Bros

Sir Riccardo Forth - Carlos Álvarez

Sir Bruno Roberton - Vincenc Esteve Madrid

Enrichetta di Francia - Raquel Pierotti

Elvira - Edita Gruberova

I puritani (The Puritans) is an opera by Vincenzo Bellini. It was originally written in two acts and later changed to three acts on the advice of Gioachino Rossini, with whom the young composer had become friends. The music was set to a libretto by Count Carlo Pepoli, an Italian émigré poet whom Bellini had met at a salon run by the exile Princess Belgiojoso, which became a meeting place for many Italian revolutionaries.

The subject was Têtes Rondes et Cavalieres (Roundheads and Cavaliers), a historical play written by Jacques-François Ancelot and Joseph Xavier Saintine, which some sources state was based on Walter Scott's novel Old Mortality,^[2] while others state that there is no connection.^[3]

When Bellini arrived in Paris in mid-August 1833, he had intended to stay only about three weeks, the main aim being to continue the negotiations with the Paris Opéra which had begun on his way to London a few months earlier.^[4] However, these negotiations came to nothing, but by October he had decided to spend the winter in that city, especially as both Il pirata and I Capuleti e i Montecchi were to be given by the Théâtre-Italien that season.