I Capuleti e i Montecchi (II) (2006 Video) User Reviews

Imperfect but very well sung and superior to the Valentina Farcas performance

[TheLittleSongbird · 7/10 · 18 February 2013]

There are only two DVDs(this and the Valentina Farcas performance) available of I Capuletti E I Montecchi, an opera where the beautiful music overrides the pretty awful libretto. And both are flawed but decent productions, though if I had a preference it would be this one. By all means it does have imperfections. It doesn't suffer from too many scene changes like the Farcas production does, but the production generally is rather stark and harshly lit.(Giulietta's costume is very striking though) The camera work does have a tendency to not focus enough on the action, and often on somebody who is not doing the actual singing, which does diminish the drama. The drama itself is rather static with a lot of stand-and-deliver-type acting and a general lack of rapport between singers. The chorus suffer the worst from this. The use of pistols instead of swords which Romeo and Tebaldo constantly threaten each other with is jarring and gets increasingly ridiculous. Flaws aside, musically there is much to recommend. The orchestral playing is stylish, elegant and sounds beautiful, and the chorus singing is well blended and recorded with makes up for their static acting. The conducting succeeds in not just accommodating the singers brilliantly but also never allowing the production to drag too much. The singing is excellent, in the Farcas production the Romeo was the best asset about the production but here it is the spectacular Giulietta of Patrizia Ciofi, she is an intelligent actress with a beautiful voice and her colouratura is much more focused than Farcas', which was good but occasionally overdone. Her Romeo is Clara Polito. She is more feminine than you'd expect for Romeo, but you forget that when her singing is this sensitive and sensual with a thrilling amount of high-register spin and her acting as commanding as it is. The male cast are far more convincing than in the Farcas production as well, faring best is Danilo Formaggia's securely sung and nobly acted Tebaldo. The sound quality is excellent as well. All in all, not a great performance but an interesting and worth watching(more for the musical values than the staging though) one. 7/10 Bethany Cox