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Reviewed by:
  • Cleopatra, and: Norma
  • John Holland
Lauro Rossi. Cleopatra. DVD. David Crescenzi / FORM – Orchestra Filarmonica Marchigiana. Directed by Pier Luigi Pizzi. With Dimitra Theodossiou, Alessandro Liberatore, Paolo Pecchioli, Sebastian Catana. Hong Kong: Naxos, 2010, 2008. 2.110279. $29.99.
Vincenzo Bellini. Norma. DVD. Giuliano Carella / Symphony Orchestra and Chorus of the Gran Teatre del Liceu. Directed by Francisco Negrín. With Fiorenza Cedolins, Sonia Ganassi, Vincenzo La Scola. Halle/Saale, Germany: Arthaus Musik, 2009, 2007. 101 465. $39.99.

This semiannual column presents reviews of significant video releases of interest to the field of music and to music libraries, as well as occasionally briefly noting other interesting titles. All genres of music in all video formats will be covered, with a preference given to those in DVD. All Web sites accessed 31 March 2011.

Lauro Rossi had the misfortune to be a direct contemporary of Giuseppe Verdi, and unlike such other contemporaries as Amilcare Ponchielli and Arrigo Boito, not even one of his twenty-nine operas has remained in the repertory. He was a distinguished academic figure at the conservatories in Milan and Naples, and was invited by Verdi to contribute to the collaborative Messa per Rossini, but otherwise he has fallen into obscurity. The Sferisterio Festival in his home town of Macerata has attempted to change this fate. In 2008 the festival gave the first performances since 1876 of Rossi’s penultimate opera Cleopatra, in what is credited as a “critical revision” by Bernardo Ticci.

The artistic management of the Sferisterio Festival is to be commended for taking such a risk, and for presenting this opera in what is generally a very fine production, but sadly this is no neglected masterpiece. Rossi’s score is always well crafted but he had no gift for melody (a serious drawback in operas of this period) and structurally it shows no awareness of the dramatic changes made by Verdi. The result comes across as something closer to minor Donizetti rather than an opera written five years after Aida. There are a few scenes, notably in the final two acts, which are reasonably effective, and with more memorable melodies might have rescued the opera from its obscurity. Soprano Dimitra Theodossiou has the highest profile of the cast but she is matched by her lesser known male colleagues, and Pier Luigi Pizzi’s designs and staging are simple and elegant, but ultimately this DVD serves to remind us just how monumental Verdi was.

Vincenzo Bellini’s Norma has suffered no such fate as Cleopatra, and has held its position as one of the masterpieces of the bel canto repertory and a touchstone of the dramatic coloratura art. Any soprano of the past fifty years who has taken on the role has faced the double challenge of competing with Joan Sutherland’s dazzling vocal technique and Maria Callas’ powerful dramatic insight. Few have risen to their levels but all have tended to be placed into one camp or the other by fans and critics. Fiorenza Cedolins is clearly in the Callas mode. In this 2007 performance from Barcelona’s Liceu, she tears into the role ferociously and there is much to admire in her dramatic commitment, but her questionable vocal technique allows the bel canto, and too frequently the intonation, to fall by the wayside. The quieter excerpts, such as the duets with Adalgisa, come across the best, but her efforts to make [End Page 154] every word and note mean something simply get in her way. Tenor Vincenzo La Scola is a capable Pollione but he too fares better in the more lyrical passages, sounding forced elsewhere. Mezzo-soprano Sonia Ganassi gives the most satisfying performance as Adalgisa, but she is given short shrift by the omission of her verse in the Act One trio, and director Francisco Negrin’s decision to upstage her during the instrumental introduction to her first solo scene with more scenery chewing by Cedolins. The opera is presented with some cuts and on occasion the chorus is not with the conductor. The technical quality of the DVD is excellent, but ultimately this production will appeal mostly to Cedolins’ fans rather than Bellini’s.

John Holland
Chicago Public Library...

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