Bellini: Beatrice di Tenda (Zurich, 2001)

Cast: Edita Gruberova (Beatrice), Michael Volle (Filippo), Stefania Kaluza (Agnese), Raùl Hernández (Orombello), Miroslav Christoff (Anichino), Boguslav Budzinski (Riccardo); Orchestra and Chorus of the Zurich Opera House, Marcello Viotti (conductor), Alexander Pereira (director), Daniel Schmid (stage director), Yves André Hubert (video director)

Recorded at Zurich Opera House in December 2001

Issued on DVD by TDK Mediactive in 2003 [DV-OPBDT, PAL/all regions, menus in English, optional subtitles in English, German, French, Spanish, Italian]

Technical details
Aspect ratio 16:9
Sound LPCM Stereo, ACS 5.1, DTS 5.1 (reviewed in stereo)

Running time: 143 minutes

Sung in Italian
Handicapped by a less than felicitous libretto by Felice Romani, Beatrice di Tenda is viable, if at all, through its music and the realization of Beatrice herself. Coming between Norma and I Puritani, Bellini's penultimate opera is musically neither innovative nor truly memorable. In this performance, then, success depends almost entirely on the persuasiveness of Gruberova in the title role. Without question, she is accurate and committed. Some will hear her clean, precise reading as admirable, others will find it hectoring and shallow.

Viotti leads a straightforward performance lacking in inspiration but responsive to the score. Michael Volle's Filippo is appropriately authoritative and resonant, if perhaps less than convincing of his villany. Hernández is sufficient in a thankless role, Kaluza very promising in a part anticipating Eboli. The production is lean and representational without making any statement of era or locale. Costumes are similarly non-specific, understandably and acceptably establishing a spare framework for the little action and many words of the score. The chorus is unusually prominent for a bel canto opera and the Zurich forces are admirable in their assignment. The opera is essentially static; Pereira uses scrims, small movements and various unobtrusive devices to maintain a flow to complement the music.

It would be unreasonable to regard this recording as essential except to admirers of Gruberova. On the other hand, it is an honest insight into an anomaly in Bellini's tragically small legacy.
 
Related website:
TDK Mediactive www.tdk-mediactive.com
 
Michael Richter, 23 January 2004
mrichter@cpl.net
 
See also Michael Richter's Introduction to the DVD, for a list of other reviews see the DVD Project page.