Donizetti - L'Elisir d'Amore / Esposito, Machado, Marrucci, Canzian, Schrott, Muus, Macerata Opera
buy dvd movies, videos
|
 |
List Price: $29.99
Our Price:
$26.99
You Save: $3
Features
• Classical
• NTSC
In Theaters : 23 April, 1952
DVD Release : 23 September, 2003 |
| [ + Zoom ] [ Buy Now ] |
DVD : Usually ships in 2 to 3 days |
|
Donizetti - L'Elisir d'Amore / Esposito, Machado, Marrucci, Canzian, Schrott, Muus, Macerata Opera Customer Reviews
|
|
|
|
♥♥♥♥♥
|
Unsurpassed & unsurpassable
|
I am in almost wholehearted agreement with the 2 reviewers who praise this DVD, and in wholehearted DISagreement with Scott Morrison. I've been an avid opera lover for years and think I know my stuff, so have no qualms in saying that this is the only DVD I have of L'elisir d'amore, and probably the only one I ever shall acquire. I've seen a number of video performances - Pavarotti & Blegen, Pav and Battle, Angela & Roberto, Bonney & I forget the tenor - was it Winbergh? - but this one trumps them all - mainly for the singing.
Yes, the tenor is dumpy, but boy, does he have fun! He acts with his face and body, adds a higher note than we are used to hearing at the end of his first aria, a solid high C at the end of his duet with Belcore, and has great interplay with Adina.
Belcore seems very, VERY young, but apart from some slurred coloratura (he aspirates a lot of it) does a commendable job.
It's certainly a change to see a young and sexy-looking Dulcamara in this role, but Erwin Shrott is just great. His voice is rich and resonant, and I feel that those parts where the other reviewer thought he looked disinterested were just his way of acting out that particular scene. Whenever he was on stage I found my attention riveted to him.
Which brings me to the Adina. I simply cannot understand how anyone could call her performance 'dismal'. Here is a gorgeous soprano voice that just gains in strength and lustre as it ascends; moreover her coloratura technique is nothing short of staggering. I don't think she missed a note, a triplet, a flourish or a trill all night. I looked up her name - Valeria Esposito - on the net and found out that she is highly credentialled - something that didn't surprise me in the least. I've since located her in La Fille du Regiment where she is just as brilliant.
Yes, she may look older than the other principals - but the fault is that they're too young, not that she's too old! Yet she has such a gorgeously expressive face, flashing eyes and engagingly crooked teeth (!) that I couldn't have cared less if she were 20 years older. Plus she's tiny, and has a youthfully trim figure.
More music than we are used to hearing is retained in this version (another bonus!), so that we hear more of the Adina/Nemorino duet in act 1 than usual, and a number of other repeats that are generally cut. But the most staggering addition comes in Adina's cabaletta in act 2 - Il mio rigor dimentico. Listen to EVERY other soprano sing it on all other recordings (except Devia on the CD set, and she doesn't add any ornamentation), and you'll barely recognise Esposito's version. She completes one verse of it, twirls round on the spot with Nemorino, hurls out a cadenza rising to high E-flat, then goes on to sing a second, embroidered verse rising to D and a number of C's. As in The Pirates of Penzance, where Mabel's final prolonged cadenza prevents Frederic from kissing her, here Nemorino acts for all he's worth waiting for his soprano to finish - rolling his eyes, throwing up his hands, and even going and sitting down in despair. It's a sign of how brilliant Esposito is that he doesn't upstage her, and at the end she receives a roaring ovation. It really is a brilliant voice in its upper extension - in the previous aria - Prendi! -she alters most of Donizetti's cadenzas so that she can show off her notes above the high C - and I wasn't surprised when I found a download on the net where I heard her singing a live Ah non giunge! from La Sonnambula and ending with a sustained F in alt. More of this soprano, please!
The whole performance can be summed up as a joyous, bubbling experience. I've watched it a number of times, and honestly couldn't tell you what there is and is not in the way of sets and props. The singers are so skilled in their art that I'd enjoy it as a concert performance.
Bravo! Bravissiomo! This is the version to own! |
|
Donizetti - L'Elisir d'Amore / Esposito, Machado, Marrucci, Canzian, Schrott, Muus, Macerata Opera dvd movie.