Bellini: I Puritani

There are many memorable scenes. Anna Netrebko is the indisputable star. Her enthusiasm is sufficiently contagious that it brings out the best of Eric Cutler, John Relyea, Franco Vassallo, and even conductor Patrick Summers. The performers have a field day with A Te O Cara, the mad scene, Credeasi Misera, and the Riccardo-Arturo duet. They all know they did a super performance. Whereas Elvira is a plum role, Arturo is exactly the opposite - a torturous and thankless role. No tenor in his right mind would want to sing Arturo. To his credit, gutsy Eric Cutler does more than a credible job. Eric's reward? Bellini lets him keep the girl. Anna Netrebko possesses a natural stage instinct. Performing in front of a large audience, she is also fully cognizant of the cameras. She performs not only with her voice, but also her face. Her eyes speak volumes. When Eric Cutler sings the beautiful A Te O Cara to her, her eyes are fixated toward the stratosphere, vividly displaying her passion toward Arturo. Her facial expression and body language is synchronized with her singing. This is the stuff that great sopranos are made of. Her performance brings back old memories of live performances by the great Anna Moffo and Maria Callas. The pleasure of watching Callas is 30% vocal and 70% magnetism. One remembers a Callas performance forever. Anna chooses to deliver a dynamic and powerful performance - reminiscent of Moffo & Callas. Elvira is a teenager. There is so much energy in Anna's Mad Scene. She explodes with teenage energy. She runs all over the stage while singing Qui La Voce, and even rolls over in front of Patrick Summers. She jumps up a bench in her long dress with total disregard for falling. How many Elviras can do that?. The audience love her. She is Elvira!! The background scenery is 30 year old. I love it. Leave it alone for another 30 years. The color balance is superb, unlike most opera DVDs. The sound is top notch. The interview with Renee Fleming brings cute and light moments. Anna has an excellent sense of humor. Renee admiringly asks how she manages to make everything appear so natural. She responds by distorting her face, like a teenager, to demonstrate how not to do it. What a treat !! The reigning prima donna of opera making faces in front of a camera to be seen all over the world. My admiration for her jumps another notch. I have four DVDs on Puritani. The four Elviras are Netrebko, Machaidze, Gruberova, and Cantarero. Netrebko's performance is the most memorable. Machaidze exhibits super-charged chemistry with Juan Diego Flores in the third act, but the color balance of the DVD stinks, due to poor lighting. Gruberova has a sweet and delicate voice, but lacks stage magnetism. Canterero never has a chance. That opera is poorly directed. The singing and acting appear to be more about Nazis than Puritans. This is one of the most outstanding opera DVDs in every respect. I would buy it at any cost.

Several reviewers have criticized Anna Netrebko because her coloratura skills do not match those of Maria Callas. Joan Sutherland, Beverly Sills, or Edita Gruberova. On that point, I have to agree. Although Netrebko does an exemplary job of sustaining long notes at the end of phrases (a Bellini specialty), she doesn't display the trills and ornamentation skills of a true coloratura soprano. If the ability to sing coloratura is of primary importance to you, then this production will be a disappointment. However, I am willing to rely on "I Puritani" CD's to hear Elvira in her full coloratura glory because Netrebko brings so many other fine qualities to the role. Those qualities include: a full-bodied dark and dusky voice that, at the same time, is gentle and supple; superior acting ability; a charismatic stage presence. These combine to make for a performance that is both dazzling and haunting. Sadly for the other players, the stage often feels empty when she's not on it. The male performers don't fare as well, but I think it's partly that Netrebko's stage presence is so strong that The Met needed to dig deep and find three males who could keep pace with her. Unfortunately, none of the three do. As Riccardo, Franco Vassallo has a strong baritone voice, but he doesn't convincingly express the pain of a rejected suitor. Eric Cutler fares better on the acting side as Elvira's true love, but he struggles with the high tessitura of the tenor role. (Nevertheless, he and Netrebko have good stage chemistry even though her voice dominates the duets.) As Uncle Giorgio, John Relyea's bass is too gravely for Bellini's melodic score. The orchestra, conducted by Patrick Summers, does a superior job bringing out the melodic beauty of Bellini's score. Unfortunately, only Anna Netrebko does it justice vocally (and this, despite her not being a coloratura specialist). The DVD has many special features. The highlights are Renee Fleming interviewing Netrebko between each act and a wonderful set of interviews with the late Beverly Sills in which she discusses (with her characteristic warmth and humor) her own experience playing Elvira.

This was theGreat performance i saw in the theater from the Met live in HD .beautifully sung and acted .Anna Netrebco is amazing and so beautiful .Great value it cost me less than the ticket to the theater

Helt fantastiskt.

Here is an opera with a happy ending and one that tests the voices of all singers. The voices here are absolutely superb, the settings and costumes majestic in the extreme and the acting beyond compare. Even is despair the heroine sings a seemingly unending repetoire of lilting arias and melodies. The opera, which is over three hours in length, will hold anybody in its magic spell and thrall. Don't miss it.

For the opera fiend. Excellent condition.

There are two operas here. When Anna Netrebko is on stage, things move along. When she isn't it's one of the most boring spectacles I've seen in a long time. The opera itself needs all the help it can get. For years I've wondered which opera people were referencing when they'd say such-and-such has a ridiculous plot, "but it's not as bad as some operas." This is the one it's not as bad as. Not that a good producer and stage director couldn't make it work. Netrebko has you almost believing in Elvira and Eric Cutler, responding to Netrebko's superb acting, makes a decent job of Arturo. But as for John Relyea, playing Giorgio, I've seen more expression on a parking meter and the rest of the cast could have mailed in their performances. I know we're depicting puritans here so we can't expect a great deal of partying, but the entire chorus looks like it's been stuffed and mounted. Not that there isn't some fine singing, even from the non-actors. Cutler makes a very creditable job of a fiendish role and Relyea is in fine voice. Netrebko to my ears is absolutely superb. Others have found fault with her coloratura and I don't count myself as an expert in this field so I bow to their opinion. But she produces a thoroughly three-dimensional performance, sounds beautiful, looks great, and that's enough for me. Sets and costumes are in the worst Met tradition, big on detail, totally devoid of imagination. Patrick Summers and the Met Orchestra provide strong enough support to make you wonder why most of those on stage fail to respond. All the pro reviews called this "The Netrebko Show" and so it is and that's why I bought it. But that's all it is. Without her I would probably rate this the worst opera performance I have yet seen on dvd, just edging out Haitink's version of Britten's "Midsummer Night's Dream" - also atrociously directed. The fact that I'm giving it three stars tells you how good she is.