BELLINI: La Straniera.(Review)

BELLINI: La Straniera

[] Scotto, Zilio; Prior, Trimarchi, Andreolli, Mazzieri; Orchestra and Chorus of Teatro La Fenice, Gracis. No text or translation. Opera d'Oro OPD 1261 (2) (Allegro, dist.)

With the 1950s came the bel canto revival, introducing a slew of operas by Rossini, Donizetti and Bellini hitherto unknown to contemporary audiences. Although interest in Rossini revivals continues today, with a suitable focal point at the annual Pesaro Festival, by the '80s, the trend in unearthing operas by his two major successors had slowed considerably. In the case of Bellini, this is hardly surprising; his output was modest by comparison, due to his slower rate of composition and his premature demise at thirty-eight.

After Maria Callas's diminished vocal resources took her out of the bel canto sweepstakes in the 1960s, heiress presumptive to this repertoire was Joan Sutherland, who shied away from some of the mid-weight Donizetti and Bellini roles, only taking on Anna Bolena and Maria Stuarda late in her career. The conscientious, gifted Leyla Gencer and the suddenly stellar Montserrat Caballe picked up the slack in the '60s, as did the lighter-voiced Beverly Sills and Renata Scotto, who both made important contributions to the exhumation of this repertoire and to its impact onstage.

The properly proportioned theaters of Italy provided the perfect setting for an artist of Scotto's vocal and histrionic stature; she could show her stuff without having to worry about filling a four-thousand-seat barn with decibels. Just such a setting provided the backdrop for this 1970 revival of Bellini's fourth opera, La Straniera, now available on Opera d'Oro. And oro it is. Any lover of Bellini's sublime vocal writing and delicate orchestral colorations will drool while imagining what it must have been like to witness Scotto in this role at the peak of her powers in the jewel that was La Fenice. Though the recorded sound of this in-house pirate tape is not always good, and occasional bleed from another track can prove distracting, this release is worthwhile at any price, let alone this budget label's modest one.

La Straniera had its premiere at La Scala on February 14, 1829, and followed the enormous success of Il Pirata, giving the young composer from Catania his second unequivocal triumph. The plot is so convoluted and confusing that librettist Felice Romani had to supply audience members with a printed prologue to the libretto in order to aid comprehension. As with Pirata, the score makes a fluid connection between recitative and cantilena, sometimes shifting tempos abruptly, taking musical cues from the text. At the time of the premiere, this was considered bold, even radical, and today the shifts can still seem surprising. But the public was so enraptured with Bellini's melodies, and with the vivid dramatic situations, that they threw conservatism to the winds and fully embraced his expressive romantic style.

These performances at La Fenice were a revival of a revival; ...