Bellini: I Capuleti e i Montecchi.(Opera Review)

BELLINI: I Capuleti e i Montecchi

Sills, Troyanos; Evans, Beattie, Trehy; Chorus and Orchestra of the Opera Company of Boston, Caldwell/Scott. No text or translation, VAIA 1221-2 (2)

Beverly Sills had a very special relationship with Sarah Caldwell and her Opera Company of Boston, with whom she sang many of her most celebrated roles--and a few less well remembered. Sills squeezed in appearances in Boston even when it made her tight schedule even tighter; Caldwell's sense of operatic adventure allowed the prima donna ample opportunity to experiment and grow. It was to Sills's credit that she always took the opportunity--even if it meant singing La Fille du Regiment in a gymnasium, or portraying Norma as an albino.

Oddly, the 1975 Boston performances of Bellini's I Capuleti e i Montecchi, from which this set comes, are not mentioned in Sills's autobiography, Beverly. The role of Giulietta was a very congenial one for the soprano, utilizing her skills as a bel canto singer to the fullest (although Giulietta lacks much rapid-fire coloratura, a Sills specialty) and offering her opportunities as an actress that didn't stretch the envelope vocally, as did her beloved Donizetti queens. In these Boston Capuleti performances, Sills's familiar plangent quality is employed in abundance, and she fills out the character without becoming aggressive in a way that would not suit the youthful heroine. (Giulietta has plenty of backbone, but Queen Elizabeth I she isn't.) The voice is in steady shape, evincing little of the pinched tone or wobble that crept in later in the decade, and much of what Sills does is affecting. Sills was always a fearless vocalist, and as a result, there are occasionally embellishments that one might find questionable. When she pulled these off in live performance, the excitement sometimes justified the stunt. On an audio recording, the excessive decoration, for instance, of ...