I Puritani

Story

Synopsis

It's hard to imagine a video opera collection without this superbly sung MET production of Bellini's I Puritani. Not that it's perfect by any means, but its excellences--most especially Anna Netrebko's electrifying singing and acting of Elvira--banish carping about other aspects of this memorable night at the opera. Netrebko is fragile from the start, her facial expressions and hand movements immediately conveying the girl's vulnerability. She has a mad scene in each act; the first when she realizes her fiancé has disappeared with another woman, the third, in the final act, a brief relapse when her returned fiancé is taken by the army to be executed. But it's in the second act that the real fireworks occur, with a Mad Scene that rivals Donizetti's Lucia for bel canto primacy. Here, Elvira is first heard off-stage, after the chorus has informed us that she's deranged. She enters wearing her wedding gown and begins Qui la voce in a voice as frail as her psyche.

Director

Sandro Sequi

Language

Italian

Release date

22 November 2007

Ensemble

Cast

• 

  Eric Cutler

  Lord Arturo Talbo

• 

  Anna Netrebko

  Elvira

• 

  John Relyea

  Sir Giorgio

• Valerian Ruminski

  Lord Gualtiero Valton

• 

  Franco Vassallo

  Sir Riccardo Forth

• 

  Maria Zifchak

  Enrichetta di Francia

• Eduardo Valdes

  Sir Bruno Roberton

• 

  Patrick Summers

  Conductor