Antonella Trevisan

Donna Leonora, fille du marquis de Calatrava, s'apprête à fuir secrètement avec son amant Don Alvaro (fils du vice-roi du Mexique et d'une princesse Inca). Le marquis entre à l'improviste. Alvaro hésite à lever son arme contre le père de son amante et lance son pistolet. En tombant, le pistolet fait feu et le marquis est mortellement blessé. Mourant, il maudit sa fille. Don Carlo di Vargas, le frère de Leonora, décide de venger sa sœur et son fiancé de la mort de leur père. Dans la tourmente de la poursuite, Leonora et Alvaro se perdent l'un l'autre... Captation réalisée en direct en février 2007 au Teatro Comunale de Florence. Le livret de Francesco Piave est basé sur une pièce d'Ángel Saavedra (1791 - 1865), duc de Rivas, « Don Álvaro o la Fuerza del sino » (1835). L'intrigue de ce drame romantique repose entièrement sur des coïncidences, des hasards, des rencontres inattendues. En un mot, sur le destin.

This set has Edita Gruberova singing in top form, all her scooping cast aside, which one finds in abundance in her Lucia under Richard Bonynge. Here, however, she makes ravishing use of those bits of tone that only she can produce: those instances of coloratura and dramatic legato with little asides and small florishes of style that suggest her intelligent approach and her high degree of musical involvement in this role. She does this in her I Puritani and her Anna Bolena, less so in Roberto Deveraux and Maria Stuarda(both sets). Listen to Addio del passato and the Sempre Libra...ravishing, yes, but there are again those nuances learned from Callas that she makes her own. A very singualr perform,ance, and extremely moving with its detail and cry for pity throughout..from the start even. Neil Schicoff is excellent, not an unworthy Alfredo at all! His is a great lyric tenor voice that should have been in the top line.

The grand scale and magnificent acoustics of the Roman arena in Verona are ideally suited to the pageantry of Verdi's Egyptian opera, presented here in a staging that is true to the original 1913 production, framed by obelisks and sphinxes and filled with chorus and dancers. Chinese soprano Hui He has won international acclaim for her portrayal of the eponymous slave girl whose forbidden love for the war hero Radamés (Marco Berti, the experienced Verdi tenor) brings death to them both.

Giuseppe Verdi's opera Aida