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Featuring Edita Gruberova as prima donna assoluta. A new standard recording! A scandalous tale of murder, torture, incest, homosexuality, drunkenness and orgies, Donizetti's opera is one of the great masterpieces of Italian bel canto repertoire. Felice Romani wrote the Italian libretto after the play by Victor Hugo, after the legend of Lucrezia Borgia. Lucrezia Borgia was first performed on December 26, 1833 at La Scala, Milan with Lelande and Pedrazzi. Enjoy the all-time favorites: Lucrezia's aria Com'è bello, Orsino's Brindisi Il segreto per esser felice, the tenor's Di pescator ignobile, and the bass aria Vieni, la mia vendetta! Including the 54 mins. documentary The art of bel canto - Edita Gruberova an empathic portrait of the Queen of coloratura.
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... a triumph of musical theatre. --Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
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1 of 9 people found the following review helpful
It is a good opera. She sings it in her own style and the performance concentrate on the lyrical part of the opera. Without any special effects. Her presence is very strong and she resists against her inner will to let the lover (Gennaro) go to save her own relationship with Don Alfonso. At the first scene she enters and let the antagonist play the part. The young men are in their own land and hates Lucrezia Borgia. The young man sings it very good and show the strong power they have. When Lucrezia Borgia enters they realises that she is the enemy. The hole men are against her. In the second part she accepts to poisoning her lover but she refuses to let him go. He resists and defend the captive men. She tries to let him escape. In the end she reveals him that he is her son. He dies in her arms. The last aria is very good and Edita Gruberova is one of the best opera singer in the bel canto repertoire.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
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2 reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Great music, ghastly production
17 Feb 2012
Amazon Verified Purchase
I agree with the previous reviewer. Some more details:
Gennaro, Lucrezia's hidden son, is very young, young enough to hop about while talking to Lucrezia, the beautiful lady he admires... in other words he is a restless innocent 14-year old. But the role is played by Pavol Breslik, a fully grown man probably in his late thirties or early forties, as can be seen when he takes off his white shirt to wipe the blood from his scraped knee (being motherless, Gennaro cannot be expected to have a clean handkerchief in his pocket). Result: he looks like an idiot!
Lucrezia has red hair, most of the time. Toward the end of the opera, she suddenly appears in a long-haired white wig; she removes it during the scene (her red hair remains in place), then puts it back, for no apparent reason. I assume there is a deep psychological or philosophical meaning to it... But no footnotes to explain.
At Princess Negroni's party, we see a girl sitting on a chair, staring in front of her. She doesn't move; she doesn't sing. She just sits.
The staging is DO IT YOURSELF! If a character is supposed to sit at a table, the singer appears carrying his own table, with a lesser character carrying the chair!
WARNING: The booklet informs you that the same director, Christof Loy, is responsible for the staging of Roberto Devereux, also with Edita Gruberova. That is another one I shall avoid, sight unseen! I would also avoid her Norma: there is no way a 65-year old woman can pretend to be the mother of "due pargoletti", two children under 10. CDs are one thing, but DVDs and Blu-Ray discs should strive to look believable! "Suspension of disbelief" applies to the plot, not to pretending that grandmothers have babies!
Gennaro, Lucrezia's hidden son, is very young, young enough to hop about while talking to Lucrezia, the beautiful lady he admires... in other words he is a restless innocent 14-year old. But the role is played by Pavol Breslik, a fully grown man probably in his late thirties or early forties, as can be seen when he takes off his white shirt to wipe the blood from his scraped knee (being motherless, Gennaro cannot be expected to have a clean handkerchief in his pocket). Result: he looks like an idiot!
Lucrezia has red hair, most of the time. Toward the end of the opera, she suddenly appears in a long-haired white wig; she removes it during the scene (her red hair remains in place), then puts it back, for no apparent reason. I assume there is a deep psychological or philosophical meaning to it... But no footnotes to explain.
At Princess Negroni's party, we see a girl sitting on a chair, staring in front of her. She doesn't move; she doesn't sing. She just sits.
The staging is DO IT YOURSELF! If a character is supposed to sit at a table, the singer appears carrying his own table, with a lesser character carrying the chair!
WARNING: The booklet informs you that the same director, Christof Loy, is responsible for the staging of Roberto Devereux, also with Edita Gruberova. That is another one I shall avoid, sight unseen! I would also avoid her Norma: there is no way a 65-year old woman can pretend to be the mother of "due pargoletti", two children under 10. CDs are one thing, but DVDs and Blu-Ray discs should strive to look believable! "Suspension of disbelief" applies to the plot, not to pretending that grandmothers have babies!
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Well sung...Poorly staged
15 Feb 2012
Amazon Verified Purchase
Based on a Victor Hugo play, Donizetti fashioned an opera about Lucrecia Borgia, an alleged real life 15th century serial killer and sex maniac. If you have never seen or heard the opera, I think you will be surprised how many great melodies Donizetti wrote for this very melodramatic opera. The entire cast sing and act with gusto.
The problem is the Eurotrash production design.....no sets, bare stage, conference room chairs, a hideous greyish beige wall, modern dress, and vaudville type spotlights:) I kid you not ! Maybe some of you don't mind this look, but it really bothered me. I watched it once and when I play it again it will be enjoyed sans video. The music is fabulous.
The problem is the Eurotrash production design.....no sets, bare stage, conference room chairs, a hideous greyish beige wall, modern dress, and vaudville type spotlights:) I kid you not ! Maybe some of you don't mind this look, but it really bothered me. I watched it once and when I play it again it will be enjoyed sans video. The music is fabulous.
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