Bellini - I Capuleti e I Montecchi / Scotto, Aragall, Pavarotti

Vincenzo Bellini (Artist), Renata Scotto (Artist), Luciano Pavarotti (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 6, 2000)
• Number of Discs: 2
• Label: Gala
• ASIN: B000001XNE
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #370,372 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #23 in Music > Classical > Opera & Vocal > Divas > Scotto, Renata

Track Listings

Disc: 1

1. I Capuleti e i Montecchi, opera: Sinfonia

2. I Capuleti e i Montecchi, opera: Act 1. Aggiorna appena

3. I Capuleti e i Montecchi, opera: Act 1. O de Capellio, generosi amici

4. I Capuleti e i Montecchi, opera: Act 1. Rinvenirlo io saprò

5. I Capuleti e i Montecchi, opera: Act 1. L'amo, ah! L'amo, e mi è più cara

6. I Capuleti e i Montecchi, opera: Act 1. Vanne, Lorenzo

7. I Capuleti e i Montecchi, opera: Act 1. Lieto del dolce incarco a cui mi elegge

8. I Capuleti e i Montecchi, opera: Act 1. La tremenda ultrice spada

9. I Capuleti e i Montecchi, opera: Act 1. Eccomi in lieta veste

10. I Capuleti e i Montecchi, opera: Act 1. Oh quante volte

See all 20 tracks on this disc

Disc: 2

1. I Capuleti e i Montecchi, opera: Act 2. Né alcun ritorna!

2. I Capuleti e i Montecchi, opera: Act 2. Morte io non temo

3. I Capuleti e i Montecchi, opera: Act 2. Prendi... gl'istanti volano...

4. I Capuleti e i Montecchi, opera: Act 2. Deh! padre mio!

5. I Capuleti e i Montecchi, opera: Act 2. Deserto è il loco

6. I Capuleti e i Montecchi, opera: Act 2. Olà, chi sei, che ardisci

7. I Capuleti e i Montecchi, opera: Act 2. Ella è morta di dolore, or sciagurato

8. I Capuleti e i Montecchi, opera: Act 2. Siam Giunti

9. I Capuleti e i Montecchi, opera: Act 2. Ecco la tomba

10. La sonnambula, opera: Come per me sereno

See all 16 tracks on this disc

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Wonderful Performance, October 2, 2000

By 

John Cragg (Delta(greater Vancouver), B.C Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Bellini - I Capuleti e I Montecchi / Scotto, Aragall, Pavarotti (Audio CD)

There are four good reasons to buy this set:

1) Giacomo Aragall singing Romeo. The Spanish tenor is at the height of his powers here, and uses his beautiful, light voice to turn in a remarkably subtle and strong performance, making Romeo a manly, romantic hero and not some wimp. Marvellous!

2) Renata Scotto as a fascinating and impressive Juliet. She also was captured at the top of her development and this is music ideal for her voice. Her Juliet is a woman of delicacy and substance. Again a magnificent performance, even if the two principals sound like adult lovers and not the dopey teenagers required for the weird story to make much sense. The set includes some bonus tracks at the end providing about 20 minutes of Scotto singing excerpts from Bellini, Donizetti, Verdi, Bizet and Mascagni. These are less of an addition than might be thought, since the recording quality is such as to emphasize weaknesses in the voice and produce rather screeching sounds in some jumps and crescendos. Still, even these are interesting, and in the main work Scotto is radiant.

3) Luciano Pavarotti, singing the comparatively minor role of Tibaldo. Here is the young Pavarotti, terribly exciting with his well controlled use of his incredible instrument. Worth the price of admission alone.

4) The committed and involved playing of the La Scala forces under the baton of Claudio (not Roberto) Abbado, who apparently also did the adaptation to allow a tenor Romeo. He produces an exciting overall performance, so that this performance is far more than some spectacular star turns.

There are also unfortunately some good reasons not to buy this set:

1) Giacomo Aragall singing Romeo. Romeo was originally a contralto or mezzo part. Using a tenor alters the musical balance and so is not what Bellini originally intended. However, I think that having a masculine-sounding Romeo is a sufficient improvement to make this an unimportant shortcoming of the set. Maybe it is even an advantage. Most mezzos (with the possible exception of Frederica von Stade who showed as Cherubino that she could convincingly sound like a randy male teenager) do not sound suitable to the part and do not produce a satisfying dramatic contrast with Juliet. The lack of extended success of the opera may be due to this poor dramatic balance in part.

2) Poor sound quality, which at best is boxy and unresonant and at worst has the principals seriously off mike. But the sound-quality is not nearly as bad as that in many live Italian recordings of the 60's, and most of the recording is of high enough quality to convey the excitement of the performance. The audience is comparatively well behaved in this recording.

3) The truly wretched booklet which Gala includes. It lacks a libretto and a synopsis (needed here particularly since the source of the story is not Shakespeare). To add insult to injury, the track index gives only the first three or four words on each track and who sings them, useful only if one has a libretto.

These weaknesses in the recording do not outweigh the advantages. At the budget price, this set is well worth having

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not true to the score? Don't bother!, April 17, 2004

By 

Chaconnesque "chaconnesque" (Singapore, Singapore Singapore) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bellini - I Capuleti e I Montecchi / Scotto, Aragall, Pavarotti (Audio CD)

By its virtue of a tenor Romeo, the team here led by Abbado has turned a relic of the Opera Seria days into a true-blue Romantic opera. If you enjoy travesty roles by all means go and get the Larmore/Hong version or the Kasarova/Mei version, which are really good. However, like Berlioz, I have always found a mezzo Romeo hard to swallow. Had Bellini lived longer, he might have re-written the opera to meet the rapidly changing tastes of the time. After the original was to satisfy the whim of Giuditta Grisi (elder sister of the famous Giulia), for whom Vaccai had written the same role earlier. (Mozart had unfulfilled aims to re-write the travesty roles in Idomeneo for tenor before his early death - I'll assume Bellini has similar aims). If you've no qualms about listening to a matronly mezzo Adalgisa, why not a tenor Romeo here? Heck with the imagined imbalance! Aragall, Scotto and Pavarotti are in their prime and gave fantastic performances here. Somebody should do a recording nowadays with Florez, Alvarez and Vargicova perhaps?

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great, August 9, 2005

By 

D. Bennett - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bellini - I Capuleti e I Montecchi / Scotto, Aragall, Pavarotti (Audio CD)

This recording is, in my opinion, fantastic. Although I am very much interested in studio recordings, my Beecham Boheme and De Sabata Tosca sets are positively falling apart, live performances often have the edge in terms of drama and 'life'.
This recording is my favourite of this opera. Some reviewers have a problem with the Romeo of Jaume Aragall, personally I find him ideal. It is true that having a tenor in the role is at odds with Donizetti's initial intention of casting a mezzo/contralto in the role, but I disagree with some people saying it ruins the set. I believe that, if Donizetti had been aware that in the future tenors were going to become the undisputed kings of the opera houses, as they had by the end of the nineteenth century, he would have recast the role to a tenor voice.
The first instance I heard Renata Scotto was, unfortunately quite a poor choice; her Tosca recording with Plácido Domingo in 1981. By then she was past her prime and the voice was far from ideal. Here that is not the case. The voice fits into this music naturally; the deftness of expression, the warmness of interpretation and the ability to make the music sound like it is singing itself that is so gorgeous as to make her stand out ahead of the crowd. Judging by this performance she should have kept to this repertoire.
Finally, there is the tenor Luciano Pavarotti in the smaller, though beautiful role of Tebaldo. Never has such a round, brilliant voice been available for the role. The idea of such casting is so luxurious sounding now that it seems almost silly; Luciano Pavarotti AND Jaume Aragall, two voices so Italianate, so suited to the roles and each so considerably better than any tenor on the international opera circuit today...such talent may never come this way again.
The sound is not perfect, often sounding hazy on the unforgiving CD transfer.
Highly recommended nonetheless
D. Bennett.