Customer Reviews

Bellini: Il Pirata

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4 star:		(1)
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This is the first commercial recording of this opera, fortunately with an excellent and well known cast, except for virtually unknown tenor Bernabé Martí in the title role. But don't think he's not rendering a superb interpretation of Gualtiero. His is a liryc tenor with heroic thrust when needed, his colloratura is acceptable for the time it was recorded (1970) with no simplifications of the written lines as virtually every tenor did by then. He gets all the high notes marvelously, even surpassing Caballe's at the end of ensembles. With a couple of high D's ommited written in cadenzas(the creator of the role was Rubini, known to reach even high G's, but in that times these notes where executed in a kind of supported falsetto)he gives a couple more joined by high C's and the like. Caballé is simply spectacular: fluid colloratura and a kind of interpretation incomparable with any other. Her chest voice effects are really appropiate when used and her final mad scene is breathtaking. Unusually for her, she ends a couple of ensembles with the bravura high notes. She's just perfect. The rest of the cast is very well suited in their tasks and Maestro Gavazzeni does a wonderfull job with the right tempos in the right places. As for the story, it combines drama, jealousy, adventure, violence, action; all the rigth stuff to be a favorite. It is one of my favorites for the higlights as for the opera as a whole. That's why it was Bellini's first great succes, and a very well deserved one.

I can't remember the last time I enjoyed Caballe so much! This is one of her favourite roles and we hear why. It is also an answer to those who say that she can't sing the high notes. Just listen to the way she ends the ensembles and eventually the entire opera. Sure, her highest notes are not as secure as Sutherland's or Callas' but I couldn't care less. I can't listen to the boring Sutherland for more than an aria / cabaletta and Callas' piano sounds like speaking although I admire them both. Montserrat here is simply unsurpassed, justifying her title as the last true diva. A voice so radiant, clear and beautiful we definitely miss today.

Il Pirata has so many beautiful moments that I cannot understand why it is neglected. Maria Callas revived the score in the late 50s but from extracts that I have heard she doesn't sound as involved and enchanting as Caballe. Next to Caballe here is, her husband if I'm not mistaken, Bernabe Marti. He is the only thing I don't like in this recording. He sounds monotonous and sings loud most of the time but one gets used to him after a while and then he's ok. What a pitty that Kraus (as in the Lucrezia Borgia set) or Bergonzi (as in the Traviata) could not be in this recording. Capuccilli is good, though not an expert in bel canto. Raimondi is better. Maestro Gavazzeni is a very fine conduct. Never trying to compete with the singers or overpower them.

On the whole, a lovely opera and an amazing performance by Montserrat Caballe.

In his short life, Bellini was a major innovator. He was the ONLY composer that Richard Wagner praised whole-heartedly (and deliberately imitated in his "long melodies"). The plot of IL PIRATA is about as stupid as any in all of opera, but its music is out of this world. Here and there, one hears passages that remind us that this is the person who composed the far better-plotted and, rightly, more famous opera NORMA. Forget about IL PIRATA's plot and immerse yourself in this amazing man's music.

Il pirata was Bellini's first great success and don't think it is a work of a beginner. For me it is on the same level with his most famous operas. It even has something that his later operas don't. It is so dramatic and exciting from the beginning to the end! I don't know if you can find so many beautiful melodies in any other opera. Every scene is a hit. Just listen to "Nel furor delle tempeste", "Lo sognai ferito, esangue", or "Parlarti ancor per poco". His recitatives, ariosos and ensembles are sometimes even more interesting than his arias. I don't know why this opera doesn't belong to the standard repertory. Perhaps because it is almost unsingable.

But fortunately we have this wonderful recording conducted by Gavazzeni. Caballé (Imogene) and Cappuccilli (Ernesto) are simply excellent. Marti (Gualtiero) is not the greatest tenor in the world, but he is not bad at all and I am grateful to him that he sang this role to us. I don't know why other great tenors avoid it because it offers so much!

I think this recording is the best available. Callas in her live performance is dramatically more intense and sometimes even better but the other singers are not on her level and the opera is cut. The newer Aliberti recording has an interesting Gualtiero of Stuart Neill, but the others are not as great as here.

this recording of Il pirata is excellent,with Caballe towering with her singing,but all the rest doing valuable contributions,and Maestro Gavazzeni, conducting as usual,and the Orchestra and Chorus of RAI of Rome, magnificient.I prefer this opera to its more famous sisters,La sonnambula, Norma and I puritani, and believe it is the complacency of people prefering hear something they are used that has not permitted to hear more frequently this masterpiece, apart of the lack of singers that can do it justice.Respect to this, i am amazed at the review of Mr. David Eastwood, revealing an ignorance that i did not believe existed with respect to the libretto and the music.You have to know that the WORDS are what opera it is all about,you have to UNDERSTAND and FEEL the words that inspire the singing and the music, that is why opera is grander and better than spoken theatre ,with no singing and no music, and music with no singing,like symphonies. But even when you can listen only the music,no matter how beautiful,you are losing the story, and if you believe only it has to deal with historic or real facts,you do not understand the meaning of the feelings.That is why if you do not feel opera, you are hearing it by the wrong motives.And in these things, story, feelings and music is that Il pirata is a true masterpiece by two geniuses, Maestro Felice Romani, and the Swan of Catania, il divino Bellini,like his fellow opera composer, the great Giovanni Pacini,once called him, splendidly represented by Caballe,Capuccilli,Marti,Raimondi et all,with Maestro Gavazzeni to back them up.

Actually, I love opera, although I am not an opera-goer. This opera is sung by Montserrat Caballé as Imogene, and her husband, Bernabé Martí, as Gualtiero. I saw her onstage at the Teatro Colón, in Buenos Aires, and if you want to know my opinion, her singing is so beautiful personally as it is in her recordings. In this, for example. You have to listen to it if you want to know who is Calla's best pupil. Just amazing.

Despite some tessitura problems with Caballe and some ugly noises from hubby Berbie that should have been redone, this is the kind of exceptional production that reminds us that RAI can bowl us over with the real whiff of the opera house...from the studio.

The entire cast is amazingly on cue, rehearsed within an inch of its life by Gavazzeni, and the extraordinary contribution of the RAI Rome Orchestra is surrounded with some of the loveliest sound EMI ever came up with in an opera recording. The plot, full of intrigue and a wide emotional spectrum gave Verdi all kinds of room to move around and paint a great diorama for us to take in. Every artist has room for characterization and all parts show Verdi's loving attention. It amazes me that this great work isn't better known outside Italy. But, then again, Italy is swamped with so many beauties maybe she simply can't get around to sharing all of them.

Any Verdi afficionado worth his vergogne will already have this. I didn't. I'd been getting along with a really fun "live" pirate from the Massimo. But I followed the previous reviewers' advice, got this, and am grateful to them for their direction.