Les Vêpres siciliennes, a five-act opera on a libretto by Auguste Scribe and Charles Duveyrier with music by Giuseppe Verdi, was first staged at the Paris Opéra on 13th June 1855. The subject of the opera was nothing other than an adaptation of a libretto that Scribe had written some years before, Le Duc d'Albe. At first the opera was greeted with great success, even Hector Berlioz, usually far from kind to Italian musicians, exalted the grandeur of its conception and its masterly composition. However its Parisian success was to be short lived, and after 1865 Les Vêpres siciliennes disappeared from the repertoire of the Opéra. The Italian première, in Arnaldo Fusinato's translation, was held in Parma on the evening of 26th December 1855; shortly afterwards the opera was taken to La Scala in Milan, on 4th February 1856, but this time in a new translation by Ettore Caimi. Before definitively becoming I Vespri Siciliani in the Italian edition too, the opera circulated for some time under various titles. Les Vêpres siciliennes/I Vespri Siciliani is in many senses an intimist opera, all based on the contrast between the duties imposed on, and sorrowfully accepted by, all the leading characters by their political roles, and their private feelings which, of course, do not correspond to the demands of politics. All of this set against the backdrop of a very demanding stage and choral set-up. Filmed by RAI at Teatro Verdi in Busseto, main interpreters of this production are Vladimir Stoyanov (Monforte), Renzo Zulian (Arrigo), Amarilli Nizza (Elena) e Orlin Anastassov (Procida), under the baton of Stefano Ranzani and with the direction of Pier Luigi Pizzi.
J**O
Entertaining small budget production
This is a “grand opera” performed in a very small theater. The use of the actors and especially the chorus being deployed throughout the entire theater does get a bit claustrophobic in this production but is understandable given the large chorus and the very small size of the stage and theater as a whole. They wouldn't all fit on the stage at one time I'm afraid. I do wish for once somebody would mount this opera in period appropriate attire. Once again we have vaguely 19th century dress for a story that is supposed to take place in the 13th century. And the fact that the Sicilian "patriots" are dressed in a very similar blue uniform as are the occupying French makes things a bit confusing. Some individual scenes, such as the ball at the end of Act 3 are very colorfully and artfully staged but all in all the staging and costuming were done on a very low budget indeed. On the other hand I cannot fault the singing which is beautifully sung, very strong and emotive; nor can I fault the orchestra or conducting and these are the most important elements. I found this version of I Vespri very entertaining. Something I cannot say about most versions I have watched or listened to, most of which lead my mind to wander throughout long stretches. This opera is often criticized as a “stand and sing” opera where most of the action happens offstage but very little happens onstage. True enough, so its even more of a compliment when I say besides beautiful singing, all the main actors in this performance emoted enthusiastically, powerfully and convincingly keeping me engaged throughout. This is the rare performance of I Vespri that was actually fun to watch. The soprano aces her big arias in Acts 4 and 5. There are cuts including most, but not all the ballet and the tenor aria in Act 5. I do long for a truly “grand opera” production with elaborate staging and rich period appropriate costuming along with great singing actors, but this small stage/ small budget production made the most of what they had to work with. This performance gives the viewer a good Idea of what provincial, smaller scale opera looks like in Italy these days. I would add that the viewer who likes this style of production might also enjoy the mostly splendid Tutto Verdi series which includes every one of Verdi’s operas performed in smaller scale regional theaters, some of his more obscure works had never been filmed before.
D**A
belle interpretazioni
davvero molto belle le voci e molto professionali i cantanti , bello il suono dell'orchestra e la direzione. poco suggestiva la scenografia in ripresa, ben eseguita molto bella l'idea dello specchio sul palco che è molto piccolo e è riempito totalmente dagli esecutori la specchiatura allarga le spalle e molto l'orizzonte. è davvero molto ben eseguita, sicuramente dal vivo deve essere stata ancora molto più coinvolgente anche per la scelta delle entrata dei cantanti e del coro in platea. molto belli in alcuni momenti i costumi e il balletto, bravissimi gli interpreti e molto comunicativi. sono contenta di poterla custodire , opera consigliatissima
