Bellini - I Capuleti e i Montecchi / Kasarova · Mei · Vargas · Chiummo · Alberghini · R. Abbado [Box set]

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com's Best of 1998
While many of his contemporaries had reduced opera to empty displays of vocal prowess, Bellini crafted the gorgeous melodies of bel canto style with a poet's intuition for character and dramatic truth. This recording gives ample evidence of both qualities, above all in the tender, yearning, and almost unbearably poignant blend of Vesselina Kasarova and Eva Mei's voices as Romeo and Juliet, respectively. Roberto Abbado brings loving but unobtrusive authority to the score. Also included is a disc of scenes from a similar opera composed by Nicola Vaccai and long performed in place of Bellini's music--a fascinating vantage point from which to consider the latter's achievement. --Thomas May

Amazon.com essential recording
Make no mistake, this is not William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. This version, by Vincenzo Bellini with a libretto by Felice Romani, has often been dismissed for its story line, which is very different from the familiar tale of the star-crossed lovers. Actually, as noted by musicologist-bel canto answer man Philip Gossett in his liner notes, Bellini and Romani hadn't read Shakespeare when they composed the opera. They had, however, read the sources on which Shakespeare based his play, but... read more

Bellini - I Capuleti e i Montecchi / Kasarova · Mei · Vargas · Chiummo · Alberghini · R. Abbado [Box set]

Bellini - I Capuleti e i Montecchi / Kasarova · Mei · Vargas · Chiummo · Alberghini · R. Abbado, Music, Vincenzo Bellini, Roberto Abbado, Vesselina Kasarova, Ramón Vargas, Münchner Rundfunksorchester, Chor der Bayerichen Rundfunk, Umberto Chiummo, Simone Alberghini, Eva Mei, Classical, Classical Music, Classical Vocals, Italian Romantic Opera, Opera, Opera/Operetta
Bellini - I Capuleti e i Montecchi / Kasarova · Mei · Vargas · Chiummo · Alberghini · R. Abbado
Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
  • Beautiful Recording
  • Not what I hoped.
  • Beautiful like an erupting volcano
  • Bel Canto with Style and Substance!
  • FINALLY ---- A GREAT RECORDING OF BELLINI'S "I CAPULETI"
 Bellini - I Capuleti e i Montecchi / Kasarova · Mei · Vargas · Chiummo · Alberghini · R. Abbado
Vincenzo Bellini , Roberto Abbado , Vesselina Kasarova , Ramón Vargas , Münchner Rundfunksorchester , Chor der Bayerichen Rundfunk , Umberto Chiummo , Simone Alberghini , and Eva Mei
Manufacturer: RCA
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Bellini, VincenzoBellini, Vincenzo | ( B ) | Featured Composers, A-Z | Classical | Styles | Music
GeneralGeneral | Classical | Styles | Music
GeneralGeneral | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music
Romantic (c.1820-1910)Romantic (c.1820-1910) | Historical Periods | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music
ItalianItalian | Languages | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music
OperettasOperettas | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music
Vargas, RamonVargas, Ramon | U to Z | Featured Performers, A-Z | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music
Kasarova, VesselinaKasarova, Vesselina | Divas | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music
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Opera & VocalOpera & Vocal | The Sony BMG Masterworks Store | Amazon.com Label Stores | Stores | Music
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ASIN: B000009W8T
Release Date: 1998-08-11

Tracks:

  1. I Capuleti e i Montecchi: Act One - Sinfonia
  2. I Capuleti e i Montecchi: Act One - No. 1 - Coro d'Introduzione - Aggiorna appena
  3. I Capuleti e i Montecchi: Act One - No. 2 - Scena e Cavatina - O di Capellio, generosi amici
  4. I Capuleti e i Montecchi: Act One - No. 2 - Scena e Cavatina - E serbata a questo acciaro
  5. I Capuleti e i Montecchi: Act One - No. 2 - Scena e Cavatina - L'amo tanto, e m'e si cara
  6. I Capuleti e i Montecchi: Act One - No. 3 - Recitativo, Coro e Cavatina - Vunne Lorenzo
  7. I Capuleti e i Montecchi: Act One - No. 3 - Recitativo, Coro e Cavatina - Lieto del dolce incarco
  8. I Capuleti e i Montecchi: Act One - No. 3 - Recitativo, Coro e Cavatina - Ascolta! Se Romeo
  9. I Capuleti e i Montecchi: Act One - No. 4 - Recitativo e Romanza - Eccomi in lieta vesta
  10. I Capuleti e i Montecchi: Act One - No. 4 - Recitativo e Romanza - Oh! quante volte
  11. I Capuleti e i Montecchi: Act One - No. 5 - Scena e Dueto - Propizia e l'ora
  12. I Capuleti e i Montecchi: Act One - No. 5 - Scena e Dueto - Si, fuggire
  13. I Capuleti e i Montecchi: Act One - No. 5 - Scena e Dueto - Ah! Crudel, d'onor ragioni
  14. I Capuleti e i Montecchi: Act One - No. 5 - Scena e Dueto - Odi tu ?
  15. I Capuleti e i Montecchi: Act One - No. 5 - Scena e Dueto - Vieni, ah! in me riposa
  16. I Capuleti e i Montecchi: Act One - No. 6 - Coro - Lieta notte, avventurosa

Tracks:

  1. I Capuleti e i Montecchi: Act One - No. 7 - Finale - Deh! Per pieta t'arresta
  2. I Capuleti e i Montecchi: Act One - No. 7 - Finale - Tace if fragor...
  3. I Capuleti e i Montecchi: Act One - No. 7 - Finale - Io te lo chielo
  4. I Capuleti e i Montecchi: Act One - No. 7 - Finale - Che miro? Il perfido
  5. I Capuleti e i Montecchi: Act One - No. 7 - Finale - Soccorso, sostegno accordagli
  6. I Capuleti e i Montecchi: Act One - No. 7 - Finale - Accoriam .. Romeo!
  7. I Capuleti e i Montecchi: Act One - No. 7 - Finale - Se ogni speme...
  8. I Capuleti e i Montecchi: Act Two - No. 8 - Introduzione, Scena ed Aria - Introduzione
  9. I Capuleti e i Montecchi: Act Two - No. 8 - Introduzione, Scena ed Aria - Ne alcun ritorna!
  10. I Capuleti e i Montecchi: Act Two - No. 8 - Introduzione, Scena ed Aria - Morte io non temo il sai
  11. I Capuleti e i Montecchi: Act Two - No. 8 - Introduzione, Scena ed Aria - Prendi, gl'istanti volano
  12. I Capuleti e i Montecchi: Act Two - No. 8 - Introduzione, Scena ed Aria - Ah! non poss'io partire
  13. I Capuleti e i Montecchi: Act Two - No. 9 - Scena e Duetto - Que turbamento io provo!
  14. I Capuleti e i Montecchi: Act Two - No. 9 - Scena e Duetto - Deserto e il luogo
  15. I Capuleti e i Montecchi: Act Two - No. 9 - Scena e Duetto - Arresta. Qual mesto suon echeggia?
  16. I Capuleti e i Montecchi: Act Two - No. 10 Finale - Siam giunti
  17. I Capuleti e i Montecchi: Act Two - No. 10 Finale - Ecco la tomba
  18. I Capuleti e i Montecchi: Act Two - No. 10 Finale - Deh! tu, bell'anima
  19. I Capuleti e i Montecchi: Act Two - No. 10 Finale - O tu, mia sola speme
  20. I Capuleti e i Montecchi: Act Two - No. 10 Finale - Ei muore

Tracks:

  1. I Capuleti e i Montecchi: Act Two - No. 10 Coro - Addio, addio per sempre
  2. I Capuleti e i Montecchi: Act Two - No.11 Scena, Aria e Duetto - E questa il loco
  3. I Capuleti e i Montecchi: Act Two - No.11 Scena, Aria e Duetto - Stagnate, o lagrime
  4. I Capuleti e i Montecchi: Act Two - No. 12 Scena ed Aria e Finale - Schiusa e la ferrea porta
  5. I Capuleti e i Montecchi: Act Two - No. 12 Scena ed Aria e Finale - Prendimi teco
  6. I Capuleti e i Montecchi: Act Two - No. 12 Scena ed Aria e Finale - Tu t'arretri
  7. I Capuleti e i Montecchi: Act Two - Cavatina Romeo - Ascolta! Se Romeo
  8. I Capuleti e i Montecchi: Act Two - Cavatina Romeo - Riedi al campo

Amazon.com's Best of 1998

While many of his contemporaries had reduced opera to empty displays of vocal prowess, Bellini crafted the gorgeous melodies of bel canto style with a poet's intuition for character and dramatic truth. This recording gives ample evidence of both qualities, above all in the tender, yearning, and almost unbearably poignant blend of Vesselina Kasarova and Eva Mei's voices as Romeo and Juliet, respectively. Roberto Abbado brings loving but unobtrusive authority to the score. Also included is a disc of scenes from a similar opera composed by Nicola Vaccai and long performed in place of Bellini's music--a fascinating vantage point from which to consider the latter's achievement. --Thomas May

Amazon.com essential recording

Make no mistake, this is not William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. This version, by Vincenzo Bellini with a libretto by Felice Romani, has often been dismissed for its story line, which is very different from the familiar tale of the star-crossed lovers. Actually, as noted by musicologist-bel canto answer man Philip Gossett in his liner notes, Bellini and Romani hadn't read Shakespeare when they composed the opera. They had, however, read the sources on which Shakespeare based his play, but while both they and the Bard departed from the original, they departed in different directions. No matter: the opera has some gorgeous music, and it's given some gorgeous performances here by some very fine singers. The leads are the same superb pair of young singers heard in RCA's recent set of Rossini's Tancredi, soprano Eva Mei and mezzo-soprano Vesselina Kasarova. Kasarova, a Bulgarian native with a lovely sound and an amazing way with a coloratura line, makes a dashing, ardent Romeo, soaring above the men's chorus and blending beautifully with Mei, whose expressive soprano is consistent up and down the scale. This set, which also features fine work from tenor Ramon Vargas as Tebaldo and thoughtful conducting from Roberto Abbado, has plenty to offer those who appreciate beautiful singing. --Sarah Bryan Miller

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars Beautiful Recording.......2001-11-06

Reviewers and listeners please note: the libretto for this opera is NOT based on Shakespeare, whose Romeo and Juliet was not known in that part of of the world until much later... There is therefore no betrayal of the Bard. As for this recording, it is absolutely stunning: I have long admired Kasarova's voice, and was recently lucky enough to hear her sing Romeo live at the Lyric Opera in Chicago (anyone who can SHOULD... It's here in Chicago until 12/2/01). The other performers are also wonderful: I actually prefer Ramon Vargas to the tenor selected for Lyric's production. In short, there is nothing to disappoint here, so purchase and enjoy!

4 out of 5 stars Not what I hoped........2001-08-21

This recording is very good. The sound and the soloists are excellent. Kudos to the mezzo-soprano as Romeo, Vesselina Kasarova. She is solid, expressive, wicked chest voice, and a beautiful tone that rings through to the high notes. Eva Mei, as Julia, is sweet and lively lyric soprano. Ramon Vargas has a warm and manly tenor.

But overall the performance sounds careful. What I miss are two things, the architecture and momentum. For example, in the beautiful duets, the singers don't build phrase upon phrase, creating tension and anticipation, what they do is wind the first phrase down to a halt and then the orchestra and singers have to be wound up again. This goes on throughout the recording. It sounds like the joint uncertainty of the performers and the conductor. Michelangelo has said that movement is equal to emotion. In that context we could also ask where is the intense youthful passion, the jealousy, or the emotional devastation?

And yet, it is a beautiful opera. My recommendation is to buy some of the live recordings from Opera D'Oro--they are very cheap, but they have captured some really great performances. I Capuleti e I Montecchi with Claudio Abbado conducting, Pavarotti, Aragall, and Rinaldi is a good case in point.

As a novelty, there the third CD is devoted to Vaccai's (a composer from the same period as Bellini) second act of Giulietta e Romeo with Mei, Kasarova, and Vargas.

5 out of 5 stars Beautiful like an erupting volcano.......2001-05-21

This opera by Bellini is rather unknown. Luckily, a recent production at the Los Angeles Opera has put is in the limelights, though the absence of a video or DVD recording is definitely a handicap for the audience, because this opera is absolutely fabulous.

At first I was surprised by the choice of a soprano for Romeo. But The opera is built to use this fact at the highest level possible. The duets between Romeo and Juliet come to a perfect blending of the voices, the couple becoming one, and that is a marvelous way of expressing this total and unbreakable love that unifies them two. But the duets between Romeo and Tybalt are also enhanced by this fact because then we have the rivalry between the two characters expressed by the opposition between the soprano and the tenor.

Bellini slightly betrays Shakespeare. Romeo is the real head of the fighting Montagues, and Tybalt is the same on the Capulet side. Romeo has killed Juliet's brother. Yet Romeo and Juliet are deeply in love, but Tybalt is also deeply un love with Juliet, though she does not respond to this love. The rivalry between the two families is thus reduced and at the same time multiplied because of the two men who love the same woman. The dramatic tension is strengthened by this simple fact. We are no longer in a fight between two families, but between two lovers. The feelings and sentiments are thus extremely more powerful. And then we understand the choice of a soprano for Romeo. Tybalt is the one who is trying to break, unknowingly at first, the love between Romeo and Juliet.

The music is very surprising in some pieces. The use of brass instruments at the beginning or here and there does not evoke a war, but rather a hunting party. Yet in the love scenes, the really dramatic scenes in the opera, the music gets to either a tremendous delicacy to express the beauty of the feelings (the use of a guitar for instance) or a phenomenal tension. The singing itself is as pure and multifarious as the tortured and split loyalties of Romeo or Juliet, especially Juliet, or Tybalt require. Pure because of the voices, because of the solos, but also because of the very precise and accurate composition of the duets or the chorus. Multifarious because no two scenes have the same coloration. We feel the evolution of the drama, of the questioning in the minds and hearts of the characters due to these slight changes in the music from one scene to the next.

An expert would probably hear now and then an echo of Mozart or some other great opera composers, but it is only an evanescent echo when it happens, a couple or very small number of notes, or even nothing but a tone, a chord that sounds like coming from somewhere else, but it is so well blended in the whole that it sounds just perfect, not one note too many, not one variation too many, just the right number of notes and words, just perfect. So the death of Romeo and Juliet becomes all the more volcanic, heavy and fiery, because of those changes in the plot and because of those perfect notes and arias. This opera deserves a better coverage in our musical culture.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, Paris Universities II and IX.

5 out of 5 stars Bel Canto with Style and Substance!.......2000-07-19

To me Bellini's operas have the grandeur and magistry of Beethoven's symphonies. They are stately, very beautiful, and carry the listener off into a wonderful world of sound, action and drama. This performance succeeds on so many levels. Next to Norma, this is my favorite Bellini opera. The libretto by Felice Romani, Bellini's favorite collaborator, is a masterpiece in it's way as much as Shakespeare's is in his (they are both based on similar sources of the Romeo and Juliet story). Both the music and the drama of this opera are compelling! Roberto Abbado conducts the orchestra with precision, elan, and transparent clarity. He never intrudes on the singers, but the grandeur of the music both preceeds and continues in the wake of the singers. Eva Mei has an indescribally beautiful voice (soprano). Her arias are a wonder! She can sing in the highest register with amazing control of pitch and dynamics. Vesselina Kasarova (mezzo) portrays Romeo very insightfully and her singing is gorgeous! My worry before I purchased this CD set was that the music might be beautiful in the bel canto style B.C. (Before Callas). This worry proved not to be founded. Kasarova and Mei definitely project drama and emotion into their artful singing, so that they are able to sweep the listener into the heart of this great tragic opera. In fact, their duet "Vieni,ah!in me riposa" has the force, beauty and drive of Callas and Stignani in Norma (1954,1955). And, of course, Roberto Vargas is another reason to own this magnificient recording. Bravo! Bravo! Bravo!

5 out of 5 stars FINALLY ---- A GREAT RECORDING OF BELLINI'S "I CAPULETI".......2000-01-09

Vincenzo Bellini's "I Capuleti e i Montecchi" is far less well known than his "Norma", "I Puritani", or "La Sonnambula", but it deserves to be heard much more frequently. The opera, of course, is Bellini's scoring of the Romeo and Juliet tragedy, but with a "trouser" mezzo soprano for the role of Romeo (the opera, however, has occasionally been done with a tenor Romeo, but, incredibly enough, with considerably less musical effect). If one can get past this (which a few may find a little difficult), they will discover what a lyrically beautiful opera "I Capuleti e i Montecchi" actually is. Bellini, the master of "bel canto melody", wrote for this opera some of the most moving and beautiful vocal music ever conceived for the singing voice. "Capuletti" has been recorded before (Beverly Sills and Janet Baker on EMI in 1976; Edita Gruberova and Agnes Baltsa, also on EMI in 1983), but never has it received a recording on the level of this one. Eva Mei, one of the most accomplished sopranos of recent years, is an exquisite Juliet. Her lyric soprano sound is ideal for the role, bringing out all of the fragility and pathos of the character. Vesselina Kasarova, I believe, is destined to be one of the great operatic artists of the new millenium. She uses her magnificent mezzo soprano like a master cellist, producing sounds that can only inspire superlatives. Each singer not only excells in their respective arias, but they reach mammoth heights in their duets. This is truly great singing ---- and as a bonus, we get to hear the recently up-and-coming tenor Ramon Vargas in the supporting role of Tebaldo. Robert Abbado conducts this beautiful opera as though he were discovering it for the first time ----- it comes off as a fresh and beautiful presentation, infinitely superior to the most immediately recent 1983 EMI recording. As is essential for this particular opera (or for most operas of the bel canto period), he allows his singers to sing ----- and they do some sublime singing. If you want to discover this opera, this is definitely the recording to do it with. If you already own one or both of the previous EMI versions, you need this one too. It's a jewel of a presentation all around.

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