This performance, taped at the Donizetti shrine (Bergamo, his home town) in November and December 2007, is a musical disappointment. The unfussy, somewhat minimalist period sets by Angelo Sala are good looking, Cristina Aceti’s costumes are very impressive (stand-out blacks and reds), and Francesco Bellotto’s direction is straightforward and allows for plot clarity, fluid movement, and natural if predictable action.
Soprano Dimitra Theodossiou is an interesting singer and she gets most of the nuances in Lucrezia’s character, but the voice sounds stressed a good deal of the time. She can still spin a nice pianissimo, but she’s obviously working very hard. Roberto De Biasio sings and acts Gennaro with his heart and soul, but that does not make up for a bland tone and a voice that obviously is about to shatter above the staff. Enrico Giuseppe Iori is a younger-than-usual Alfonso and is suitably villainous, and Nidia Palacios is the weakest Orsini I’ve ever heard. The rest of the conspirators/friends are fine in their ensembles, and each has his own character. Tiziano Severini leads a performance good enough to merit better singers. Subtitles are in English and Italian only.
There’s only one competitive DVD and that’s on Kultur, with a slightly over-the-hill Joan Sutherland (who still sings rings around anyone else) and Alfredo Kraus, marvelous as Gennaro. The world could use an up-to-date DVD of this opera; it’s a pity this one fails.
