Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #112138 in DVD
• Released on: 2006-09-26
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.77:1
• Formats: AC-3, Classical, DVD, Import, Subtitled, NTSC
• Original language: Italian
• Subtitled in: English, French, German, Italian, Japanese
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 136 minutes

Customer Reviews

A First Rate Production
The previous reviewer says the information does not make it clear why this is the 1830 La Scala version. I agree. According to the New Grove Dictionary of Opera Bellini did not have a soprano to his liking so he re-worked the score for La Scala to better suit a mezzo-soprano. The previous reviewer thought there were too many cuts, and it is about 5 - 10 minutes shorter than the other productions I have. But what is there is excellent and Ciofi does shine. All in all it makes for a most enjoyable evening.

Not bad, but not stellar either
I don't like this 1830 'La Scala' revision of this music as much as the original 'Venice' version. Much of Giulietta's music is transposed down and much of Romeo's transposed up. Lorenzo is now not only a priest instead of a doctor (which is a weird move, since this work IS NOT based on the Shakespeare play, but Luigi Scevola's 'Giulietta e Romeo'), but he is also a tenor instead of the usual basso!

Staging seems to have updated the story to the early 20th Century, and it is exceedingly ridiculous for Romeo and Tebaldo to be threatening each others for 5 plus minutes at a time with pistols instead of swords. The stage direction is also too static for my taste. A lot of standing around singing to the audience instead of interacting with the other characters... And this being staged outdoor, the camera work is sort of sucky. Lots of scene with one singer obstructing another singer's view (and a lot of time, the obstructed singer is the one doing the singing).

Patrizia Ciofi is the main event indeed. Singing beautifully (though sounds much huskier than her Romeo does), and actually manages to express herself successfully despite of the static stage direction.

Clara Polito is a soprano Romeo who actually sounds more feminine than his lover. The voice is nicely imposing with a top-spin and a rather prominent quick vibrato... though she doesn't sing anything less loud than mezzo forte all opera long. With the music transpositions, the Romeo/Giulietta duets are interesting to hear... It's easy enough to tell these two voices apart, but one wonders who's the guy and who's the gal!

The guys sing well, and I'm quite impressed with Danilo Formaggia's Tebaldo. Very beautiful and secure tenor voice (though not very smooth during long legato lines).

Maestro Acocela is supportive of his singers from the pit and moves the show along well. And the chorus is really good.

Too bad there are only 2 DVDs of this opera available. Keeping my fingers crossed a studio or two had taped a performance with Kasarova in Chicago or Paris.... or even Dresden! Please! Please!

For fans of Patrizia Ciofi only
Perhaps I should perhaps mention, prior to this review, that I have no qualifications for reviewing opera on DVD. I only know what I like and that it should entertain. Previous to watching this DVD, I had only been exposed to two of Bellini's operas; Munich Opera's 2006 DVD of `Norma' and the live radio broadcast of `Il Pirata' from the Metropolitan Opera House in the same year.

Although a number of the reviews here give mixed opinions as to the performance of this version of Romeo and Juliet, they all seem to say that the reason for acquiring this is for the presence of Patrizia Ciofi. In this, I must totally agree with them, However, in my opinion the stage director, the costume designer, lighting engineer, scenery designer and props designer (forget that, there are no props except for a wedding dress on a stand) all done by the same person (Denis Krief), should face a firing squad for presenting a work that is unfortunately not up to the standard expected of opera on DVD.
The chorus, dressed in combinations of black and white, for much of the time stand motionless on the stage, often with their backs to the audience. The all white dresses worn by Patrizia Ciofi (appearing as Juliet) glow and create glare in the harsh and cruel lighting of this outside venue at the Palazzo Ducale. There are long periods when, in closeup, it seems that we are watching a very poor quality historic black and white recording. For no reason, that I could imagine, there are two linear light fixtures that cross the stage dividing it into three sections; one white and the other red and both sources of glare that is present for most of the work. Indeed, I think there is only one small period where the lighting is lowered sufficiently so that you can actually see fairly representative skin tones on the singers.

I believe that this is the only widescreen recording available of this work, so it is even more the pity that such a very poor video recording has been made. In audio terms Patrizia Ciofi is a delight to listen to and Romeo (Clara Polito) only slightly less so but, overall, disappointing, extremely disappointing.