Bellini's I Capuleti E I Montecchi (The Capulets and the Montagues)

Based on librettist Felice Romani's adaptation of the story of Romeo and Juliet (not based on the Shakespeare play, but on the same 16th Century Italian sources that inspired the English poet), this beautifully dramatic bel canto work by Vincenzo Bellini is one of my all time favorite operas. It was very successfully premiered at Teatro La Fenice in Venice on March 11th, 1830. You would do well to abandon all preconceptions of the story as you've read in Shakespeare's play before trying this opera. Bellini and Romani really pulled off a miracle in compacting the drama into 2 acts that focus exclusively on the two lovers, leaving out many characters in the process (no Mercutio, Lady Capulet, Nurse, or Benvoglio).

Plot: (click on song name for music sample)
Set in 13th Century Verona, Italy during the war between the Guelphs and the Ghibellines; the story concerns, of course, the tragic love between Romeo and Giulietta (Juliet). Click here for a condensed look/listen of the opera (from a 1996 performance in Paris).

Giulietta, the daughter of Capellio (Capulet, leader of a faction of the Guelphs), is politically incorrectly in love with the exiled Romeo (who, aside from being the leader of the hated Montecchi faction of the Ghibellines, had also killed her brother during a previous battle). Capellio naturally not only disapproves of her choice, but also wishes Romeo dead... So when his ally, Tebaldo, vows to avenge his son's death by slaying Romeo (È serbata a questo acciano), Capellio agrees to let Tebaldo marry Giulietta on the spot.

Just then, Romeo enters the Capuleti hall in disguise as his own ambassador and greets his rival factions with a peace offering that includes the condition of the marriage between Romeo and Giulietta (Lieto del dolce incarico/ Se Romeo t'uccise son figlio). Naturally, his proposal is not well received and the meeting ends in mutual animosity.

Finding a moment alone with his beloved Giulietta ('O quante volte'), Romeo tries to convince her to put love before duty and elope with him ('Si, fuggire: a noi non resta!). But she refuses. The lovers are discovered by Capellio, Tebaldo, and the sympathetic but helpless Dr. Lorenzo, and the scene disintegrates into one of the most mesmerizing quintets in operatic literature (Soccorso, sostegno accordale, o cielo/ Se ogni speme).

Later, entering the Capuleti's deserted courtyard hoping to hear news of Giulietta from Dr Lorenzo (who, unknown to Romeo, has been detained by Capellio), Romeo is instead confronted by the vengeful Tebaldo. Their magnificent match of vocal spitting and fencing is interrupted by a funeral procession... Giulietta is dead! (Deserto e il luego/ Un nume avverso).

Devastated, Romeo breaks into his mournful aria, 'Deh, tu bell'anima,' and then swallows a whole bottle of real poison in order to join his Giulietta in death. Alas... her deadness was only temporary (at least on the first go), having been induced by Lorenzo's magic sleeping potion. And so Giulietta's awakening proves quite tragic for the dying Romeo. He sings a devastatingly tragic farewell, with Giulietta joining him before justifying her need for a personal physician by falling dead on his body.... apparently from a broken heart.

The music of this opera exquisitely exemplifies the bel canto style. This was the music of the early Italian Romantic period with heavy emphasis on graceful yet virtuosic vocal writing that is also dramatically expressive. It is a celebration of the singing voice accompanied only very lightly by the orchestra (and so only the most accomplished of professional singers would even try to sing this music since every slightest slip they make would be audible to even the sleepiest fly tugged away at the farthest corner of the opera house). Bellini had a thing for lung-burstingly long and elegant singing phrases full of modulating melisma (each syllable of a word is stretched over many notes of music) and demands not only supreme vocal agility, but also absolute dynamic control of the voice (volume-control on the fly!).

If you have listened to a few of the clips included above and noted how the music fits the dramatic situations so well, you would be amazed that much of the music of this opera was actually recycled from Bellini's earlier but unsuccessful opera, Zaira. The story being so focused on the lovers now, the success of any performance of this opera rest nearly solely on the performance of the Romeo and the Giulietta. The part of Romeo was written for and has always been sung by a soprano because, in 1830, the audience were just weaning from a steady diet of hearing soprano castrato voice as the male lead in the opera (the practice of castrating boy sopranos to preserve their singing voice was banned not long ago)... and, apparently, the voice type that's most closely resemble the soprano castrato voice is what we would now classify as a 'mezzo-soprano.' Back in the older days, the 'visual' element wasn't anywhere nearly as important to opera-goers as the vocal performance. Singing is what makes opera works!

The super stars of Bellini's days weren't just fabulous singing technicians, however, they were also the marvelously expressive virtuoso mezzo-soprani like Giuditta Pasta, Giulia Grisi (the originator of Bellini's Romeo), Maria Malibran, or Pauline Viardot-Garcia. All of whom had too wide a vocal range to be allowed. Actually, they would be so dissed by today's singing convention if they are around and singing now, since the modern audience has this fascinating love for the seamlessly integrated voice that can move from the topmost note to the deepest one in a single timbre... Which would be fine, except that the bel canto music wasn't written with that kind of singing in mind. They were custom-fit for singers with a large but not seamless voice, whose high notes were almost a full tone lower than what we're hearing today (the standard A=440 is a modern thing). Nowadays, a great singing actress who could both do Bellini's music justice while behaving convincingly manly enough on the stage to satisfy the modern audience is a rare find.

Even though they used the same libretto (sung text) by Romani, the music of Bellini's version of the opera is starkly different from that of Nicola Vaccai's. Bellini's version being more drama/character-oriented and staying totally focused on the actions of the two lovers without any added frill. The composer revised the opera for a 1830 performance at La Scala in Milan, where the music of Giulietta is transposed down to a high mezzo-soprano range and using the tenor option for the usually bass role of Lorenzo (this is the version used in the DVD from Martina Franca Festival). Many prima donna in that era preferred to substitute Vaccai's final scene to Bellini's opera, however, in order to showcase their singing even at the expense of drama. In the 1980's a run of this opera conducted by Claudio Abbado was performed with a radical transposition of Romeo down to a tenor range, which was splendidly sung by Giacomo Aragall... though with a horrifically vandalizing effect on the ensemble music, especially during the marvelous quintets that end the first act (this is captured on the CD on Opera d'Oro label).

I regret that the video clip and sound-track clips provided in this essay are not commercially available, but there are quite a few great recordings of this opera on commercial CDs (sadly, I don't find the 2 DVDs of the opera currently available all that attractive). The video clips are from a 1996 performance at the Paris Opera - Bastille with Evelino Pido conducting Vesselina Kasarova (Romeo) and Laura Claycomb (Giulietta), and the clip of Edita Gruberova as Giulietta in a 1984 performance in Vienna. The sound-tracks are from a performance of the opera at Semper Oper Dresden in 1998 conducted by Marcello Viotti with Vesselina Kasarova (Romeo), Lucia Aliberti (Giulietta), Octavio Arevalo (Tebaldo), Arutjun Kotchinian (Capellio), & Kwangchul Youn (Lorenzo).

The CD set of the opera I recommend is the RCA Red Seal...

Recordings:
CD
* RCA Red Seal (studio 1997) Roberto Abbado/Munich Radio Orchestra: Vesselina Kasarova (Romeo), Eva Mei (Giulietta), Ramon Vargas (Tebaldo)
* EMI (live 1984) Riccardo Muti/ Orchestra of the Royal Opera House: Agnes Baltsa (Romeo), Edita Gruberova (Giulietta), Dano Raffanti (Tebaldo)
* EMI (studio 1975) Giuseppe Patané/New Philharmonia Orchestra: Janet Baker (Romeo), Beverly Sills (Giulietta), Nicolai Gedda (Tebaldo)
* Opera d'Oro (live ) Claudio Abbado/ Orchestra of the Teatro alla Scala: Giacomo Aragall (Romeo), Renata Scotto (Giulietta), Luciano Pavarotti (Tebaldo)
DVD
* Dynamic (live 2006) Luciano Acocella/Orchestra Internazionale d'Italia: Carla Polito (Romeo), Patrizia Ciofi (Giuleitta), Danilo Formaggia (Tebaldo)
* VAI (live 2005) Pietro Mianiti/ Orchestra Lirica i Pomeriggi Musicali: Paula Gardina (Romeo), Valentina Farcas (Giulietta), Giocomo Patti (Tebaldo)