Bellini: La Sonnambula
by Mary Zimmerman
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Evelino Pido, Juan Diego Florez, Michele Pertusi, Natalie Dessay, The Metropolitan Opera OrchestraDirector: Mary Zimmerman
Brand: Uni
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); Chinese (Subtitled); English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); German (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); Italian (Original Language), DTS 5.1
Format: AC-3, Classical, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.77:1
Running Time: 120 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2010-02-16
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Decca
Movie Reviews of Bellini: La Sonnambula
Movie Review: The Only Thing That Saves This Opera Is The Singing!
Summary: 5 Stars
"Huh? Couldn't you say that for all operas?"
No, not really. Most operas also involve good music. The music per se of Vincenzo Bellini's "La Sonnambula" is so rudimentary one hardly needs to hear it. That's as Bellini intended; his opera is a vehicle for "bel canto", for unabashed display of beautiful voices. La Sonnambula is like a triple-dip ice cream cone; the three roles of Amina, Elvino, and Count Rodolfo are the three scoops of gelato and the orchestra/chorus are the cone ... and there's not even a waffle cone at Gelateria Bellini!
Also, some operas have dramatic merits -- intelligent librettos, emotive impact, and/or slapdash wit. The libretto of La Sonnambula is ludicrous and the `plot' is mediocre even by the vaudeville standards of 19th C opera. But who cared or cares, in the realm of bel canto! It's the singing! Turn off the subtiltes and do you think you'll miss anything? Trust me, you won't.
La Sonnambula is supposed to be set in a Swiss village, some miles below a vacant castle. The village belle, Amina, is bethrothed to the village beau, Elvino; their wedding is planned for the morrow. Lisa, another village maiden, is fuming with jealousy. The lovers, however, sing rapturously of their happiness. Suddenly a suave, elegant stranger appears, asking directions to the castle, though it emerges that he's oddly familiar with the region. The castle is too far to reach before nightfall, so the stranger accepts a room at the inn managed by Lisa. The villagers warn the stranger that a hideous "phantom' roams the region by night, but the stranger scoffs. Night falls.
Okay, are you ready? The stranger is in reality the long-absent Count Rodolfo, incognito for no reason that is ever revealed in the libretto. The phantom is none other than Amina, a sleepwalker/sonnambula, who strolls into the Count's bedroom unaware of her action. The good Count suppresses his lust and leaves her untouched in his bed, where she is discovered the next morning. Elvino goes "Italian" with jealousy and prepares to marry Lisa instead ... Have courage, dear romantics! All will be resolved.
The three bollas of gelato in this cone -- absolutely superb gelato, as good as any from Tre Scalini on the Piazza Navona in Rome! -- are Natalie Dessay as Amina, Juan Diego Flores as Elvino, and veterate basso Michele Pertusi as Rodolfo. Florez sings like a God, as `they' used to say of Caruso; he sings with such "sprezzatura" that he nearly steals the show from Dessay. ["Sprezzatura" was the word used in the early baroque for musicianship so disdainfully perfect that it could strut itself without restraint. Che bello voce ha il peruano!] Dessay has `matured' as a musician enough to compensate for a little tiredness of voice in the second act; her phrasing and tuning are sublime throughout, and she recovers her `fire' in time for her jaw-and-curatin dropping final aria. Just how good she really is is clarified by comparing her to Jennifer Black in the much easier role of Lisa. Black's vocal gifts don't include beautiful timbre; in fact she's screechy, scoopy, and her highest notes are seldom pitch perfect. She sings the first aria, and if you haven't ejected the DVD after it, you'll gasp with sensual pleasure at Dessay's first musical phrase.
In keeping with my gelato metaphor, if the singers are the ice cream and the drama the mere cone, the production - sets and costuming - is the thin sheet of paper wrapped around the cone to keep it from dripping. This production isn't at all visually splendid or charming. The gossip is that it was hated by audiences at the Met and panned by the critics. It reconceives the drama slef-referentially, as a rehearsal of the opera in a back studio almost as shabby as the actual practice rooms of most opera houses. It's not incoherent. It's not such a dim idea. One could even say it "works", but it misses its audience completely. This is a concept addressed to an audience of insiders who have seen half a dozen productions of La Sonnambula, who have a full set of memories of those productions, and who crave some irreverence. First-timers won't "get it." Devout Belliniphiles want the whole lasagna, Dirndl dresses and all. Fine, give `em what they want! It doesn't matter. The production is merely a ploy for hiring the singers!
In that case, you ask, why not just listen to a CD? Is it just the subtitles? Well, let me ask you: why not just get your three scoops of ice cream in the palm of your hand, with the stale tastless cone and the inedible paper sheath?
Summary of Bellini: La Sonnambula
La Sonnambula (Bellini)In his latest Decca DVD release, bel canto star Juan Diego Flórez undertakes the role of Elvino in Bellini's romantic drama, playing opposite the mercurial French soprano, Natalie Dessay, in the MET 's striking, modern-dress production from March 2009. Bellini's romantic opera La Sonnambula (1831), hinges on the love and misunderstanding between Elvino and Amina (the `sleepwalker' of the title). Discovered in the bedroom of Rodolfo, Amina is assumed to have been unfaithful, and Elvino cancels their wedding. But in the dramatic final scene, he witnesses Amina sleepwalking, understands her innocence, and all ends happily. Mary Zimmerman's production plays with the dual realities of a rehearsal of the opera and a performance of the opera itself.
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