Jesús López Cobos conducts Mascagni & Leoncavallo

Recorded live at the Teatro Real, Madrid, in February & March 2007.

Violeta Urmana (Santuzza), Vincenzo La Scola (Turiddu), Dragana Jugovic (Lola), Viorica Cortez (Mamma Lucia), Marco di Felice (Alfio), Vladimir Galouzine (Canio), Maria Bayo (Nedda), Carlo Guelfi (Tonio), Antonio Gandia (Beppe), Angel Odena (Silvio)

Chorus and Orchestra of the Teatro Real (Madrid...

That both these productions work is largely due to Jesús López Cobos's theatrically vital and style-sensitive conducting and two strong casts. — BBC Music Magazine, December 2007, 4 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 5th Jan 2009
Catalogue No: OABD7018D
Label: Opus Arte

Mascagni: Cavalleria Rusticana

Violeta Urmana (Santuzza), Vincenzo La Scola (Turiddu), Dragana Jugovic (Lola), Viorica Cortez (Mamma Lucia), Marco di Felice (Alfio)
Chorus and Orchestra of the Teatro Real (Madrid Symphony Orchestra & Chorus)
Jesús López Cobos (musical director) & Giancarlo del Monaco (stage director)

Leoncavallo: Pagliacci

Vladimir Galouzine (Canio), Maria Bayo (Nedda), Carlo Guelfi (Tonio), Antonio Gandia (Beppe), Angel Odena (Silvio)
Chorus and Orchestra of the Teatro Real (Madrid Symphony Orchestra & Chorus)
Jesús López Cobos (musical director) & Giancarlo del Monaco (stage director)

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Giancarlo del Monaco’s acclaimed new production elegantly intertwines Mascagni’s and Leoncavallo’s well-loved operas, masterpieces which brought new levels of realism into opera through their so-called verismo style. Jesús López Cobos directs a double cast of outstanding talent in a recording filmed with High Definition cameras and with true surround sound.

‘The success at the opening night made history, with a great explosion of audience delight at the end… Outstanding production by Giancarlo del Monaco, Lopez Cobos gives his best… A very high level cast … very potent Violeta Urmana, formidable Canio by Vladimir Galouzine … it is impossible to listen to a better “Ridi Paggliacio” today.’ La Razon

Note: This Blu-ray Disc (BD) is not compatible with standard DVD players

PICTURE FORMAT: 1080i
LENGTH: 201 Mins
SOUND: 2.0 & 5.0 PCM
SUBTITLES: EN/FR/DE/ES/IT

Artists

Chorus and Orchestra of the Teatro Real (Madrid Symphony Orchestra & Chorus), Jesús López Cobos (musical director) & Giancarlo del Monaco (stage director)

Reviews

December 2007

That both these productions work is largely due to Jesús López Cobos's theatrically vital and style-sensitive conducting and two strong casts.

2010

It is a genuine pleasure to welcome a new production of Cav and Pag that presents the contrasting tales of jealousy and infidelity with sincerity and dramatic flair. Giancarlo del Monaco and his designer, Johannes Leiacker, set Cavalleria in a stark townscape of white painted buildings and masonry, the black-clad Sicilian women silhouetted under the fierce sunlight. The Easter Hymn is made all the more tense by a parade of penitents dragging a cross. Violeta Urmana and Vincenzo La Scola are well paired as Santuzza and Turridu, their confrontation interrupted by the unusually attractive Lola of Dragana Jugovich. Marco di Felice conveys the terrible pain that Alfio feels on learning of his wife's affair – the fight between him and Turridu is played out onstage, the challenge taken up when a glass of wine is emptied on to the floor.
The great Viorica Cortez is a dignified Mamma Lucia. As Turridu's body is carried away at the end, the scene changes seamlessly into the opening of Pagliacci (the Prologue to which is sung from the stalls right at the start of the evening by Carlo Guelfi).
From the 1890s setting of Cav we have moved forward 50 years, and the travelling players arrive in a lorry, with posters for the show on the outside – the mood is a bit like Fellini's LaStrada. From the outset, this Pagliacci becomes a really painful story to watch. María Bayo is superb as Nedda, tough and wilful, but trapped by the overbearing Canio of Vladimir Galouzine.
His voice is very baritonal in quality, the high notes not always easily achieved, but what tremendous authority and passion he brings to the part; he really has it in him to become the leading dramatic tenor of our time. All the other parts are well cast and the crowd scenes are beautifully handled. Jesús López-Cobos leads the Madrid forces in a performance that could not easily be surpassed anywhere nowadays.
Angel Luis Ramírez, deserves high praise for capturing Del Monaco's intense staging so well.

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Jesús López Cobos conducts Mascagni & Leoncavallo

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