US TARIFFS UPDATE | August 2025 | No impact expected on your Presto orders | Read full details
Bellini: Il Pirata
Carmen Giannattasio (Imogene), Mark Le Brocq (Itulbo), Ludovic Tezier (Ernesto), Jose Bros (Gualtiero), Brindley Sherratt (Goffredo) and Victoria Simmonds (Adele)
London Philharmonic Orchestra, David Parry
Ludovic Tezier is superb, conveying tenderness as well as jealousy and fury. Carmen Giannattasio makes a wonderful Imogene: her cabaletta, 'Sventurata, anch'io deliro', suggests that she will...
Bellini: Il Pirata
Carmen Giannattasio (Imogene), Mark Le Brocq (Itulbo), Ludovic Tezier (Ernesto), Jose Bros (Gualtiero), Brindley Sherratt (Goffredo) and Victoria Simmonds (Adele)
London Philharmonic Orchestra, David Parry
Purchase product
Ludovic Tezier is superb, conveying tenderness as well as jealousy and fury. Carmen Giannattasio makes a wonderful Imogene: her cabaletta, 'Sventurata, anch'io deliro', suggests that she will...
About
The third opera by the 27-yearold Sicilian Vincenzo Bellini, Il Pirata marked an important step forward in his career. His first score written for the brand leader of Italian opera houses, La Scala, Milan, it also represented his first collaboration with Felice Romani, the leading librettist of the day.
After its première in 1827, it soon went on to win acclaim in Vienna, Dresden, Paris, London and New York. Its comparative neglect in our day is inexplicable, but Opera Rara rectifies this situation with this all-star cast. David Parry conducts this exceptional example of early romantic opera at its most dramatically potent.
The 3 CD set, studio recording, comes with a lavishly illustrated book including a complete libretto with an English translation by Jeremy Commons and comprehensive article and synopsis by Dr Benjamin Walton.
Contents and tracklist
- Mark Le Brocq (tenor), Victoria Simmonds (mezzo-soprano), José Bros (tenor), Carmen Giannattasio (soprano), Christopher Purves (baritone), Brindley Sherratt (bass)
- Geoffrey Mitchell Choir, London Philharmonic Orchestra
- David Parry
Spotlight on this release
-
An error occurred.
Try watching this video on www.youtube.com, or enable JavaScript if it is disabled in your browser.
-
Vincenzo Bellini
25th Oct 2014
Katherine selects some favourite recordings of works by the bel canto composer.
Awards and reviews
September 2012
Ludovic Tezier is superb, conveying tenderness as well as jealousy and fury. Carmen Giannattasio makes a wonderful Imogene: her cabaletta, 'Sventurata, anch'io deliro', suggests that she will triumph as Norma one day. Another success for Opera Rara.
June 2012
Bros exhibits the right vocal weight for a Rubini role...[His] agility is only fair, but he communicates with welcome vitality and exceedingly clear textual delivery...David Parry does much to animate this earthbound drama. The LPO, adding yet again to its extensive bel canto laurels, is on predictably excellent form...Musical preparation is impeccable
June 2012
Giannattasio can stand alongside [the] great divas. She is more of the dramatic school of Callas rather than the elegiac bel canto of Caballé. Her warm dramatic voice is full of varieties of colour and expression...[Bros] is expressive and vocally appealing apart from a few moments of pressure
October 2014
the dark-voiced Carmen Giannattasio is a riveting Imogene, whilst Jose Bros does much with the taxing role of Gualtiero, composed for the superstar high tenor Giovanni Rubini.
20th May 2012
David Parry keeps the dramatic temperature high, and even if the principals, Carmen Giannattasio (Imogene), José Bros (Gualtiero) and Ludovic Tézier (Ernesto), occasionally force when bel canto is required, they have the histrionic measure of their roles and mostly rise to the music’s technical challenges
7th June 2012
an exceptional performance from Ludovic Tézier as Ernesto – wonderfully sung and characterised with immense subtlety...while Carmen Giannattasio's Imogene is unthreatened by the role's technical challenges, but not ideally alert to its dramatic complexity.
