Verdi: Il Corsaro

Ah, gentle reader, what can one say about Il Corsaro? That it, along with Alzira are considered the bottom of the Verdi barrel? That, as Wiliam Berger ("Verdi With a Vengeance") notes, "If one could assemble the proper cast to perform Corsaro properly, one wouldn't. One would produce Trovatore instead"? Perhaps, but Verdi at his least best is still mighty fine music, and this performance is convincing evidence that Corsaro is worth experiencing.This disc presents four principal singers with whom I am totally unfamiliar, but I hope to hear more from them. (If the opera gods are just, we should, but experience shows them to be as capricious as were their Greek anticedents, else why no more Met HD DVDs? But I am off topic ...)The tenor role of Corrado has been described (Berger) as written for a "heroic voice". To me, Bruno Ribeiro is more of a spinto, but he executes the role, with all its fiendish tessatura, flawlessly. He would be an ideal Alfredo or Duke of Mantua. Bravo!Irina Lungu (Medora) is a gifted soprano. Her role requires her to sing a bit low in the soprano range but when it's time to hit the high notes, she delivers perfectly. What acting is required in this romantic role (aside from fainting and dying) is well done. Brava!!Silvia Dalla Benetta (as I noted in my review of the Tutto Verdi sampler) is the real deal. Her role requires the "blood and guts" approach, especially as to her Act II cabaletta, which Budden refers to as ordinary, as I recall, but Osborne calls it "absolutely glorious" (go figure). I think it rocks because Mme Dalla Benetta nails it! Brava!!!Baritone Luca Salsi (Seid) is the almost bad guy. His singing in a performance where everyone is spot on, nealy steals the show. What a voice! And a kind of passionate intensity in the dramatic aspects as well. Whew!Chorus and orchestra do a first rate job, too. Staging is traditional and surprisingly effective, considering the small stage.Disc quality is nearly perfect, my only reservation being that the women's chorus seemed under miked in the second act. But that aside, the surround experience of C Major's DTS is dramatic.A word about the venue: this opera was performed in the Teatro Giuseppe Verdi in Busetto. The theatre is tiny, having a stage about the size of a two car garage and seating for 300. The audience was enthusiastic, but remember, gentle reader, that Busetto was Verdi's home town, and it, along with nearby Parma have a serious history of doing bad things to performers who disappoint. Caruso was reported to have been booed in a performance of L'Elisir and subsequently refused service by a cab driver who didn't want to dirty his cab with a bad singer. Othe disappointees have been refused service in restaurants and hotels. So an enthusiatic audience, which this one was, really says something about the performance.I share that reaction. Buy with confidence, and forget all about that German guy.

...but only if you are a Verdi fanatic and want to see even his least effective work in production. Verdi was nagged past all patience by a music publisher, who even sent his wife to cry on Verdi's doorstep, to get Verdi to commit even just one opera to him to keep his publishing company from going bankrupt. Verdi gave in and when the due date loomed dragged out a libretto he had started and then decided it wasn't that interesting. Verdi finished the score and literally gave it away to the publisher without any of his usual holds on rentals, royalties, etc. Don't let all that discourage you from buying this DVD: Il corsaro may be down at the bottom of the Verdi rankings with Alzira, but Verdi never wrote unenjoyable music, and this production does everything to present the opera at its best. Soloists range from very good to excellent, chorus and orchestra and conductor ditto. I'll be enjoying this many times.

Il Corsaro is the step-child in the Verdi canon of operas. I was completed to fulfill a contract obligation to the publisher Lucca who was about to sue Verdi for not fulfilling a contract previously agreed to. There were angry words exchanged. After receiving it Lucca farmed it out to a back-water opera house in Trieste. Verdi did not attend the premiere and the audience did not like the opera. Thereafter it had only a few performances and disappeared from view.Even the Tutto Verdi series from the Teatro Regio di Parma produced this opera on the tiny stage of the Teatro Verdi in Busseto Verdi's home town. The theatre in Parma has a capacity of 1200 but in Busseto it's only 300 and the stage is miniscule. And who sang the roles? All newcomers to the operatic stage but on the whole they did quite well. And of course the downsized orchestra and chorus of Parma did very well.The Corrado (Conrad in Byron's long long narrative poem) of Bruno Ribiero was quite exciting. He is young, handsome and looks like he could led a group of pirates and have a couple of women falling all over him. His tenor is pretty much a heroic type as of now, it is deep rich and powerful up and down the scale; there are some rough edges that will smooth out in time. The roll of Seid calls for a big bodied crusher of lesser men with a voice that carries to the next few buildings. We have it in the person of Luca Salsi. He certainly has the makings of a good Verdi baritone. He roughed-up some of the lyrics but with more vocal work he will smooth things out. The ladies of this opera were of a mixed bag. Irina Lungu has a rasp in her upper register and it is quite unpleasant; her mid-range is fine for the part of the long suffering Medora. The star of the show is supposed to be Gulnara and she certainly was. Silvia Dalla Benetta executed her passage work very well; trills, runs and declamation all of a piece. She has a good career ahead of her.In English lit. class I remember reading much of Byron. The Corsair was one of them. I also remember he does go on and on. I didn't find the story interesting then, nor do I now. I agree and disagree as usual with my colleague reviewer John Gleeson. But I agree that even lesser Verdi is better than the best of most composers of the time e.g Pacini. It is interesting that the third act written in 1846 when Verdi was enthused about the story is better than Acts 1 & 2 written in 1848 when he given up on Corsaro but needed to fulfill has contract for Lucca. But even in these two acts there a some fine moments to be savored. For example the cabaletta of Gulnare "Ah conforto e sola speme" which as pointed out by reviewer John Gleeson is very fine music. So the work is a mixed bag. I'm glad to have a fine recording and will listen to it now and then.

This performance was so enjoyable. All the singers were new to me. Young and fresh voices. Ribeiro is a find. He has the total package. I will be looking for more of him in the future. It was so nice to see a performance that was set in the period that Verdi wrote. Yet it had touches here and there that would make it interesting to those who wish for something more than the usual. I would recommend this to everyone!

...Ma le opere minori di Verdi non le conosco granché

Parfait. Correspond à mes attentes.

ME GUSTA CONOCER LA OBRA NO TAN CONOCIDA DE VERDI Y ESTE ES UNO DE LOS CASOS.HE RECIBIDO EL PEDIDO EN EL PLAZO SOLICITADO

This production is enhanced by the helpfully simplistic staging by Lamberto Puggelli who has cleverly designed each scene to conger up the correct feeling in the viewer of being there: on a ship, in a palace and so on. Over-elaborate staging can so easily detract from the action. The costuming is also very good, evoking the period of the action without being overdone. The orchestration is both sympathetic and inspiring.Best of all, it's plain to see that every performer is giving of his/her very best. We have here both top class singing and top class acting and a well directed chorus. Luca Salsi in the role of Seid, the Moorish chieftain, is outstanding. What a voice! What singing! Silvia Dalla Banetta is equally good as Gulnara, Salsi's favourite sex slave. The character of Corrado, captain of the corsairs, comes across as the weaker man of the two in relation to Salsi, who comes across as someone who knows his own mind and also how to achieve his aims; but not with Gulnara, who manages to outwit him and achieve a way of escape for Carrado. Unfortunately, he's not keen to take advantage of her initiative and only does so after much persuading.Gulnara is devastated to discover that Corrado loves Madora, beautifully sung and acted by Irina Lungu. Medora hears that Corrado has been killed and poisons herself. She is dying when Corrado arrives with Gulnara. Devasted when she finally dies, Corrado also commits suicide leaving the beautiful Gulnara in splendid isolation. As she stands their as the final curtain falls, I thought to myself how fortunate she was to now be free and rid of the lot of them. She represents strong, sensible womanhood and, indeed, strong sensible people. It seems such a strange thing to do for people to 'do themselves in' because they lose a loved one. We all lose loved ones from time to time and simply cannot afford the luxury of committing suicide in their wake and certainly not at their wake!Verdi is such a brilliant composer that we can readily forgive him for ending most of his operas with the deaths of heroes and heroines. Although this is one of Verdi's lesser known and not as much performed operas, my view is that his music is just as outstanding here as anywhere else. My blu-ray facility was so good that only actually being there in the theatre could be any better. I'm so pleased I bought this recording, which I shall be able to enjoy watching many times. Thoroughly recommended. Buy and enjoy.

Il Corsaro ist ein Frühwerk Verdis, braucht sich aber nicht hinter den späteren Werken zu verstecken. Die Musik ist wunderschön.Eine bunte Inszenierung mit viel Temperament und Bewegung und einem wunderbaren Bruno Ribeiro als Corrado. Eine schöne Tenorstimme und ein guter Darsteller.Die Handlung kommt wie aus 1001 Nacht daher und endet, wie sonst bei Verdi, tragisch: die drei Protagonisten sind am Ende tot.Außer Ribeiro war mir kein Sänger/Sängerin bekannt, aber das tut der Qualität der Aufführung keinen Abbruch. Eine schöne Oper und eine überzeugende Aufnahme: ich kann sie wirklich empfehlen!