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Verdi - Simon Boccanegra / Elder, Sidhom, Borowski, Glyndebourne Festival Opera |
List Price: $29.95
Your Price: $26.96 |
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Reviews |
Features:
Description:
In one of those Verdi works for which "grand opera" is almost too tame a description, Sir Peter Hall's 1998 Glyndebourne staging achieves true epic status in the story's political conflicts, while also grounding itself in the intimate relationships of the main characters. This approach works wonderfully well, both in the opera and for video viewers, since the close-ups come across better on TV screens than the outsized epic scenes. But those large-scale scenes are no slouch either, since Hall's production and John Gunter's sets have appropriate heft without any excessive vulgarity. The typically big Verdi choruses are handled with exacting precision by the Glyndebourne Chorus and by conductor Mark Elder, who also presides over strong vocal work from Giancarlo Pasquetto (as Simon), Elena Prokina (his daughter Amelia), and Peter Sidhom (the villain Paolo). Only David Rendall, as Amelia's betrothed, Gabriele, isn't completely up to snuff. But that's not enough to derail this strong production's gripping, musically hushed finale. --Kevin Filipski
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