Vincenzo Bellini, Roberto Abbado, Vesselina Kasarova, RamA³n Vargas, MA¼nchner Rundfunksorchester, Chor der Bayerichen Rundfunk, Umberto Chiummo, Simone Alberghini, Eva Mei - Bellini - I Capuleti e i Montecchi / Kasarova A· Mei A· Vargas A· Chiummo A· Alberghini A· R. Abbado

Kasarova is a mezzo to die for!!

Bellini only wrote 11 operas and died at an early age tragically.Good quality live performances of Bellini's lesser known operas like Capuleti are rare and it was only internet extracts of Kasarova singing in the Capuleti production in Paris that set me off looking for a complete studio recording of her in this opera.Forget all the scientific "guff" you read in the other reviews here about this recording.If you buy this recording then buy it only for one reason..the magical voice of Kasarova.It will make your spine tingle and will raise your spirits to heights you have never experienced before.Trust me...you will never regret buying this CD set.Kasarova is undoubtedly one of the greatest mezzos of our time.This RCA issue must be set on a pedestal as one of the best recordings of Capuleti I have ever heard.I only wish there was a Kasarova DVD of this Bellini gem to go with it. November 6, 2008

Beautiful Recording

Reviewers and listeners please note: the libretto for this opera is NOT based on Shakespeare, whose Romeo and Juliet was not known in that part of of the world until much later... There is therefore no betrayal of the Bard. As for this recording, it is absolutely stunning: I have long admired Kasarova's voice, and was recently lucky enough to hear her sing Romeo live at the Lyric Opera in Chicago (anyone who can SHOULD... It's here in Chicago until 12/2/01). The other performers are also wonderful: I actually prefer Ramon Vargas to the tenor selected for Lyric's production. In short, there is nothing to disappoint here, so purchase and enjoy! November 5, 2001

Not what I hoped.

This recording is very good. The sound and the soloists are excellent. Kudos to the mezzo-soprano as Romeo, Vesselina Kasarova. She is solid, expressive, wicked chest voice, and a beautiful tone that rings through to the high notes. Eva Mei, as Julia, is sweet and lively lyric soprano. Ramon Vargas has a warm and manly tenor.

But overall the performance sounds careful. What I miss are two things, the architecture and momentum. For example, in the beautiful duets, the singers don't build phrase upon phrase, creating tension and anticipation, what they do is wind the first phrase down to a halt and then the orchestra and singers have to be wound up again. This goes on throughout the recording. It sounds like the joint uncertainty of the performers and the conductor. Michelangelo has said that movement is equal to emotion. In that context we could also ask where is the intense youthful passion, the jealousy, or the emotional devastation?

And yet, it is a beautiful opera. My recommendation is to buy some of the live recordings from Opera D'Oro--they are very cheap, but they have captured some really great performances. I Capuleti e I Montecchi with Claudio Abbado conducting, Pavarotti, Aragall, and Rinaldi is a good case in point.

As a novelty, there the third CD is devoted to Vaccai's (a composer from the same period as Bellini) second act of Giulietta e Romeo with Mei, Kasarova, and Vargas. August 21, 2001

Beautiful like an erupting volcano

This opera by Bellini is rather unknown. Luckily, a recent production at the Los Angeles Opera has put is in the limelights, though the absence of a video or DVD recording is definitely a handicap for the audience, because this opera is absolutely fabulous.

At first I was surprised by the choice of a soprano for Romeo. But The opera is built to use this fact at the highest level possible. The duets between Romeo and Juliet come to a perfect blending of the voices, the couple becoming one, and that is a marvelous way of expressing this total and unbreakable love that unifies them two. But the duets between Romeo and Tybalt are also enhanced by this fact because then we have the rivalry between the two characters expressed by the opposition between the soprano and the tenor.

Bellini slightly betrays Shakespeare. Romeo is the real head of the fighting Montagues, and Tybalt is the same on the Capulet side. Romeo has killed Juliet's brother. Yet Romeo and Juliet are deeply in love, but Tybalt is also deeply un love with Juliet, though she does not respond to this love. The rivalry between the two families is thus reduced and at the same time multiplied because of the two men who love the same woman. The dramatic tension is strengthened by this simple fact. We are no longer in a fight between two families, but between two lovers. The feelings and sentiments are thus extremely more powerful. And then we understand the choice of a soprano for Romeo. Tybalt is the one who is trying to break, unknowingly at first, the love between Romeo and Juliet.

The music is very surprising in some pieces. The use of brass instruments at the beginning or here and there does not evoke a war, but rather a hunting party. Yet in the love scenes, the really dramatic scenes in the opera, the music gets to either a tremendous delicacy to express the beauty of the feelings (the use of a guitar for instance) or a phenomenal tension. The singing itself is as pure and multifarious as the tortured and split loyalties of Romeo or Juliet, especially Juliet, or Tybalt require. Pure because of the voices, because of the solos, but also because of the very precise and accurate composition of the duets or the chorus. Multifarious because no two scenes have the same coloration. We feel the evolution of the drama, of the questioning in the minds and hearts of the characters due to these slight changes in the music from one scene to the next.

An expert would probably hear now and then an echo of Mozart or some other great opera composers, but it is only an evanescent echo when it happens, a couple or very small number of notes, or even nothing but a tone, a chord that sounds like coming from somewhere else, but it is so well blended in the whole that it sounds just perfect, not one note too many, not one variation too many, just the right number of notes and words, just perfect. So the death of Romeo and Juliet becomes all the more volcanic, heavy and fiery, because of those changes in the plot and because of those perfect notes and arias. This opera deserves a better coverage in our musical culture.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, Paris Universities II and IX. May 21, 2001

Bel Canto with Style and Substance!

To me Bellini's operas have the grandeur and magistry of Beethoven's symphonies. They are stately, very beautiful, and carry the listener off into a wonderful world of sound, action and drama. This performance succeeds on so many levels. Next to Norma, this is my favorite Bellini opera. The libretto by Felice Romani, Bellini's favorite collaborator, is a masterpiece in it's way as much as Shakespeare's is in his (they are both based on similar sources of the Romeo and Juliet story). Both the music and the drama of this opera are compelling! Roberto Abbado conducts the orchestra with precision, elan, and transparent clarity. He never intrudes on the singers, but the grandeur of the music both preceeds and continues in the wake of the singers. Eva Mei has an indescribally beautiful voice (soprano). Her arias are a wonder! She can sing in the highest register with amazing control of pitch and dynamics. Vesselina Kasarova (mezzo) portrays Romeo very insightfully and her singing is gorgeous! My worry before I purchased this CD set was that the music might be beautiful in the bel canto style B.C. (Before Callas). This worry proved not to be founded. Kasarova and Mei definitely project drama and emotion into their artful singing, so that they are able to sweep the listener into the heart of this great tragic opera. In fact, their duet "Vieni,ah!in me riposa" has the force, beauty and drive of Callas and Stignani in Norma (1954,1955). And, of course, Roberto Vargas is another reason to own this magnificient recording. Bravo! Bravo! Bravo! July 19, 2000

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