I Vespri Siciliani

A Vespri for the Ages
This production was a big success when mounted in Parma in 2010. The blu-ray is superbly done and should disperse any doubts about this work. Stage director Pier Luigi Pizzi uses an approach he has used before but never so successfully: he updates the action to the 19th century, to the period of the battles over the unification of Italy, and uses the theater's auditorium as an extension of the stage. This idea is far from new, but I never saw it done so effectively. The "breaking of the fourth wall" enables Pizzi to achieve a miracle of sorts: a minimalist staging with some of the Grand Opera effects that Verdi had in mind when he wrote this work for what was the largest opera theatre in the world at the time.

For example, in the opening scene there are only three boats on an otherwise empty stage, and French soldiers make fun of and provoke the local Sicilians. Then Daniela Dessì (Elena) makes an electrifying grand entrance from the back of the auditorium. Clad in...

Very Good Performance of a Too-Infrequently Performed Opera
To understand why I Vespri has always been a bit of a "problem child" among Verdi's works, one must understand that it was written as Les Vepres Sicilienne for the Paris Opera. This venue required opera in five acts, written on a GRAND scale, with a required ballet, rousing choruses and extended arias. All this, as I understand it, was a result of Meyerbeer (a FRENCH composer, mes amis, thus to be emulated) who started all that stuff. In addition, Vespri was written next in line, following the "big three": Rigoletto, Trovatore and Traviata, none of which could be considered on the Meyerbeer scale, as superb as each is.

The result, gentle reader, is what William Berger ("Verdi With A Vengeance") calls "...an opera that has never wholly pleased anybody, despite many excellent qualities ... If anything is missing in Vespri, it's the sustained level of emotional truth so evident in his previous three operas". Well, it pleased me very well, truth be told, and it has since I...

At last a beautiful Vesper
The previous reviewers have covered most of the points on this excellent recording and I am in general agreement on most points and I too highly recommend this disc.
I would like to add a few personal points as Sicilian Vespers and I share a long history. One time when a teenager in the late 40s or early 50s I attended a concert in New York and a bass (Pinza?)sang "O tu Palarmo." I was fascinated by the depth of emotion in this music. Later in a NBC Symphony concert I heard the Overture of the opera and was thrilled by the music. I recall and even earlier exposure to the work in my Grandmother's collection of RCA Victor 78s one of which was the Siciliana "Merce dilette amiche" sung by Luisa Tetrazzini. Fortunately for me, Grandmother had a large collection of Victor records and a wind-up Victrola with cactus needles, the ultimate in sound technology of the day.
My first complete record set of the opera was the 1974 LP set with Martina Arroyo, Domingo, Milnes and conducted by...

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