Well sung...Poorly staged
Based on a Victor Hugo play, Donizetti fashioned an opera about Lucrecia Borgia, an alleged real life 15th century serial killer and sex maniac. If you have never seen or heard the opera, I think you will be surprised how many great melodies Donizetti wrote for this very melodramatic opera. The entire cast sing and act with gusto.
The problem is the Eurotrash production design.....no sets, bare stage, conference room chairs, a hideous greyish beige wall, modern dress, and vaudville type spotlights:) I kid you not ! Maybe some of you don't mind this look, but it really bothered me. I watched it once and when I play it again it will be enjoyed sans video. The music is fabulous.
The astonishing Edita Gruberova
Directed by Christof Loy, this 2009 Munich production of Lucrezia Borgia doesn't look like any bel canto opera production you've seen before, but it does look a lot like a typical Christof Loy production - bare minimally decorated stage, everyone wearing dinner jackets, a couple of chairs scattered around. That's 15th century Venice of the Prologue. The only real distinguishing feature is the distinguished figure of Edita Gruberova as Lucrezia Borgia, wearing a period costume in bold red while everyone else is dressed in black and white and the stage is grey, and the words LUCREZIA BORGIA spelt out in big block letters along the back wall. That's something at least, meaning that it will allow one letter to be dropped at a significant point in the First Act, even if that's about as much as a concession as you'll find here to the stage directions in the libretto. Oh, and Orsini and his men look like public schoolboys, with floppy hair and their trousers rolled-up to just below the...
Feelings of Love and Hate
I have love/hate feelings for this blu-ray--on the one hand I hate the very idea of Eurotrash, but on the other hand this performance is so outstanding I would not want to be without it. So I am like Gennaro, who hates Lucrezia but loves her also.
The tenor singing Gennaro has a magnetic stage presence, which is only reduced by the removal of his shirt. Though he is the hero who saved his friend on the battlefield, he behaves like a little boy or a simpleton, hopping about on one foot while singing impeccable bel canto. Mamma mia! Amazing what a boy will do in the presence of "la Borgia!"
Edita Gruberova may be well past her vocal prime, and it shows for the first two minutes, but after she warms up the coloratura is unimpeachable. The other young principals have perfect voices for their roles and sing their hearts out. As for the horseplay on stage, it left me aghast, but so long as they kept singing I was able to maintain a sense of denial about what was before my very...
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