Before you go to the Met's 'La Sonnambula'

Robert Croan, former Post-Gazette classical music critic and an opera expert (he also taught voice at Duquesne University) was kind enough to write this review of a new recording (CD) of Bellini's "La Sonnambula" in time for the Met's controversial version with Dessay, Florez and Michele Pertusi, that will be telecast live in HD at theaters in Pittsburgh Mills and Robinson Township, March 21 at 1 p.m. Enjoy:


Bellini: “La Sonnambula,”  with Cecilia Bartoli and Juan Diego Florez
Decca ***
 
“La Sonnambula” is a simple-minded story set to lovely music in the so-called “bel canto” style that prevailed in early 19th-century Italy, but its history on stage and on record is complicated. Singers in those days were allowed all kinds of liberties, and there was less distinction between soprano and mezzo-soprano, so that when the legendary Maria Malibran took on the title role of Amina, she raised no eyebrows by lowering the keys. Moreover, tenors used head voice or falsetto more freely than now.
More recently, Amina, once the province of twittering coloraturas, became a dramatic part when Maria Callas made it her own. The great Joan Sutherland combined the best of both worlds, and also opened cuts in the score that had become bad tradition. A new critical edition of Bellini’s works is used in a 2006 recording featuring soprano Natalie Dessay (Virgin Classics), as well as the present one (2007/08) showcasing mezzo Cecilia Bartoli, although these two recordings differ in choice of keys, modern vs period instruments and other details.
Curiously Bartoli, who might be expected to lower the music, sings her arias in the original keys, embellishing with ornaments that show off her lower range and impart a Rossinian touch. Tenor Juan Diego Florez, famous for his high Cs in Donizetti’s “Daughter of the Regiment,” opts for lower keys in Elvino’s  solos and duets, while inserting unexpected high notes. The result is a fluttery sound with ultra-expressive phrasing in the case of Bartoli, intermittently thrilling delivery on the part of Florez, and a gorgeous rendition of Count Rodolfo’s music by basso Ildebrando D’Arcangelo.
The inane plot concerns a village girl who sleepwalks into the bedroom of a man who isn’t her fiancé, and Gilbert & Sullivan fans will notice that the first act finale contains a sextet that is recognizably parodied in “Trial by Jury.”