Arthaus presents Fedora, an opera by Umberto Giordano, an influential composer of Italian verismo style. The staging was celebrated for its fantastic cast with Mirella Freni in the title role and Plácido Domingo as her opponent turned lover.
As the soprano in the title role tends to dominate the work and her substantial tenor counterpart is no less important, the performances of the two lead roles are important to the success of the opera. Who could be better suited to meeting to this challenge, than Mirella Freni, who shows her amazing ability as mature singer, taking vocal control of every situation and Placido Domingo, who, his perfect condition never faltering, takes advantage of all the opportunities presented by the role. Gianandrea Gavazzeni (1909-1996), whose familiarity with the verismo style was second to none, led the performance with solicitous authority upholding the tradition that he had received from the hands of his predecessors. This production created by Lamberto Puggelli for Mirella Freni at La Scala in 1993 became an enormous success, showing her as an operatic tragedienne with truly overwhelming vocal resources.
Sound Format: PCM Stereo, DD 5.1, DTS 5.1
Picture Format: 16:9
DVD Format: DVD 9, NTSC
Subtitle Languages: IT, GB, DE, FR, ES
Running Time: 113 mins
FSK: 0
October 2011
*****
“Giordano's lush verismo tale of jealousy and revenge never quite rivals Puccini, but in this splendid Scala performance Domingo and Freni almost persuade us that it does.”
2011 edition
“valuable for capturing not only the moving characterization of the heroine, Fedora, by Mirella Freni, but for the glorious singing of Placido Domingo...The veteran conductor, Gianandrea Gavazzeni, is brilliant at bring out the colour and drama of the piece.”
Click here for alternative recordings of this work.
