Sonnambula

Pure Amina is one of the most touching characters of the bel canto repertoire. The young somnambulist is completely unaware of her condition which loses her the love of her fiancé. Maria Callas was probably her most admirable performer, having won the heart of the Scala’s audience after a legendary series of performances staged by her close friend Luchino Visconti in 1955. Two years later, she would record this milestone studio recording – an absolute reference of Bellini’s discography – with Antonino Votto.

In his latest Decca DVD release, bel canto star Juan Diego Flórez undertakes the role of Elvino in Bellini’s romantic drama, playing opposite the mercurial French soprano, Natalie Dessay, in the Met’s striking, modern-dress production from March 2009. Bellini’s romantic opera La Sonnambula (1831), hinges on the love and misunderstanding between Elvino and Amina (the ‘sleepwalker’ of the title). Discovered in the bedroom of Rodolfo, Amina is assumed to have been unfaithful, and Elvino cancels their wedding. But in the dramatic final scene, he witnesses Amina sleepwalking, understands her innocence, and all ends happily. Mary Zimmerman’s production plays with the dual realities of a rehearsal of the opera and a performance of the opera itself.

There's little doubt that to have heard Sutherland in 1961 must have been really something. It was the year she found New York, and New York found her. This recording, along with the live recording of her early 1961 New York debut in Beatrice di Tenda are legendary moments. Both are concert performances, conducted by Nicola Rescigno.
This Sonnambula was in Carnegie Hall in December and just after her Met debut. The voice is astonishing. The 'Ah, non guinge' is sung with almost wild abandon, absolutely thrilling, and was described the next day by Harold Schonberg as "flawlessly performed pyrotechnics".

La sonnambula (The Sleepwalker) is an opera semiseria in two acts, with music in the bel canto tradition by Vincenzo Bellini. This 2008 production was staged by Hugo de Ana at the Teatro Lirico di Cagliari. The references to 17th century Romantic painting and refined visual projections are a tribute to Luchino Visconti. Visconti produced the memorable performance of La Sonnambula at the Scala di Milano with the magnificent Maria Callas.
Simone Alaimo is one of Italy’s best bass-baritones and Antonino Siragusa is a very experienced performer of Rossini and Bellini operas. The role of Amina is sung by the rising star of the International world, Eglise Gutierrez.

This recording of La Sonnambula is notable on a number of fronts. It's the first recording of the opera based on a 2004 critical edition of the score that confirms the leading role was indeed written for a mezzo-soprano, although it has been performed by sopranos for much of its history. (Among the first Aminas were the celebrated mezzos Giuditta Pasta and Maria Malibran.) It's also the first recording using period instruments, in this case Orchestra La Scintilla, based at the Basel Opera and conducted by Alessandro de Marchi in an idiomatic and lively reading. And, as the promotional materials trumpet, it's the first recorded collaboration between superstars Cecilia Bartoli and Juan Diego Flórez. Although less hoopla is made of him, the recording also features a superbly lyrical performance by baritone Ildebrando D'Arcangelo.

TDK presents a remarkable staging of one of Bellini’s opera masterpieces on DVD: The wonderful singer-actor and coloratura soprano Eva Mei presents one of her showpieces - Amina, the sleep-walking heroine. She has sung the role all over Italy, from Palermo to Turin and has been loved by audiences all over the world for her clear voice and her stage personality. Beside her, the Catalan tenor José Bros, a renowned Bellini specialist, repeats what Il giornale della musica described as his “secure and committed” performance in the role of Amina’s fiancé Elvino. But the show belongs to the heroine, and Eva Mei was praised in the same periodical for her “bel canto skill, her pure, radiant top notes and the resolute, yet unaffected and elegant way she dominates the stage.” This performance at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in 2004 is lead by the superb opera conductor, Daniel Oren, who has a long alliance with Italian opera houses and regularly conducts at the Arena di Verona.