Vincenzo Cannizzaro

Bellini's "Norma" is a classic of the bel canto tradition, combining lavish vocal splendor with a story of great passion and nobility. The title character in "Norma" is a role with emotions ranging from haughty to desperately passionate to vengeful and defiant. Italian soprano Fiorenza Cedolins is one of the most thrilling Normas of the younger operatic generation. Along with a distinguished supporting cast, including Sonia Ganassi as Adalgisa and Vincenzo La Scola as Pollione, this psychologically staged production by Francisco Negrin, conducted by Giuliano Carella, makes the belcanto tradition vivid and exciting.

Make no mistake, this is not William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. This version, by Vincenzo Bellini with a libretto by Felice Romani, has often been dismissed for its story line, which is very different from the familiar tale of the star-crossed lovers. Actually, as noted by musicologist-bel canto answer man Philip Gossett in his liner notes, Bellini and Romani hadn't read Shakespeare when they composed the opera. They had, however, read the sources on which Shakespeare based his play, but while both they and the Bard departed from the original, they departed in different directions. No matter: the opera has some gorgeous music, and it's given some gorgeous performances here by some very fine singers.

The German musician Christian Zimmermann, on two historical copies of Renaissance instruments, is delivering to us this interesting anthology dedicated to the lute works by the Galilei family: Vincenzo and Michelangelo, respectively father and brother of the famous Galileo. Vincenzo, also harpsichordist, gamba violist and theorist, introduced both his sons to the art of music and, although we have news that Galileo himself was an excellent lutist, no traces of his compositions remains, while his father and brother were authors of various collections printed from 1563 to 1620. Michelangelo even became lutist at the court of Maximilian i, elector and duke of Munich. The music proposed by Zimmermann consists of a varied overview of the musical forms dedicated to the lute in the Renaissance era: fantasias, ricercars, galiardes, counterpoints, currents, saltarelli, toccatas, in addition to the inevitable “aria di ruggiero", the famous instrumental bass coming from the lyrics of the Orlando Furioso by Ludovico Ariosto.