Oberto [Blu-ray]

Charged production of Verdi's first opera
Verdi's first opera, written when he was 26 years old, might lack the musical sophistication and dramatic characterisation of his late masterpieces, but Oberto, Conte di San Bonifacio was good enough to open at La Scala in Milan in 1839, where it enjoyed a modest success, and it's a prototypical full-blooded early Verdi work that already has many of the elements that we associate with the composer. Oberto sticks closely to the established format and subject matter of the 19th century Italian number opera, but Verdi's dramatic flair, his ability to underscore those key moments with the most stirring and passionate arrangements is evident nonetheless and those qualities are brought out exceptionally well this production.

There's not a lot of dramatic action as such. Much of the important events have already taken place before the opera even begins, leaving the principal characters involved to fume their displeasure and deep feelings of love, betrayal, anger and desires for...

Wonderful performance of Verdi's first opera
One great thing in this new era of increased dvd releases, is that we are getting videos of operas by major composers that rarely been previously released on video whatsoever. Rossini Demetrio E Polibio [Blu-ray], Wagner Wagner: Rienzi [Blu-ray], Pergolesi Il Flaminio [Blu-ray], Adriano in Siria [Blu-ray], Vivaldi Vivaldi: Orlando furioso, and Verdi are just some of the composers whose rare works are finding their way to dvd's. (And I'm expecting new Meyerbeer and Paisiello releases later this year as well.) And that is just great! (We really don't need more "Traviatas", "Toscas" or "Nozzes di Figaro" do we?)

Well,...



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