Vincenzo Bellini: I Capuletti E I Montecchi – Joyce DiDonato

   in Opera Now (Dec, 2016)
Good conducting also marks I Capuletti e i Montecchi, filmed at the Zurich Opera last year, where Fabio Luisi’s seemingly relaxed tempi in fact ratchet up the tension considerably. He takes a deeply serious approach, fluid yet propulsive, perhaps the finest reading of this score since Muti’s at Covent Garden in 1984. Christof Loy’s production is interesting and also deeply contemplative. He stresses that Bellini’s librettist, Romani, provides little action, so he provides motivation and back story to illuminate the characters. Not another auteur, I hear you sigh. But it works very well; we realise that Giulietta survives Romeo (there is nothing in the libretto to indicate her death) and that …