Tutto Verdi: Un giorno di regno (2010), 7

1h 59min | Drama, Music, Musical | Episode aired 10Sep2012
The rare case of a musical comedy by Verdi. But his second stage work proved a complete fiasco when unveiled at La Scala, Milan, in 1840, and more than half a century was to pass before he attempted a second comedy with his final opera, Falstaff. Today, conversely, Verdi's early melodramma giocoso enjoys increasing popularity thanks to its wellspring of musical ideas and effervescent melodies.
Director: Tiziano Mancini
Conductor: Donato Renzetti
Stars: Guido Loconsolo, Andrea Porta, Anna Caterina Antonacci.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2651886/

Translation: One day of reign.
2nd Verdi opera.
Premiere performance at the Teatro alla Scala, Milan, 1840


Time: 1733
Place: Baron Kelbar's castle near Brest, France

Filmed at Teatro Regio di Parma.

Well, the synopsis writer dodged the issue of summarizing the story, eh? It goes something like this: The heir to the throne of Poland must return home to claim his birthright, but must appear to still be in France to catch his enemies off-guard. So Belfiore pretends to be the prince, and cannot acknowledge his true love (Marchese) when they interact. So she gets miffed, picks a bridegroom and gives Belfiore a deadline. But he must honor his promise to the prince AND help Giulietta marry her beloved instead of the Treasurer that her uncle (Baron Kelbar) arranged for her to wed (she's just chattel to him, after all.) Two weddings end the tale, but are they the right two?

Yeah, that's too long. And the story's a little too complicated for the 2hr length.

The history of this opera is far more interesting than the work itself. Verdi suffered the death of both his infant children and his childhood sweetheart/wife in a short time (less that 2 years), all by unrelated causes. The worst & last blow of his wife's death occurred while he was composing this. He quit and vowed never to compose again, but the impresario who commissioned it insisted he fulfill the contract, so he did.

I don't know if he composed it in sequence, but it seems to start brightly, but gets very melancholy after a while. This performance does not try to make it funnier than it is, but does try to capture what fun there is. Costumes are bright primary colors, but singers don't mug or use comedic vocals much. Let it run 3 times to see if it would draw my attention. It didn't, but the music is very pleasant.

Per the 2012 video introduction, ranking Verdi operas by most-performed worldwide, this is 20th. Among all operas most-performed, 342nd. (another source-less list of the top 100; Operabase Statistics)

Sets: Teatro Regio di Parma (where this was staged) & Teatro Comunale di Bologna
Costumes (Rome), Props (Florence & the 2 teatros above), footwear (Rome), Wigs (Turin)

Unitel, cond. Renzetti; 7

Tutto Verdi: Oberto (2007), 8-

2h 5min | Music | TV Movie 25 September 2012
(Verdi's first opera.) In 1228, defeated and in exile, Oberto returns to duel with Riccardo, who seduced and shamed Oberto's daughter Leonora, then proposed to Cuniza, the daughter of Oberto's rival.
Director: Tiziano Mancini
Conductor: Antonello Allemandi
Stars: Mariana Pentcheva, Fabio Sartori, Giovanni Battista Parodi, Francesca Sassu.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2651874/

1st Verdi opera.
First performance 1839, Teatro alla Scala, Milan

Time: 1228
Place: Northern Italy, Bassano, at Ezzelino da Romano's castle and nearby

Filmed at Teatro Verdi di Busseto.

The use of hands is distracting in this production, and the video director emphasizes it. As seen in the poster, cast members, including the chorus, pose with hands in distinctive poses. They don't move so much as change position to a new pose. If they are supposed to convey extra meaning, I don't speak the language.

Other than that, this is charming. Lots of good compositions for ensemble, arias, duets, trios, etc. Really clear that Verdi was off to a good start. It's not a great opera, but during a time when medium-sized towns in Italy would get 50 new operas a year (yup, just like the 30's and 40's US film studios), this one was performed for a while.

The Teatro Verdi di Busseto (his home town) is the venue, and seats 300. So even with a full house, when the audience applauds, it barely registers, but enough to hear they had decidedly different reactions to the leads during the curtain call (and I don't know why). They also seemed more patient to offer their appreciation longer than what we see at the Met (or is that edited?)

The stage is small (described by a reviewer as the size of a 2-car garage; looks a bit bigger to me), and they don't do much on it besides pose and sing. The duel is conducted off-stage: in 1 scene we have a quartet expounding on the duel about to happen, the contestants have swords in hand, but in the next scene one duelist is lamenting his deed.

So this first entry is living up to the description by the reviewer who convinced me I wanted the Tutto Verdi set: the cast does not have to project far to reach the rafters, and they're not too full of themselves. But they're not local yokels; Parodi is in a couple of other operas I have.

Fun fact from credits: the costumes came from Rome, the wigs from Turin, props and footwear from Florence (2 different providers). I wonder if this little opera house always does that. I wonder how intrusive the cameras were/not. We get plenty of variety of angles, distances, all pretty well executed/directed.

Very nice video synopsis/introduction provided with the title; I think that happens for the whole set. They included some background on its creation, and that Ricordi bought the score for "only" 2,000 Austrian lira. Also, in a ranking of Verdi operas most-performed worldwide, this comes 23rd (only 27 total, and I think that includes Requiem, which is not an opera per se.). Among all operas, 499th. Date of the featurette: 2012. (another source-less list of the top 100; Operabase Statistics)

Enjoyed the chapter in the Great Course about this opera before watching it. Took a lot of persistence and overcoming obstacles for Verdi to pursue this career and to get this mounted. But his luck turned and it debuted at La Scala!

Unitel, cond. Allemandi; 8-