(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-
