Not until 1855 did Verdi have a chance to try his hand at the genre of French grand opera. A setting of a libretto by Eugène Scribe, Les Vêpres siciliennes proved a success in Paris despite the problematical nature of its subject matter, which deals with the Sicilian uprising against occupying French forces in Palermo in 1282. Today, the opera is usually given in the Italian version of 1861 as I Vespri siciliani.
Director: Tiziano Mancini
Conductor: Massimo Zanetti
Stars: Fabio Armiliato, Daniela Dessì, Leo Nucci, Giacomo Prestia.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2812274/
19th Verdi opera.
French Premiere: June 1855; Paris Opéra
Italian Premiere: December 1855, Teatro Regio, Parma
Italian libretto rewritten in 1861
Place: Palermo, Italy
Time: 1282
Filmed at Teatro Regio di Parma
It took several attempts for me to get through this one. It seems like a giant step backward in plot: another pair of enemies discover they are adult son & father, and loyalties shift immediately, with freedom vs. tyranny formerly dividing the pair. The love interest is also a plot-stirrer: she wants vengeance for the death of her brother a year ago. The bass/baritone intriguer tries to rally the people to revolution by encouraging some drunken occupying army men to carry off the young women for rape. Don't know if I would like it better if a favorite star or two would lead the cast.
The leads and most of the chorus are in dark clothing, and the set is barren, so until the last moments of the opera, when the revolutionaries wave Italian flags (in 1282?), this is colorless. (Ah, one of the Sabine women was wearing a red dress, but most wore white.)
Glad I was not in the audience where the singers stood and performed. For those sequences, the camera points to them, so we're taken out of the story into reality. Meh.
Another dvd I had my eye on sounds like the same production, in the even smaller Busetto theatre, but one of the singers is someone I've liked elsewhere. Decisions, decisions.
The Great Course talks about this briefly.
Per the 2012 featurette, without naming the source of world-wide most-performed rankings, this is 17th among Verdi's operas, 228th among all operas. (another source-less list of the top 100; Operabase Statistics).
Unitel, cond. Zanetti; 7-
