Written in 1848, this three-act opera is based on Lord Byron's poem The Corsair.
Director: Tiziano Mancini
Conductor: Carlo Montanaro
Stars: Bruno Ribeiro, Andrea Papi, Irina Lungu, Luca Salsi, Silvia Dalla Benetta.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2812884/
12th Verdi opera.
Premiere 1848, Teatro Grande, Trieste
Place: A Greek island in the Aegean and the Turkish city of Corone.
Time: The early 1800s
Filmed in Teatro Verdi di Busseto (booklet says Teatro Regio di Parma.)
Corsair = pirate. Our lead, the head of the pirates, is a young handsome tenor. The female leads are also young. And we get a lot of opponents sword-fighting for more than a few seconds.
Story (ending): <sigh> another pair of suicides, triggered by the mistaken notion that one of them was already dead. How old IS this trope?
Lots of sets: rigging for the pirate ship, drapes for the harem, different rigging for the Pasha's ship, etc. Did NOT get the claustrophobic feeling of previous Busseto performances.
They made a decent production out of a lesser opera.
The Great Course has this listed in the timeline of Verdi operas, and mentioned among others with the librettist. Otherwise, zilch.
Per the 2012 featurette, without naming the source of world-wide most-performed rankings, this is 24th among Verdi's operas, 500th among all operas. (another source-less list of the top 100; Operabase Statistics)
Unitel, cond. Montanaro; 7-
