The opera is based on the play La Bataille de Toulouse by Joseph Méry. The performance is conducted by Boris Brott, who served as Assistant Conductor to the New York Philharmonic under Leonard Bernstein, and Music Director and Conductor for the Royal Ballet.
Director: Tiziano Mancini
Conductor: Boris Brott
Stars: Enrico Iori, Leonardo López Linares, Dimitra Theodossiou, Andrew Richards.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2812340/
13th Verdi opera.
Premiere 1849, Teatro Argentina, Rome
Time: 1176
Place: Milan and Como
Filmed at Teatro Verdi Trieste.
This may have been popular in its day (amid revolution in Italy), but I find it tiresome today. I question whether someone dedicated to revolution will get so distracted by romance. Then again, it's not the positive energy of requited love, but the negative energy of perceived betrayal, and the stubbornness to believe the bad things you want to believe instead of giving the benefit of the doubt. What would it have hurt Arrigo to believe that Lida thought him dead and took her father's advice to marry Rolando?
I don't like the mixed wardrobe again. The principal men are dressed more like 1949 revolutionaries than 1176. Lida comes out in a Victorian bustle. The chorus is dressed mid-20th century. I'm too busy trying to determine what the heck it all means to appreciate the opera itself. Why do we have giant paintings being painted, seemingly of the battles that provide the context for the story. Are the principals ghosts, reenactors, tour-guides for the chorus? Just DISTRACTING.
Might have been my mistake to watch 3 Verdi's in a row. (Not enough votes on IMDb to guide my rating.) So I won't step down to a 6, but it's tempting.
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 25th among Verdi's operas, 1443rd among all operas. (another source-less list of the top 100; Operabase Statistics)
Unitel, cond. Brott; 7-
