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(More customer reviews)The great account of the role of Minnie on DVD is Antonietta Stella's amazing, organic and thrilling performance from Japan available on a good VAI transfer -- though the surrounding performance is routine.
This performance though has many strengths even if no one is quite on Stella's level. For one thing the conductor Veronesi is a Puccini specialist and provides a certainty of touch and a clear love of the music I miss from all the other conductors on DVD. He really points the arresting orchestral touches and surprising harmonies as well as relishing the melodies that sneak into this opera seductively. His pacing is natural -- he understands the words as a native -- and since Puccini set the words very precisely even using a dialog like (or quasi parlando) style that dictates the pace of many scenes -- that is crucial to the opera unfolding naturally and is missed by conductors like Slatkin, Maazel and Mehta who generalize various scenes. The orchestral response is good, not spectacular but the male ensemble, they have a lot to sing, is excellent, well rehearsed and individually good when solo lines are called for. Sound is excellent.
Dessi, Armiliato (they are a real life couple) and Gallo are all to the manner born and they give stylish, committed and large scaled performances. They are capable of nuance and detail as well as big gestures when they are called for. She isn't effortless vocally at every point, sometimes pushing off the pitch at the top and occasionally her sound turns glassy or rough but she absolutely knows what she's doing. She is plausibly girlish (within reason), also tough and also touching, she understands how much small moments matter and the big outbursts are fully committed and colorfully managed. Armiliato is one of the best Italian tenors in the world today. He has resonance and ring throughout the range, handles exposed high writing with conviction and only a hint of effort. Like Dessi he is a fine actor and he's actually the better looking of the two, really quite the dashing bandit (who, as he does it, expresses heart felt remorse). They are a terrific team and their give and take is detailed and intense -- more so than on any other DVD. Gallo is an excellent Rance, though not possessed of an imposing voice he compensates with intensity and a kind of personal glamor.
The production is very handsome along traditional lines.
I love the opera but find problems with the other DVDs mostly because the Italian nuances and colors tend to be missing with one or more singers in all of them and because few of the Minnies really have the full measure of the role, sincere as some as them are (Daniels for example, who really doesn't have the right kind of voice but who is very likable, or Zampieri who does much that is deeply felt and stylish but who has a sound only her mother and I like, Neblett who is like Daniels but screams more and is harder. I'm not the biggest Domingo fan -- sacrilege I know!!!! He's at his best with Neblett but as far as I'm concerned Met and La Scala are diminishing returns with him looking and despite all the added resonance sounding quite old at La Scala. Carroli is the best Rance -- with Neblett and that's an imaginative, theatrical production -- and the Met production is good too -- but on the Neblett DVD I dislike the English supporting cast who seem to think they're doing Gilbert and Sullivan and have poor Italian and while Mehta has energy I find his fast tough approach doesn't hold up well. Though Slatkin opens cuts --as does Veronesi -- and clearly takes the opera seriously I find him dull and Maazel doesn't do much of anything but keep going until it's over.)
I wish the Stella DVD had Corelli (perhaps his most thrilling role), the great Gobbi, a better supporting cast and a conductor less inclined to rush (De Fabritiis, an old timer, knew what he was doing but performance realities in Japan probably prompted him to keep things moving at all costs).
Meanwhile I suspect, barring a miracle, this DVD will be the best we'll get of this unusual but marvelous opera.
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