London Philharmonic Orchestra, David Parry - Vincenzo Bellini: La Straniera (2008)

La straniera was Bellini’s fourth opera, first performed at La Scala in February 1829. During the composer’s lifetime, and for a few years after his death in 1835, it enjoyed considerable international success, though contemporary reviewers were sometimes hostile, criticising its lack of set-piece arias and complaining of the “continual interruptions” to the musical line. It is this that strikes the modern listener as one of the most interesting aspects of the score. Bellini was experimenting with something, if not exactly through-composed, then sacrificing vocal fireworks for the sake of the dramatic structure.
The libretto concerns the woes of the exiled Queen of France, Agnese, who is obliged to live incognito in Brittany as Alaide – “The Stranger”. She spends the whole opera refusing to tell anyone, including her beloved Arturo, who she really is. When he at last finds out – at his wedding to another woman – he stabs himself to death at the Queen’s feet. Need I go on? It is a blood-and-thunder piece of gothic melodrama, with the inevitable courtroom scene in which the heroine is wrongly accused.
Renata Scotto, Montserrat Caballé and Elena Souliotis have sung the work – pirate recordings of performances with each of them have circulated – but this set is the first studio recording of the work, and Opera Rara has done it proud. David Parry leads the LPO in a gripping account of a tricky piece. Patrizia Ciofi is meltingly pathetic and then imperious when necessary. Dario Schmunck makes a virile and ardent Arturo, and in the crucial role of Valdeburgo (also in disguise, he is Agnese’s brother), Mark Stone is suitably warrior-like. In the rather ungrateful role of the “other woman”, Enkelejda Shkosa gets quite a jolly little rondo towards the end of Act 2. Among the other highlights are a catchy hunters’ chorus and the trio in which the two men fight for the stranger’s affection. The scene in Act 1, when they both end up in the lake apparently drowning, is a rousing finale. The contributions of the Geoffrey Mitchell Choir are splendid. A must for lovers of the bel canto repertory.