Vincenzo Bellini
I Puritani
LIVE IN HD
Overview
For gorgeous melody, spellbinding coloratura, and virtuoso vocal fireworks, I Puritani has few equals. On January 10, the first new Met production of Bellini’s final masterpiece in nearly 50 years—a striking staging by Charles Edwards, who makes his company directorial debut after many successes as a set designer—arrives in cinemas worldwide. The Met has assembled a world-beating quartet of stars, conducted by Marco Armiliato, for the demanding principal roles. Soprano Lisette Oropesa and tenor Lawrence Brownlee are Elvira and Arturo, brought together by love and torn apart by the political rifts of the English Civil War, with baritone Artur Ruciński as Riccardo, betrothed to Elvira against her will, and bass-baritone Christian Van Horn as Elvira’s sympathetic uncle, Giorgio. This live cinema transmission is part of the Met’s award-winning Live in HD series, bringing opera to movie theaters across the globe.
English StreamText captioning is available for the Met’s transmission of I Puritani here. A transcript of the transmission will also be available to view after the live performance.
Production a gift of The Sybil B. Harrington Endowment Fund
SUNG IN
ITALIAN
Timeline
Timeline for the show, I Puritani
ESTIMATED RUN TIME
3 HRS 45 MINS, WITH ONE INTERMISSION
Cast
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World premiere: Théâtre Italien, Paris, 1835. I Puritani was the final work from Vincenzo Bellini, the great Sicilian exponent of the bel canto style of opera. It was written specifically for the talents of four of the best singers of its day, and the opera’s success depends almost entirely on the vocal abilities (and artistic sensibilities) of the performers. Its depiction of madness—both in individuals and in communities—is extraordinary: The opera suggests that the veneer of sanity can slip away at any moment, that madness can plunge a person into a destructive abyss.
Creators
Vincenzo Bellini (1801–35) possessed an extraordinary gift for melody and a thorough understanding of the human voice. His premature death—just as he was achieving international success and expanding in new musical directions—is one of the most unfortunate in the history of music. The librettist, Count Carlo Pepoli (1796–1881), was an Italian political exile living among the seething expatriate circles of Paris. For the libretto, Pepoli adapted the play Têtes Rondes et Cavaliers by Jacques-François Ancelot (1794–1854) and X. B. Saintine (1798–1865).
Production
Charles Edwards
Set Designer
Charles Edwards
Costume Designer
Gabrielle Dalton
Lighting Designer
Tim Mitchell
Movement Director
Tim Claydon
Composer
Vincenzo Bellini
Setting
The opera is set in the English Civil War of Puritans versus Royalists. While taking many liberties with history, it is set against a background that was a universal idea and very familiar to Italians in Bellini’s time. The bel canto composers explored with powerful results the relationship of civil strife and individual madness: Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor works with a similar, if slightly less explicit, format.
Music
Too often, bel canto (literally, “beautiful singing”) is explained as a succession of vocal gymnastics. On the contrary, operas written in this style center on long lyric lines, such as in the tenor’s Act I solo, which develops into the celebrated quartet “A te, o cara.” The soprano’s ravishing Act II aria “Qui la voce sua soave” works the same way and depends entirely on the singer’s ability to spin forth an elegant vocal line. And no one can deny Bellini’s unique mastery of melody, as in the rousing martial duet “Suoni la tromba, e intrepido” in Act II and the bass’s gorgeous showpiece in Act II, “Cinta di fiori.”
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