'The quality of this performance is so consistently excellent'
Denise Gallo, Opera Today
Les Vêpres Siciliennes is one of Verdi’s misunderstood operas. In a clumsy translation, the work is usually presented to audiences today as I vespri Siciliani and, as such, giv
'The quality of this performance is so consistently excellent'
Denise Gallo, Opera Today
Les Vêpres Siciliennes is one of Verdi’s misunderstood operas. In a clumsy translation, the work is usually presented to audiences today as I vespri Siciliani and, as such, gives a false representation of Verdi’s original concept. This opera was composed for the Paris Opera to a libretto by Eugene Scribe, one of the greatest poets of the day, and Charles Duveyrier. Verdi embraces the French idiom – the musical forms, the orchestration, the vocal writing – with the same grandeur and sense of occasion as Rossini and Meyerbeer before him. This is Opera Rara’s third of five sets in its Verdi Originals series and this BBC recording of the opera finally restores the original French libretto.