The Tutto Verdi project continues apace with another three releases this month, including Il Corsaro which
is one Giuseppe Verdi's least known and performed works. The opera is based on a poem by Lord Byron called The
Corsair. This is a kind of strange outing for Verdi, a rather peculiar combination of what might be termed elements
from The Pirates of Penzance with The Abduction from the Seraglio. Our heroes are Christian pirates, chief
among them Corrado (Bruno Ribiero, a rather commanding tenor presence). There is of course a tragic love story at play,
this time between Corrado and Medora (Irina Lungu), who seems to know from her first aria that things are not going to
turn out well for all involved. There's another kind of trouble brewing in the harem of the Pasha Seid (Luca Salsi), as one of his conquests,
Gulnara (Silvia Dalla Benetta) is not very happy about her lot in life. The Turks and the Corsairs end up battling each other, and various
interrelationships between the main characters play out over the ensuing two acts.
This is a rather handsome, if minimally staged, production that offers some excellent singing, especially by Ribeiro who's something of a minor
revelation in this role. What may actually be of some interest to some viewers is the venue for this 2008 production. It's the seemingly tiny
Teatro Regio di Parma, a Rococo mini-palace with a pretty tiny pit and an audience space that seems to hold only a couple hundred people or
so. For those used to seeing gargantuan productions at La Scala or Bayreuth (to give just two examples), this is a decided change of pace,
and it may actually come as a bit of a shock when the audience's rather meager applause greets the conductor or the singers. There's only so
much noise that many people can make, evidently.
Il Corsaro is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of C Major and Unitel Classica with an AVC encoded 1080i transfer in 1.78:1. This is overall a
rather nice looking high definition presentation that offers excellently saturated color and pleasing fine object detail in close-ups. Some of the
dimly lit scenes (notably the opening act aboard the ship) suffer from diminished shadow detail, but otherwise this is a sharp and clear looking
transfer.
Il Corsaro features a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix as well as an uncompressed LPCM 2.0 stereo fold down. Generally speaking,
both of these tracks offer excellent fidelity, though there are some very curious anomalies in a couple of places. The most noticeable one is in
Act II during Gulnara's aria "Vola talor del calcere". What is that annoying noise? It sounds like distortion coming over a microphone, but
I almost had to wonder if it was something as simple as a microphone rubbing up against a costume or some such thing. Aside from these minor
distractions, both of these tracks sound very nice indeed, with good balance between the singers and (smallish) orchestra.
Introduction to Il Corsaro (1080i; 10:46) provides the usual synopsis and background information
on the opera. This is
one of Verdi's least performed pieces, and it's strangely prescient in how it deals—albeit tangentially—with the longstanding
conflict between
Christianity and Islam.
Il Corsaro isn't some long forgotten masterpiece, but it probably deserves more attention than it typically gets. It's often quite lusciously
tuneful and Verdi fans would do well to check it out. This production is quite handsome and features above average singing, and in the case of
Ribeiro, much more than that. Recommended.
Verdi: Il Corsaro Blu-ray, News and Updates
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