The Verdi Project: Ernani

The mature Verdi style emerges in the composer's fifth opera. 
by Paul J. Pelkonen

A post-horn: the instrument blown by Silva to remind Ernani that it is time to die.
Photo from Wikimedia Commons.

Following the wild success of Nabucco and its follow-up I Lombardi, Verdi was on his way as an established composer of Italian opera. And yet, those operas, while having their positive points, do not yet embody the elements that one thinks of when the name "Verdi" comes to mind. Ernani changed all that. Its premiere at La Fenice, in Venice in 1844 was Verdi's first triumph away from the stage of La Scala and cemented his reputation as Italy's newest opera sensation

Concert Review: Start the Massacre Without Me

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Riccardo Muti (standing) at the helm of his troops in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. 
Photo by Todd Rosenberg © 2018 the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

The life of a classical music critic (especially one who runs his own business and also freelances!) is sometimes prone to the peccadilloes of routine. As a result, I'm starting this review of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s Saturday night performance ant Carnegie Hall with a confession, that, thinking that the start time of the performance was the usual 8pm (as it almost always is for shows at Stern Auditorium I arrived at 7:40--ten minutes late.

Yes. I missed the overture.

Concert Review: A History of Violence

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra return to Carnegie Hall.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Riccardo Muti (on podium) leads the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and mezzo-soprano Clémentine Margaine
at Carnegie Hall on Friday night. Photo © 2018 Chicago Symphony Orchestra. 

Mention the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in a room of classical music cognoscenti and you are likely to get the following reactions: a sigh of pleasure, a small smile, or a comment about the sonic size and vigor of their legendary brass section, who, in a city if big shoulders, cast the widest possible shadow. That orchestra and its leader Ricardo Muti are back in New York for their semi-annual visit to Carnegie Hall, and Friday night marked the first of two New York programs this weekend.

The Year in Reviews: The Concerts of 2015

The best concerts and recitals of the year that was.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

The Mysingsö Beach Chair (pictured above) was a key component of
Goldberg, the experimental presentation of Bach at the Park Avenue Armory.
Photo from IKEA.com © IKEA.

2015 was a year of farewells. Pierre Boulez, having turned 90 quietly stepped off the podium. Kurt Masur passed away. Valery Gergiev ended his term with the London Symphony Orchestra and Alan Gilbert announced that he would be moving on from the New York Philharmonic. However it was also a very good year for concert music.

This year's concerts were in a variety of settings: Lincoln Center, NJPAC and even a beach chair in the middle of the darkness of the Park Avenue Armory. All that and more is in the list of the ten best concert experiences I had in 2015. All links lead to full reviews and all quotes below are taken from Superconductor articles.

Concert Review: A Coal of Fire Upon the Ice

Riccardo Muti and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

An action shot of Riccardo Muti (center, back to camera) leading the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
Image © 2015 Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

It is the privilege of a great conductor to bring little-known music to another city and present it to a curious, yet largely trusting audience. Such privilege was exercised Sunday at Carnegie Hall, when Riccardo Muti led the third and last of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's concerts on that hallowed stage this season. The program, which featured not just the Orchestra but the equally impressive Chicago Symphony Chorus, paired two Russian composers who could not be more different: Alexander Scriabin and Serge Prokofiev.

Concert Review: Storming the Cathedral

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra plays Schumann and Brahms.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Yefim Bronfman on tour in Hungary.
Photo by Andrea Felvégi.

Riccardo Muti and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra are known for careful programming choices. Take Saturday night's concert. The second of three dates this past weekend at Carnegie Hall, this program featured what is at first glance a thoroughly conservative pairing: Brahms' Piano Concerto No. 2 (with soloist Yefim Bronfman) and Schumann's Rhenish Symphony, numbered as his Third but actually the troubled composer's final symphonic work.

Concert Review: Spirits From the Vasty Deep

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra returns to Carnegie Hall.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

The impassioned, imposing Riccardo Muti.
Photo from RiccardoMutiMusic.com

A New York visit by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra is always an event, especially with the mercurial Neapolitan conductor Riccardo Muti at the helm of this storied orchestra. Last Friday night, Mr. Muti led his troops in the first of three weekend concerts at the Hall, with a program of Mendelssohn, Debussy and Scriabin.

Recordings Review: Green-Eyed Monsters of the Midway

Riccardo Muti and the CSO record Otello.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

In concert: Riccardo Muti (on podium) conducting Otello at Orchestra Hall in 2011.
Photo by Todd Rosenberg © 2011 Chicago Symphony Orchestra,

From the slip-case of the CD with an enormous, brooding profile of Riccardo Muti to the opening bars of the conductor's new (2013) recording of Verdi's Otello, it is clear that the fiery Italian conductor is working hard to put his personal stamp on the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. This Otello (recorded in 2011 during a run of four concert performances at Orchestra Hall) is Mr. Muti's second recording on CSO Resound, the orchestra's own label. (Unbelievably this is Mr. Muti's first Otello on CD, and the CSO's second. Under Sir Georg Solti made an ill-advised set with Luciano Pavarotti(!) in the title role in 1991.)

Concert Review: Going Out with a Bang

The CSO concludes its three-night Carnegie Hall stand.

Conductor Riccardo Muti.
Photo © Chicago Symphony Orchestra

by Paul J. Pelkonen
Last night was the final concert for Riccardo Muti and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's at Carnegie Hall this season. It offered New Yorkers a chance to hear a program that was successful in Chicago: an unconventional triptych of works by Dvorak, Respighi and the lesser-known pianist-composer Giuseppe Martucci.

The concert opened with Dvořák's Fifth Symphony, the work that marks the start of the composer's mature period. (Prior to the publication of a new edition of the Czech composer's symphonies in the 1950s, this piece was widely known as Symphony No. 1.) It remains a marvelous, if under-performed example of the composer's style.

Mr. Muti led a bold, robust account of the score, with the rich cellos and potent horns of the CSO to the fore. The conductor leapt (literally) into the rollocking main theme, drawing precise, almost Bach-like harmonies underneath the swaggering main subject. The bold, brassy performance drew unexpected early applause from a few concert-goers, who were either overcome by the piece or simply didn't know better.

Concert Review: This Wheel's on Fire

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra opens Carnegie Hall with Carmina Burana.

Your host for Wheel of Fortune: Chicago Symphony Orchestra music director Riccardo Muti.

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra opened both the 2012-2013 Carnegie Hall season and and a three-night stand at the famous New York concert venue on Wednesday, Oct. 3. The choice of repertory: Carl Orff's epic 20th century choral work Carmina Burana, under the baton of music director Riccardo Muti.

Orff's blend of choral drinking songs, pseudo-medieval dances and operatic arias has remained popular since the work's 1938 premiere. However, due to the pop-culture omnipresence of the chorus O Fortuna that opens and closes this hour-long piece, Carmina Burana (the title means "Songs of Bavaria") has something of a mixed reputation. The piece continues to draw scorn from critics and cognoscenti for its catchy melodies, simple structures and a conspicuous lack of thematic development in each of its twenty-five sections.

Those perceived weaknesses became strengths under Mr. Muti's direction. The fiery Italian seemed almost sedate during the opening O Fortuna, barely lifting his arms to direct the choristers as the musicans pounded out the familiar ostinato rhythm. But as the cycle continued, Mr. Muti used his experience in opera and symphonic repertory to carve these granite-like blocks of sound into sharp reliefs showing the details of Orff's medieval world.

Carnegie Hall 2012-2013 Season Preview

Carnegie Hall's ambitious 2012-2013 slate.

The Dude abides: Gustavo Dudamel returns to Carnegie Hall with an ambitious
program of Latin American music. Photo © 2011 Rolex.

The Carnegie Hall season opens Oct 3. This year's intiatives include a Latin American music festival featuring conductor Gustavo Dudamel, composer Osvaldo Golijov, and the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela in a rare New York appearance.

Mr. Golijov is also the Hall's new composer-in-residence. And opera singer Renée Fleming takes the post of artist-in-residence with a four-concert Perspectives series featuring the New York stage premiere of André Previn's opera A Streetcar Named Desire.

Here are 12 quick highlights of the 2012-2013 season:

Brahms Knuckles

Second Symphony punch-up at Orchestra Hall.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

New horizons in music appreciation.
Frame capture from Super Punch-Out! Image © Nintendo.

A fight broke out on Thursday night at a Chicago Symphony Orchestra concert.

According to an article by Stefano Esposito in the Chicago Sun-Times, a performance of Brahms' Second Symphony was accompanied by the sound of two patrons fighting in one of the box seats at Orchestra Hall.

Music director Riccardo Muti was conducting the Adagio of the Brahms work, when the very slow, quiet passage that ends the movement was accompanied by fisticuffs.

Chicago Police reports indicate that an unidentified 30-something concert-goer attacked a 67-year old man in the high-end seats. According to department sources, (as reported by the Sun-Times) the fight started as an argument over seating arrangements in the box.

The victim had a cut on his forehead. His attacker fled the scene before police arrived.

Mr. Esposito's article quotes Steve Robinson, general manager of Chicago radio station 98.7 WFMT: "We heard a rather loud thump. It wasn't so loud that everyone jumped up and ran for the exits."

Conductor Riccardo Muti was visibly irritated by the noise, but kept conducting the work. He took a brief pause, and after receiving a signal that all was well, launched into the third movement of the symphony.

“Mind you, he never stopped conducting,” Robinson told the Sun-Times. “He very gracefully, without missing a beat--literally--he brought [the second movement] to a very quiet and subdued close, while still looking over his left shoulder.”

The rest of the concert continued without incident.

DVD Review: The Old Switcheroo

Così fan tutte from La Scala.

Dolores Ziegler (left) and Daniela Dessì in a frame-grab from Così fan tutte.
Image © 1998 OpusArte/Teatro alla Scala.

As Mostly Mozart opens this week, it's time to blow the dust off this underrated 1998 film of Così fan tutte from La Scala. Made during Riccardo Muti's tenure as music director, this fizzy performance is notable for an excellent ensemble cast and the pert Despina of Adelina Scarabelli.

Despina is a complex role, the maid-servant who sets Da Ponte's whirling plot in motion. She must be trusted confidante, smart servant, and immediately the most appealing character to the audience. As the female equivalent of Figaro in the earlier collaboration between Mozart and da Ponte, Despina is a challenging part for even the starriest singer.

With her low-lying, rapid-fire soprano, Ms. Scarabelli meets all of the requirements. Her "Una donna a quindici anni" is marvelously delivered, earning deserved "bravo" cries from the Milan audience. But she is also strong when disguised as the mesmerist and the notary in the finales of each act, delivering the dialogue with good comic acting and a minimum of irritating vocal effect.

She is surrounded by an excellent cast. Daniela Dessì and Delores Ziegler are a compelling pair as Fiordiligi and Dorabella, generating onstage chemistry with both of their leading men. A regular singer at the house during the Muti years, Ms. Dessì leads off "A ugarda della sorella" with sweet, carefully formed tone. She is well-matched with Ms. Ziegler, and the two voices blend well.

Alessandro Corbelli and Josef Kundlak are the two fellas who dress up as Albanians and go through all sorts of plot contrivances in order to see if their partners are willing to trade. The tenor and baritone (respectively) make the most of Da Ponte's cynical humor. Mr. Corbelli is especially compelling in the later acts, as the would-be girlfriend-swappers discover that they may not want to switch back. Claudio Desderi plays it fairly straight as Don Alonso, the old gentlemen whose bet with these two cads sets the story in motion.

This production was shot in Mr. Muti's salad days, when the raven-haired conductor ruled Scala with an iron fist and a velvet baton. Michael Hampe presents a traditional production in authentic-looking period costume, keeping the opera in its correct geographical setting. In today's age of regietheater run wild, this simple approach makes this DVD refreshing. The only device is a blue curtain which creates a theater-within-a-theater. But even this serves a dramatic purpose, allowing for quick changes and theatrical asides to the audience from Despina and Don Alonso.

Riccardo Muti is an underrated Mozart conductor whose recordings were drowned in the flood of major label releases at the end of the 20th century. Here, he leads Mozart's music in a crisp, even style, driving the action forward and setting an expert pace for the singers. It's a little fast when it has to be, but the big lyric moments in this extraordinary score are allowed to blossom fully.

One complaint. In the finale, the maestro makes a ghostly appearance over the stage, burned in digitally so the viewer can watch both maestro and performers. But the effect distracts mightily from the fine staging presented here, coming as it does at the most inopportune moments.

Opera Review: Unhinged. Unmoored. Unsurpassed.

Riccardo Muti brings Otello to Carnegie Hall.

Riccardo Muti leads the Chicago Symphony in Otello.
Photo by Tim Rosenberg © 2011 Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Otello, distilled expertly from Shakespeare by composer of  Giuseppe Verdi and librettist Arrigo Boito, is the culmination of Verdi's art. This concert performance, featuring the Chicago Symphony led by Riccardo Muti, was vivid in its sweep and Shakespearean in its execution: the culmination of Maestro Muti's considerable skills.

Friday night also marked the conductor's triumphant New York return. Maestro Muti has had a rough 2010-2011 season, with health problems hindering the start of his tenure as the CSO's new music director. For their part, the orchestra responded brilliantly to his direction, with a muscular reading of the score that hummed with power and flexibility, from the fortissimo chords that kick off the storm scene to the haunted bass figures that presage the murder of Desdemona.

Over four acts, Maestro Muti led his audience down the emotional rabbit hole of Otello's decline. He was helped by a strong young cast, anchored by Latvian tenor Aleksandrs Antonenko in the difficult title role. Mr. Antonenko has sung this role under the Muti baton in Salzburg and Chicago. He has the right voice for this part, a dark-tinged, baritonal instrument that can rise up, find its volume and upper pitch, then slice heroically through a Verdi orchestra raging at full blast. He was especially chilling in the long Act III aria that follows Otello's degradation of Desdemona before the court, and the murder-suicide that ends the opera.

He was well matched with Krassimira Stoyanova, a picture of despair, emotional confusion, and more despair as Desdemona. Ms. Stoyanova brought warmth to the Act I love duet, creating the illusion of a perfect marriage before its methodical destruction. She sounded fresh and innocent in the Act II garden scene, interacting smoothly with a children's chorus and the men of the CSO Chorus. Her bewilderment in the third act, and resignation in the fourth felt entirely realistic, culminating in a Willow Song and Ave Maria that wrenched the heart.

Orchestrating events was Carlo Guelfi, a snide Iago whose chief quality was his eloquence of manner in his dirty dealings with the rest of the cast. Mr. Guelfi got off to a good start in Act I with a compelling Brindisi with Cassio (sung by the lyric tenor Juan Francisco Gatell.) He then poured everything he had into the Act II Credo: Iago's big aria where he tells the audience what an evil badass he is. However, his vocal level declined slightly over the course of the evening, failing to dominate the big ensembles of Act III. This was a competent performance, but not a great one.

The Chicago Symphony Chorus were one of the stars of the evening, forging the chain of "hit" choruses that raise the curtain on Act I into a cohesive whole. Whether they were singing about shipwrecks, victory, bonfires or the joys of wine, these singers lent a mighty voice, matching the orchestra in volume and power, creating tight sonic structures that struck the audience with the force of a raging maelstrom. Under Maestro Muti, the first and third acts were thrilling, but credit must also be share with chorus director Duain Wolfe.

CD Review: Riccardo Muti's Chicago Requiem

Riccardo Muti

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra celebrated the arrival of Riccardo Muti as its Music Director with this live recording of Verdi's Requiem. Recorded at Orchestra Hall in January of 2009, this is Mr. Muti's third recorded version of the work.

Written in 1874 to commemorate the death of the writer Allesandro Manzoni, the Verdi Requiem has more in common with opera than liturgy. It was the only composition published during the composer's self-imposed ten-year retirement between the premiere of Aida and the revision of Simon Boccanegra and the start of the composer's collaboration with Arrigo Boito.

There are passages that recall and even exceed the great beauties of Verdi's mature operas, and moments when the composer allowed his gifts to run wild in the realms of choral writing and counterpoint.

Mr. Muti excels as an opera conductor, especially in the works of Verdi. That experience serves him well in the Requiem. He starts slowly with the opening Requiem aeternum. In the Dies Irae, he whips his forces into a frenzy and drives the orchestra forward into a devastating recreation of the last trumpets and the Day of Judgment. The orchestra responds superbly, working hand-in-hand with the chorus to turn this Requiem into a thrilling ride.


He armed with a solid quartet of vocal soloists. Olga Borodina is in fine voice here, her mezzo showing bloom and warmth. Her husband, Russian bass Ildar Abdrazakov is solid, with a black timbre to his voice that sounds like the wrath of God. Soprano Barbara Frittoli leads off the Lux Aeterna with a soaring vocal line that sounds just as it should: otherworldly. The only caveat is the performance of tenor Mario Zeffiri. He has a pleasant, smallish voice and does not project enough force.

This recording was scheduled for release to commemorate Mr. Muti's first term as music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Although the conductor was forced to withdraw from the Fall season in Chicago for health reasons (he was suffering from a stomach ailment brought on by exhaustion), this is an indication that the future partnership between maestro and orchestra will be a fruitful one. Hopefully it will also lead to more recordings like this one.

Ten Super Conductors

The Top Ten Maestros I've Seen

Claudio Abbado at work.

Hi folks. I finally got to hear Gustavo Dudamel conduct this weekend. So I thought I'd take this opportunity to put up my top ten list of great conductors that I've seen lead an orchestra or an opera.

I'll try to add what I've seen them conduct, as I can best remember it. In a few cases, there are just too many performances, so I've picked a notable one. Oh and the order is completely arbitrary as I thought of them for the list.


1) Claudio Abbado: Berlin Philharmonic, Mahler Symphony No. 3; Bruckner Symphony No. 9

2) Giuseppe Sinopoli: Dresden Staatskapelle. Tone poems and opera excerpts by Richard Strauss. Sinopoli is one of my favorite, underrated composers. He died in 2001, collapsing in the pit while conducting Act III of Aida in Berlin.

3) Daniel Barenboim: Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. Tristan und Isolde; Mahler 5 and 7 with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

4) Pierre Boulez: Ravel's L'enfant et les Sortileges with the Cleveland Orchestra and Suzanne Mentzer.

5) Riccardo Chailly: Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra: Mahler Symphony No. 7

6) James Levine: Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra. More performances that I can count at the Met, but all of the Wagner operas, especially Parsifal and Lohengrin.

7) Bernard Haitink: Mahler Symphony No. 9 with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. At Symphony Hall when I lived in Boston, probably in 1996.

8) Sir Colin Davis: Program of English music with the New York Philharmonic featuring works by Vaughan Williams (the Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis) Michael Tippett and Edward Elgar.

9) Kurt Masur: Many performances with the New York Philharmonic. Pressed to pick one: The St. Matthew Passion or Debussy's La Mer. And he led a superb Bruckner Seventh last season.

10) Riccardo Muti:"The Pines of Rome" with the New York Philharmonic. Simply devastating.

The Next Ten: Alan Gilbert, Christian Thielemann, William Christie, Zdenek Macal, Valery Gergiev. Seiji Ozawa, John Eliot Gardiner, Christoph von Dohnanyi, Gustavo Dudamel and Sir Simon Rattle.

DVD Review: Attila at La Scala

Stud Muffin: Samuel Ramey bares it as Attila at La Scala.
Screen capture © 1991 La Scala/EMI/RAI Recording

Twenty years ago, the bass Samuel Ramey was assocated with the role of Attila the Hun, whose invasion of Italy is the subject of the Verdi opera that bears his name. This DVD, filmed at La Scala by RAI, is compelling solely for Ramey's magnificent performance as the Scourge of God. With his bellowing bass, raw sexual charisma and that famous bared chest, Ramey dominates the action from the barbarian's arrival onstage to his murder in the final scene.

DVD Review: Don Giovanni from La Scala

It's all about Riccardo Muti.
(Well, not really but he likes to be seen while conducting.)

This 1987 film of Mozart's Don Giovanni is memorable for the superb , old-fashioned performance of Thomas Allen in the title role. Seductive and courtly without being oily or disgusting, Allen is a Don that captures everything that is right (and deeply wrong) with the character. And his damnation scene (more on that later) is a spectacular performance, struck with horror at his fate. He is well-matched by Claudio Desderi, who has a pleasant baritone, and more importantly, the right amounts of sleaze and comic timing to make a great Leperello.

Edita Gruberova is an odd choice for the role of Donna Anna. She hits the notes, but does not support them with enough bloom. The effect is that of a thin, column of sound, not the robust woman determined to get her revenge and kick the Don's ass in the process. Ann Murray is better as Donna Anna, blending beautfully in the arias and duets. Suzanne Mentzer is a smart, coquettish Zerbinetta, torn between her need for the Don and love for her new husband, Masetto (the excellent Natale de Carolis). Finally, Don Ottavio may be the most ineffectual tenor in opera, but Franceso Araiza is a perfect fit for the part.

If you are expecting Don Giovanni to end in a spectacular "zombie statue damnation", (something between Night of the Living Dead and Dante's Inferno) this is not your production. The good Commendatore (Sergei Koptchak) appears merely in the form of his statue, still on horseback. And the singer is off in the wings, or hiding behind the horse, or some other such nonsense. This scene does not sound right with one of the singers off-stage. And you never get to see him actually drag the Don down to hell--he just disappears, horror-struck into the smoke.

Aside from an annoying tendency to cut to Riccardo Muti in the orchestra pit (part of the "conductors as stars" trend that infected a lot of late '80s/early '90s opera videos) and some odd choices in the subtitles, this is a pretty good Don Giovanni. It's a basic, traditional production that explores the psychological issues of the characters. Its biggest flaw is the director's decision to ignore the spectacular, unearthly ending that Mozart and Da Ponte planned. Maybe they should have had the Don attacked by a giant statue of Riccardo Muti?






Watch Thomas Allen and Suzanne Mentzer in "La ci darem la mano."

DVD Review: The Swiss Miss

Guglielmo Tell filmed at La Scala.

by Paul Pelkonen

Is this the DisneyWorld ride "Soarin'"? No, it's Gugliemo Tell from La Scala

As of this writing, this is the only DVD performance available of Rossini's final opera.  Tell is better known for its overture than the work itself, which was one of the most important grand operas of the 19th century and the final stage work by Giacchino Rossini. This is a magnificent score, with Rossini at the height of his powers, presented here by an excellent conductor with absolute respect for the composer's written notes. The results are entirely mixed.

To start with, it's in Italian. Rossini intended for his opera to be sung in French, and while the transliteration from Guillaume to Guglielmo is an acceptable one, the opera works better in its original language. (Compare it to this superb French recording conducted by Lamberto Gardelli and then let me know what you think.) The three leads are acceptable, but not great. (For "great", pick up the Chailly recording with Pavarotti and Montserrat Caballé in the lead roles.)

Chris Merritt's high-range tenor passes the vocal torture test that is the part of Arnold. He has a slight metallic bite to his voice, but he shines in the big Act II duet. Cheryl Studer, then in her brief prime, sings well as Mathilde but lacks emotional warmth. Giorgio Zancanarai is a solid Tell, tender and militant at the same time. In the treacherous "Resta immobile" Zancanari slips easily into the high tessitura and does not miss a single note.

The team of director Luca Ronconi and designer Gianni Quaranta opted to place the action in front of huge projection-screen televisions, that are used to place the actors against lakes, rivers, forests and even a huge medieval church. However, this method serves to neutralize the acting space. Singers are confined to wooden pews in the opening scene. An enormous tree rises out of the stage in Act II, unfolding like Fafner the dragon. The church scene looks like Cheryl Studer and Chris Merritt are warbling in a movie theater. The finale jumps the shark completely, when the Swiss scenery is replaced by shots of conductor Riccardo Muti toiling in the orchestra pit. We waited four hours, just to look at the conductor?

With its killer tenor role, long part for soprano and heroic baritone lead, the story of the legendary Swiss revolutionary leader is almost impossible to put on the stage today. And as this DVD shows, it was damn near impossible twenty years ago. Singers who can handle Arnold's Act IV cabaletta are few and far between. Mathilde isn't an easy sing either. It's a miracle that we have any performances of this opera at all, so this La Scala production (filmed in 1988) despite its flaws, will have to do.

Don't believe me? Watch the finale here.