GIACOMO MEYERBEER (1791-1864)

 

Il Crociato In Egitto

 

Heroic Melodrama in two acts

 

Michael Maniaci

Patrizia Ciofi

Marco Vinco

Laura Polverelli

Fernando Portari

Iorio Zennaro

Silvia Pasini

Luca Favaron

Emanuele Pedrini

 

Stefano Gibellato - fortepiano

 

Orchestra e Coro del Teatro La Fenice / Emmanuel Villaume

 

Director, Set & Costume designer: Pierluigi Pizzi

 

Live Recording at Teatro La Fenice, Venezia, January 2007

Edition Fondazione Teatro La Fenice, edited by Franco Rossi and Carlo Stefano Rossi

 

Il Crociato in Egitto was Meyerbeer’s last and greatest Italian success and it was the opera that made his name on the international scene.

 

Like almost all Meyerbeer’s operas, Il Crociato makes great demands of its performers in vocal terms: the vocal style is Italian, richly embellished and in parts certainly Rossinian. Possibly the last opera written to contain a castrato role, the acclaimed male soprano Michael Maniaci here takes the role of Armando.

 

The plot skilfully weaves historical elements with private happenings and feelings. Against the background of the inter-religious conflict between Christians and Muslims, the story of the main characters unfolds in an efficacious alternation of grand choral scenes and solo numbers with arias and cabalettas.

 

“Meyerbeer's Il Crociato in Egitto this week opened La Fenice's current season. This production, the first staging in modern times of the last and most famous of the six operas Meyerbeer wrote for Italy early in his career, has already won praise from Milan's Corriere della Sera as ‘the most important musical event of 2007’… Marco Vinco excelled” International Herald Tribune.

 

Sound Format: LPCM 2.0:9 Colour

Region Code: Dolby Digital 5.1

Picture Format: 16:9

Region Code: 0

Subtitles: It, Eng, Ger, Fr, Sp

Booklet Notes: It, Eng, Ger, Fr

Running time: 203 mins

Available Worldwide

 

Dynamic 2DVDs DVD33549