{"product_id":"alfano-cyrano-de-bergerac","title":"Alfano: Cyrano de Bergerac","description":"Review\n\nAfter languishing in neglect for many years, Alfano's Cyrano was seen in a production at Montpellier in 2003 with Roberto Alagna in the title role. This has appeared on DVD. Plàcido Domingo took up the role, as his one hundred and twenty first, and a production was mounted at the Metropolitan Opera, New York in May 2005, by Francesca Zambello with designs by Peter J Davidson. This production has since transferred to Covent Garden where it was seen in May 2006 and onwards to La Scala. It should have been the basis of these performances celebrating the new theatre Reina Sofia, in Valencia whose impressive, futuristic, exterior is seen in the introduction (Ch. 1). It seems there were problems with a collapse of part of the theatre stage-machinery required for the sets. The upshot was a new, simpler but affective staging by Michail Zananiecki. Its main focus is a central rotunda with steps and openings through which entrances and activities take place. His staging may not be as spectacular as reports of the Zambello production indicate, but like his direction, aided by drapes and lighting, it is effective. My only question is as to the relevance of what appear to be acrobats descending on ropes and drapes from time to time. The costumes are in period.\nAbove anything else what Cyrano de Bergerac needs beyond even an accomplished production and sets, are two committed and affecting singing actors in the title role and that of Roxanne. As far as the eponymous role is concerned it has an outstanding protagonist in Plàcido Domingo. His acting is fully integrated into his singing to add a further histrionic portrayal to his many others. The tessitura of the music suits his now baritonal tenor perfectly, with no demanding high Cs or the like and plenty of opportunity for dramatic involvement. His portrayal of the death of Cyrano, after hearing Roxanne's true thoughts (Ch. 26), is as powerfully sung as his well known reading of the death of Otello in act four of Verdi's opera. In this histrionic tour de force Domingo is aided, as in the Verdi, by the composer's music. This ending, in the manner of its portrayal and its poignancy, reminded me also of the death of Boris in Mussorgsky's opera. As Roxanne, Sondra Radvanovsky matches Domingo in dramatic involvement - no mean feat. Her lustrous soprano is warm and vibrant and allied to her vocal and dramatic capacity it is an instrument to savour. Radvanovsky lacks some clarity of diction to convince me that she is a major force in the operatic firmament. Her outburst of love to Christian (Ch. 20) is delivered via powerful and committed singing of a high order.\nCyrano de Bergerac also depends on a cluster of lesser parts the most important of which, along with Christian, is De Guiche. This vital role is sung with strong even tones and dramatic involvement (Ch. 17) by North American baritone Rodney Gilfry; not `Rod' as the booklet refers to him, I must note. In the cameo role of Ragueneau, Corrado Carmelo Caruso's well tuned bass is a virtue. The Christian of Arturo Chacón Cruz lacks the qualities of persona and vitality that could be seen as appropriate to that of the role. I rather doubt that Cruz had anything better to offer being unpoetic not only in his acting and inflections but also in his singing. -- MusicWeb International, Robert J Farr, March 2010\n\nI have heard boring opera scores in my time -- especially those in so-called 12-tone style -- but never have I heard one so incompetent as the one Franco Alfano composed for the opera \"Cyrano de Bergerac!\" Alfano has before now been known mostly for completing his master Puccini's \"Turandot\" (and botching it badly). But since the Metropolitan Opera has decided to revive \"Cyrano,\" his reputation has now to stand upon the very shaky foundation of what he did with this work.\nThere are now two videos available on DVD. The one I saw is on the Naxos label; and it is from this version that I draw my conclusions.\nNot all that long ago, there were some recordings by a group called the Mannheim Steamroller, who played selections by this or that composer or genre all at the same volume and tempo with no pause between them, no dynamics, no other variety, so that one just blurred into the next. This is exactly how I felt during the first two acts of \"Cyrano.\" Every one sings at the same volume, with no hint of a melody, no hint of characterization, no relation to what the text is saying.\nIn the Garden scene (Act III), Roxanne and the men manage to sing a little more softly; but things soon return to their top-of-the-voice monotone. It is only for a few moments in Act IV, when Cyrano asks the fifer to play a nostalgic air to get the cadets' minds off their starvation, that the music actually fits the mood and the words. Then it is back to the Alfano-steamroller.\nPoor Placido Domingo tries to get some characterization into the title role but is stopped at every turn by the absurd score. Sondra Radvanovksy, who looks far too matr, ISBN13:B002QEXBJ0 ISBN10:B002QEXBJ0 Material Type:dvd","brand":"CheapBookDepot","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53521057448243,"sku":"B9.1.7 CHD_06-18-26_UBD_H000233A","price":18.62,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0748\/5086\/1363\/files\/61fIUjAKm5L.jpg?v=1781947571","url":"https:\/\/cheapbookdepot.com\/products\/alfano-cyrano-de-bergerac","provider":"Cheap Book Depot","version":"1.0","type":"link"}