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Che mai vegg'io?

Filippo Secondo | 09/13/2007

(1 out of 5 stars)

"I'd like to nominate this as the worst modern ERNANI. Besides the rudimentary conducting (the muffled orchestra sounds as if covered by a blanket), the four principals - wooden actors whose names I don't even care to remember - are wobbly and gasp for breath while phrasing their lines (extremely painful to watch and hear). Though Dynamic is known for its note-complete sets, in the light of such a poor performance, the excision of second verses is more than welcome (there's also a short cut in the finale). The middle-of-the-road staging isn't as disastrous as the overall performance, which does improve a little in Act 4 (too late). Badly edited, the music sometimes doesn't match the picture. The English subtitles are unreliable (eg 'Intendo, intendo' = 'I hear, I hear'!). Dynamic's release of this production on DVD one year after the CD version has added insult to injury. A full-price cipher (the star above is Verdi's)."