The newly-rebuilt Fenice in Venice looks very attractive in this film, like a slightly reduced La Scala. The production gives us a welcome opportunity to hear a Donizetti rarity, Pia di Tolomei. It tells of the virtuous Pia who is accused of being unfaithful to her husband Nello della Pietro. In fact she has been secretly seeing her brother who is at war with Nello. Nello, played by Andrew Schroeder, poisons Pia with one of those slow-acting poisons beloved of Italian composers. She has plenty of time to sing a last aria and to encourage her husband and brother to bury their differences before she expires gracefully.
The story is Othello-lite. The Iago character here is Ghino degli Armieri played by the tenor Dario Schmunck. This breaks the first rule of opera, that tenors cannot be the bad guys but Ghino is a complex character. He betrays Pia because he secretly loves her. When he realizes that her virtue in inviolable he repents and dies a hero's death with much suitable tenor music. Donizetti makes the part of Rodrigo a trouser role, this being a convenient way to get a mezzo into the cast. Laura Polverelli certainly looks fragrant in her purple velvet trousers and her duet with Patrizia Ciofi's Pia is one of the highlights of the production. Strangely, it gets no applause and, in fact the applause throughout, from the Venetian audience, is very subdued.
The performances of the four principals are not world class but of good provincial opera-house standard. The part of Pia is a very big sing, which Ciofi handles well but I did not warm to her diffident manner and her irritating habit of singing with her head on one side, like a folk singer. The sets are simple and attractive, consisting mainly of flat panels in primary colours that slide up and down and across the stage. I was slightly disconcerted by a panel of Italian text that was lowered onto the stage: I thought the audience was about to be invited to participate in a karaoke session.
The story is Othello-lite. The Iago character here is Ghino degli Armieri played by the tenor Dario Schmunck. This breaks the first rule of opera, that tenors cannot be the bad guys but Ghino is a complex character. He betrays Pia because he secretly loves her. When he realizes that her virtue in inviolable he repents and dies a hero's death with much suitable tenor music. Donizetti makes the part of Rodrigo a trouser role, this being a convenient way to get a mezzo into the cast. Laura Polverelli certainly looks fragrant in her purple velvet trousers and her duet with Patrizia Ciofi's Pia is one of the highlights of the production. Strangely, it gets no applause and, in fact the applause throughout, from the Venetian audience, is very subdued.
The performances of the four principals are not world class but of good provincial opera-house standard. The part of Pia is a very big sing, which Ciofi handles well but I did not warm to her diffident manner and her irritating habit of singing with her head on one side, like a folk singer. The sets are simple and attractive, consisting mainly of flat panels in primary colours that slide up and down and across the stage. I was slightly disconcerted by a panel of Italian text that was lowered onto the stage: I thought the audience was about to be invited to participate in a karaoke session.