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Beatrice di Tenda is a tragic opera in two acts by Vincenzo Bellini, from a libretto by Felice Romani. The opera is Bellini's penultimate opera, coming after Norma (1831) and before I puritani (1835).

This is the story of Beatrice Lascaris di Tenda, the woman who was the widow of the condottiere Facino Cane and later the wife of Duke Filippo Maria Visconti, in 15th century Milan. Filippo has grown tired of his wife Beatrice she regrets her impetuous marriage to him after her first husband's death, a marriage that has delivered her and her people into the Duke's tyrannical power. In Beatrice very diverse elements coexist: there are music patterns already experimented in Norma and used here to their utmost potential, side by side with new ways and techniques, which would be treasured by Verdi. Compare, in particular, Ernani's Filippo II and the dark and vacillating Filippo Maria Visconti tormented by remorse, ready to go back on his decision to condemn Beatrice, who once helped him, to death or Eboli and the anguished Agnese or Manrico in Verdi's Trovatore and Orombello at the end of Beatrice, locked in the tower's cell.

One should also note that the concluding choruses anticipate some of Verdi's rhythmic patterns, "with a roughness, even, which up to then had been alien to Bellini". Self-quotes and approaches similar to ones already used by Bellini in earlier works are undoubtedly present but do not invalidate the final result, which, heterogeneous as it may be, is worthy both from the point of view of dramaturgy - with characters and situations that are well drawn - and of the music.

The chorus plays an even more important part here than in Bellini's earlier operas, not only commenting on the action but advising and comforting the protagonists, in the true tradition of classical Greek drama.

Format: NTSC 16:9
Region Code: 0 (All)
Recorded: live from the Teatro Massimo Catania
Subtitles: Italian, English, German, French Spanish, Korean
Booklet notes: Italian, English