Casta Diva - A Romanticized Biography of Bellini

It's very likely those who are fond of Bellini, and the other great romantic composers, would buy this.If we watch a movie produced in the 50's, 60's, even 70's..you can identify it as having been filmed in that era...it has that sentimentality, and sumptuous technicolor look. The acting ..a bit wooden , you might expect also..but in spite of these flaws - that one must really expect from an old film...I am not disappointed.In fact, for its day, this was a lush and elaborate production.Scores of immaculately done costumes, some sets in what appears to be outdoors in Naples.Indoors, opulence reigns supreme..sort of excuses the woodeness..all that spiffy garb..and those over the top puffy sleeves..and parachute gowns. Neat little black slippers with bows for the men..nice! Well..maybe you can tell I am an artist..going on and on- can practically draw the performers from memory.."but what about the music?"..The liner notes explain that theyalso spared no expense on the finest analog to digital equipment..comparing one brand to another. Some very old recordings though.Scenes from the operas are actually done on stage. The music..and if you own bellini and donizetti operas, of courseyou'll be delighted.It only whets one's appetite, you know..we really would so love to see modern day production values brought to bear..and real staging of the operas, etc...an army of talent required, of course. A few movies I bought, with say the storyof Liszt..it was way too much fall in love run away, discover the flies in the ointment that all relationships have, and then ugly break up..and just a smattering of music!...no , no, no...we buy a movie about our favorite composer..to hear a grandarray of the music in question!..and for us sappy artists...please no German Nihilism...traditional..pleasing to the eye staging, as well as the ear pleasing.This just happens to be the most beautiful music EVER composed in the short, brutal history of mankind..it deservesWAY more attention , than , say, another Bruce Willis all bloodied up and looking sweaty and menacing...sheesh..does anyone in tinsel town have any clue what the history books will say about them?..it won't be good at all. Just as we laugh at people from the fifties..we will, in about 2034 be laughing our butts off rolling in the floor at the 'suited for the mentally challenged' movie making produced today. Oh ,..how about 3 or 4 more grisly corpse crime scene investigation shows? Sound great to you? ( I'm quite sure if you love the music of Bellini, you are not perusing many grisly corpses if at all.)

The film offers an account of Bellini from his days as a student at the Naples conservatory through the premiere of Norma. Caterina Mancini had a cello-like, Ponselle-like voice, slightly throaty, mysterious. Hers was the most luscious Italian soprano of the 50s. See her sing a scene from Il pirata, from this film, for free on the Bel Canto Society site. --Stefan Zucker

The brief life of Vincenzo Bellini (1801-1835) is in wonderful 98 minutes film from the days he was a student in Naples to the openning of his famous opera "Norma". The film is with full of his beautiful music. Acting is excellent and the direction is good.

The film, "Casta Diva" (the title, of course, of the celebrated aria from the composer's opera, "Norma", that figures so largely in the film) is an outrageously sentimentalised composer-biopic about Vincenzo Bellini, who, indeed, was a very great composer and an exquisitely handsome man, but, contrary to his noble and romantic image in this motion picture, he was a heartless and fickle libertine with the ladies. The depiction of a rival composer, Gaetano Donizetti, as ruthless and so tough-minded does injustice to that sweetly handsome and amiable composer, pious too (despite frolicking sexual escapades with the ladies that caused the venereal disease which led to his death). No matter. One just hopes that nobody lends the depiction of musical and compositorial personal history in the move much of any credence. The movie is typical of its epoch in romanticising composers and performers of classical music of the past with, um-m-m, a very "free hand". The film is quite fun to watch and the music-making (of which one wishes there were even more) that on display to eyes and ears is of an high order.Right from the start, the violinist, unnamed, who plays impressively (what seems to be some of Niccolò Paganini's instrumental virtuoso paraphrastic noodling on opera melodies) us unnamed in the credits (the actor playing Niccolò Paganini being Danilo Berardinelli); whoever actually does the playing, the violinist sets the soundtrack ablaze with some rousing and fine fiddling. Berardinelli even looks a bit like some of the vintage images of the great virtuoso/composer which have survived from Paganini's own time, although Berardinelli is rather handsomer than homely Paganini really was in the nitty-gritty.Of course, what follows is all about vocal music for the lyric stage and notably some operas of composers Vincenzo Bellini and, secondarily, Gaetano Donizetti. The interest in this film nowadays is, understandably, for the sake of some very good singing (backed up energetically and poetically vivid orchestral playing, as occasion provides along the way, by the forces of the Teatro dell'opera, Rome, as conductor Oliviero de Fabritiis leads them spiritedly. There occurs one fleetingly brief moment of sagging pitch which, to these ears, sounds more to be due to a flaw in the recording, per se, of the soundtrack than to any fault of the singers, as well, it would seem tellingly, of the orchestra, but aside from that, the musicianship as here presented in evidence is quite secure and pleasing to the ears and sensibilities alike.The greatest vocal interest among the performances orbits about (soundtrack-wise, not the actors appearing on screen) Caterina Mancini, a lustrous Italian soprano all too little-remembered among North American opera fans, but one who had a huge reputation and following in Italy, where her memory persists. It is not for nothing that some have compared Mancini's rich and characterful singing to that or Rosa Ponselle, the voices of both of them having been characterised appropriately as being as sonorous as a violoncello (but, of course, in an higher register). Mancini definitely merits far more attention among opera lovers and record collectors in North America than has been the case; her recordings, appearing originally on Fonit-Cetra's own and on licensee labels are the kind of thing that those who value rugged drama AND beautiful, lustily characterful singing rightly treasure.The other singers hold their own, too. The tenor Gianni Poggi makes a stronger impression as a singer in this film than he tended to make on his Decca/London studio recordings singing with, notably, Renata Tebaldi. Here, Poggie's singing is first-rate. Obviously, he is another singer who is in need of some re-assessment (and, naturally, much of enjoyment). It is a joy, too, to see and hear Giulio Neri, one of the greatest basses of his era in Italy (or anywhere else, for that matter).So, enjoy this cinematic romp, as a movie, and immerse onseself in some pretty glorious singing and playing. The film seems to be well-preserved. It is in colour, but with a sort of qussi-sepia tinge and tint that is appealing. A real treat.