Капулетти мен Монтекки операсы

1830 opera by Vincenzo Bellini

I Capuleti e i Montecchi (The Capulets and the Montagues) is an Italian opera (tragedia lirica) in two acts by Vincenzo Bellini. The libretto by Felice Romani was a reworking of the story of Romeo and Juliet for an opera by Nicola Vaccai called Giulietta e Romeo and based on the play of the same name by Luigi Scevola written in 1818, thus an Italian source rather than taken directly from William Shakespeare. Bellini was persuaded to write the opera for the 1830 Carnival season at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice, with only a month and a half available for composition. He succeeded by appropriating a large amount of music previously written for his unsuccessful opera Zaira. The first performance of I Capuleti e i Montecchi took place on 11 March 1830.

At the premiere of I Capuleti e i Montecchi on 11 March 1830 success for Bellini returned. Weinstock describes the premiere as "an unclouded and immediate success" A local newspaper, I Teatri, reported that "all things considered, this opera by Bellini has aroused as much enthusiasm in Venice as La straniera aroused in Milan from the first evening on". By this time, Bellini knew that he had achieved fame: writing on 28 March, he stated that: "My style is now heard in the most important theatres in the world and with the greatest enthusiasm." Before leaving Venice, Bellini was offered a contract to produce another new opera for La Fenice for the 1830–31 Carnival season, and—upon his return to Milan—he also found an offer from Genoa for a new opera but proposed for the same time period, an offer he was forced to reject. Later that year, Bellini prepared a version of Capuleti for La Scala which was given on 26 December, lowering Giulietta's part for the mezzo soprano Amalia Schütz Oldosi. Very quickly after the premiere, performances began to be given all over Italy in about thirty different productions up to 1835. It continued to be seen fairly regularly until the end of the 1860s. Details of European productions, which were numerous and which began in Dresden on 1 October 1831, continued into the 1840s. The opera was first staged in the UK on 20 July 1833 and in the US on 4 April 1837 at the St Charles Theatre in New Orleans; later, first US performances were given in Boston on 13 May 1847 and in New York on 28 January 1848. In 1859 a French version, translated by Charles Nuitter, premiered in Paris Opera. It was prepared specially for the singer Felicita von Vestvali, who sang Romeo. The audience celebrated her performances enthusiastically and the critics compared Vestvali to Maria Malibran, Wilhelmine Schröder Devrient and Rachel Félix. Napoleon III was so captivated with her that he presented her with a solid silver suit of armor for her performance.

The opera was unheard in the 20th century until a concert performance was recorded for an RAI radio broadcast in 1957 with Antonietta Pastori as Giulietta, Fiorenza Cossotto as Romeo, and Lorin Maazel leading the music forces. The first United States performance during the 20th century was presented by the American Opera Society (AOS) in a concert version at Carnegie Hall in 1958 with Giulietta Simionato as Romeo, Laurel Hurley as Giulietta, Richard Cassilly as Tebaldo, Ezio Flagello as Cappellio, and conductor Arnold Gamson. It was the first time the opera had been performed in New York City in one hundred years, and was recorded on disc. The AOS presented the opera in concert again at Carnegie Hall in 1964 with Mary Costa as Giulietta and Simionato reprising the role of Romeo; a performance which was also recorded. La Scala staged the opera in 1967 using new designs by Emanuele Luzzati and musical forces led by Claudio Abbado. Aragall and Scotto reprised their roles in this version of the opera with the Philadelphia Lyric Opera Company at the Academy of Music in 1968. In 1977 the Dallas Opera staged the work with Marilyn Horne as Romeo and Linda Zoghby as Giulietta.

Modern day productions have been mounted fairly frequently, with 102 performances of 27 productions given in 24 cities since 1 January 2011 and forward into 2015. A San Francisco Opera production opened on 29 September 2012 featuring Nicole Cabell and Joyce DiDonato as the lovers,

On 28 September 2014, Washington Concert Opera presented a concert performance of the work with Kate Lindsey as Romeo, Nicole Cabell as Giulietta, and David Portillo as Tebaldo. The opera was also staged at the Teatro Massimo Bellini in Catania in October 2014. In 2019, I Capuleti e i Montecchi was performed at the Grimeborn Festival, Arcola Theatre, London.