Bellini: La Straniera

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Edita Gruberova, the "prima donna assoluta of belcanto" is the star of this new production of Vincenzo Bellini’s La Straniera. Bellini is regarded as the creator of romantic Italian opera in its manifestation as “melodramma tragico”. Librettist Felice Romani can be awarded credit for this too, since his language showed the new style of expression for the passionately enhanced feelings of the characters in his tragic material. Bellini’s long spun-out cantilenas for these texts reached an intensity of elegiac expression previously unknown. Since 2012 the opera has been performed many times with Edita Gruberova in the title role. These have been not only a welcome extension to this singer’s repertoire, Ms Gruberova having celebrated an unbelievable 45th anniversary of her stage debut in 2013, but also a long overdue fostering of Bellini’s oeuvre.