Vincenzo Bellini’s La Straniera
There are two live recordings of the opera with Renata Scotto, one from Palermo in 1968 and the other, much preferred here, from Venice in 1970. One finds Scotto on firmer vocal ground in the latter hitting most of the High Cs and Ds head on that are scattered throughout the score. This vocal security allows her to give a fully realized interpretation of the heroine’s emotional turmoil in a role filled with dramatic declamation and touching arioso, two musical characteristics that Scotto was always able to fully project.
For a concise view of the tangled, somtimes bewildering libretto see John Rosselli’s The Life of Bellini in the Musical Lives series from Cambridge University Press. The performance is on Opera d’Oro OPD1261 2CDs.
