It's hard to imagine a video opera collection without this superbly sung MET production of Bellini's I Puritani. Not that it's perfect by any means, but its excellences--most especially Anna Netrebko's electrifying singing and acting of Elvira--banish carping about other aspects of this memorable night at the opera. Netrebko is fragile from the start, her facial expressions and hand movements immediately conveying the girl's vulnerability. She has a mad scene in each act; the first when she realizes her fiancé has disappeared with another woman, the third, in the final act, a brief relapse when her returned fiancé is taken by the army to be executed. But it's in the second act that the real fireworks occur, with a Mad Scene that rivals Donizetti's Lucia for bel canto primacy. Here, Elvira is first heard off-stage, after the chorus has informed us that she's deranged. She enters wearing her wedding gown and begins Qui la voce in a voice as frail as her psyche.

La soprano Anna Netrebko a pris d'assaut New York lorsqu'elle a interprété le rôle de la fragile jeune fille puritaine Elvira. Son interprétation audacieuse de la célèbre scène folle de l'héroïne lui a valu des ovations enthousiastes de la part des maisons à guichets fermés nuit après nuit. Débordant d'airs et d'ensembles ravissants, ce joyau du bel canto met également en vedette Eric Cutler dans le rôle d'Arturo, l'amour d'Elvira, Franco Vassallo dans le rôle de son prétendant Riccardo et John Relyea dans celui de son oncle Giorgio.