Verdi Atilla opera to a libretto by Temistocle Solera. Directed 2016 by Daniele Abbado at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna. Stars Ildebrando D’Arcangelo (Attila), Simone Piazzola (Ezio), Maria José Siri (Odabella), Fabio Sartori (Foresto), Gianluca Floris (Uldino), and Antonio Di Matteo (Leone). Michele Mariotti conducts the Orquesta del Teatro Comunale di Bologna and the Coro del Teatro Comunale di Bologna (Chorus Master Andrea Faidutti). Set and lighting design by Gianni Carluccio; costumes by Gianni Carluccio and Daniela Cernigliaro; choreography by Simone Bucci; assistant stage direction by Boris Stetka; assistant stage design by Sebastiana Di Gesù. Directed for TV by Arnalda Canali. Sung in Italian. Released 2019, disc has 5.0 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: NA
Neil Fischer, writing in the August 2019 Gramophone at page 92, pans feckless directing in this offering as follows, “When the camera turns to conductor Michele Mariotti, you get a more spontaneous physical performance than any of those on stage.” Ouch! The clip below suggests this show isn’t quite that bad. And Clive Paget in the November 2019 Opera News at pages 58-59 shows enthusiasm for “explosive chemistry” between the D’Arcangelo as Attila and Siri as the treacherous lover Odabella as well as for “excellent sound” of the orchestra under Mariotti. Paget concludes that this Attila is “well worth exploring.”
Here’s a trailer from C Major:
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