Berthold Goldschmidt Beatrice Cenci opera to a libretto by Martin Esslin based on The Cenci by Percy Bysshe Shelley. Directed 2018 by Johannes Erath at the Bregenz Festival. Stars Christoph Pohl (Count Francesco Cenci), Dshamilja Kaiser (Lucrezia), Gal James (Beatrice), Christina Bock (Bernardo), Per Bach Nissen (Cardinal Camillo), Michael Laurenz (Orsino), Wolfgang Stefan Schwaiger (Marzio), Sébastien Soulès (Olimpio), and Peter Marsh (Judge). Johannes Debus conducts the Wiener Symphoniker and the Prague Philharmonic Choir (Chorus Master Lukáš Vasilek). Stage design by Katrin Connan; costume design by Katharina Tasch; lighting design by Bernd Purkrabek; dramaturgy by Olaf A. Schmitt. Directed for TV by Felix Breisach. Sung in German. Released 2019, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: NA
This was not an opera in the lake for which the Bregenz Festival is most famous. The folks at Bregenz also have a legitimate Festival opera venue indoors where they specialize in unearthing hidden opera treasures. Goldschmidt (1903-1996) was a German Jew who fled to England in 1935 and lived to age 93. He composed Beatrice Cenci shortly after WW II in a modern belcanto style, but he could never get it produced. According to Bregenz PR, this is first video of Beatrice Cenci to be made and ArkivMusic agrees.
Tim Ashley, in a Gramophone review found at pages 116-117 of the 2019 Awards Issue, generally praises this tale of dastardly deeds enabled by church and government corruption in Renaissance Rome. Anne Ozorio wrote an informative and approving review for the August 2019 Opera Today website.
Below are some still camera images made at Bregenz. These should give you some idea of the lavish style involved even if these images are not from the video. It seems that neither Bregenz Festival nor C Major has supported this title with an official YouTube clip:
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