CASA RICORDI IN COLLABORATION WITH AND WITH THE CONTRIBUTION OF TEATRO MASSIMO V. BELLINI OF CATANIA

Piano/Vocal reduction based on the critical edition by Claudio Toscani. Recent intense efforts in historical and critical research dedicated to Italian music in the last few decades of the 1800s, where Vincenzo Bellini is a key figure, has demanded a modern, reliable edition of the opera omnia of this Catania-born composer. This critical edition of the works of Vincenzo Bellini completes our series of major critical editions dedicated to the “big four” of the Italian repertoire of the 19th Century, joining the already published editions of the works of Rossini, Donizetti and Verdi. Extremely popular until the 1870s, Bellini’s opera I Capuleti e i Montecchi paid for its success with arbitrary re-workings, that ended up by obscuring Bellini's original intentions, starting with the instrumentation that was far heavier in the traditional version than in Bellini's original light, transparent score. In addition to correcting the errors introduced over the years - some resulting in trivialising due to “routine” - this new edition restores the original agogics, dynamics and expression marks. What's more, it lets performers reintroduce sections that are traditionally cut, but never authorised by the composer.