Col sorriso d'innocenza

Imogene is, IMO, one of Callas's great roles, up there with Norma, Violetta and Medea. By the time she did this 1959 recording -- live in concert -- her voice could no longer do justice to the more stratospheric regions of the role. But the intensity and commitment of her performance are evident, as is her understanding of the desperation and madness in Bellini's creation.

Donizetti is said to have been affected by Bellini's treatment of madness in his composition of another bel canto masterpiece, Lucia di Lammermoor; but whereas Lucia's madness haunts us with the crepuscular virtuosity of the mad scene, Imogene's grips us by the throat. There is no greater manipulator of the voice than Bellini, and no better exponent of Bellini's music than Maria Callas.
Her visualization of the entire situation through the long introduction (not shown here) is a lesson all actors should be made to watch. Its extraordinary.

IL PIRATA (The Pirate) is an opera in two acts by Vincenzo Bellini to an Italian libretto by Felice Romani. It premiered at La Scala on October 27, 1827.

Sicily. 13th century. Final scene. Gualtiero has killed Ernesto, Duke of Caldora. He gives himself up to justice, and prays that Imogene may forgive him. She appears in a state of anguish and sees visions of her dead husband and her son ("Col sorriso d'innocenza"). Meanwhile, the Council of Knights has condemned Gualtiero to death...

-------------------------------------

Pasculli, Omaggio a Bellini su corno inglese:
-------------------------------------