Edgar

Giacomo Puccini's undistinguished 1889 second opera is also decidedly uncharacteristic—an old-fashioned, clumsily structured Middle Ages-set romantic melodrama about a knight loved by two women—one a virtuous paragon, the other a wild temptress, aptly named Fidelia and Tigrana, respectively. If it were blessed with a stellar cast, imaginative staging, a major conductor and a great orchestra, Edgar might have made a stronger impression, but for this 2004 mounting the singing is at best workmanlike, with Halla Margret falling below even that standard, displaying a coarse voice and wobbly vibrato in the role of Tigrana (coming across as a pale copy of Carmen). The music by the Orchestra Filarmonica Mediterranea is no more than adequate, despite the fact that Tamas Pal's conducting shows signs of vivacity, and the staging, credited to Enrico Castiglione for the Festival Euro Mediterraneo and mounted at the villa of the Emperor Hadrian at Tivoli, is small-scaled, lacking in grandeur. It's unlikely that this Edgar—presented in Dolby Digital stereo—will be followed by too many other performances on DVD anytime soon (even audio recordings are fairly sparse), so devotees of the composer may welcome the opportunity to investigate a work rarely seen or heard. But aside from completists, this is not a necessary purchase. [Note: Puccini's Le Villi is also newly available.] Aud: C, P. (F. Swietek)