Boito: Mefistofele (bluray)

Abdrazakov; Racette; Vargas; Racette; Luisotti

Composed by: Boito, Arrigo

Mefistofele is Italian composer Arrigo Boito’s (1842-1918) only successfully completed opera. Although never completely finding a home in the repertoire of the world’s opera houses, it is often revived in these same houses and received with affection as it contains a great deal of lovely music and the subject is endlessly fascinating. Boito’s fame rests firmly in the fact that he wrote the libretti for two of Verdi’s finest operatic efforts, Otello and Falstaff, Ponchielli’s La Gioconda, and, of course, his own and sole operatic work. This San Francisco Opera production of Mefistofele includes Ramón Vargas, a tenor "in ravishing voice" (Financial Times), as the philosopher who sells his soul to the Devil; the "luminous, compelling" Patricia Racette (Washington Post) as the woman he desires; and, in the vividly menacing title role, the "seductively malevolent" bass-baritone Ildar Abdrazakov, a "full-bodied bass-baritone" renowned for his "wonderfully evil portrayals" (The New York Times) Italian maestro Nicola Luisotti conducts the SF Opera Orchestra.

Price: $53.98