BELLINI: “BEATRICE DI TENDA.” Mariana Nicolesco, Stefania...

BELLINI: “BEATRICE DI TENDA.” Mariana Nicolesco, Stefania Toczyska, Vincenzo La Scola, Piero Cappuccilli; Prague Philharmoic Choir; Monte Carlo Orchestra conducted by Alberto Zedda. Rizzoli 2006 (three compact discs). Newly arrived in the record business, the familiar Italian publishing firm has centered its initial releases around Nicolesco, who seemed to disappear from the American scene after an impressive debut a few years ago. The Romanian soprano lends this 1833 bel canto tragedy much of its dramatic impetus. Gifted with an instinctive skill for coloring a vocal line, impaired by a precarious treatment of high notes, she stresses Beatrice’s vulnerability rather than her heroic resolve. Romani’s libretto, which ties up its principals in an amorous rectangle, is easily dismissed, yet Cappuccilli’s frayed but idiomatic performance recalls a rosier era of great Italian baritones. Toczyska’s mushy mezzo and La Scola’s basically attractive, if overparted tenor, are of a lesser order. The strident recording unduly favors voices over orchestra.