CYRANO DE BERGERAC: OPERA

Placido Domingo (foreground) with lovers

CYRANO DE BERGERAC. Opera composed by Franco Alfano.

NOTE: Great Old Movies will occasionally post a live or taped opera review if the story has also been adapted for film or has cinematic potential.

The famous story of homely lover and swordsman Cyrano De Bergerac has been told many times in films and on the stage, and this is an operatic version composed by Franco Alfano. Alfano is best remembered as the man who finished "Turandot" after the death of Giacomo Puccini, but he also composed several operas of his own, including the notable "Risurrezione" -- probably his masterpiece -- and the more than credible "Cyrano." This outstanding-on-every-level production from Valencia stars Placido Domingo, one of the premiere artistes of the 20th and 21st centuries, as Cyrano, who is unrequitedly in love with his cousin Roxanne (Sondra Radvanovsky), who only has eyes for the handsome young soldier Christian (Arturo Chacon Cruz). The story could be described as intensely, and even masochistically, romantic, in its tale of love denied and staggering self-sacrifice, but even today there are people who mistake mere sexual attraction for true l'amour. Roxanne realizes too late that true love has to be about much more than a handsome face. Alfano's score is more lyrical than melodious for the most part, but it does have passages of great emotion and beauty. This was produced at the striking opera house and arts center in Valencia, Spain in 2007.

Verdict: This opera -- and story -- deserves a first-class mounting and it gets it here. ***1/2.