Portrait Edita Gruberova – The Art of Belcanto

Edita Gruberova turned the bel canto style – as exemplified primarily by the early 19th-century operas of Bellini and Donizetti – into her own, unmistakable specialty. But what is the nature of bel canto? What is the secret of her vocal gift? These are a couple of the questions the film addresses. In addition to rehearsal excerpts from ‘Lucrezia Borgia,’ the film shows Gruberova in the title role of ‘Norma’ and as Elisabetta in ‘Roberto Devereux’. Archival recordings allow us to admire her in ‘Rigoletto’ with Luciano Pavarotti, the legendary ‘Ariadne auf Naxos’ under Karl Böhm, and Jean-Pierre Ponnelle’s film adaptation of ‘Così fan tutte’ under Nikolaus Harnoncourt.