LA GIOCONDA ~ Barcelona 1978

Above: Ángeles Gulín as Gioconda and Montserrat Aparici as Cieca

A slam-bang performance of one of my favorite Italian operas, LA GIOCONDA, from the Liceu, Barcelona, in 1978. The singers simply go at it.

Watch and listen here.

Gioconda: Ángeles Gulín; Laura: Bruna Baglioni; Cieca: Montserrat Aparici;  Enzo: Nunzio Todesco; Barnaba: Sabin Markov; Alvise: Ivo Vinco.

I only heard Ángeles Gulín live once: she sang Valentine in HUGUENOTS at Carnegie Hall in 1969; Beverly Sills was Marguerite de Valois and Tony Poncet was Raoul. Ms. Gulín had an enormous voice and she used it unsparingly.

This GIOCONDA has the right knives-out, heart-on-sleeve passion. It’s that kind of all-or-nothing opera. As Gioconda sings of her love for Enzo in Act I: “My destiny is this: to love him, or to die!”

~ Oberon