The very best of bel canto

The fact that English National Opera chose Bellini's I Capuleti e i Montecchi for concert performance in its Home_Away season might suggest to some that it's a work undeserving of a proper staging. Not so.

The composer, working to Felice Romani's libretto (which ignores Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet entirely), offers a spontaneous, moving drama, drawing convincing characters and creating atmospheres and tensions with guile and abundant inventiveness, even while accommodating the rigid operatic conventions of the day.

Given such quality, it would have been a pity had the singers simply "stood and delivered". Happily they did not, save at the only appropriate moment - the powerful Act One finale, where time stops and each character retreats into his or her own world, simultaneously voicing his or her own thoughts. Otherwise, despite the absence of any named director, they acted with naturalistic flair, giving lie to the theory that such opera is only about the singing.

That said, the singing was indeed excellent, and particularly that of the principles, the experienced mezzo Sarah Connolly as Romeo (it's a breeches role) and the young soprano Dina Kuznetsova as Giulietta. Both artists seemed utterly at ease with the tough technical demands of Bellini's ornate, elegant lines.

Both voices, Conolly's rich and full, Kuznetsova's shining and bright, conveyed some glorious colours. The power of their death scene was surely as touching as it would have been in any fully staged production. Tenor Rhys Meirion was a thrusting, headstrong Tebaldo (Shakespeare's Tybalt) while basses Graeme Danby, as Lorenzo, and Brindley Sherratt, as Capellio, made their own considerable marks.

Curiously, ENO had never before secured the services of veteran Australian conductor Richard Bonynge, doyen of the bel canto repertoire. His knowledge of and affection for the piece was clear, and despite one or two moments of shoddy ensemble early on he shaped the work beautifully, gaining some delicate sounds from the ENO Orchestra and sturdy contributions from the ENO Chorus.