The sets are moth-eaten, the staging is fusty, the opera itself dramatically awkward. But when the Royal Opera House presents its current revival of Pier Luigi Pizzi's decades-old production of Bellini's I Capuleti e i Montecchi, no one concentrates on any of that. The opera glasses are all pointed at Anna Netrebko, the starrily glamorous Russian diva who has made the role of Giulietta one of her favourite party pieces. And it is she who has won the critical plaudits.
Even in a slump, the cogs of capitalism continue to turn. They continue to try to accommodate the market to our current needs. So today, as the air fills with fear and foreboding, it's no surprise to see Bellini or Donizetti lording it over the opera stage once more. As if the unlikely return of the Royal Opera's aged Capuleti wasn't enough, Welsh National Opera is touring a sunny 1950s-inspired take on Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore. Opera North produced its own version of Capuleti, normally a rarity, last year. And English Touring Opera is shortly to take one of the genre's undisputed masterpieces, Bellini's Norma, on the road, choosing to perform it in concert and dispense with the distraction of a plausible staging altogether.
It's not hard to see why bel canto is making such a comeback. The fantasy of the winsome diva, the suggestiveness of those sweet-scented melodies, the outlandishness of those extraordinary vocal runs. As the economic climate turns ever grimmer, the fragrant reveries of Bellini and Donizetti will become ever more attractive. Economic imperatives demand it. And bel canto should profit.
Why will the audiences be flocking in? Bel canto is all about candy for the ear and the eye. It is, in many ways, the escapist pursuit par excellence, relying on the oldest fantasy in the book: beauty. As the name implies, bel canto refers to those Italian operas written between 1805 and 1830 mainly by the likes of Rossini, Bellini and Donizetti. They put a premium on a vocal style that favoured smoothness, lightness and agility above everything else. The focus is vocal beauty over dramatic profundity. Or, as the venerable Grove Dictionary of Music puts it, on "vocalisation devoid of content".
