Premiering to great success in 1825, the Naples based composer Nicola Vaccaj's Giulietta e Romeo (Romeo and Juliet) enjoyed a brief period of being actively performed before fading from active repertoire at least in its entirety, arguably being overtaken by the better known Vicenzo Bellini's version. Interestingly enough, Bellini's score was based on a modified version of teh same libretto used by Vaccaj but Bellini's greater public profile ensured that it would be his version that would become known. Oddly, as the years went by Vaccaj's version never left the memory of the best singers and a mongrelized verssion that borrowed from his score was added to Bellini's version, something that would otherwise happen rarely. This 1996 live concert performance recording that resurrects the entire intact version of Vaccaj's opera.
