UMBERTO GIORDANO Giuseppe Altomore; Fabio Andreotti; Patrizia Cigna; Francesco Facini; Maria Scogna; Coro Lirico "Umberto Giordano di Foggia"; Orchestra Sinfonica di Capitanata/Gianna Fratta; Live: Teatro Umberto Giorano di Foggia, January 2006; NTSC All Region; Stereo; DD 5.1 UMBERTO GIORDANO: Il Re.

Classical Music

The CD is dedicated to the figure of Florentine Francesco Landini, composer, organist, poet, cantor and organ-maker. He was teh greatest representative of the musical style known as Ars nova, born in France in the first half of the XIV century and thence propagated throughout central and northern Italy, especially Milan, Verona and Florence. All the pieces in the program are contrafacta, that is they have a sacred text different from the original secular one. Such a technique of substitution is very old and was used from the XII century on. While listening to the varied pieces of the CD we may immerse our fantasy into the atmosphere of medieval Florence, where ideally a minstrel begins to pal in the street, almost improvising, while inside an oratorio some learned musicians are singing an abstract and quite sophisticated song.

Classical Music

Live stage recordings: 1955 - 1958.

Classical Music

ARTISTS: Cast: Gregory Kunde, Paoletta Marrocu, Simone Del Savio, Andrea Papi. Orchestra e Coro del Bergamo Musica Festival Gaetano Donizetti, Marcello Rota, conductor.

Notes in Italian, English, Japanese
Subtitles in Italian, English
Disc Format: DVD
Picture Format: 16:9, NTSC
Region Code: 0 (All Region)
Sound Format: Stereo PCM, Dolby Digital 5.1
Running Time: 120 Minutes

Recorded live at the Teatro Donizetti, Bergamo, 9/2010

Classical Music

In its original form, Maria di Rohan was without doubt the most audacious result – pre-Verdi – of aesthetic transformation beyond the courtly dramas of “long Italian classicism”. The opera’s intrigue develops like an unstoppable machine: the fatal triangle formed by Maria, Chalais and Chevreuse being the work of Richelieu’s absolute power (despite never appearing on stage). Like trapped animals, the characters hopelessly search for a way out, and they devour each other in turn. Recorded at the Bergamo Donizetti Festival, October 2011, this is the first DVD release of Donizetti’s 1843 opera.

Classical Music

GAETANO DONIZETTI. DONATA D'ANNUNZIO LOMBARDI; ENRICO MARABELLI; PAOLO BORDOGNA; STEFANIA DONZELLI; ANNA CATERINA CORNACCHINI; DANILO FORMAGGIA; DOMENICO COLAIANNI; ANTONIA MARANI; DANIELLE GIROMETTI; FERUCCIO FINETTI; VITO CLEMENTE,DIRETTORE E MAESTRO CONCERTATORE; ORCHESRTA SI LE CONVENIENZE ED INCONVENIENZE TEATRALI.Â?

A succinct profile of Gaetano Donizetti’s Il Paria might be summed up thusly: a melodramma (according to the libretto) whose dramatic lines are sure, decisive, unique and original. Within an exotic context, it portrays a tale whose elements are social, religious, humanitarian and psychologically transparent, and it brings this tale to a rapid and baneful end. Cast members Patrizia Cigna and Filippo Castiglioni joined Marco Berdondini and the Pro Arte Marche in this 2001 Italian live recording.

The Furioso all’isola di San Domingo is a perfect vehicle for a Donizettian commentary on the anguish of despair, irresolution and heartbreak with a leavening of self-awareness that is both amused and cathartic. It is no coincidence that the plot derives from Cervantes. Poor Cardenio is to suffer, but never so much as when - as a result of a suitable storm sequence - his unfaithful Eleonora is washed up in 6/8 on the beach. Is this really an opera semi-seria? The printed libretto declares it to be an opera seria in due atti but tradition has allotted the lesstaxing description mostly on behalf of the buffo bass, the black slave Kaidamà of the trenchant wit who is the opera’s star turn. Donizetti offers us a double irony: his slave is the one character liberated from emotional excess, and his comments are the one serious element of this comédie humaine. As a genre opera semi-seria had been expiring quietly when Donizetti wrote Il furioso. The essential Italianità of an opera with something-for-everyone was in decline. Even so the choice of a plot demanding all the virtues and vices, volatile, haphazard, inconsequential - only half-serious (what anathema this must have unleashed oltralpe) proved irresistible to a composer longing to abandon predictability. In this opera we are at the matrix of Donizetti’s attitude to genres. “Comic” and “Tragic” are not necessarily contradictory forces. It would be relatively easy to confirm that each and every one of his opere serie, however dark and imposing, contains at least one wry joke - at least one leavening allusion to the inherent comedy that underpins all our destinies, while each and every one of his opere buffe that keeps its head above farse has its moment of sober reflection.

Video Format: DVD 9
Picture format: NTSC 16:9
Subtitles: Italian, English
Running Time: 153 Minutes
Region Code: 0
Sound Format: Stereo PCM

DONIZETTI Gianni di Parigi • Giacomo Sagripanti, cond; Ekaterina Lekhina ( Princess of Navarra ); Edgardo Rocha ( Gianni ); Roberto de Candia ( Grand Sénéchal ); Slovak Ch of Bratislava; O Internazionale d’Italia • BONGIOVANNI 20025 (DVD: 110:05 Text and Translation) Live: Palazzo Ducale, Martina Franca 7/2010


One can take note of certain amateurish aspects of Bongiovanni’s production. The camera occasionally lurches to find a singer who moved on stage. The English titles are clumsily translated, as are the excellent notes in the accompanying booklet. The microphones placed on the front of the stage do not always pick up singers well as they move upstage. The number of cameras used would appear to be minimal, so there is little variety to the kinds of shots we get.


Despite those shortcomings, this is a delight, and should be of interest to anyone interested in the bel canto period of opera. Gianni di Parigi is not one of Donizetti’s masterpieces, but neither is it one of his weakest scores. It is an intriguing combination of Rossinian comedy (particularly in the first act) and Donizetti’s own brand of long-lined lyricism (mainly in the second). The writing is always tuneful, often inspired, and occasionally original. The opera is filled with arias, duets, and ensembles that impress themselves into your mind and stay in the memory.


The story is a piece of fluff. Gianni is the heir to the throne of France, and is committed to marry the Princess of Navarra, but he wants to get to know her and see if he likes her. The Princess is herself due to arrive at an inn where she has reserved rooms and the kitchen, but Gianni, pretending to be a rich but oafish “Signor Burghese,” offers the innkeeper enough money to take the inn over, and then invites the Princess to dine with him. She suspects that this might be the Prince, but plays along. There are a number of comic situations involving the innkeeper and his daughter, and the Senechal who accompanies the Princess as well as Gianni’s page, but all ends happily (including the page pairing off with the innkeeper’s daughter).


Much of the success of this release is the performance. Gianni was written for the greatest stars of the day: The demanding tenor title role was composed for the great Rubini, who sang the premiere. The Uruguayan tenor Edgardo Rocha is a name new to me, but I will seek out other performances. He studied some with Rockwell Blake, and has a bit of Blake’s hardness of sound at full volume, but only a bit. Rocha’s ability to sing softly and gently, with a remarkably sweet tone, is extremely appealing, as are his ringing high notes (up to D) and his agility in florid passages. Although he kindly lets the final bow at the curtain calls go to the soprano lead, in fact I think it is as a tenor vehicle that this opera makes its strongest mark.


The Princess is a typical Donizetti soprano role, with long-breathed lyric lines combined with coloratura fireworks. Ekaterina Lekhina sings it very well. Her eastern sound is not what we normally associate with this music, and she lacks the flair of Rocha, but her singing is lovely and accurate and she has a winning stage personality. The duet for the two of them near the opera’s end, “Nulla di più perfetto … questo mortal beato” is top-drawer Donizetti, and the two sing it wonderfully. Roberto de Candia’s voice is a bit grainy, but his singing is solid and he inhabits the buffo role of the Grand Sénéchal completely.


The rest of the cast is very good. There may not be a jaw-droppingly sensational standout like the tenor, but all sing attractively and all are clearly having fun with the opera and the production. That production is simple and traditional; the entire opera takes place at the inn, attractively presented, with costumes that seem to come from the 1950s (but are consistent throughout and not at all ill-suited to the opera). The orchestra is a touch scrappy, but the musicians know the style and Sagripanti keeps things moving without ever losing suppleness in his phrasing. As indicated in the opening of this review, the production values are fairly shoddy, and there are no extras on the DVD, but that should not deter you from exploring this. I expect to return to Gianni often.


FANFARE: Henry Fogel