BENIAMINO GIGLI - DONIZETTI, P

From Mozart to Bernstein is an eclectic repertoire and there is no obvious reason why Jerry Hadley should not add to his tally of lyric nineteenthcentury operatic roles as well. In fact, the title of this recital disc -The Age of Bel Canto" - is interpreted fairly loosely, stretching as far as the 1880s to take in Delibes's Lakme and across the Channel for a couple of Victorian ballad operas by Balfe. One senses a guiding hand at work here. Hadley may enjoy singing these various styles, but it cannot be a coincidence that Richard Bonynge is on hand as conductor.

The mood is lyrical and plangent throughout. Among his Italian operas Hadley ventures one 1 energetic aria by Rossini, which he delivers without much bravura or note-by-note precision. For the rest he prefers the gentler lyricism of Donizetti, shaping the music sensitively, sometimes delicately, and with a generous helping -some might say a surfeit - of Anglo-Saxon good taste. This is the territory that Tito Schipa used to occupy, bringing to it more verbal point and emotional intensity than is found here. Hadley sounds more at home in the less demanding items, the two Balfe solos naturally, but also the Flotow and the Thomas, which he sings with unexaggerated charm.

The main pleasure of the disc lies in catching up with some relatively rare excerpts from the French repertoire. As Hadley sings it in French, Donizetti's "Seul sur la terre" from Dom Sebastien might be included in that category. There is also a typically winning solo from Planquette's Les cloches de Corneville and, above all, Gerald's sensuous aria from Lakme, wallowing in lush orchestral textures which Bonynge and the recording engineers give their head. Hadley is generally in good voice, offering a number of full-throated top Cs and once or twice venturing higher in an effective falsetto. His tenor has the measure of this versatile programme, even if the personality is sometimes wanting. Unfortunately, the booklet has no texts, only very skimpy synopses of the plots.

-- Gramophone [1/1996]

Classical Music

Donizetti: Il duca d' Alba (Sung in Italian) [Live]

Donizetti: Lucia di Lammermoor (1956)

As if in answer to last month’s Singertalk, a major company issues a recital by this admirable tenor – and not before time. It is eight years since his debut recital was recorded on Claves (11/92), and despite his notable successes in the world’s leading opera houses (not to mention a warm recommendation in these columns) this long and precious span of youth in a tenor’s career has been allowed to pass without another recital as follow-up. Happily the voice as recorded has changed little, the fresh bloom of 1991 being only slightly affected by its steady but judicious usage, which in turn has brought experience and authority.

The earlier disc confined itself to Rossini and Donizetti, while the new one has a wider scope and includes at least one surprise in Lensky’s aria from Eugene Onegin, sung in Russian. The performance is a good one but, though a welcome extension, it suggests a limitation that is felt in some degree when he sings in Italian too. He has not yet the art of infusing the voice with emotions: he can express but not quite ‘be’. Still, his gifts and achievements are real enough. The voice is a clear, unforced lyric tenor, singing, in this programme, exactly what is right for it. Flexible and capable of softness, it is put scrupulously to the service of the music, guided by a well-schooled feeling for phrase and carry-over (for instance, in the lovely ‘linkage’ of the reprise in ‘Angelo casto e bel’). His French is good, and the Dream Song from Manon is a particularly skilled and tasteful piece of singing. To Roberto Devereux’s cabaletta and in declamatory recitative he brings spirit and energy without bluster, and the aria from Un ballo in maschera shows something of what may lie in him for the future, both in expressive capability and in the voice itself.

He is working here with the same conductor as in the still-available and recommended recital on Claves. The orchestra is different, with playing less refined than that of the English Chamber Orchestra, but still alert and responsive. The recorded sound is slightly more reverberant but clear and well balanced.

-- Gramophone

Also available on Blu-ray

Recorded during the 2018 Donizetti Festival, Il Castello di Kenilworth was first staged at Naples’ San Carlo in 1829. Drawn from a novel by Sir Walter Scott and adapted by librettist Leone Tottola, this rare opera was unjustly long neglected. This recording features the original version, with the role of Warney entrusted to a tenor (which the composer changed into a baritone in the 1836 revision of the score).Il Castello di Kenilworth is the first of the several successful works to follow that Donizetti based on British history, introducing the character of Queen Elizabeth I, torn by the inner struggle between a monarch’s duty and a woman’s feelings. The fundamental pivot of the drama is the antagonism between the two female characters who both dwell and suffer in their loneliness, in a male-dominated world. The performance received excellent reviews, praising the richness of the costumes, the sobriety of the stage setting, and, mostly, the vocal and acting skills of the whole cast, which features first-rate singers like opera stars Jessica Pratt and Carmela Remigio, who share the stage with talented tenors Stefan Pop and emerging talent Xabier Anduaga “A first-class cast, with an imaginative production team, under the musical direction of Riccardo Frizza, have been assembled, and it is not an exaggeration to say that together they have produced a compelling case for “Il Castello di Kenilworth” to be given further consideration. […] It was musically engaging, full of bel canto charm, with some wonderful melodies, and notwithstanding its formulaic format, was dramatically convincingly. (Alan Neilson – Operawire)

This sparkling opera buffa is a premiere from the 2016 Donizetti Festival of Bergamo, with the part of Pasquale in Neapolitan dialect. It is the story of two rich merchant brothers from Lisbon, who are used to weighing everything against their barganing power. Also the marriage of Pasquale's niece Isabella is a "bargain" to them: she must marry another merchant, so as not to break with family tradition. The gags among the various characters are hilarious - especially those between the two brothers, who have competely different characters - creating an almost surreal atmosphere. Olivo, interpreted by Bruno Taddia, is teh real protagonist: as Isabella's father, he portrays a gruff, inflexible man, and does so with self-assurance and ease but never over the top. No less convincing is Filippo Morace as his brother Pasquale: istrionic and exhilarating as a na ctor, musically precise, and excellent in his Neapolitan dialect performance. Laurea Giordano, also thanks to her physique du role, is perfect as Isabella, the heartbroken girl torn between love for the young Camillo and obedience towards her grouchy father.

Donizetti, G.: Lucia Di Lammermoor [Opera]

Lesser known than Mozart and Verdi's Requiem, Donizetti's Messa di Requiem in D minor for the death of Vincenzo Bellini is infused with a deeply felt spirituality, that reveals the feelings of sincere admiration and friendship that he had towards the Sicilian composer, who died prematurely in 1835 in France, where the two were in tour with old and new operas rearranged for the local audience. Unfortunately Donizetti himself did not live long enough to hear his work performed, and the Messa was to be premiered only in 1870 in Bergamo, in the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore, where Donizetti is now buried. This release was recorded in that same location and the whole cast received very positive reviews, especially tenor Juan Francisco Gatell that sung the famous Ingemisco aria with an excellent use of mezzevoci and coloratura.

Donizetti: Don Gregorio, L'elisir D'amore / Bordogna, Trucco, Valerio, Benetta, Hernandez, Donizetti / Valerio, Composer: Gaetano Donizetti, Performer: Giorgio Valerio, Livio Scarpellini, Elizaveta Martirosyan, Paolo Bordogna, Conductor: Stefano Montanari, Alessandro de Marchi, Orchestra/Ensemble: Bergamo Musica Festival Orchestra, Bergamo Musica Festival Chorus, Number of Discs: 4. A double-bill of Donizetti operas recorded at the Bergamo Music Festival in 2007. Director Roberto Recchia sets 'Don Gregorio' in the 1920s, a time which mirrors in many ways the political and social conditions prevailing when the piece was originally written. Spoken dialogues in the Neapolitan dialect are used in place of the recitatives, but Donizetti's music remains unchanged. The characters in this comic opera are inspired by the Italian Commedia dell'Arte. In 'L'elisir d'amore', conductor Alessandro de Marchi allows the comedic aspects of the work to be exploited fully by the cast, which includes Silvia Dalla Benetta, Raul Hernandez and Alex Esposito.

If Mosè is Rossini uncharacteristically serious, Don Pasquale is Donizetti almost as uncharacteristically comic. But the opera is a charmer, and while this performance is frisky and well sung, it is almost defiantly unidiomatic with its German, Mexican and Russian principals.

-- John Rockwell, The New York Times [5/16/1982]

Rost comes with good credentials; she has already won her spurs at the Vienna State Opera, La Scala and Covent Garden as, variously, Lucia, Gilda and Violetta, all represented on this disc. She sings here with a consistent sense of line, considered phrasing, and musicality – perhaps under Mackerras’s influence, she opts for both verses of Violetta’s arias. I like the way in the second verse of “Ah! fors e lui” she takes the word “dolcissimo” in a suitably dolce tone and, in the recitative before “Addio del passato” goes up to the E at the end of the phrase “ogni speranza e morta” with proper delicacy and feeling. Her singing throughout is filled with that kind of intelligence. There’s also vocal agility of a youthfully engaging kind, not least in Norina’s credo... Mackerras provides just the sympathetic, experienced support a young singer needs. The recording is true and well-balanced.

-- Gramophone [1/1998]

Classical Music

Donizetti: La favorita (Live)