This Blu-ray Disc is only playable on Blu-ray Disc players and not compatible with standard DVD players.

Also available on standard DVD

Enrico di Borgogna is a melodramma per musica that was premiered in Venice in 1818, marking Donizetti’s stage debut. The plot of this rare opera follows a rather traditional scheme: Enrico wants to defeat the son of the villain who usurped his father’s throne and is about to marry his beloved Elisa. Fortunately, he succeeds in stopping the marriage and regaining his inheritance. This release is a world premiere video recording of the 2018 Donizetti Opera festival performance, which received great reviews for its brilliant staging. Director Silvia Paoli uses a “theatre within the theatre” approach which gives way to moments of sheer humor and amusement: as the curtain opens, the public is brought back to the time of the opera premiere. Played on period instruments by Academia Montis Regalis and conducted by repertoire specialist Alessandro De Marchi, this opera features two prima donnas like Sonia Ganassi and Anna Bonitatibus in the main roles. Extra content: interviews with Conductor Alessandro De Marchi, Sonia Ganassi and Anna Bonitatibus. “This was…a genuinely funny presentation, which had the audience laughing out loud. Everything was treated as a source of fun, from the narrative, and its mix of characters through the theatrical conventions of the time, even poking fun at the singers themselves. It was all staged in a blaze of color, fast-moving action, fabulous costumes and cleverly managed extraneous silliness.” (Operawire) [Anna Bonitatibus] displayed a burnished, deep timbre, sparkling coloratura and wonderful phrasing, confirming her status as the most interesting mezzo of her generation.” (Bachtrack.com) “Sonia Ganassi…has a strong, dynamically versatile and flexible voice which she is able to manage intelligently and with skill. . “(Operawire)

-----

REVIEW:

A love story with the usual intrigues is at center of the plot of Donizetti’s rediscovered opera Enrico di Borgogna. A lively staging, tight tempi as well as glowing colors from the orchestra, a very good choir and good soloists make this a valuable production.

– Pizzicato

This Blu-ray Disc is only playable on Blu-ray Disc players and not compatible with standard DVD players.

Also available on standard DVD

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)

Since its foundation in 2013, the Berliner Operngruppe has made a name for itself with Berlin premieres such as Donizetti's Deux Hommes et une Femme and Betly and other operatic rarities. This album is a recording of the world premiere of Donizetti's opera Dalinda from the Konzerthaus Berlin on 14 May 2023, the opera that emerged from the censorship and plagiarism confusion surrounding Lucrezia Borgia, but which did not withstand the censorship either and disappeared unperformed until it was found a few years ago by the musicologist Eleonora Di Cintio.

Donizetti: L'elisir D'Amore Roberto Alagna (Artist, Performer), Gaetano Donizetti (Composer), Marcello Viotti (Conductor), English Chamber Orchestra (Orchestra), Mariella Devia (Performer), Pietro Spagnoli (Performer), Bruno Pratic� (Performer), Francesca Provvisionato (Performer), Tallis Chamber Choir (Performer) It's hard to believe that this recording of Elisir D'Amore is exactly twenty years old. It was the first major recording of Roberto Alagna, and it features a soprano too little known outside of Europe, Mariella Devia. Devia had a twenty year career behind her when she made this recording; she was 45, while Alagna, at 30, was only five years out from winning the Pavarotti competition. Not surprisingly, Alagna is still active today (2012); amazingly, so is Devia, and singing, by all reports, very well. Her only competition as Adina on record is Ileana Cotrubas, who recorded the role with Domingo and Pritchard in the 1970's. Sutherland recorded the role too, of course, with Pavarotti, but her singing and acting aren't as pointed as Devia's. All of these Elisirs are worth hearing, but this one is the one I keep coming back to. Marcello Viotti conducts with great feeling for the pace of the scenes, the sound quality of the recording is excellent, the ensembles aren't cramped, and the supporting singers - mainly the light-voiced basses Spagnoli and Pratico are perfect for the kind of patter this comedy requires.

This 1999 recording of Marcello Viotti conducting La Favorite is the most recent of the reissued sets from Sony. This four act grand opera by Donizetti is based on the play Le comte de Comminges by Bacular d’Arnaud. The work which premiered in 1840 at the Academie Royale de Musique in Paris has a French libretto by Alphonse Royer and Gustave Vaez. Ramon Vargas is a featured soloist, who has long been praised for his fluent, stylish arias. He meets the high range of these pieces with virtuosity. “(Marcello Viotti) gets the long lines of Donizetti’s melodies just right and holds the big ensembles together well. His Munich forces play and sing handsomely…” (ClassicsToday.com)

To celebrate the 225th anniversary of Gaetano Donizetti's birth, Opera Rara has restored L'esule di Roma (1828), an opera which is considered a milestone in the composer's illustrious career. Set in Imperial Rome, L'esule di Roma is filled with political conspiracy, romantic intrigue and great sacrifice. Vocal fireworks flies in this opera, punctuating remarkable ensembles and touching arias. Carlo Rizzi, Opera Rara's Artistic Director, leads a star cast with soprano Albina Shagimuratova, The Times' "new queen of bel canto", Nicola Alaimo in one of Donizetti's finest roles for bass-baritone, and tenor Sergey Romanovsky in the title role.

Donizetti: Lucia di Lammermoor (1956)

La Favorita is, among Donizetti's operas, the most difficult in terms of reference editions. In fact, besides the original French version, there are several chances also in Italian. This high quality edition from 1955 is one fo the best recordings to date. Beyond the magical detail in the recording, this is one of the most beautiful discographic edition for its vocal and interpretative cast. Raimondi is here, caught in its best period - the voice color and the ability to involve the mezzo-soprano Fedora Barbieri, the only one, before Cossotto to play the role of Leonora, Carlo Tagliabue, the legendary baritone of the thirties and finally the presence of Giuio Neric, a deep bass quite unusual in the panorama of those years. All of these details make this version of Favorita a reference recording with an already small reference discography.

Ekaterina Siurina, Peter Auty, Alfredo Daza, Luciano Di Pasquale, and Eliana Pretorian star in this Glyndebourne production of the Donizetti opera with Maurizio Benini conducting the London Philharmonic.

•This 2013 Royal Opera House staging of Gaetano Donizetti's Don Pasquale stars the great Italian baritone Alessandro Corbelli in title role, with Danielle de Niese as his reluctant wife. The London Philharmonic Chorus and Orchestra is led by bel canto specialist Enrique Mazzola. Mariame Clément’s sensitive and perceptive production was hailed by theFinancial Times as ‘classic’. Bonus features include Behind The Curtain, Ms. de Niese introduction, Staging the Opera and cast gallery.

Ekaterina Siurina, Peter Auty, Alfredo Daza, Luciano Di Pasquale, and Eliana Pretorian star in this Glyndebourne production of the Donizetti opera with Maurizio Benini conducting the London Philharmonic.

ETERNAL CABALLE

Classical Music

A sinister sense of doom pervades Maria de Rudenz from beginning to end. Nearly all of it is in minor keys, (associated with pain, sadness, fear and tragedy), tremolos in the strings and diminished sevenths (indicating nervousness and twists in the plot) occur on several occasions and the dark, gloom-laden orchestration featuring cellos, bassoons, horns, trombones and timpani is intended to raise anxiety. Yet there are also standard march rhythms, jubilant choruses, wedding hymns and festive dances. The score follows a pattern similar to Donizetti's other works in the opera seria genre: sentiments are expressed with a cavatina or a cabaletta and duets taken at breakneck speed contrast with grandiose concertato numbers with melody lines even catchier than in the composer's other works, perhaps in an unconscious effort to offset the shocking subject matter. Performed by the Orchestra and Chorus of the Bergamo Music Festival along with an exceptional cast of soloists, this production is one of the finer Maria de Rudenz albums on the market.

Donizetti's L'aio nell'imbarazzo ('The Embarrassed Tutor') is a melodramma giocoso in two acts, premiered to considerable acclaim in 1824. It's subject is the belated attempt by the elderly Marquis Giulio to keep his sons innocent of the ways of world and the comedy of errors that result. Two years later Donizetti drastically revised the opera, which duly appeared under the title Don Gregorio. This production uses the critical edition and restores the work, as far as possible, to Donizetti's original conception - including excised arias, and emphasising the composer's sparkling orchestration.