Gaetano Donizetti's comic opera L'aio nell'imbarazzo or A Tutor in a Jam! Was greeted with wild enthusiasm at it's Rome premiere in 1824 and became one of the composer's first great successes both in Italy and abroad. Modeled on operas by Rossini but already displaying the psychological depths of Donizetti's mature work, this is a narrative in which, shielded from female company, the overprotected sons of a strict Marquis are entrusted to their tutor, Don Gregorio. Of course, everything unravels into emotional chaos in the best opera buffa tradition, with it's universal themes of romance and social politics colorfully set in 2042.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

"•The particularity of this edition of Donizetti’s masterpiece is in its reconstruction of the 1845 Saint Petersburg version. Along with some key transpositions, this 2010 performance presents the alternative finale adopted at the same time. • Bass-baritone Lorenzo Regazzo is an acclaimed “bel canto” and “coloratura” singer and renowned Mozart and Rossini interpreter. Giovanni Battista Rigon is considered “one of the best Rossini conductors...spirited...never tiring” (Il Corriere della Sera)."

Donizetti’s opera Parisina is a tragedia lirica in three acts with libretto by Felice Romani. The work is based on Lord Byron’s poem of the same name, written in 1816. The work was well received at its premiere in Florence in 1833, then gained more notoriety a decade later when it was referenced in Alexandre Dumas’ novel The Count of Monte Cristo. Mariella Devia sings the title role in this performance. Both the public and critics alike have noted this role among the other bel canto roles she has sung in her career. This production was recorded live on May 20, 1990 at the Teatro della Pergola, Florence, the same location where the work was premiered.

Classical Music

Classical Music

This release is entitled Donizetti Heroines because many of the composer’s operas are named after their female protagonists. Even in the few cases where they aren’t, they give musical portrayals of unforgettable female characters, tragic and passionate figures, often innocent victims of the infernal gears of power and therefore destined to a hapless fate. Between 1818 and 1843 Gaetano Donizetti composed some seventy operas, many of which became very popular in his day. His first success came in 1830 with Anna Bolena and from that moment he rivaled Bellini as the ‘leading operatic composer in Italy’, churning out works with the constant rhythm of a typical 18th-century composer. Some of Donizetti’s best works rank among the masterpieces of 19th-century opera. A few of them have remained in the repertoire worldwide since their debut, while others were to be revived only from the second half of the 1900s, in the wake of what has rightly been called the ‘Donizetti Renaissance’. Today operatic audiences are radically different from those of two hundred years ago and during the 2018/19 season Donizetti was placed fifth in the list of the world’s most represented composers. We believe that the credit for this goes to his splendid heroines and their great interpreters who, yesterday and today, brought them alive on stage and continue to do so. This collectors’ release offers a selection of nine operas featuring some of the most iconic and unforgettable Donizetti characters, performed by outstanding singers such as Mariella Devia, Jessica Pratt, Carmela Remigio, Patrizia Ciofi and Sonia Ganassi.

Country boy Nemorino is determined to win the haughty Adina's heart, but she refuses to give him the time of day. Can Doctor Dulcamara's so-called 'elixir of love' work it's magic? Conductor Sesto Quatrini makes his house debut, as does soprano Nadine Sierra in the role of Adina. She is joined by Liparit Avetisyan, Boris Pinkhasovich and the incomparable Bryn Terfel as the genial wheeler-dealer Doctor Dulcamara.

Country boy Nemorino is determined to win the haughty Adina's heart, but she refuses to give him the time of day. Can Doctor Dulcamara's so-called 'elixir of love' work it's magic? Conductor Sesto Quatrini makes his house debut, as does soprano Nadine Sierra in the role of Adina. She is joined by Liparit Avetisyan, Boris Pinkhasovich and the incomparable Bryn Terfel as the genial wheeler-dealer Doctor Dulcamara.

Here is a brief historical background to Ugo, conte di Parigi. He was Hugues Capet, a powerful feudal lord in the 10th century. When the Carolingian dynasty (successors of Charlemagne) died out with the childless Louis V (Luigi) in 987, Hugues was elected king of France, becoming the founder of the Capetian dynasty that ruled the country until 1328, the onset of the Valois kings. A five-act French play by Hyppolyte Bis called Blanche d’Acquitaine ou le dernier des Carlovingiens (1827) dealt with the dark and deadly intrigues that preceded the death of young Louis V. Five years later, Felice Romani forged an opera libretto for Gaetano Donizetti from the play’s basic ingredients, eliminating many of the drama’s characters, most of its complications, and, regrettably, much of its cohesiveness. But Romani cannot be entirely blamed for the opera’s deficiencies. Regicide and adultery lay at the foundation of the Bis play, elements not acceptable to the Milanese censorship of the 1830s. By the time the censors had done their work, the embittered Romani refused to have his name associated with the opera.

Ugo was introduced at La Scala on March 13, 1832, during a feverishly productive period in Donizetti’s career, accounting for 11 operas between 1830 and 1832. Anna Bolena and L’elisir d’amore represent the peak of his achievements during those two years, but Bellini’s Norma (December 26, 1831) may have played an even more important part in the short life of Ugo. Felice Romani was the librettist for both operas, and both shared the same legendary principals: sopranos Giuditta Pasta and Giulia Grisi, and tenor Domenico Donzelli. But, while Norma’s subsequent path consisted of a series of triumphs, Ugo dropped from currency soon after the premiere, and lay dormant until its first complete recording (Opera Rara ORC 1) in 1977. Elements of Ugo were eventually recycled by Donizetti for his later operas, as detailed in Danilo Prefumo’s informative annotations with the Dynamic set. Ugo may be the opera’s title character, but the true principals are the rival Aquitaine princesses Bianca and Adelia, for whom Donizetti contrived attractive duets somewhat similar to the Norma-Adalgisa confrontations, though not on the level of inspiration that distinguishes the Bellini models. Bianca is betrothed to King Luigi, but refuses to marry him. In secret, she loves Ugo, who is in love with Adelia. During the opera, the initially sympathetic Bianca gradually reveals hysterical tendencies and, when she discovers Adelia’s commitment to Ugo, her frenzy drives her to suicide. The opera’s ending is inconclusive, not to say clumsy: King Luigi is still alive, Ugo is still “Conte di Parigi,” and Emma, the mother of the rival sisters, is tormented by a guilty past the libretto fails to clarify, though Jeremy Commons’s extensive notes to the Opera Rara set provide some interesting speculations.

That earlier set, with its prominent British performers, is marginally preferable to the more recent Bergamo live recording, which features a young but attractive international cast of singers unfamiliar to me and not otherwise identified in the notes. Dynamic’s rather boxy sound, in all ways inferior to its 1977 predecessor, is still quite acceptable.

Dynamic’s notes contain a disclaimer, crediting soprano Dimitriu for performing “despite a slight illness.” She is quite a trooper, though, because her portrayal of Bianca is passionate in its commitment and quite virtuosic in execution, particularly in the chromatic runs of the cabaletta “No, che infelice appieno” (I, 8). The role is quite demanding, and Ms. Dimitriu fearlessly rises to all its challenges. Carmen Giannattasio’s portrayal of the gentler Adelia is also above reproach; in her very effective duet with Ugo (I, 19), she far surpasses her tenor partner’s acceptable but uneven contribution. Dramatically, the opera’s finale leaves the listener somewhat shortchanged, but the solid Emma (mezzo Milijana Nikolic) and the frenetic Bianca (Doina Dimitriu) leave no tone unturned.

Donizetti wrote the part of the young King Luigi for a mezzo-soprano, and Opera Rara’s Della Jones performs it admirably. Dynamic has chosen a male alto (Sym Tokyurek), tonally less secure but quite appropriate in capturing a certain weakness and immaturity in the young king’s character. Weakest in the cast is the unfocused baritone interpreter of Folco di Angiò (read Anjou), a mean-spirited intriguer who drops out of the action toward the end, missed by no one. Comparison with the Opera Rara set reveals several minor cuts, primarily in the second act; since Dynamic is contained on two CDs, not three, this is a minor consideration.

Musically, Ugo, conte di Parigi is not a negligible work at all, rich in well-crafted ensembles, such as the powerful act I finale and the chorus-supported Trio in act II (II, 10). Its absence from the repertoire is due to the wealth of so many Donizetti operas that are both stronger and make more sense on stage.

George Jellinek, FANFARE

Gaetano Donizetti's L'Ange de Nisida was commissioned by the director of the Th��tre de la Renaissance in Paris. The libretto was entrusted to Gustave Va�z and Alphonse Royer, and the op�ra en quatre parties was completed in 1840. Unfortunately the theatre went bankrupt and the opera never reached the stage. Donizetti was aware that other venues would have rejected his work as it stood, for both repertoire and censorship reasons (the plot revolved around the King of Naples, Ferdinando d'Aragona, and his mistress). Consequently, he revised the score and incorporated a significant portion of it within his new one, La favorite. The autograph score of L'Ange was subsequently lost and it is only thanks to the painstaking research of musicologist Candida Mantica that it was brought to light again. She took on the huge challenge of classifying the roughly 470 randomly alternate pages of L'Ange de Nisida that had survived at the Biblioth�que Nationale de France in Paris; she re-established their original order and finally managed to reconstruct roughly 97 percent of Donizetti's music. The few gaps in the score were judged as irrelevant by both Mantica and Donizetti Opera, so that the opera was considered a complete work in itself, with no need for additions written by other composers. 180 years after it's composition, the opera was finally performed for the first time in it's original theatrical form in Donizetti's native Bergamo, at the construction site of the city theatre bearing his name, a most symbolic coincidence that added emotional value to a long-awaited event. The performance was hailed as a triumph by both the public and the critics and was awarded a special prize at the 39th Franco Abbiati Prize of Italian music critics.

Donizetti: Lucia di Lammermoor (Live)

Il Pigmalione, the first theatrical attempt of a teenaged Donizetti, is something in between a school test and a visiting card to the operatic world. Donizetti was clearly a quick composer from the very beginning of his career. Il Pigmalione is an ambitious opera even though it is rather short and with limited staging demands involving just two voices and a medium-sized orchestra. Never performed during Donizetti’s life, Il Pigmalione was staged for the first time in 1960. Relatively luckier, Rita had been performed at the Opéra-Comique of Paris one hundred years earlier, after almost 20 years from its completion and 12 years after the composer’s death. Donizetti completed it in 1841. The score is divided into 8 numbers, symmetrically distributed to three characters. The short orchestra prelude introduces the title role: the variety of movements in this first number reflects the strong and fickle personality of Rita, almost a draft for the future Norina in Don Pasquale.