Classical Music

Classical Music

With Miriam Gauci as Nedda, Nicola Martinucci as Canio, and Eduard Tumagian as Tonio. Rahbari/Czech/Slovak RSO.

Classical Music

LEONCAVALLO ANTONIO DE PALMA,NATALIA MARGARIT, L. BATTAGION, B. VIVINA, ORCH. FILARMONIC, UCRAINA DI DONETSK, CORO MONTIVERDI DI TIRANO; COROLA REIT DI BRMIO; SILVANO FRANTALINI, DIRECTORREC. 10/2011 MAMELI

This recording was made under the supervision of the composer.

With Ruggero Leoncavallo’s rarity Zazá, the Theater an der Wien scored a coup with the grandiose house debutante Svetlana Aksenova in the title role. Christof Loy delivers a striking staging of the Verismo drama and conductor Stefan Soltez spiritedly leads the ORF Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien through the highly acclaimed evening. “It would take a whole newspaper page to praise all the performers appropriately”, praises Der Standard. Of particular note is Svetlana Aksenova as Zazá who “suffers the whole spectrum from intimate affection to raging jealousy and mute despair”, Nikolai Schukoff (Milio) “shows himself as a daredevil and a depressed mourner”, Christopher Maltman as Cascart “leads energetically and touchingly his already lost fight for his beloved.” An evening worth seeing and hearing!

Zingari's libretto was inspired by Alexander Pushkin's poem "The Gypsies". Following Zazà and Il Rolando di Berlino, Leoncavallo had abandoned the Wagner-inspired practice of writing his own librettos, and accepted the collaboration with Enrico Cavacchioli supported by the publisher Sonzogno. The opera first premiered in London in 1912. Having had considerable success at the time, the opera left soon the repertoire of theaters following the composer's death. Today, we can affirm that Zingari isn't a poor quality repeat of Pagliacci, and Leoncavallo's energy and creativity had not abandoned him. And it is unfair that the opera was consigned to oblivion for so long, apart from a revival by Italian broadcasting in the RAI production of 1975 and a further staging at Montecatini in 1999. This recording is thus a major step towards rectifying this state of affairs.

Also available on Blu-ray

Premiered on May 21st, 1892 at Milan’s Teatro Dal Verme under the baton of Arturo Toscanini, Pagliacci was immediately a huge success, and today it’s Leoncavallo’s most represented operas as “Vesti la giubba” is perhaps one of the most famous operatic arias of all times. The composer drew inspiration from a real incident that had occurred in a Calabrian town, an incident steeped in love and death, which inspired him to write his personal contribution to the new stylistic-aesthetic trends of Italian opera. In the Prologue, Leoncavallo inserted an outright manifesto of Verismo (“real theatre”). His aim was to “paint a scene from real life” and since “the artist is a person, […] he should write for the people. Therefore, he took inspiration from real life.” In the story of Nedda, Tonio and Canio we therefore find a well combined mix of art and reality, operatic theatre and life, with the second almost taking over the first, to the extent that the chorus, towards the end, exclaims, “This scene seems so real!” This production was recorded at Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in September 2019 and it was acclaimed as a great success by the critics. Conductor Valerio Galli “reads the score with the proper technique, succeeding in enhancing all the various shades for each scene … Pagliacci is conducted with passion… a careful eye to the dramatic development of the story and the sound is rendered with a variety of shades and colors”.

 

REVIEW:

 

This is good, solid, Italianate, passionate singing, notably from the tenor and soprano. The picture is sharp, with subtitles easily found. The sound is crystal clear, bringing out the best of the timpani and brass to good effect. The voices are well to the fore. There is a short extra with the directors discussing the production. For those who like their verismo full-blooded and idiomatically led, this is for you. Highly recommended.

 

– Fanfare (David Cutler)

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

Also available on standard DVD

Premiered on May 21st, 1892 at Milan’s Teatro Dal Verme under the baton of Arturo Toscanini, Pagliacci was immediately a huge success, and today it’s Leoncavallo’s most represented operas as “Vesti la giubba” is perhaps one of the most famous operatic arias of all times. The composer drew inspiration from a real incident that had occurred in a Calabrian town, an incident steeped in love and death, which inspired him to write his personal contribution to the new stylistic-aesthetic trends of Italian opera. In the Prologue, Leoncavallo inserted an outright manifesto of Verismo (“real theatre”). His aim was to “paint a scene from real life” and since “the artist is a person, […] he should write for the people. Therefore, he took inspiration from real life.” In the story of Nedda, Tonio and Canio we therefore find a well combined mix of art and reality, operatic theatre and life, with the second almost taking over the first, to the extent that the chorus, towards the end, exclaims, “This scene seems so real!” This production was recorded at Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in September 2019 and it was acclaimed as a great success by the critics. Conductor Valerio Galli “reads the score with the proper technique, succeeding in enhancing all the various shades for each scene … Pagliacci is conducted with passion… a careful eye to the dramatic development of the story and the sound is rendered with a variety of shades and colors”.