Giuseppe Nicolini (1762-1842) enjoyed wide popularity in his day: several of this work’s arias became famous and were well known, particularly the duet between Giulietta and Monsieur Le Blau “Micomanda il signor zio”. Le due gemelle fits into the category of comic opera, as genre that reached its peak in the late 1700s with Cimarosa and Paisiello and that developed into “dramma giocoso” in the 1800s. Composed for the Teatro Valle, Rome carnival season of 1808, this is its first recording.

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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.

After leaving conservatory in 1854, Filippo Marchetti (1831-1902) immediately set to work composing for the theater. After three successful opera stagings in fifteen years, true, lasting success was finally achieved in 1869 in collaboration with librettist Carlo D’Ormeville and Victor Hugo’s play, Ruy Blas. It was performed in all of Italy’s large and small theaters. During the composer’s lifetime, it reached the most distant shores of five continents, becoming popular in the UK and especially in the US. This 1998 performance, on Bongiovanni, is its first commercial recording.

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Sarro, D.: Achille in Sciro [Opera]

WEBER: Euryanthe

VERDI: Macbeth (Original version, Florence 1847)

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LE GRATIE D'AMORE

ROSSINI: Italiana in Algeri (L') (The Italian Girl in Algier

BELLINI: Norma (1831 Edition for 2 Sopranos)

After Il Fortunato inganno and La Zingara, the Martina Franca Festival has revived another neglected masterpiece by Donizetti, Pietro il Grande o sia il Falegname di Livonia. First staged in Venice in 1819, this work met with good success and was performed until 1827. The silence that followed is justifiable only on account of the enormous success reaped by works such as Elisir d’amore, Don Pasquale and Lucia di Lammermoor, for in Pietro il Grande there is no lack of inspiration and Donizetti’s creativity is, quite the opposite, generous and surprising.

Italian/English libretto included.

R E V I E W S:

" Pietro il Grande ossia Il falegname di Livonia was premiered to open the 1819-20 Carnival season at the Teatro San Samuele in Venice, a city that saw the birth of many of the light operas of the decade, including quite a few by Rossini. The premiere took place on Dec. 26, 1819. It was the fourth of Donizetti’s operas to be performed during his life, and the first of Donizetti’s to achieve any kind of performance history...
When I was first asked to review this recording, I expected a very Rossinian opera buffo. It is, to a large extent, but I was still able to see tiny glimpses of Donizetti’s own personality come shining through. An example is the lyric pathos of Annetta’s “veder l’amato bene” in the finale to Act I. There are other lovely numbers, including the duet for Pietro and the Magistrate: “Ser Decuppia siete voi”, definitely a forerunner of the delightful “Cheti, cheti” in Don Pasquale and Carlo’s aria “Il dolce nome e tenero”....
Martina Franca often uses unfamiliar, but talented young singers, as is the case here. I particularly enjoyed the Madame Fritz of Rosa Anna Peraino, the Pietro of Vito Priante and the intentionally obnoxious Magistrate of Giulio Mastrototaro. But the entire cast contributes to the success of the performance...
This is a recording I can recommend not only to Donizetti completists, but to all who appreciate Italian opera."
- Tom Kaufman, Opera Today

This is not the first time this 1735 opera has been recorded. Erato (remember them?) released a 1986 performance under Claudio Scimone that was quite good but in the long run can't compare dramatically with this live performance from France in November, 2001. In the notes accompanying the earlier release, we learn that only the second and third acts survive and that the first was written by one or more other composers--a sort of patchwork. Scimone, therefore, only presents the acts he believes are by Vivaldi, as evidenced by the autograph score in Turin. Jean-Claude Malgoire claims to have located two of the missing Act 1 arias, takes the music of some others from various Vivaldi operas (and re-sets the words of the Catone libretto, which has been found in Bologna, to that music), and has composed the recitatives "drawing his inspiration from existing Vivaldi compositions." Scholarship aside, the result gives us lots of terrific music, scored for strings and continuo, but with the occasional addition of two trumpets and two horns (in the extant Vivaldi), and oboes and recorders in the Act 1 reconstruction.

If the truth be known, the plot stands very well with just the last two acts; the libretto of the first is exposition. The opera concerns the Republican Cato's (tenor) refusal to give in to Caesar (male soprano), who has killed Pompey and taken over Rome. Pompey's widow Emilia (soprano) actually is the piece's villain--her hatred for Caesar keeps everyone's feelings toward him inflamed and she tries to manipulate his death. Cato's daughter Marzia (soprano) loves Caesar, but he (Cato) wants her to marry Arbace, his ally. This is a real problem. And Caesar's ally, Fulvio, loves Emilia, although he may just be covering his bets--a confusing bonus. Metastasio, the librettist, wanted Cato to die onstage in his daughter's arms but opted for him to die off stage and have Marzia report it. Even that was too strong for 18th century Verona, so he recast it with a happy ending: after Cato's army is defeated Caesar spares Cato in order to gain Marzia's love, Emilia leaves in disgrace after swearing revenge, Arbace is unhappy but realizes that the outcome is good for the country, and peace returns. The final chorus is suitably unconvincing, and I bet Vivaldi knew it. He scored the soprano Caesar's vocal line so low that there's no real enthusiasm; the music is like an editorial commentary.

Up to then, however, the characters' feelings are ablaze and realistic, with impressive arias and huge drama in the recitatives. Malgoire is particularly good in the dramatic, realistic pacing of the recitatives, but the arias also are well accompanied, and if Malgoire is responsible for the embellishments in the da capo sections of arias, then he is to be further congratulated. His period-instrument band plays beautifully, with the trumpets braying nobly, the strings smooth or cutting as the text requires, and the ensemble work first class.


The singing doesn't let us down either: Simon Edwards' Cato is an aristocratic ruler, but he's capable of great fury against poor Marzia, with whom he becomes enraged for her love of Caesar in both Acts 1 and 2. He handles the role's coloratura well. Marzia is a sappy ingénue with pretty, lachrymose arias, though at least the one in the last act is energetic (and her interjections of "O Dio! Pieta!" in Cato's last Rage Aria are enchanting in their sincerity).


Emilia has two furious arias and wicked recitatives, and Veronica Cangemi, in this all-over-the-place-vocally-and-dramatically role, makes you sit up and listen to her scorn. She's spectacular. Sympathetic Caesar, sung by male soprano Jacek Laszczkowski, is expressive and has the difficult music--trills, leaps, pianissimos, high B-flats--fully in hand. Male alto Philippe Jaroussky is good in the nowhere role of Arbace, and the same can be said about Diana Bertini as Fulvio, an even weaker character. If you love Baroque opera, or may want to, this is top-of-the-line. And whether or not Malgoire is right about his reconstruction of Act 1, it's nice to have another 50-something minutes of well-performed Vivaldi to savor.
--Robert Levine, ClassicsToday.com

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Bellini: I Capuleti e i Montecchi (Live)

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Rossini: Armida

Verismo heroines (Live)

BELLINI, V.: Operas (Complete)

A gorgeous performance from Eva Mei and Michele Pertusi with the Orchestra and Chorus of Teatro La Fenice in one of Massenet’s most loved and performed operas, Thaïs.

According to Alessandro Scarlatti's own work catalogue, he wrote 117 dramme per musica. Even if some of them may have been only improvements or modifications, the number remains impressive. Il Trionfo Dell'Onore represents several of Scarlatti's works in a masterful program on this release.