Donizetti Roberto Devereux

Francesco Lanzillotta, Orchestra and Chorus of The Teatro Carlo Felice - Donizetti: Roberto Devereux (2016)

Francesco Lanzillotta, Orchestra and Chorus of The Teatro Carlo Felice - Donizetti: Roberto Devereux (2016)
NTSC 16:9 (720x480) VBR | Italiano (LinearPCM, 2 ch) | (Dolby AC3, 6 ch) | 7.66 Gb (DVD9) | 138 min
Classical | Dynamic | Sub: Italiano, English, Francais, Deutsch, Korean, Japanese

Donizetti composed Roberto Devereux during a period of intense creativity. The work had an uninterrupted 10-year run after its première in 1837, before going on to enjoy international success throughout Europe and in the Americas, with versions in French, German, Russian and Hungarian. When Donizetti moved to Paris in 1838, he furnished the opera with the overture that paraphrases the British anthem God Save the Queen. The Queen dominates from her very first appearance, a true protagonist, performed here by the great Mariella Devia: her pure voice, impeccable intonation and great stage presence, all combined with the technical qualities of her voice, led to an extended standing ovation. It was a triumph, too, for Sonia Ganassi (Sarah) and the tenor Stefan Pop (Devereux).
Alain Guingal, Orchestra of the San Carlo Theatre Naples - Donizetti: Roberto Devereux (2000)

Alain Guingal, Orchestra of the San Carlo Theatre Naples, Alexandrina Pendatchanska, Giuseppe Sabatini - Donizetti: Roberto Devereux (2000)
NTSC 4:3 (720x480) | Italiano (Dolby AC3, 2 ch) | (Dolby AC3, 6 ch) | 6.47 Gb (DVD9) | 136 min
Classical | Image Entertainment | Sub: English

A lyric tragedy in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti, libretto by Salvatore Cammarano. Roberto Devereux was composed in the summer of 1837, the year, according to biographers, in which Donizetti seems to have suffered most, having lost his third son and his adored wife Virginia Vasselli. The opera made its debut at the San Carlo Theatre in Naples on October 28th in the same year and was a great success. The rehearsals of the original performance were postponed for a month due to censorship of the decapitation scene of the leading actor.
Marcello Rota, Bergamo Musica Festival Orchestra - Donizetti: Roberto Devereux (2008)

Marcello Rota, Bergamo Musica Festival Orchestra - Donizetti: Roberto Devereux (2008)
NTSC 16:9 (720x480) | Italiano | Dolby AC3, 2 ch | Dolby AC3, 6 ch | DTS, 6 ch | 7.44 Gb (DVD9) | 134 min
Classical | Naxos | Sub.: English, Italiano

One of Donizetti’s most emotionally raw operas, Roberto Devereux ossia Il conte di Essex was also the third to be loosely based on episodes in the life of Queen Elizabeth I. It deals with the love of Elizabeth and her favourite, the Earl of Essex, perhaps most tellingly expressed in the Act I duet, Nascondi, frena i palpiti, o misero mio core / Hide, hold back your palpitation, oh my wretched heart! Elizabeth’s subsequent abdication is, however, a matter of dramatic licence, yet provides a memorable operatic conclusion to this tragedy of love and jealousy as she despairs at the death of her lover – Quel sangue versato al ciel s’innalza / The blood that is spilt rises up to Heaven.
Julius Rudel, Filene Center Orchestra, Beverly Sills - Donizetti: Roberto Devereux (2001/1975)

Julius Rudel, Filene Center Orchestra, Beverly Sills - Donizetti: Roberto Devereux (2001/1975)
NTSC 4:3 (720x480) | Italiano (Dolby AC3, 2 ch) | 3.74 Gb (DVD5) | 132 min
Classical | VAI | Sub: English

Roberto Devereux, the last and probably the greatest opera Gaetano Donizetti composed for the San Carlo Opera House in Naples, is based on the intense, tangled relationship between Queen Elizabeth I and the Earl of Essex, who was beheaded for treason in 1601. The role of the queen is one of the strongest in the bel canto soprano repertoire. In this video (essentially a New York City Opera production transplanted to the Filene Center at Wolf Trap performing arts center outside Washington, D.C.), Beverly Sills gives one of the great performances of her career.
Charles Mackerras, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Beverly Sills - Gaetano Donizetti: Roberto Devereux (2001)

Charles Mackerras, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Beverly Sills - Gaetano Donizetti: Roberto Devereux (2001)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 640 Mb | Total time: 65:55+69:50 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Westminster | # 471 224-2 | Recorded: 1969

Elizabeth I in Donizetti’s Roberto Devereux was, Beverly Sills has said, the role that took 10 years off her career, and indeed, it’s a fearsome undertaking. The very long role is composed over a slightly larger than two-octave span, and there are forte passages at both ends, both in ensembles and alone, and the sheer number of notes the character has to get out is awe-inspiring. Emotionally, too, the part is ripping: The elderly Elizabeth, in love with the Earl of Essex, who in turn loves Sara, the Duchess of Nottingham (forget real English history), is a ferocious monarch, comfortable and powerful only when ruling, and in private, a shattered woman, filled with vulnerabilities. Sills’ voice was at its pristine best in 1969, when this was recorded, before she sang it on stage. She is in absolute control of every resource she ever had: accurate roulades, brutal chest tones, full-bodied high notes, the ability to express both rage and joy, an impeccable bel canto line, stupendous breath control.
Edita Gruberova, Delores Ziegler, Friedrich Haider - Donizetti: Roberto Devereux (1995)

Edita Gruberova, Delores Ziegler, Friedrich Haider - Donizetti: Roberto Devereux (1995)
EAC | FLAC (image+.cue, log) | Covers Included | 02:09:45 | 505 MB
Genre: Classical, Opera | Label: Nightingale | Catalog: NC070563-2

Roberto Devereux stands as one of Donizetti's greatest achievements in dramatic opera, the other two being Lucrezia Borgia and Lucia di Lammermoor (in my realm of judgment). Like most lovers of bel canto and Donizetti, I'm led into this foray of musical richness through Lucia; which though a great opera, has been largely overperformed at the expense of his greater operas like Devereux and Borgia. Not venturing to extoll the relative merits of the operas mentioned here, I shall focus my review on this recording of Donizetti's seminal opera.
Roberto Rizzi Brignoli, Orchestra del Bergamo Musica Festival Gaetano Donizetti - Donizetti: Gemma di Vergy (2013)

Roberto Rizzi Brignoli, Orchestra del Bergamo Musica Festival Gaetano Donizetti - Donizetti: Gemma di Vergy (2013)
NTSC 16:9 (720x480) | Italiano (LinearPCM, 2 ch) | 7,34 Gb (DVD9) | 140 min
Classical | Bongiovanni | Sub: Italiano, English

The drama of 'Gemma di Vergy', like that of 'Anna Bolena', 'Maria Stuarda' and 'Roberto Devereux', unfolds at court, where reason of State interwines with sentiments of passion and love. Gemma is repudiated by her husband, the Count of Vergy, baritone, while the "antagonist" is Tamas (tenor), the Arab slave, locked in unrequited love. The vocal composition for the role of Gemma moves with sudden jumps between the central and the high regusters. "It is as difficult as three Normas put together", maintained Montserrat Caballé.
Diana Damrau, Antonio Pappano, St. Cecilia Academy Orchestra - Gaetano Donizetti: Tudor Queens (2020)

Diana Damrau, Antonio Pappano, St. Cecilia Academy Orchestra - Gaetano Donizetti: Tudor Queens (2020)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 239 Mb | Total time: 69:28 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Erato | # 9029528093 | Recorded: 2019

Soprano Diana Damrau assumes the crowns of three different Tudor queens, the central characters in operas by Donizetti: Anne Boleyn (Anna Bolena), Mary, Queen of Scots (Maria Stuarda), and Elizabeth I (Roberto Devereux). With Antonio Pappano and the Orchestra and Chorus of Rome’s Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, she performs the substantial and climactic final scene of each work. When Damrau sang Maria Stuarda at the Zurich Opera, the Neue Zürcher Zeitung wrote: “She commands a voice that seems to have no limits. Her coloratura is stunning, her vocal range impressive, and her dynamic shadings are breath-taking. Damrau is in a class of her own.”
Tiziano Severini, Bergamo Musica Festival Orchestra - Donizetti: Lucrezia Borgia (2009)

Tiziano Severini, Bergamo Musica Festival Orchestra - Donizetti: Lucrezia Borgia (2009)
NTSC 16:9 (720x480) | Italiano | Dolby AC3, 2 ch | Dolby AC3, 6 ch | DTS, 6 ch | 7.11 Gb (DVD9) | 138 min
Classical | Naxos | Sub.: English, Italiano

Based on Victor Hugo’s most sensational play, Lucrèce Borgia, a scandalous tale of murder, torture, incest, homosexuality, drunkenness and orgies, Donizetti’s opera is one of the great masterpieces of Italian bel canto repertoire. While omitting some of its more excessive elements, the libretto by Felice Romani inspired Donizetti to compose superb arias, duets, ensembles and choruses, bringing each act to a stirring conclusion.
Aldo Ceccato, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Beverly Sills - Gaetano Donizetti: Maria Stuarda (2010)

Aldo Ceccato, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Beverly Sills - Gaetano Donizetti: Maria Stuarda (2010)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 690 Mb | Total time: 72:35+79:26 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Brilliant Classics | # 93963 | Recorded: 1971

Maria Stuarda is one third of the so-called "three queen" trilogy that defined much of the career of Beverly Sills (along with Lucia, the three Hoffmann heroines, and Manon) in the early 1970s. It was quite an undertaking, and each–Stuarda, Anna Bolena, and Roberto Devereux–was recorded by the since-disapppeared ABC Audio Treasury Series. For reasons opera lovers have been wondering about for years, the recordings went out of print pretty quickly; but now, handsomely remastered, they are making their first appearance on CD, both individually and as a three-opera set. Stuarda also has been recorded by Joan Sutherland and Janet Baker (in a version Donizetti prepared for the lower-voiced Maria Malibran), and there are at least three "private" sets I know of with Montserrat Caballé in the title role.