Donizetti: Maria Stuarda

More than 25 years after his first EMI album, Antonio Pappano has established himself as a leading figure of conducting, particularly in music from his native Italy. This collection includes excerpts from all his EMI and Warner Italian recordings, from the famous Verdi and Puccini cycles with Roberto Alagna and Angela Gheorghiu to the recent praised versions of Turandot and Rossini’s sacred works.

Sometimes when it comes to deciding how to stage an opera, whether in a traditional style or otherwise, it’s more than enough to just set the scene in as simple a fashion as possible and let the work speak for itself. This can be tricky in the case of a bel canto opera, particularly with Donizetti and certainly with his Tudor trilogy of operas (Anna Bolena, Maria Stuarda and Roberto Devereux), where there is often not a great deal going on dramatically. Many directors will try to cover up the lack of dramatic action with elaborate sets and costumes, but not Christof Loy. Even though there isn’t indeed a great deal to the sets here in this 2005 production for the Bavarian State Opera in Munich and, yes, even though it is inevitably taken out of its original historical Tudor setting, Loy nonetheless clearly recognises where the real strengths of the work lie and gives them prominence through attention to character and the acting performances, particularly in how they are expressed through the singing.

2017 is the tenth anniversary of the passing of the 20th Century’s most famous tenor – Decca marks this occasion to marvel once again at the sheer quality of the voice of ‘The People’s Tenor’ with a 101-disc collection presenting every role he ever recorded and performed. Every role since his debut recording of La Boh?me in 1961 is included, allowing critics, collectors and opera lovers once more to appreciate his truly exceptional gifts. Every single opera is presented in the best possible audio quality, remastered at Abbey Road under the supervision of former Decca engineers.

At the outset, I have to say that this opera is one of my least favorites. Somehow, it just doesn't communicate with me. I lived with the Sutherland-Pavarotti recording on London for a long time, listened to it occassionally, and then left it on the shelf. I know that both of them were acclaimed for their performances on this London recording, and of course, Sutherland and Pavarotti's singing certainly merit such acclaim. That said, however, I found both of them very ungainly in this music.
By L. Mitnick

Roberto Devereux (or Roberto Devereux, ossia Il conte di Essex [Roberto Devereux, or the Earl of Essex]) is a tragedia lirica, or tragic opera, by Gaetano Donizetti...

This CD is currently out of print, but it's worth a search. Unlike virtually everything else of Gencer's that has appeared on CD, these are all studio recordings in excellent sound (no prompters, no noisy audiences, no singing off mike). The four Donizetti items, conducted by Gianandrea Gavazzeni, are from 1974, while the four Verdi selections and the Catalani are from 1956 (with Arturo Basile conducting). Jeffrey Lipscomb, Amazon.ca

It's a measure of Natalie Dessay's entirely appropriate priorities of musical content over her vanity that she looks so ghastly on the cover of her album of scenes and arias from Italian operas. She's dressed as the mad Lucia who certainly shouldn't be looking her best, but "as if she has risen from the grave" and the image is emblematic of her commitment to dramatic verisimilitude in the role.