Opera Rara

Opera Rara chose this most obscure of Donizetti’s operas on the strength of its many beautiful and intricate ensembles. A convoluted plot culminates in the magnificent poison scene, conceived as a vehicle for the talents of the great singing actress Giuditta Pasta. Della Jones, Janet Price, Eiddwen Harrhy and Yvonne Kenny make their recording debuts for the first of Opera Rara’s Donizetti revivals.

Coming in at a tidy three hours and eight minutes, Donizetti’s huge Les Martyrs, composed (or adapted) for Paris in 1840, is here presented in its fullest conceivable form, including ballet and many passages cut right after the first performances. The opera was a reworking of his 1838 Poliuto, composed for the San Carlo in Naples, which had been banned by the king himself, since Christian martyrdom under the Romans was found unpleasant by the censors and the king was devoutly religious.

Imelda de'Lambertazzi (1830) was written just before Donizetti's first great international success, Anna Bolena, and it remains one of his many operas that has never made it into the repertoire. In his illuminating program notes, Jeremy Commons argues that Imelda was probably Donizetti's most forward-looking, even avant-garde opera; the composer was determined to create music that matched the demands of the drama, and therefore ignored many of the operatic conventions audiences had come to expect. It's no surprise, then, that it was badly received, and has rarely been revived.

Imelda de'Lambertazzi (1830) was written just before Donizetti's first great international success, Anna Bolena, and it remains one of his many operas that has never made it into the repertoire. In his illuminating program notes, Jeremy Commons argues that Imelda was probably Donizetti's most forward-looking, even avant-garde opera; the composer was determined to create music that matched the demands of the drama, and therefore ignored many of the operatic conventions audiences had come to expect. It's no surprise, then, that it was badly received, and has rarely been revived.

La straniera was Bellini's fourth opera, first performed at La Scala in February 1829. During the composer's lifetime, and for a few years after his death in 1835, it enjoyed considerable international success, though contemporary reviewers were sometimes hostile, criticising its lack of set-piece arias and complaining of the 'continual interruptions' to the musical line. It is this that strikes the modern listener as one of the most interesting aspects of the score. Bellini was experimenting with something, if not exactly through-composed, then sacrificing vocal fireworks for the sake of the dramatic structure.(The Gramophone)

Meyerbeer’s elaborate use of vocal and orchestral forces is seminal in the development of 19th-century opera. Opera Rara’s edition features all the music written for productions the composer supervised. In the opera Adriano, a Knight of Rhodes, comes to Egypt in search of his nephew Armando, whom he believes may have died in battle. In fact he has married Palmide, daughter of the Sultan of Egypt and she has converted to Christianity. The furious Sultan throws everyone in jail, but all is forgiven when Armando intercedes in a plot to overthrow his father-in-law.

Margherita d’Anjou is the fourth of Meyerbeer’s six Italian operas. Although he is often accused of imitating Rossini, this engaging opera shows how Meyerbeer uses the musical conventions of the time to forge his own musical style. With this score he challenged the orchestra of La Scala, one of the best in Italy, to its technical limits. New and exciting effects are heard in the orchestration of Margherita d’Anjou – ideas that would surface again in Dinorah, almost 40 years later. For this recording Opera Rara fields another extraordinary cast with the gifted soprano Annick Massis in the title role.

Frederico Ricci's Corrado d'Altamura is a dramma lirico that opened at La Scala in 1841. Set in 12-century Sicily, the highly dramatic plot tells of betrayal and then revenge between Roggero, the Duke of Agrigento and his former friend and tutor, Corrado, to whose daughter, Delizia, Roggero has promised marriage - only to break his vows. The great expert in 19th-century Italian opera Julian Budden thought Ricci's serious works 'are worthy to stand beside Mercadante's.' This is the sixth opera in the Essential Opera Rara series and, once again, a vivid impression of the work is captured on a single disc, accompanied by a complete libretto and article by the eminent 19th century scholar, Jeremy Commons.