Opera Rara

Les Vêpres Siciliennes is one of Verdi’s misunderstood operas. It is usually presented to audiences today as I vespri Siciliani - that is, in a clumsy and pedestrian Italian translation and as such gives a false representation of Verdi’s original concept. This opera was composed for the Paris Opera to a libretto by Eugene Scribe, one of the greatest poets of the day and Charles Duveyrier. Verdi embraces the French idiom – the musical forms, the orchestration, the vocal writing – with the same grandeur and sense of occasion as Rossini and Meyerbeer before him. Certainly to give an opera in translation is no crime but to continually deprive the public of this particularly beautiful marriage of text and music is close to criminal. This is the third in the Verdi Originals series and this BBC recording of the opera finally restores the original French libretto.

Vincenzo Bellini’s third opera, Il pirata, marked an important step in his career. Not only was it the 27 year old’s first score for the brand leader of Italian opera houses, La Scala, Milan, it also represented his first collaboration with Felice Romani, the leading librettist of the day, who was to become his regular artistic partner. Based (via a French translation) on an English play by the Anglo-Irish Gothic writer Charles Maturin, Il pirata describes how Gualtiero (José Bros) is shipwrecked during a storm on the Sicilian coast, where his former love, Imogene, (Carmen Giannattasio) has been forced into an unwilling marriage by Ernesto, the local duke (Ludovic Tézier). Tensions build between the three until Gualtiero kills Ernesto in a duel, causing Imogene to go mad with guilt. David Parry conducts this exceptional example of early romantic opera at its most dramatically potent.

Ugo, conte di Parigi is widely regarded as Gaetano Donizetti's most obscure opera, having closed after only four performances in 1832. Its first modern revival was not given until a concert performance held in London in 1977, on which occasion it was recorded and issued as the first in Opera Rara's survey of Donizetti's complete operatic output, garnering considerable acclaim. In more recent times the Italian label Dynamic has instituted its own Donizetti series and has now gotten around to Ugo, conte di Parigi. For its recording, Dynamic has utilized a live performance from Teatro Donizetti in Bergamo held in October 2003 and featuring exciting young Romanian soprano Doina Dimitriu.

The most enduring number from this opera was the duet of Maria and her sister Ines, which became a popular concert piece in the 19th century. Maria is the mistress of Pedro the Cruel of Castile. Her father, Ruiz, discovers the identity of her lover and, burdened by shame, loses his reason. Donizetti rises to this dramatic challenge, writing a poignant mad scene – this time for a tenor voice. This was a very successful opera for Donizetti, written in 1841.

This is a major release–a recording of Verdi's original version of Macbeth, composed in 1847, instead of the one we know, i.e., the 1865 revision. About a third of the score is different from the usually performed version, with Lady Macbeth singing a far more showy coloratura aria where "La luce langue" was later placed, a vastly different take on Macbeth's third-act delirium with the witches, a more conventional chorus than in 1865 to open the last act, and a final scene which is a more vivid confrontation between Macbeth and Macduff. There are also minor changes along the way which fans of the opera will enjoy comparing with Verdi's later thoughts.

Some of the most brilliant writing of the 19th century is found in the nine operas Rossini wrote for the Teatro san Carlo in Naples. Ricciardo e Zoraide is the fifth of these, written in 1818. In the opera, Ricciardo, Zoraide’s persistent and ingenious suitor, comes to the rescue and saves her by devious means. Bruce Ford and William Matteuzzi recreate their spectacular tenor partnership of the 1990 Rossini Opera Festival revival. Nelly Miricioiu, Della Jones and Alastair Miles complete a starry cast.

Here, for the first time the two versions of this delightful opera which Donizetti wrote for Naples. Betrayed by her fiancée and abandoned by her father, Emilia has turned her back on the world. In a most operatic coincidence, her fiancée appears on the same day as her father returns to England.
'The work has charm and wild improbability in equal proportion' - John Higgins, The Times