Piccolo Coro Mariele Ventre Dell'antoniano Che Paura!

Il pianto e il riso delle quattro stagioni dell'anno per la morte, esultazione e coronazione di Maria Assunta in Cielo, written in 1731, is the second last of the four oratorios by Benedetto Marcello (1686-1739). As a member of the Venetian aristocracy he didn‘t have to consider the musical conventions as much as his professional contemporaries. Thanks to his unconventional style he is one of the most interesting Italian baroque composers.

Giorgio Strehler was one of Europe’s most celebrated theatre directors. In his Piccolo Teatro in Milan he created outstanding interpretations of Bertolt Brecht and William Shakespeare. As an opera director he worked at all the major international opera houses, most notably the Teatro alla Scala, Milan, where he was responsible for productions of Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra (1971), Macbeth (1975) and in 1980 for Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro. This legendary production of Mozart’s masterpiece is now available as a 2006 recording, featuring the wonderful Diana Damrau as Susanna and Ildebrando D’Arcangelo as Figaro.

Giovanna d’Arco is based on Friedrich Schiller’s tragedy The Maid of Orleans and deals with the life of Joan of Arc. But Verdi and his librettist Temistocle Solera departed from both Schiller and historical fact by turning Joan’s father into the opera’s powerful antagonist. Ever since its first performance in Milan in 1845, Giovanna d’Arco has been admired and loved for its emotionally affecting arias and thrilling choral writing.

Thaïs, a mature work by the composer Jules Massenet on the libretto by Louis Gallet, it is based on the novel of the same name by Anatole France. The new production of this rarely performed work is the result of more than a year of close collaboration between the forces of the Theatre and Stefano Poda, responsible, for the first time in Italy, for the direction, choreography, sets, lighting and costumes. On the podium, Gianandrea Noseda, who, seduced by the dramatic force and modernity of the orchestral writing, conducts Thaïs for the first time; a debut also for the protagonist Barbara Frittoli, who has chosen the Regio to make her debut in this difficult role. Georgian baritone Lado Ataneli gives an impressive study of the monk Athanaël.

The Overture gives the clue: this is the Barber of the nudge and the wink, of the Neapolitan siesta rubato and the rumbustious business. Silvio Varviso, who works his willing orchestra hard enough, tends to operate by exaggerated contrasts of tempo rather than by pointing within the phrasing itself: the cast, similarly, work the comic value of the words rather than the wit of their underlay or inflection.

La Zingara was Gaetano Donizetti’s first operatic encounter with the city and theatrical life of Naples. Keeping faith with the quality of writing of his teacher Mayr and with the prestige that he drew from it, Donizetti launched himself into the world of Naples theatre with all the instinctive skill of a man leaping onto a galloping horse. He hit the mark first time (52 performances from May to October 1822) and started off the process of identification with the city that was to link the composer from Bergamo to Naples until 1838. We owe the first modern-day performance of La Zingara to the lively Martina Franca Festival, and our recording represents an absolute première of signal documentary value. Outstanding among the cast of performers, the mezzo-soprano Manuela Custer and the baritone Domenico Colaianni, who has already featured in several Dynamic recordings.

Despite its moronic libretto, the opera was an enormous success at its premiere in Naples in 1822, and even Bellini wrote nice things about the second-act septet. Donizetti mixes buffo and serious characters, as well as Neapolitan dialect (there are no recitatives; numbers are separated by spoken dialogue) with “pure” Italian, and the absurd plot is (sort of) held together by the clever Argilla, who under the guise of telling fortunes gains entry to people’s feelings as well as to every area of the castle. Is it a masterpiece? Even close? No, but there are niceties galore–rhythmic arias and ensembles, good (if typical) characterizations, and good tunes.

“Il mondo della luna” fu scritto da Paisiello durante il suo soggiorno in Russia, ospite a San Pietroburgo della zarina Caterina II che lo impiegò a corte come maestro di cappella. L’opera, su un testo di Carlo Goldoni, venne rappresentata nel 1783, per l’apertura del nuovo Imperial Teatro di pietra per festeggiare il giorno dell’incoronazione di S.M.I. Caterina II.