Conte Dhiver

[From this exceptional event, of enormous historical and performative proportions, the documentary film "Paolo Conte alla Scala, The Maestro is in the soul" was born.
The historic concert is both its predominant fulcrum and a pretext to enter the soul of the Maestro, observe him behind the scenes and during rehearsals, and question him in his relationship with music and musicians, with words and his passions. The voice of today's Maestro then mixes with that of the young Paolo Conte, through repertoire images from the family archive that tell "under the stars of jazz, how much night has passed".

Rosario Conte, Baroque music specialist and virtuoso instrumentalist, has here recorded compositions from Francesco Corbetta's instructional manual, "La Guitarre Royal", (1671) along with two pieces by his (probable) student, Robert de Visee. As guitarist and teacher in the courts of Louis XIV of France and Charles II of England, Corbetta almost single handedly popularized the 5 course Baroque guitar in both countries at a time when the lute was the dominant parlour instrument.

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.