Donizetti Gemma

The drama of 'Gemma di Vergy', like that of 'Anna Bolena', 'Maria Stuarda' and 'Roberto Devereux', unfolds at court, where reason of State interwines with sentiments of passion and love. Gemma is repudiated by her husband, the Count of Vergy, baritone, while the "antagonist" is Tamas (tenor), the Arab slave, locked in unrequited love. The vocal composition for the role of Gemma moves with sudden jumps between the central and the high regusters. "It is as difficult as three Normas put together", maintained Montserrat Caballé.

Gemma di Vergy was one of Donizetti's more popular serious operas but has long since disappeared from the active repertoire. The liner notes to this Opera d'Oro release of a live performance reveal why: the title role is fearsome in its vocal demands, requiring mastery of a huge range, power in high notes and flexibility in coloratura. Caballe herself is quoted as saying she found singing one performance of the role more difficult than singing three Normas.

Donizetti was, of course, a major beneficiary of the postwar revival of Italian bel canto operas of the early 19th century, which put a premium on vocal beauty and display. In the years since Maria Callas took on work like “Lucia di Lammermoor” and “Anna Bolena,” Donizetti’s 70 operas became the subject of such keen interest that nowadays there remain no undiscovered gems waiting for their first glimpse of daylight in modern times. Yet the situation can easily seem otherwise when a neglected opera like “Gemma di Vergy,” which opened the festival this year, takes to the stage in a revelation…

Soprano Diana Damrau assumes the crowns of three different Tudor queens, the central characters in operas by Donizetti: Anne Boleyn (Anna Bolena), Mary, Queen of Scots (Maria Stuarda), and Elizabeth I (Roberto Devereux). With Antonio Pappano and the Orchestra and Chorus of Rome’s Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, she performs the substantial and climactic final scene of each work. When Damrau sang Maria Stuarda at the Zurich Opera, the Neue Zürcher Zeitung wrote: “She commands a voice that seems to have no limits. Her coloratura is stunning, her vocal range impressive, and her dynamic shadings are breath-taking. Damrau is in a class of her own.”

An absolute delight for collectors, this new series showcases Decca's rich heritage of singers' recitals, featuring performances from some of the biggest names of the 20th Century - José Carreras, Birgit Nilsson, Hans Hotter, Lisa Della Casa and many more! Of the fifty titles in the series, the majority have never been recorded on CD before.The range of repertoire encompassed by these recitals is very broad - from opera arias and Lieder to popular songs, folk tunes and the hits of Broadway.

Roberto Devereux stands as one of Donizetti's greatest achievements in dramatic opera, the other two being Lucrezia Borgia and Lucia di Lammermoor (in my realm of judgment). Like most lovers of bel canto and Donizetti, I'm led into this foray of musical richness through Lucia; which though a great opera, has been largely overperformed at the expense of his greater operas like Devereux and Borgia. Not venturing to extoll the relative merits of the operas mentioned here, I shall focus my review on this recording of Donizetti's seminal opera.

Wexford has long been the home of lost operatic causes that speedily become winners. Giovanni Pacini’s Saffo is a good example. Widely acclaimed in its time (establishing itself as a favourite in North as well as South America), the opera gradually disappeared from view, as did the composer himself. Yet he wrote over 80 operas, and Saffo is generally considered his masterpiece: the first fully ripened fruit of a period, nearly five years long, of retirement from composition, during which he studied, thought and prepared. It appeared in 1840, the year of Donizetti’s La fille du regiment and La favorite, both of them written for the opera in Paris.