Donizetti

Don Pasquale was Donizetti's last comedy and it's a funny, sometimes subtle work, with finely drawn characters. Malatesta and Norina are playful and sarcastic and their music reflects this; Ernesto is a familiar opera-buffa tenor/lover in his outrage and ardency, and his sweet second-act aria has a nice, mock-maudlin aura. Pasquale also is somewhat of a stereotype. But Donizetti adds depth to their personalities and the opera is far from just a farce: it has things to say about self-delusion, self-knowledge, trust, old-age, playacting, and people's feelings…
–Robert Levine, ClassicsToday.com

Don Giulio does not want his sons to go anywhere near women until they are 40. Pippetto is young and geeky and seems to have the hots for the maid, Leonarda; the other son, Enrico, already is secretly married to Gilda and they have a baby. The latter two confide in the boys' tutor, Don Gregorio, who hides the charming and seductive Gilda in his room. Leonarda hates Gregorio (he mocks her and reminds her of how old she is) and tells Pippetto to tell Don Giulio that the tutor is harboring a woman. Confusion ensues.

–Robert Levine, ClassicsToday.com

Dedicated by Donizetti to Rubini (the part of the protagonist was written expressly for the famous tenor), Gianni di Parigi is a delightful opera, rich in brilliant music and often very inspired, alternating pages of high virtuoso belcanto singing to others of gentler melodic effusion, already truly romantic, and reaching to the highest levels of Donizetti's comic spirit in the long articulated scene of the two buffi, justifiably the best known piece of the opera.

Lucia di Lammermoor catapulted Joan Sutherland to international fame in 1959. It is a role with which her name is now inextricably linked and one which provides a perfect showcase for her remarkable vocal agility and acting ability. Set in the misty moors of Scotland, Lucia di Lammermoor is based on the novel by Sir Walter Scott. It is a tragic tale of star-crossed lovers separated by a family feud. In Gaetano Donizetti's dark, romantic opera, the forces of hate tear the young couple apart, leading to madness and murder. Richard Greager, Malcolm Donnelly, Joan Sutherland. Directed by John Copley, conducted by Richard Bonynge.

This live recording from Paris in 1972 has two main attraction: the chance to hear a very young - 25 years old, in fact - José Carreras at the outset of his career and, more importantly, I think, the opportunity to hear Vasso Papantoniou, an excellent soprano largely unknown outside her native Greece where she has made her career and who at times sounds uncannily like her compatriot, Maria Callas, especially in the middle of her voice and in her deployment of highly expressive downward portamenti. Her vibrato is faster and, like Callas, top notes can be shrill, be she is a complete artist who obviously impressed the Parisian audience. To hear her at her best either her opening or closing aria will do; listen to her from "M'odi, ah! mo'di" to the end of the opera, where she opts to use the virtuoso aria Donizetti wrote especially for diva Henriette Méric-Lelande and very good she is too.

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.”

Gaetano Donizetti not only was very well acquainted with the Viennese models that then were dominant on the international market; at the latest since his study years in Bologna he had also been familiar with the most important exponents of Italian quartet culture. This is why his string quartets offer valuable insights into his education and early artistic development and are important documents attesting to the existence of a chamber music culture specific to Bergamo. In Quartets Nos. 4-6 conventional and innovative elements combine to form an astonishing synthesis.

Donizetti composed Roberto Devereux during a period of intense creativity. The work had an uninterrupted 10-year run after its première in 1837, before going on to enjoy international success throughout Europe and in the Americas, with versions in French, German, Russian and Hungarian. When Donizetti moved to Paris in 1838, he furnished the opera with the overture that paraphrases the British anthem God Save the Queen. The Queen dominates from her very first appearance, a true protagonist, performed here by the great Mariella Devia: her pure voice, impeccable intonation and great stage presence, all combined with the technical qualities of her voice, led to an extended standing ovation. It was a triumph, too, for Sonia Ganassi (Sarah) and the tenor Stefan Pop (Devereux).

Album notes The exact spelling of the title is crucial here, for this is the original French version of 'La Favorite' written for the Theatre l'Opera in Paris, not the frequently performed but badly censored and edited Italian version, 'La Favorita.' In the tradition of French grand opera, the subject is historical, involving a love triangle in the court of King Alphonse XI in 14th-century Seville. And though it is not regarded to be among the greatest of Gaetano Donizetti's works, it is still his work, and as such, brimming with melody and opportunities for beautiful singing. This live performance features the ravishing voice of Bulgarian mezzo Vesselina Kasarova as Léonor de Guzman, the favorite of the title, and the alert direction of Marcello Viotti, whose Munich Radio Symphony Orchestra is recorded with great clarity and presence, beautifully balanced with the singers in a natural, atmospheric soundstage.

Roberto Devereux (or Roberto Devereux, ossia Il conte di Essex [Roberto Devereux, or the Earl of Essex]) is a tragedia lirica, or tragic opera, by Gaetano Donizetti...