Release Date: 04 January 2000
Label: Naxos - Nxc / Naxos Classics
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 636943470428
Genres: Classical
Composer/Series: DONIZETTI
Description
Gaetano Donizetti(1797-1848): L'elisir d'amore (Highlights)Gaetano Donizetti wasthe leading composer of Italian opera in the short period between the earlyretirement of Rossini and death of Bellini and Verdi's first success with Nabuccoin 1842. He was born in Bergamo in 1797 and had his early musical trainingthere as a chorister under Simon Mayr at S Maria Maggiore. Through Mayr hereceived a very thorough musical training and was able to have his first opera,Zoraida di Granata, mounted in Rome in 1822. There followed a period inNaples, with operas for the Teatro Nuovo there and for the Teatro alla Scala inMilan. It was at the latter opera house that he established his internationalreputation in 1830 with the opera Anna Bolena. He confirmed this successin Milan two years later with the comedy L'elisir d'amore. In his latercareer he wrote again for Naples and, accepting an invitation from Rossini,visited Paris, where French grand opera had an influence on his style.Subsequent operas included a version of one of Sir Walter Scott's Waverley novels, whichbecame Lucia di Lammermoor. Pressure of work, as he set out to followthe example of Rossini, who had been able to retire by the age of 38, brought abreak-down in health, accentuated by an earlier syphilitic infection. He spenta period in an asylum near Paris, eventually returning home to Bergamo, wherehe died in 1848.L'elisir d'amore was written in a remarkably short time, at the requestof the impresario of the Teatro della Canobbiana in Milan, who had been letdown by another composer and now needed a new opera to open his spring season,according to the later account of the librettist's wife only two weeks away.With the collaboration of the librettist Felice Romani, the work was completed,its text based in general on an existing French libretto by Eug?¿ne Scribe thathad been set by Auber and staged in Paris a year earlier. Romani's wife claimedthat the whole work was written within a fortnight, an obvious exaggeration,since it seems that Donizetti had already completed much of the opera somethree weeks before it was to be staged, not to open the season, but to bestaged as a later part of it. The opera was an immediate success, itscontinuing place in international repertoire comparable to that of Donizetti'sother comic opera, Don Pasquale.SynopsisThe first act of L'elisir d'amore opens in an Italian village inthe eighteenth century. Villagers are resting from their work. Adina, who hasthe farm, sits reading, apart from the others, watched by the simple youngpeasant Nemorino. [1] In Quanto ?¿ bella, quanta ?¿ cara (How fair she is,how dear she is) he thinks of his love for her, realising he has no hope, sinceshe is so clever and he is so foolish (Io son sempre un idiota). [2]Adina laughs with delight at the story she is reading, Benedette questecarte! (Delightful pages!), the tale of Tristan and Yseult and thelove-potion that she would like to find for herself.A march is heard and Sergeant Belcore enter
Tracklisting
Dariia Lytvishko
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra; Marin Alsop
Alice Di Piazza; Basel Sinfonietta; NDR Bigband; Titus Engel
Anna Alas i Jove; Miquel Villalba
David Childs; Black Dyke Band; Nicholas Childs
Lully
Zhou:Battersby
Zhou:Battersby
