William Charlton-Perkins writes Classical Notes, a regular feature for the media. This one is titled Donizetti Duo
(Left: Sir Mark Elder)
Gaetano Donizetti has always enjoyed prime status in Opera Rara’s excavation initiative. Since the label’s founding in 1970, the label has revived or restored no less than 26 rarities from the composer’s 65 operatic titles. This latest visit to the company’s back catalogue looks at two releases that straddle the eight-year tenure of its former Artistic Director, Sir Mark Elder. Belisario (2013) and Il Paria (2020) both demonstrate the passion and elegance that are signature elements of the maestro’s podium brand.
Belisario
A benchmark product of vintage Donizetti, Belisario was first performed in 1836 - a year after the premieres of Maria Stuarda in Milan and Lucia di Lammermoor in Naples. It triumphed on the world's lyric stages throughout the 19th century, before suffering the eclipse that overtook most of the composer's oeuvre.
Set to a melodrama by Donizetti's preferred librettist, the Neapolitan poet and playwright Salvatore Commarano, Belisario exudes elements of a Shakespearean tragedy. The opera's protagonist, a victorious Roman general, is betrayed by his scheming wife Antonina, who erroneously believes him responsible for the supposed demise of their son.
Blinded, Belisario is banished with his faithful daughter Irene, before being reunited with his long-lost son, whose death Belisario ordered but never implemented after a prophetic dream. Wounded in battle, Belisario dies while his wife begs his forgiveness as the curtain comes down.
The opera has no central love interest, but its scenario is hardly short of ingredients to spark the composer’s inspiration. A notable example is the duet between Belisario and the prisoner-of-war, Alamiro, who turns out to be his far-from-dead son (Tracks 9 – 11). Another highlight is the Sextet (reminiscent of its more famous counterpart in Lucia di Lammermoor) that brings the first part of the opera to a close (Tracks 16 - 19).
Also of note are several arias. An early standout is Antonina's great Scena e Cavatina, Sin la tomba è a me negata!... Ti conforta: dell’eccesso…. O desio della vendetta, superbly sung by Joyce El-Khoury, who crowns her cabaletta with a ringing top D (Tracks 5 - 7). Likewise, the soprano leaves nothing to be desired in the opera’s heart-rending final scene.
Sicilian baritone Nicola Alaimo is commanding in the heroic moments of the title role. He is also deeply affecting in his scenes with his offspring, Irene (touchingly sung by Camilla Roberts). Alamiro, sung by the sweet-toned American lyric tenor Russell Thomas, adds further lustre to a spacious recording that faithfully captures the full-blooded contributions of the BBC Symphony Orchestra and BBC Singers.
With its lavish booklet containing a scholarly essay by Jeremy Commons, along with a synopsis and the Italian libretto accompanied by an English translation, Belisario makes the ideal gift for opera buffs to indulge in hours of blissful listening.
Ditto Il Paria
Ditto Il Paria. Released in a new critical edition by
Donizetti scholar Roger Parker and Ian Schofield, this heralded Opera Rara’s 50th
birthday in 2020, following its studio recording in June the previous year,
prior to a performance at London’s Barbican Centre.
Commissioned for a royal gala premiere at the San Carlo, Donizetti took immense pains over Il Paria. It was the first opera he wrote in his prestigious post of director of the Royal Theatres in Naples. The story is set in and around the Temple of Brahma in Benares, the ancient Indian city where the dead are still cremated on the banks of the Ganges.
The Pariah of the title is ambivalently attributed to Zarete; but it could equally well be his son Idamore (in love with Neala) who, concealing his lowly origins, is a victorious general fighting on behalf of the high-caste Brahmins. The archetypal operatic scenario of relationship crosscurrents and entangled love interests unfolds, all too familiar from later staples such as Norma, Aida, The Pearl Fishers and Lakmé.
Suffice it to note that Il Paria’s score is splendid. The immense care Donizetti poured into its creation is evident in what has been noted as its richly Beethovenian orchestration; in the singular ensembles that end both acts without chorus; in the introduction to Idamore’s cavatina, with its interplay of winds interlacing with the strings in dancing triplets. Another instance crops up as the trombones punctuate Neala’s letter reading, a solo cello ushering in its elegiac cantabile, offset by pizzicato strings.
Ms Shagimuratova is again on riveting form, here in a role that might have been written for her. Witness the rapture of her fading cadences as she relives her dream, exquisitely echoed by clarinet: The singer’s delight IS palpable as she launches into her syncopated cabaletta, with its pristine flights into the ethos, its glittering harp obligato gently undulating in the orchestra, the soprano ending on a blazing high E-flat (CD1 Tracks 5 - 8).
René Barbera, in one of the most demanding roles ever written for a tenor, exceeds all expectations. The consummate elegance he brings to his grand scene and cavatina (CD 1 Tracks 14 – 16) leaves one gasping. Alternating tenderness and a sense of laid-back ease, with a pinging tonal focus in the scene’s opening sections, Mr Barbera launches exultantly in the challenges of his virile cabaletta, with its fiendish repeated descents from a plethora of high C sharps, capping it all with a resplendent top E.
I defy anyone to resist reprising this staggering performance at least three times before moving on. Another winner is Shagimuratova and Barbera’s ecstatic duet (CD2 Tracks 2 – 5) which has one inwardly singing along to Elder’s beat.
The imposing Georgian baritone Misha Kiria brings authority to the title character of Zarete, proving himself up to the challenges a contemporary bass must surmount, following in the footsteps of the great Lablanche.
The Britten Sinfonia and the Opera Rara Chorus join the soloists in responding to Sir Mark Elder’s baton with electrifying immediacy. Enhanced by its scholarly booklet and state of the art technology, Il Paria is another fine tribute to Donizetti, whose reputation continues to flourish thanks to Opera Rara’s championship.
For more information, and to purchase Opera Rara releases, go to: https://opera-rara.com/shopcatalogue
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