OperasCombinadas: CHABRIER: Briseis & BERLIOZ: Cantatas

Se trata de una ópera incompleta, de la que su autor, Chabrier, consiguió terminar apenas el Primer Acto, maravilloso. Ninguno de sus coetáneos se atrevió a componer el Segundo y el Tercero, asustados por la complejidad del encargo. Como a mi las operas de un solo acto me dejan insatisfecho, busqué la forma de completar esta, y la encontré en el hecho de que la historia que contarian los actos 2 y 3 (en los que Briseis, convertida al cristianismo, convence a Hylas de suicidarse después de ella) se adaptaban bien a las Cantatas de Berlioz que tratan de otras muertes y suicidios: el de Cleopatra y los de Orfeo y Sardanapale, asi que, unidos a la Obertura Les Franc-Juges (que refleja el ambiente "cristiano" de la Isla en la que se refugió Briseis y el naufragio que lleva a Hylas a ésta) completan en cierta forma esta estupenda ópera. Por supuesto las letras de las cantatas no se adaptan al 100% a la historia de Briseis, pero es sólo una "sugerencia de presentación"; tú disfrútalas como quieras.

Briséïs, or Les amants de Corinthe is an operatic 'drame lyrique' by Emmanuel Chabrier with libretto by Catulle Mendès and Ephraïm Mikaël after Goethe's Die Braut von Korinth.

It seems likely that Catulle Mendès (who had already provided the libretto for Gwendoline and words for Chabrier's songs Chanson de Jeanne and Lied), saw potential for an opera in Ephraïm Mikhaël and Bernard Lazare's ‘dramatic legend’ La fiancée de Corinthe, and suggested the project to Chabrier. Chabrier worked on the opera from May 1888 until 1893 when his ill-health (paralysis in the late stages of syphilis) prevented any further progress. The first act (which lasts around 75 minutes) was in a finished enough state by the end of June 1890 for Chabrier to play it to Mendès – the orchestration was then completed by the end of September of that year. In 1894 Chabrier asked Vincent d'Indy to complete the work, but it was too difficult to piece together the sketches. Due to illness, Chabrier only completed the first act (of the three projected), which was premiered at a Chabrier memorial concert in Paris on 13 January 1897, conducted by Charles Lamoureux. Chabrier’s heirs asked other composers – including Debussy, Enescu and Ravel – to try to complete it.

The first staging of act 1 took place at the Neues Königliches Opernhaus in Berlin on 14 January 1899, conducted by Richard Strauss. Briséïs is highly erotic and seductively scored music, which Strauss may well have remembered when he came to compose Salome.^[1]

The manuscript is at the Bibliothèque de l'Opéra, Paris. The publication of the score in 1897 included a limited edition with a portrait by Desmoulins, tributes by several friends and composers (Bruneau, Charpentier, Chausson, D'Indy, Lamoureux, Messager and Mottl), as well as poems in Chabrier's memory by de Régnier, Saint-Pol-Roux, van Lerberghe and Viélé-Griffin.^[2]

Goldmark's opera Die Kriegsgefangene (1899) was originally to be called Briseis, although the subject matter is different.^[3]

Roles

Role	Voice type	Premiere Cast, 13 January 1897 (Conductor: Charles Lamoureux)	Stage Premiere, 14 January 1899 (Conductor: Richard Strauss)
Briséïs	soprano	Mlle Éléonore Blanc	Fr Hiedler
Hylas	tenor	Pierre-Émile Engel	Gruning
Le Catéchiste	baritone	Alexis Ghasne	Hoffmann
Stratoklès, servant to Thanastô	bass	M. Nicolaou	-
Thanastô	mezzo soprano	Alba Chrétien-Vaguet	Fr Goetze
First maidservant	soprano
Second maidservant	soprano
Old sailor
Another sailor

Synopsis

Place: Corinth

Time: during Emperor Hadrian's reign.

Act 1

Scene 1

Hylas, in love with Briséïs, wishes to find fortune in Syria but pauses at the house where she lives with her sick mother Thanastô. As Briséïs appears, Hylas invokes Eros.

Scene 2

Briséïs and Hylas swear by Kypris [Aphrodite] to love each other until their last days. Briséïs insists that love must survive death into the tomb. Hylas leaves.

Scene 3

Thanastô implores God to save her to save the souls of the pagans around her, while regretting that her daughter does not share her Christian beliefs. Briséïs while fearful of the temptations facing Hylas vows to save her mother wracked by sickness and pain.

Scene 4

While the servants and Briséïs invoke the pagan gods, the Catechist arrives and prays for Thanastô, telling Briséïs that if she follows him her mother will be saved. Thanastô had promised her daughter to remain a virgin ‘in eternity, a bride of God’. Briséïs submits and follows the Catechist.

DOWNLOAD:
Hyperion 1994: Joan Rodgers - Mark Padmore - Simon Keenlyside - Michael George - Kathryn Harries - conductor Jean Yves Ossonce. Chorus of Scottish Opera, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. 2292-45792-2.

http://www.filestube.com/88b12164e5ed721a03e9,g/Chabrier-Briseis.html

Acts 2 & 3

(Hector Berlioz: Overture Les Franc-Juges) http://youtu.be/HnKSfq9heeo

Después de sufrir un naufragio Hylas arriva al lugar donde Briseis vive en la fe cristiana y, tras encontrarla, le recuerda los votos que ella le hizo ante Afrodita.

(Hector Berlioz: La Mort de Sardanapale)

Briséïs desesperada se suicida, después de pedirle a Hylas que se una a ella en la tumba. (Hector Berlioz: La Mort de Cleopatra) por JESSYE NORMAN

1: http://youtu.be/O-dYClgp_os

2:http://youtu.be/FzlqY6JIfP4

3:http://youtu.be/qRjBpeNUQUw

Hylas aspira el perfume mortal de las flores que Briseis le habia entregado y muere.

(Hector Berlioz: La Mort de Orphée)

En la red sólo he encontrado links para la obertura Les Franc-juges y la Muerte de Cleopatra. Las otras cantatas están disponibles en iTunes o amazon, en un CD de Naxos.

OperasCombinadas: BELLINI & MERCADANTE: Zaira

Dos operas basadas en el mismo libreto, de Felice Romani, que cuenta las desgracias de la esclava favorita del sultán, que sufre una especie de Síndrome de Estocolmo y se enamora del Sultán, contra los deseos del padre y el hermano cristianos, que intentan rescatarla. Al final el Sultán cree que ella le está siendo infiel (cuando lo único que hace es verse a escondidas con su hermano) y la mata. Cuando se da cuenta de su error se mata él también. Un dramón muy bien servido por ambos autores con muy distinto éxito: Bellini tuvo en ella un gran fracaso (era su sexta ópera y fue escrita expresamentre para la inauguración del teatro Regio de Parma en 1829 pero tras el fiasco el pobre Bellini reutilizó bastantes partes en I Capuletti ed i Mosteschi, con mucho mayor éxito). Mercadante consiguió un gran éxito con su "Zaira", pero con el tiempo se desvaneció en el olvido. Los del Sello OperaRara grabaron sólo algunos números de esta Zaira (en una colección de Highlights de óperas que me irrita muchísimo (Por qué no grabarlas completas?).
Asi que tenemos dos óperas incompletas: La de Bellini porque muchos números están repetidos en I Capuletti, y la de Mercadante porque no hay una grabación completa. Pero casualmente las partes que faltan en la de Mercadante son las que Bellini no repitió en I Capuletti (con una excepción), de forma que yo las uno y las escucho juntas, consiguiendo una ópera fantástica... y completa. Os dejo los links de ambas (ya tenéis la versión de la Zaira belliniana de Ricciarelli en otro post del blog, pero yo prefiero esta version en streaming de Ermonela Jaho, porque el audio es mejor, y no se oye al apuntador de fondo). Vosotros escoged cómo escucharlas, juntas, mezcladas o por separado.

Vincenzo Bellini: Zaira.

Streaming Audio

• Vincenzo Bellini: Zaira

Zaira: Ermonela Jaho; Nerestano: Varduhi Abrahamyan; Corasmino: Shalva Mukeria; Orosmane: Wenwei Zhang; Lusignano: Gezim Myshketa; Castiglione: Franck Bard; Fatima: Marianne Crebassa. Orchestre National de Montpellier Languedoc Roussillon. Choeur de la Radio Lettone. Conductor: Enrique Mazzola. Live performance, Montpellier, Le Corum, Opéra Berlioz, 13 July 2009.

Principal Roles:
Zaira, slave of the Sultan	Soprano
Orosmane, Sultan of Jerusalem	Bass
Nerestano, brother of Zaira	Mezzo-soprano
Corasmino, vizier	Tenor
Lusignano, father of Zaira and Nerestano	Bass
Castiglione	Tenor
Fatima	Soprano
Meledor, official of the Sultan	Bass

Synopsis

Act I

A magnificent gallery leading into the Harem; underground hall leading into the prisons; the inside of the Harem.

The beautiful slave Zaira is about to marry Orosmane, the Sultan of Jerusalem; there is a celebration in the harem, and odalisks and eunuchs dance and sing in his honor. The vizier Corasmino sees the Sultan’s decision to marry a Christian woman as an insult to Koranic law, especially at a time when their French enemies are about to descend on them; he therefore intends to prevent the wedding. Fatima, another slave in the harem, asks Zaira how she could have forgotten France and the French warrior who swore to free her, and renounced her Christian faith: but Zaira reminds her that she has had no news of that warrior since he returned to France, and that she now loves Orosmane, who loves her in return . Meanwhile the French knight Nerestano arrives at the Sultan’s court with the intention freeing Zaira: he was himself a prisoner of Orosmane but he was released: he learns however that the woman now loves Orosmane and has chosen the Muslim faith. and that the Sultan intends to release only the French knights who are still in his prisons but neither Zaira nor old Lusignano, a prince descended from the ancient Christian kings of Jerusalem and therefore hated by the Muslims. When they learn this, the prisoners decide to forego their freedom and accept the same fate as Lusignano. Zaira appears with Lusignano, whose freedom she has managed to obtain from Orosmane. By a necklace and a scar Lusignano recognizes Zaira and Nerestano as his daughter and son, who survived the massacre of Cesarea as children and were enslaved by the Muslims. When he discovers that Zaira has renounced her faith and is about in marry Orosmane, he orders her to repent and re-embrace Christianity: Zaira swears that she will do so.

Corasmino alerts the Sultan to the dangers which could arise from Lusignano return to Europe, but Orosmane does not want to refuse Zaira’s request. Meanwhile Nerestano in his turn attempts to persuade Zaira to end her liaison with the hated Sultan, reminding her that her old father is about to die of grief. Zaira does not wish to betray her love and Orosmane’s trust, but in the end she embraces her brother and decides to return to the Christian faith. The Sultan arrives and. when Zaira requests a postponement of the wedding, he suspects that Nerestano is a seducer and orders him. to leave the court.

Act II

Zaira’s rooms; a remote place near the quarters of the French knights; a hall of the Harem; a remote part of the Harem gardens.

Fatima encourages Zaira to forget Orosmane, who is so indignant at Zaira’s refusal that he wants to send her back among the slaves in the harem and find a woman more worthy of his love. Faced with Zaira’s tears, he asks for an explanation which she, bound by her promise to her brother, cannot give him at that moment. Orosmane agrees to wait one more day. Lusignano has died, and Nerestano blames his sister. The French knights ask Orosmane to postpone their departure so that they can comply with Lusignano’s wish to be buried in that land; the Sultan, out of love for Zaira, grants the request and pays no heed to warnings from Corasmino, who suspects that the request conceals a trick and who shows him a message in which Nerestano asks Zaira to meet him secretly. Orosmane is still doubtful and decides to test her: he will however have the secret message delivered to her. Zaira reads her brother’s letter and is torn between torment at having to betray the trust of her beloved and grief over her father’s death, for which she feels guilty. She faints into Fatima’s arms.

In a remote part of the harem gardens Orosmane and Corasmino are waiting to see if Zaira will go to the appointment with Nerestano. The pair arrive and Orosmane, seeing them ready to flee and believing them to be lovers, fatally wounds Zaira. At the revelation that they are brother and sister, he is overcome with grief and kills himself.

Saverio Mercadante: Zaira.

Today, it is Bellini's Zaira that has been seen on modern stages, while Mercadante's has continued to molder in its grave; in the 19th century, Mercadante's was the one that enjoyed success. This recording is the first of a projected series of recordings ("Essential Opera Rara") in which Opera Rara records the major highlights from a particular forgotten work. A fine cast of Opera Rara mainstays, including the Irish soprano Majella Cullagh, the excellent tenor Bruce Ford, and bass Alistair Miles, interprets this interesting work with their usual attention to musical detail and dramatic realism. Aside from the rather disappointing final scene, in which the music does not quite capture the enormity of the tragic ending, the rest of the opera contains remarkably beautiful and enjoyable passages. Zaira's duet with Orasmane, her big tragic aria in the penultimate scene, and the exciting trio in Act II, are all remarkable for their emotional thrust and melodic inspiration. Mercadante's scrupulous attention to orchestration throughout the work is a treat.
The most impressive singing comes from bass Alistair Miles, who is wonderful in the Tamburini role of Orasmane. The difficult (and abundant) coloratura poses no difficulties for Miles, who also uses his voice with great sensitivity to emotion; the tender affection of Orasmane for Zaira, his consuming jealousy, and his remorse and shock after he murders her, are painted with a varied and subtle palette of vocal colors. Almost his equal is Cullagh, whose voice (or so it seems to me) is progressively becoming more at home in dramatic roles such as this. Her rendition of the character's final aria is a tour de force, and proves just how effective Mercadante's music is in the right hands. Bruce Ford and Gary Magee have relatively less to do than Cullagh and Miles, but both sing with their usual consummate artistry. As is always the case with Opera Rara, the presentation of the set is nonpareil, with sumptuous and highly evocative art gracing the box cover and a substantial booklet accompanying the recording.

Orosmane - Alastair Miles
Zaira - Majella Cullagh
Nerestano - Bruce Ford
Lusignano - Garry Magee
Corasmino - Colin Lee
Fatima - Claire Wild
Geoffrey Mitchell Choir

Philharmonia Orchestra
David Parry


CD[a] - - - CD[b]

OperasCombinadas: DONIZETTI / MEYERBEER: Elvida & L'Esule di Granata

Una opera de Donizetti, de un solo acto, y una seleccion de numeros de otra opera del Meyerbeer italiano, ambas con personajes árabes y ambientadas en España y que yo suelo escuchar juntas, porque un solo acto y unas selecciones me saben a poco. Disfrútalas, juntas o por separado.

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Link:

Gaetano Donizetti - Elvida.rar

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Elvida is a melodramma or opera in one act by Gaetano Donizetti. Giovanni Schmidt wrote the Italian libretto. The opera was written as apièce d'occasion for the birthday of Queen Maria of the Two Sicilies. The choice of subject matter was no doubt intended as an elegant acknowledgement of the Queen's Spanish ancestry. Donizetti received little financial reward for the work and, as a result, put the minimum of effort into its composition.

Elvida was first performed on 6 July 1826 at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, but it "made little impression on the audience"^[1]After three performances, the piece lay forgotten until its performances and recordings in 2004

Role	Voice type	Premiere Cast, 6 July 1826 (Conductor: -)
Elvida, a Castilian noblewoman	Soprano	Henriette Méric-Lalande
Alfonso, a Castilian prince	Tenor	Giovanni Battista Rubini
Amur, a Moorish chieftain	Bass	Luigi Lablache
Zeidar, Amur's son	Contralto	Brigitta Lorenzani
Chorus: Spaniards, Moors, and soldiers.

Synopsis

Place: A fortified town in the Emirate of Granada.

Time: The late fifteenth century.

Scene 1

During the struggle for control of southern Spain, Elvida, a noble Castilianlady, has been captured by the Moors. For two months she has been held prisoner by Amur in one of the last remaining Moorish strongholds. However, Spanish troops led by Elvida’s fiancé, Alfonso, are now advancing on the town.

Amur wants to have Elvida put to death, rather than allow her to be saved by Alfonso’s troops. However, Amur’s son, Zeidar, has fallen in love with their beautiful captive and begs his father to give her up to the approaching Spanish, if only to save the town from destruction. Zeidar pleads with Elvida to marry him, but she contemptuously rejects both his advances and his father’s threats. The Moors murdered her father, and Elvida longs for retribution. She is led away to a hidden dungeon.

The Castilian army is now at the gates of the town, Amur recognizes that further resistance is hopeless, but knowing that Moorish reinforcements are close at hand, he is determined to make his escape through a secret passage, taking Zeidar with him.

Scene 2

Alfonso enters in triumph at the head of his troops. Although he is disappointed that Amur and Zeidar have apparently escaped, he is more concerned for the safety of Elvida. One of Amur’s slaves offers to lead him to the cavern where Elvida is being held captive.

Scene 3

Amur intends to use Elvira as a hostage to aid his escape with Zeidar. The two men enter the cavern in which she is imprisoned and try to force her to come with them. Elvida is defiant, and before they can drag her away, Spanish troops burst in. Amur draws his dagger with the intention of killing Elvida, but Zeidar seizes his arm and the troops are able to overpower him.

Amur curses his son for his betrayal, and at that moment word arrives that the Moorish reinforcements have been routed. In a magnanimous gesture Alfonso grants Zeidar his freedom and agrees to spare Amur’s life. There is general rejoicing as Alfonso announces his marriage to Elvida will take place on the following morning.

Meyerbeer, Giacomo - L'esule di Granata (highlights)
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L'Esule di Granata es uno de los títulos más destacados de la etapa italiana de Giacomo Meyerbeer, del que Opera Rara nos propone una selección bastante representativa en una edición de lujo que incluye el libreto integral de la ópera. Giuliano Carella, la Academy of St Martin in the Fields y un gran elenco encabezado por Manuela Custer, Mirco Palazzi y Laura Claycomb contribuyen al atractivo de esta irresistible novedad para operófilos.

FECHA DE PUBLICACIÓN

24/11/2005

INTÉRPRETES

Manuela Custer, Mezzosoprano (Almanzor)
Laura Claycomb, Soprano (Azema)
Mirco Palazzi, Bajo (Sulemano)
Paul Austin Kelly, Tenor (Alamar)
Brindley Sherrat, Bajo (Ali)
Ashley Catling, Tenor (Omar)

The Geoffrey Mitchell Choir
Academy of Saint Martin-In-The-Fields
Giuliano Carella, dirección

CONTENIDO

Giacomo Meyerbeer (1791-1864):

L'Esule di Granata (selección)
Melodrama en dos actos
Libreto de Felice Romani

1 CD - DDD

CD[a] - - - - CD[b]
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Operas Combinadas: DONIZETTI / RICCI: Francesca di Foix & La Prigione di Edimburgo

Una opera de Donizetti, de un solo acto, y una seleccion de numeros de otra opera de los hermanos Ricci, ambientadas ambas en una epoca parecida y que yo suelo escuchar juntas, porque un solo acto me sabe a poco. Disfrútalas, juntas o por separado.

Gaetano Donizetti

Francesca Di Foix

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Link:

Francesca Di Foix

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Francesca di Foix is a melodramma giocoso or opera in one act by Gaetano Donizetti (1831) from a libretto by Domenico Gilardoni, based on Françoise de Foix by Jean-Nicolas Bouilly and Emmanuel Mercier-Dupaty.

It received its first performance on 30 May 1831 at the Teatro San Carlo, Naples.

Seldom performed today, the opera is chiefly known for having provided segments to other Donizetti operas, including Ugo, conte di Parigi, L'elisir d'amore and Gabriella di Vergy although a complete recording exists on the Opera Rara label.

Role	Voice type	Premiere Cast, 30 May 1831 (Conductor: - )
Francesca	soprano	Luigia Boccabadati
The king	baritone	Antonio Tamburini
Edmondo	contralto	Marietta Gioia Tamburini
The count	bass	Giovanni Campagnoli
The duke	tenor	Lorenzo Bonfigli
Knights, bridesmaids, peasants

Synopsis

Time: The Middle Ages

Place: France^[1]

The Count is determined to keep his beautiful wife Francesca well away from the temptations of the French court. Knowing the amorous ways of the nobility he tells them that she is unwilling to appear in public because she is extremely ugly.

Unfortunately this raises the interest of the King who despatches one of his gentlemen (the Duke) to investigate, and if he finds that the Countess is beautiful he must lure her back incognito to court.

Sure enough the Duke is able to persuade Francesco to return to Paris with him. Rather than admit his deceit her husband at first refuses to acknowledge who she is. To force his hand the King announces that a tournament is to be held and the winning knight will be given Francesca's hand in marriage.

The Count can no longer keep up his subterfuge and admits that, driven by jealousy, he lied to the King and his courtiers. After due admonishment by the King all is forgiven and the Count and Countess live happily ever after.

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Federico Ricci (22 October 1809 - 10 December 1877), was an Italian composer, particularly of operas.

Born in Naples, he was the younger brother of Luigi Ricci, with whom he collaborated on several works.

Federico studied at Naples as had his brother. His first big success was with La prigione di Edimburgo, one of his best serious works. He stayed with serious subjects for several years, and of these Corrado d'Altamura was a particular success. However, his last collaboration with his brother, a comedy called Crispino e la comare, was hailed as the masterpiece of both composers, so Federico devoted himself thereafter entirely to comedy.

After another success closely followed by a major flop in Vienna, Federico took an official job teaching in St Petersburg and for 16 years he wrote no operas. In 1869 he moved to Paris, and there Une folie à Rome ran for 77 nights; other French comedies of his — mainly revisions of his own and his brother's earlier works — found some success. He also contributed the Recordare Jesu in the Sequentia to the Messa per Rossini.

Although he did not have his brother's energy, Federico's scores are judged by some to be more skilfully written than Luigi's: for example, it has been said that La prigione di Edimburgo shows a sensitivity towards its subject (from Sir Walter Scott's The Heart of Midlothian) that is rare among Italian operas of the period. He died in Conegliano. His son Luigi, also called Luigino (1852-1906), was also a composer.^[1]

Operas

• Il colonello (also as La donna colonello) (with his brother Luigi Ricci) (1835)
• Monsieur de Chalumeaux (1835)
• Il disertore per amore (with his brother Luigi Ricci) (1836)
• La prigione di Edimburgo (Trieste, 18 March 1838)
• Un duello sotto Richelieu (1839)
• Luigi Rolla e Michelangelo (Florence, 30 March 1841)
• Corrado d'Altamura (La Scala, Milan, 16 November 1841)
• Vallombra (1842)
• Isabella de'Medici (1845)
• Estella di Murcia (1846)
• L'amante di richiamo (with his brother Luigi Ricci) (1846)
• Griselda (1847)
• Crispino e la comare, ossia Il medico e la morte (with his brother Luigi Ricci) (Venice San Benedetto, 28 February 1850, revised as Le docteur Crispin, 1869)
• I due ritratti (1850)
• Il marito e l'amante (1852, revised as Une fête à Venise, 1872)
• Il paniere d 'amore (1853)
• Une folie à Rome (Paris, 1869)
• La vergine di Kermo (a pastiche also containing music by Pedrotti, Cagnoni, Ponchielli, Pacini, Rossi, and Mazzucato, Cremona, 1870)
• Le docteur Rose, ou La dogaresse (1872)
• Don Quichotte (incomplete, 1876)

Frederico Ricci's tale of baby-snatching

(Hay pocas referencias a esta ópera, que a mi me ha encantado. Esta es la crítica de una representación de La Prigione que tuvo lugar en Edimburgo)

'LA PRIGIONE di Edimburgo, which holds a delicate balance between pathos and comedy, might well bear revival". So wrote the late Julian Budden in the recently published New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, in reference to a long-forgotten opera by the 19th century Italian composer Frederico Ricci that translates rather banally, but intriguingly for us in Scotland, as The Prisoner of Edinburgh.

What Budden has to say on these matters tends to be worth listening to. He was one of the foremost authorities on that flowery phase of virtuoso Italian showpiece opera we call bel canto - anything from Rossini to Bellini, Donizetti to Verdi. They, of course, were megastars in relation to the now-forgotten likes of the Neapolitan brothers, Frederico and Luigi Ricci, both of whom enjoyed success in their day, but never quite made it into the hall of eternal operatic fame.

Why? Thanks to Edinburgh Grand Opera (EGO) and its part-reassembly last Sunday at the Queen's Hall of Ricci's Sir Walter Scott-inspired melodramma semiseria, we can make some judgement on that. For other than a 2003 recording of selected extracts by the excellent London-based archaeologists of forgotten works, Opera Rara, this was most likely the first ever live UK performance of La Prigione di Edimburgo since its Trieste premiere in 1838.

The plot is sourced from Scott's The Heart of Midlothian - as, incidentally, is that of the slightly better-known 19th century opera, Jeanie Deans, by the Greenock-born Hamish McCunn. It deals with a case of Edinburgh baby-snatching and the psychological consequences that has on the distraught mother, Ida (wrongly charged with infanticide), and the perpetrator, Giovanna, whose ultimate act of repentance is to scale the inferno of the burning prison tower where she has hidden the baby, retrieve it, confess all, return it to its mother, and promptly die of smoke inhalation.

In La Prigione di Edimburgo, you half-expect the arrival of a latter-day Inspector Rebus to unravel the madness and deceit. As it happens, the male characters - Tom (an unlikely smuggler-turned-prison governor), the Duke of Argyle, his adviser Patrizio, and token tenor Gorgio - turn out to be musical and theatrical small-fry to the maddened outpourings of the two sopranos.

There are good and bad reasons why EGO decided to mount what they believe is the UK premiere of this opera. On the negative side, the amateur company simply doesn't have the funds these days to present the number and scale of productions it once could.

The upside is that creative solutions have had to be found to counter that, which is exactly how the decision to semi-stage Ricci's opera came about. It all started with a chance visit to a junk shop, as the EGO's music director Neil Metcalfe explains.

"Our artistic director Christina Dunwoodie (also singing the role of Giovanna) found references to the Edinburgh connection in some old books, which led to further research via Covent Garden, which in turn led us to the music publisher Peters," he says. "They own the rights for performance, and said they would be happy to make a version we could perform."

The result was well received on Sunday, in a version of the opera that was a semi-staged snapshot of its complete form. Not all the music exists in a performable state, leaving us with a string of salvageable scenes to piece together the convoluted story, the intricacies of which were explained in layman's terms by Donald Maxwell's witty and personable, if occasionally protracted, narrated links.

The staging was a skeletal one, making straightforward use of a multi-levelled Queen's Hall stage and its awful turquoise window curtains, behind which Giovanna hid the baby; while Metcalfe had to make do with a pared-down orchestra that made up for in bare-faced bravado what it lacked in physical size.

But there was nothing makeshift about many of the performances. Susan McNaught's Ida was a vocal tour de force; Christina Dunwoodie's experienced portrayal shone in her maddest moments, even if her lower register was underpowered.

Among the men, Ivor Klayman's Tom was a consummately engaging comic foil, while Peter Cannell's Duke was a reflection of the stoical music he is given. David Hamilton's Giorgio never quite hit the spot, and seemed, at the key emotive moment with Giovanna, to cop out of the climactic high notes. But what a swarthy bunch of Edinburghers the EGO chorus were: lusty, reactive and fully involved.

And what of Ricci's music? It's probably fair to say, from the extant morsels we heard, that it is worthily crafted, generally inoffensive (the rather characterless overture is a bland opener), occasionally thrilling, but subject to featureless hiatuses. The emotive extremes, almost exclusively given to the two sopranos, bring out the best and most original in the composer, and there is a hair-raising surge of electricity in the climactic ensemble that ends Act 2.

We have it on record that Ricci's opera was an instant hit at its 1830s premiere, not least for the furore surrounding the mad scene sung by its original second soprano, Rita Gabussi. But did EGO's revival suggest that a fuller production - assuming all the music is there - might work with an audience today?

"It's not Bellini; it's not Verdi," an even-keeled Neil Metcalfe told me before Sunday's performance. I'm inclined to agree, and doubt whether the sum of its variable parts would add up to a whole that is worthy of a place among opera's immortals.Decide for yourselves when Edinburgh Grand Opera repeats Sunday's presentation in two Edinburgh Fringe performances in August.

Edinburgh Grand Opera repeats its partial staging of La Prigione di Edimburgo in St Andrew's and St George's Church, Edinburgh on 19 and 21 August.

Federico Ricci. La prigione di Edimburgo. Elisabetta Scano. Rebecca von Lipinski.Nuccia Focile. Christopher Purves . Colin Lee Dean Robinson. Nicola Rossi Giordano Dir. Gabriele Bellini. 2003. LINK

Operas Combinadas: DONIZETTI: Rita & Il Campanello

Dos magníficas ópera cómicas de Donizetti en 1 Acto, que yo suelo escuchar juntas. Ambas tratan de infidelidades conyugales, con una música y unas arias estupendas. La version de Rita, de Nuova Era, tiene un sonido inmejorable, aun siendo en directo.

Rita, ou Le mari battu (Rita, or The Beaten Husband) is an opéra comique in one act, composed by Gaetano Donizetti to a French libretto by Gustave Vaëz. The opera, a domestic comedy consisting of eight musical numbers connected by spoken dialogue, was completed in 1841 under its original title Deux hommes et une femme (Two Men and a Woman). Never performed in Donizetti's lifetime, Rita premiered posthumously at the Opéra-Comique in Paris on May 7, 1860

In 1841, while Donizetti was in Paris waiting for the libretto to be completed for a commission by La Scala, he had a chance encounter with Gustave Vaëz, who had co-written the libretti for two of his earlier operas, Lucie de Lammermoor (The French version of Lucia di Lammermoor) and La favorite. He asked Vaëz if he could provide a libretto for a short opera to keep him busy while waiting for the La Scala project to advance. Vaëz quickly created Deux hommes et une femme (Two Men and a Woman), a comic piece in one act consisting of eight musical numbers connected by spoken dialogue. According to Vaëz, Donizetti completed the score in eight days.^[1] However, the Opéra-Comique rejected it and Donizetti then had the libretto translated into Italian for an intended performance at the Teatro del Fondo in Naples. Following the death of the Teatro del Fondo's impresario, Domenico Barbaja, the Naples performance fell through. The score, still unperformed, was found in Donizetti's effects when he died in 1848. On May 7, 1860, twelve years after the composer's death, the opera premiered at the Opéra-Comique with the title Rita, ou Le mari battu (Rita, or The Beaten Husband).

Although not a great success at the time and only sporadically performed in the 100 years following its premiere, it was revived and warmly received first in Rome in 1955 and then at the Piccola Scala in Milan in 1965. In the ensuing 50 years Rita (both in the original French and its Italian translation) has become one of Donizetti's most frequently performed operas.^[2] In 2009 Casa Ricordi published a new critical edition of the score, which restored the original spoken French dialogue and removed the changes which had been been made to the work for its posthumous premiere and in subsequent revivals. The original French version was reconstructed by the Italian musicologists, Paolo Rossini and Francesco Bellotto, from a recently discovered manuscript libretto with autograph annotations by Donizetti.^[3]

Role	Voice type	Premiere Cast, 7 May 1860 (Conductor: - )
Rita, landlady of the tavern	soprano	Constance-Caroline Faure-Lefèbvre
Peppe, her husband	tenor	Victor Warot
Gaspar, her former husband	baritone	Barielle
Bortolo, a servant	spoken role	Jean-Baptiste Faure

Time: 18th century

Place: "The action takes place at an inn on the road from Genoa to Turin."^[4]

At an inn belonging to Rita, the tyrannical and abusive wife of the timid Peppe, the couple finds that their lives are thrown into turmoil with the unexpected arrival of Gaspar, Rita's first husband, whom all believed to have drowned. In reality, Gaspar had run away to Canada. Believing that Rita has died in a fire, Gaspar has returned to obtain her death certificate so that he can remarry. When the two meet, Gaspar tries to run away. Peppe, however, sees this as an opportunity to free himself from Rita's slaps because Gaspar is her legitimate husband. The two men agree to a game such that whoever wins has to remain with Rita. Both try to lose, but ultimately the winner is Gaspar. Yet Rita, who had suffered frequently from the hand of Gaspar, refuses to return to be his wife. Gaspar, pretending he has lost the hand, induces Peppe to declare his love for Rita and his firm intention to remain as her husband. The crafty Gaspar, having achieved his purpose, takes his leave from the reconciled couple.

Link:

Rita

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Il campanello or Il campanello di notte (The Night Bell) is a melodramma giocoso, or opera, in one act by Gaetano Donizetti. The composer wrote the Italian libretto after Mathieu-Barthélemy Troin Brunswick and Victor Lhérie's French vaudeville La sonnette de nuit. The premiere was on June 1, 1836

The opera was presented in Italian at the Lyceum Theatre in London on 6 June 1836 and in English on 9 March 1841. It was also given in in English in 1870. It was first performed in Italian in the US in Philadelphia on 25 October 1861; this production went on to New York three days later. An English translation was seen in that city on 7 May 1917.^[1]

Today, it is very rarely presented.

Role	Voice type	Premiere Cast, 1 June 1836 (Conductor: - )
Serafina, a young bride	soprano	Amalia Schütz
Don Annibale di Pistacchio, an apothecary, her husband	bass	Raffaele Casaccia
Spiridione, Don Annibale's servant	tenor
Madama Rosa, Serafina's aunt	mezzo-soprano
Enrico, Serafina's cousin	baritone	Giorgio Ronconi

Time: Early 19th century

Place: Naples^[2]

Don Annibale Pistacchio, an old apothecary, has just married the young Serafina. Enrico, Serafina's former lover, constantly interrupts the wedding night by showing up in several disguises and calling at Pistacchio's drugstore by ringing the night bell, asking the unfortunate groom to fill a preposterous list of prescriptions.

Serafina - Agnes Baltsa
Don Annibale Pistacchio - Enzo Dara
Spiridione - Carlo Gaifa
Madama Rosa - Biancamaria Casoni
Enrico - Angelo Romero

Vienna State Opera Chorus
Vienna Symphony Orchestra
Gary Bertini


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CD