donizetti

Han snittade på fem operor om året, inalles 75 stycken. Berömd för sina vansinnesarior slutade Gaetano Donizetti själv i galenskap med ett synnerligen makabert efterspel.

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A smile full of sunshine comes to Seattle Opera with the return of Donizetti’s endearing comedy. The story of The Elixir of Love concerns the adventures of a bottle of Bordeaux; but the music is as sweet and gentle as the lightest possible tiramisù. Seattle Opera Dramaturg Jonathan Dean introduces The Elixir of Love, with musical examples from Seattle Opera’s 1998 archival recording, starring Rafael Rojas and Vinson Cole as Nemorino, Jane Giering-De Haan as Adina, Jason Howard as Belcore, and Julian Patrick as Dr. Dulcamara. John DeMain conducted the chorus and orchestra of Seattle Opera.

Italian conductor Carlo Montanaro was in Seattle, working on our fall video version of THE ELIXIR OF LOVE, when he chatted with Seattle Opera General Director Christina Scheppelmann about Donizetti for an intermission feature that played during a rebroadcast of ANNA BOLENA on “Seattle Opera Mornings on KING FM.”

In this series of podcasts, Seattle Opera Dramaturg Jonathan Dean gives listeners a taste of nine different types of traditional opera. Opera buffa, the beloved old Italian tradition of opera comedy, is what you get by adding music to the even older Italian tradition of improvised (artisanal) comedy, commedia dell’arte. The fools and buffoons of commedia—the sassy wenches, befuddled old professors, suicidal young lovers, dirty old misers, hungry Harlequins, arrogant soldiers, zany servants, and all the rest—found new ways of entertaining us once they began singing gloriously. And with the opera orchestra functioning as a laugh track and adding jokes of its own, opera buffa continues to disarm us and charm us while putting a big grin on our faces. The Barber of Seville and The Elixir of Love are great examples of the genre.

Musical examples on the podcast drawn from Seattle Opera recordings of La Cenerentola, 2013, conducted by Giacomo Sagripanti; The Barber of Seville, 2011, conducted by Dean Williamson and starring José Carbo and Lawrence Brownlee; The Marriage of Figaro, 2009, conducted by Dean Williamson and starring Nicolas Cavallier and Barry Johnson; Così fan tutte, 2006, conducted by Andreas Mitisek; the 1986 Hungaroton recording of La serva padrona, starring Katalin Farkas and Jozsef Gregor, with Capella Savaria conducted by Pal Nemeth; Falstaff, conducted by Karajan and starring Luigi Alva, soloists, and the Philharmonia Orchestra (Columbia 1956); Gianni Schicchi, conducted by Antonio Pappano (EMI 1998); and L’elisir d’amore, Ileana Cotrubas, Geraint Evans, and the orchestra of Covent Garden conducted by John Pritchard (Columbia 1977)

Stay tuned for another podcast introducing another kind of opera next week!

In this series of podcasts, Seattle Opera Dramaturg Jonathan Dean gives listeners a taste of nine different types of traditional opera. Bel Canto Melodrama refers to for serious Italian opera from the first part of the nineteenth century—when opera singing was about dazzling trapeze acts, and opera plots tended toward the wild, far-fetched, and grotesque. Inspired by their newfound obsession with Shakespeare, Europe’s Romantic generation created some of opera’s most enduringly popular works, including Verdi’s Rigoletto and Bellini’s Norma.

Musical examples on the podcast drawn from Seattle Opera recordings of Rigoletto: from 1995, conducted by Phil Kelsey and starring Harolyn Blackwell; and from 2019, conducted by Carlo Montanaro and starring Giuseppe Altomare and Yongzhao Yu: and Seattle Opera Normas, both conducted by Edoardo Mueller, from 2003 starring Sally Wolf; and from 1994 starring Jane Eaglen. Also, Verdi’s Il trovatore conducted by Tullio Serafin (Deutsche Gramophon, 1962); and Rossini’s L’assedio di Corinto, Marilyn Horne conducted by Henry Lewis (Decca, 1973).

Stay tuned for another podcast introducing another kind of opera next week!

Place à l'écoute avec l'ouverture de l'opéra bouffe "Don Pasquale", de l'italien Gaetano Donizetti.

Crédits Générique

Production : Opéra Orchestre National Montpellier Occitanie

Réalisation & Voix off : Chloé Kobuta - Cordes Sensibles

Texte : Audrey Brahimi, Mathilde Champroux 

Enregistrement : Chloé Kobuta & Romain Roux

Mixage : Steve Mahié

Extrait musical :

- Gaetano Donizetti : Don Pasquale, ouverture, interprété par l'Orchestre national de Montpellier sous la direction de Michele Spotti.