Donizetti, Imelda de' Lambertazzi:  Soloists, Geoffrey Mitchell Choir, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Mark Elder (conductor) QEH 10.03. 2007 (CC)

 

The recording of Donizetti's 1830 opera, Imelda de' Lambertazzi, was the last project on which the late and much lamented Patric Schmid of Opera Rara worked. Of Donizetii's 65 operas, it has to be one of the more unconventional, with no major tenor arias and relatively little florid passage work. Imelda has received very few performances – ever (it was mentioned in the pre-concert discussion this one at the QEH was only its seventh!). Yet it speaks from the heart and, if the plot has a certain déjà vu about it, Donizetti pulls off the heart-rending ending with real finesse.

 

Opting for a period-instrument band – the OAE – meant that textures were frequently lighter and (crucially) more transparent than one might have expected. Brass playing had a certain edge to it (what Roger Montgomery, one of the OAE's horn players, referred to as a 'Mahlerian snarl' in the discussion!) while the use of gut strings brought real intensity to the violins.

 

Set in 1275 in Bologna, there is more than a touch of the Montagues and Capulets about the rivalry between the Ghibellines and the Guelphs. From an overtly political beginning, the opera zooms in on Imelda, daughter of the Ghibelline Orlando (the latter the praetor of the city). Imelda loves Bonifacio Gieremei (the outlawed leader of the Guelphs), who manages a meeting with his beloved through disguise. In a scene with his enemies, he reveals himeslf and proposes the unoin of himself and Imelda as a means of securing peace. Clearly a rash idea, the result is increased discord (and here ends Act 1).

 

Lamberto (Orlando's son) interrogates Imelda, discovering through carefully placed lies that she adores Bonifacio. A letter provides an opportunity for the two lovers to enjoy a final meeing (having now recognised union as an impossibility). However the letter was intercepted  by Ubaldo. Imelda waits, but Lamberto turns up, telling her he has just killed Bonifacio's father. Bonifacio is not far behind in the mortal injury stakes (he is stabbed by a blade dripping in poison); the final scene features a dying Imelda (she tried to suck the poison from Bonifacio's wound). Her father refuses her forgiveness as she finally expires and the opera ends.

 

The opera's very opening had a lightness and brightness about it for which the period instruments seemed directly responsible. There is not really an overture proper here, more a short introduction before the chorus, the superb Geoffrey Mitchell Choir, showed its colours, representing the vox populi. Th role of Lamberto was taken by the Pompeii-born tenor Massimo Giordano, who took a little while to warm up (initially his voice seemed to be lacking in bloom). Brindley Sherratt's bold bass, as Ubaldo, needed no warm-up, though. The first scene is broadly ensemble based, and all credit to Mark Elder for finding the perfect tempi and holding the whole together with seeming ease.

 

Soprano Nicole Cabell, who took the role of the titular heroine, will be known to many for having won the 2005 Cardiff Singer of the World Competition. She has already debuted at the Deutsche Oper Berlin and at The Garden. Her voice is slightly piercing (though not uncomfortably so), her slurs are well-nigh perfect and she emotes her texts well. Every note was present and correct in her roulades, as was an evenness of tone throughout her entire range (Donizetti uses the full soprano range). She even does asides well, differentiating her tone to perfection. A pity her Bonifacio (Canadian baritone James Westman) could not match her. He struck me as slightly weak of voice in his ENO debut late last year (as Germont père in Traviata ), and this showing did little to change that impression. He was better, though, in the politically confrontational third scene as he revealed his identity, but slid back for his Act 2 Scene 2 aria to deliver a musical but gray reading. It was the composer himself who impressed most of all in this final scene of Act 1. This is skillful operatic construction at its finest.

 

The first scene of Act 2 features an interrogation of Imelda by Lamberto. The main ingredient here was the chemistry between the two singers, although perhaps Cabell's cries of 'Barbaro' could have been more heartfelt. It was in the later sections of this second and last act that Cabell really came into her own and stole the show. One could really feel her anguish in the third scene as she discovers the fate of her lover (superb - and equally distraught - clarinet playing here from Antony Pay). Her greatest quality was that she was eminently believable, and so able to provide a stunning and touching end to this fascinating little-known work.

 

Donizetti's Imelda is available in a new recording with these performers on Opera Rara ORC36; there is also a previous (1993) recording available on Nuova Era conducted by Marc Andreae.

 

Colin Clarke