Domenico Barbaja (1777 - 1841) was the most influential opera
impresario of the 19
th century. He was also, to quote the liner
notes, ‘a casino mogul, an illiterate loudmouth and a cantankerous
bully’. First and foremost he was a businessman and he saw the
financial potential in opera. Though he promoted composers and singers, who
without him might never have made a career, it was obviously not with
artistic results in mind, but money. However, he launched some of the great
composers of the early 19
th century and this disc introduces us
to excerpts from some of their works, culled from complete recordings in the
Naxos catalogue and in a couple of cases from recital discs. The liner-notes
are by Philip Eisenbeiss, who is also the author of
Bel Canto Bully: The
life and times of the legendary opera impresario Domenico Barbaja, which
was published by Haus Publishing, London, in 2013.
The excerpts on this disc are a bit variable when it comes to the
execution but generally the selections give a fairly good picture of the
composers Barbaja promoted. The overture from
La gazzetta which opens
the disc is no doubt the best known number from this opera, primarily
because Rossini re-used it for
La Cenerentola a year later. The
composer was only 24 but had already seventeen operas behind him, the most
recent being
Il barbiere di Siviglia, which had been premiered in
Rome in February 1816 and
La gazzetta went over the stage in Naples
in September the same year. He found time to write a third opera that same
year,
Otello, premiered in December. The source for the libretto is
Shakespeare’s tragedy but it differs quite a lot from the original -
and also from Verdi’s masterpiece from 1887. Rodrigo, who is a
secondary character
chez Verdi is in the Rossini opera a front-runner
and is allotted some of the most demanding music in the work. His act II
aria, which is heard on this disc, amply demonstrates this. Filippo Adami
negotiates the coloratura more than acceptably and he sings with a great
deal of nuance but his tone is hard and un-ingratiating. Desdemona’s
Willow Song is probably the best known number in the opera, delicate with
the opening harp solo and Jessica Pratt sings it beautifully.
A couple of years later
Mosè in Egitto was first seen,
also in Naples. The Biblical theme and the layout of the work make it
half-oratorio. It ends with the parting of the Red Sea and the drowning of
the Egyptian soldiers, but the machinery of the theatre was so clumsy that
the scene ‘elicited howls of derision’ from the audience. It was
still a success and for the next season Rossini revised it a little and
added the famous prayer, which is heard on this disc (tr. 4). Lorenzo
Regazzo is a noble Mosè and the other soloists are also good, but it
is the chorus that is the main protagonist here and they sing very well.
La donna del lago was the first Italian opera based on Walter
Scott, and it was influential on the development of the romantic opera, so
much so that within twenty years there were 25 other Scott operas, the most
famous,
Lucia di Lammermoor.
La donna was a great success and
was played all over Europe and also in South-America for the next forty
years. Uberto’s long second act aria
Oh fiamma soave
(tr. 5) opens with a beautiful horn solo before the tenor makes his
entrance. He is Maxim Mironov and he is an excellent
bel canto
singer: light, effortless and with fluent coloratura. He was only 25 when
the complete set, from which the aria is culled, was recorded.
Tanti
affetti, Elena’s aria, is the sole number that is widely known
from this opera and it is well sung by Sonia Ganassi, whose Rosina in the
Naxos recording of
Il barbiere di Siviglia has acquired classic
status.
Maometto II didn’t please the Naples audiences and
Rossini then revised it to please Venice and Paris. Calbo’s aria
Non temer is one of the best things in the work and as sung here it
stands out as possibly even better than it is. This aria is from a studio
recital with Rossini arias from the mid-1990s with the remarkable Polish
mezzo Ewa Podles. Hers is a voice with exceptional beauty paired with
stunning technique and deeply emotional expression. There are many good
things on this disc but this track surpasses everything else. The whole
recital is one of the best Rossini collections ever and is well worth
seeking out. A glorious end to the Rossini section of this disc.
Carl Maria von Weber’s
Euryanthe is brimful with
marvellous music but the clumsy libretto has made it a rare guest in the
opera houses. The overture, on the other hand, has become a popular opening
number in orchestral concerts. No wonder - it is a masterpiece with supreme
contrapuntal writing.
Bellini’s
Il pirata was his third opera and his first
for Teatro alla Scala. Barbajo arranged for him to have Felice Romani as
librettist and Giovanni Battista Rubini, the leading tenor of the day, as
Gualtiero. Rubini had a wide-ranging voice that effortlessly reached d and
even f above the high c. This makes it difficult to find singers for the
Rubini roles today. Marcello Giordani has the range for the aria (tr. 9-10)
but he sounds uncomfortable.
Roberto Devereux was the third of the three Donizetti operas
portraying British queens, the two earlier being
Anna Bolena (1830)
and
Maria Stuarda (1835).
Roberto Devereux was first staged at
the San Carlo, Naples in 1837 and was regarded as on a par with
Lucia di
Lammermoor. Technically demanding the arias from act III have had few
better interpreters in latter years than the Greek soprano Dimitra
Theodossiou. She is especially impressive considering that this is a live
recording and we have reached the end of a very strenuous opera. If nothing
else she shows her mastery in floating a high pianissimo.
Saverio Mercadante is the least known of the composers here and much
of what he wrote is today forgotten. He wrote much: almost sixty operas to
begin with - among them an
Amleto (1822) - and possibly more
instrumental works than any of his contemporaries. Many of his operas were
performed throughout the 19
th century and some received far more
performances than those of Verdi’s early productions.
Elena da
Feltre which was his 43
rd, was premiered in January 1839 -
Verdi debuted with
Oberto in November the same year - and was
regarded as advanced for its time. The aria from the first act begins with a
long beautiful flute solo, which reminds me that Mercadante wrote a number
of concertos for flute and string orchestra. The aria is well shaped and
Monica Colonna sings it well.
This is quite an interesting concept for a compilation disc and
there are enough good things here to make it a good buy.
Göran Forsling
