Gaetano DONIZETTI (1797–1848)
Belisario - tragedia lirica (1836)
Giustiniano - Simon Lim (bass); Belisario - Roberto Frontali (baritone); Antonina - Carmela Remigio (soprano); Irene - Annalisa Stroppa (mezzo-soprano); Alamiro - Celso Albelo (tenor); Eudora - Anaïs Mejías (soprano); Eutropio - Klodjan Kacani (tenor); Eusebio - Stefano Gentili (bass); Ottario - Matteo Castrignano (tenor), Un centurione – Piermarco Viña Mazzoleni
Orchestra e Coro Donizetti Opera/Riccardo Frizza
rec. live, 21 November 2020, Teatro Donizetti Bergamo, Italy
Italian libretto with English translation
DYNAMIC CDS7907.2 [61:28+ 65:22]
It is surely not too controversial to assert that Donizetti wrote too many operas – around 75, depending on how you count them. Some have proved to be enduring masterpieces, while others have deservedly fallen into desuetude. Among those undisputed masterpieces are Lucia di Lammermoor, Anna Bolena and Maria Stuarda and a trio of lighter comic gems in L'elisir d'amore, La fille du regiment and Don Pasquale. A few more linger on the edges of the operatic repertoire and are occasionally revived, such as Lucrezia Borgia, Roberto Devereux, La favorite, Poliuto…and maybe Belisario? Hardly; despite a triumphant premiere and holding the stage for 28 performances, it soon dropped out of circulation. Perhaps it fell out of favour because it has no romantic love interest or maybe it was just musically much less inspired than Lucia, which it directly followed; either way, it is
still a great bel canto vehicle for an accomplished artist, as Leyla Gencer shows in the impressively cast live recording on Opera d’Oro, which is in surprisingly good stereo sound, features renowned co-singers Giuseppe Taddei and Nicola Zaccaria and serves as my main reference for comparison to this new issue on the Dynamic label.
The recording was made at a concert performance without audience. Apparently Plácido Domingo had initially agreed to sing the title role but withdrew for health reasons and somewhat younger veteran Roberto Frontali stepped in, for which I am grateful, as I have not much enjoyed Domingo’s recent excursions into the baritone repertoire. The rum-ti-tum overture – rather upbeat for such a dark tale – is played con gusto and the listener is immediately made aware of the crispness and clarity of the digital sound here, so detailed and unobscured that we can hear the pages of the musicians’ scores being turned. We are told that the chorus sang masked; fortunately, that does not appear to have hampered their projection and they instantly pick up on the enthusiasm the orchestra has shown in the overture. Indeed, Riccardo Frizza directs a truly taut, vivacious performance.
However, if I have any regular readers, they will be aware of my number one gripe concerning modern singers - and sure enough, the first solo voice we hear sets my teeth on edge with its painfully obtrusive wobble which is not a legitimate vibrato. You have only to turn to the sopranos who sing Irene on the live Opera d’Oro or Opera Rara recordings to hear singers who make a properly produced sound; admittedly, Mirna Pecile has a vibrato on the fast side but she evinces a neat beauty of tone which eludes the blowsy, clumsy singer here, who has a large voice but little allure; I had already had enough after her opening aria, but I persevered as was my duty, only immediately to encounter yet another wobbler in the person of the soprano who sings Antonina. The beat which disturbs her line is unendurable to my ears. What is going
on in the conservatories? Gencer had her technical faults, including a repeated glottal catch or break but she was also a singer of exquisite, floating delicacy, capable of far more subtlety than we hear from Carmela Remigio
We next hear Korean bass Simon Lim, grainy and labouring somewhat as the Emperor Justinian; turn to Alastair Miles for Sir Mark Elder, or, better still, Nicola Zaccaria for Gavazzeni for something more tonally imposing. The entrance of Frontali injects a bit of class. He may be in his early sixties and a little shake is setting in, but his lean, incisive baritone is still in reasonably good shape after a long career. He rises to the big moments such as his outrage at being falsely accused at the end of Part 1, but for spine-tingling drama and nobility of voice, listen to Giuseppe Taddei exalting his music to a new level, just as his contemporary Gobbi could do. There is simply no comparison between the admittedly slightly rough and ready performance under Gavazzeni and this recent performance from Bergamo, especially when we consider that Taddei is partnered by one of the great singing actresses of the mid-20C in Gencer who not only had a stunning voice but lashings of temperament. Gavazzeni’s two tenors in the smaller roles are superior, too; neither of the tenors here has a voice which falls gratefully on the ear.
It is precisely that sense immediacy and the atmosphere of an inspired live performance which is lacking in the otherwise decent, smoothy sung but expensive Opera Rara set, and Simone Alaimo as Belisario hasn’t Taddei’s vocal or dramatic charisma. If you want to hear this unusual opera, I advise seeking out the 1969 performance from Venice. Its timing is nine minutes shorter than this new release but only six minutes less than the Opera Rara version; as I do not have a score, I cannot tell you if that is due to any cuts or just the pace of a live performance. I can, however, assure you that whatever you might lose in terms of sound or score will be immeasurably compensated for by the visceral thrill of the account delivered by the starry team under Gavazzeni’s direction, so much better sung than this latest version from Dynamic.
Ralph Moore
