The year 1842
was an unusually good one for new operas. On March 9 La Scala
launched Verdi’s break-through work Nabucco, on October
20 the Court Opera in Dresden premiered Wagner’s Rienzi,
December 9 saw the first performance of Ruslan and Ludmila
in St. Petersburg and the last day of the year Altes Theater
in Leipzig showed Lortzing’s Der Wildschütz, all of
them works that can be seen at times even today. In between,
on 19 May Donizetti’s Linda di Chamounix had had its
premiere at the Kärntnertortheater in Vienna and was a tremendous
success, the composer himself conducting. The Emperor immediately
named him Court Composer and Court Kapellmeister and the Empress
handed over a scarf on which she had personally embroidered
in gold “The Empress of Austria to Donizetti on the night
of May 19 1842 for the opera Linda”. The opera played
all over Europe, even as far away as Finland, but eventually
it disappeared, as did most of Donizetti’s 70+ operas - the
exact number is difficult to clarify exactly since he tended
to rework many of his compositions, sometimes to such a degree
that they could be seen as new works. After Linda he
only wrote four new operas, Caterina Cornaro, Don Pasquale,
Maria di Rohan and Dom Sébastien.
‘Melodramma in
tre atti’ says the libretto, sometimes it is named ‘opera
semi-seria’, since it is not a tragedy – it has a happy end.
It even includes a genuine buffo role, the evil character
of the play, Marchese, since it in those days was impossible
in Vienna to portray an aristocrat as a crook.
The story:
Act I: ‘The Departure from Chamounix’ Antonio, a poor
farmer has asked the Marchese for help. The latter contemplates
employing his daughter Linda as a maid but wants to see her
first. Linda is secretly in love with Carlo, a poor painter,
who actually is the Visconte di Sirval, a relative of the
Marchese’s. Pierotto, a friend of Linda’s from her youth,
sings a sad song about a girl who is betrayed by her lover
and Linda gets suspicious about Carlo’s intentions. The prefect
warns Antonio about the Marchese and asks him to send Linda
to a factory in Paris. Act II:’Paris’ Linda
lives in a luxurious flat, owned by Carlo, whom she knows
is the Visconte. He wants to marry Linda, but his mother wants
him to marry another woman. Pierotto comes and tells Linda
about the preparations for Carlo’s wedding and Linda goes
mad. Act III: ‘The Return to Chamounix’ Pierotto has
brought Linda back to her home village and everybody is distressed
about her state of mind. She doesn’t recognize anybody, not
even her mother. Carlo arrives, having finally talked himself
out of the planned wedding and persuades his mother to accept
his marrying Linda. By singing a song from their happy time
together he manages to bring her back to her former self and
all involved rejoice.
The action takes
place in the 1760s. Here the director Daniel Schmid has set
the story more or less as a picture book with stylized backdrops
and inventive lighting. In the first and last act the Alps
are suggested in the background, while the Paris act is set
in a suitably luxurious state-room, where a host of servants
are busy doing their chores in the background. Sometimes he
uses projections, for example when Pierotto tells Linda about
Carlo’s wedding preparations. In spite of the dramatic occurrences
the performance feels rather static, but it comes to life
in the buffo episodes with the Marchese and there are some
lively choruses. Long stretches of the play are also shown
in over-views and at ‘half-distance’ which means that we do
not make contact with the characters. Deon van der Walt as
Carlo has fine stage presence and Armando Ariostini creates
an excellent dramatic portrait of Linda’s father. Cornelia
Kallisch is a lively and charming actor in the trouser-role
of Pierotto. As for Edita Gruberova she is mostly either sad
or mad and she acts accordingly – not a deep portrait maybe
but quite touching. Jacob Will makes the most of the comic
opportunities as Marchese while the wonderful basso cantante
László Polgár is fully satisfied standing upright with arms
along the sides whatever the emotions, but pouring out bel
canto singing of the highest order.
And the singing
is the best reason to get this set – and of course the music,
which to a great extent will probably be unknown to most listeners.
Suffice to say that it is – mostly – top-drawer Donizetti
and that is a recommendation in itself. One also notices some
inventive patches of orchestration. The most well-known music
– to me, at least – was Antonio’s first act aria Ambo nati
in questa valle (DVD1 Ch. 6) well sung by Armando Ariostini.
Readers who own the Donizetti recital from the late 1970s
with Renato Bruson, once available in Decca’s ‘Grandi voci’
series, will recognise it at once, and Linda’s O luce di
quest’anima (DVD1 Ch. 12) has been recorded by many coloratura
sopranos through the ages. Edita Gruberova is in her element
here with that perfect trill and the same ability as Montserrat
Caballé to scale down to that ravishing pianissimo without
losing the quality of tone. The aria creates a furore lasting
– it seems – several minutes. She has many opportunities to
show her capacity and vocally this is a tour de force. Cornelia
Kallisch also makes a very favourable impression while Jacob
Will is more character singer than bel canto-ist. Deon van
der Walt, recently sadly deceased in a shooting accident,
was a very fine Mozart singer but his light lyrical voice
has enough power to make him a good Donizetti singer too and
with his good taste he never presses more than what is good
for him. A very convincing interpretation.
Adam Fischer leads
a well-paced performance and the sound and picture quality
cannot be faulted. There are plentiful index-points for easy
access to individual numbers and since this is the only DVD
available of the opera it is self-recommending. Sound recordings
have also been few and far between: a Cetra set from 1951
with Margherita Carosio, a Philips set from 1959, conducted
by Tullio Serafin and with Antonietta Stella as Linda (it
was available in the ‘Opera Collector’ series on CD), which
was also the case with a live performance from La Scala (1872),
Gavazzeni conducting, Margherita Rinaldi singing Linda and
‘dream couple’ Alfredo Kraus and Renato Bruson as Carlo and
Antonio. In 1993 Nightingale recorded it in Stockholm with
Gruberova (as here) and Monica Groop as Pierotto. Finally
there was an Arts set (1994) with Mariella Devia and Luca
Canonici. Unfortunately I haven’t heard any of these and I
also missed the concerts in Stockholm where the Nightingale
set was recorded.
With good singing
and in some cases inspired acting this DVD-only version of
Linda can be safely recommended.
Göran Forsling
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Edita
Gruberova (soprano) – Linda; Deon van der Walt (tenor) – Carlo, Visconte
di Sirval; Jacob Will (bass) – Il Marchese di Boisfleury; László Polgár
(bass) – Il Prefetto; Armando Ariostini (baritone) – Antonio, padre di
Linda; Nadine Asher (mezzo-soprano) – Maddalena, madre di Linda; Cornelia
Kallisch (mezzo-soprano) – Pierotto; Miroslav Christoff (baritone) – L’Intendente
del feudo
