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DUETS AND ARIAS FROM ITALIAN OPERAS |
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Composer: |
Amilcare Ponchielli, Giuseppe Verdi, Ruggero Leoncavallo, Pietro Mascagni, Gaetano Donizetti |
Artist: |
Giacomo Aragall, Jussi Bjorling, Miroslav Dvorsky, Stefka Evstatieva, Miriam Gauci, Thomas Harper, Raoul Jobin, Janez Lotric, Nicola Martinucci, Anna di Mauro, Lauritz Melchior, Tancredi Pasero, Ezio Pinza, Lily Pons, Rosa Ponselle, Yordy Ramiro, Stella Roman, Bidu Sayao, Eduard Tumagian, Luba Orgonasova, John McCormack, Alida Ferrarini, Louise Homer, Nellie Melba, Antonio Scotti, Giuseppe Valdengo, Salvatore Baccaloni, Lina Bruna-Rasa, Ferruccio Tagliavini, Igor Morozov, Pia Tassinari, Licia Albanese, Beniamino Gigli, Feodor Chaliapin, Frida Leider, Richard Tauber, Leonard Warren, Erna Berger, Jan Peerce, Nan Merriman, Gino Bechi, Maria Marcucci, Giannina Arangi-Lombardi, Ebe Stignani, Camilla Rota, Giuseppe Di Stefano, Frederic Jagel, Iva Pacetti, Mario Basiola, Giuseppe Nessi, Leone Paci, Maria Caniglia, Marian Anderson, Lucrezia Bori, Mario Lanza, Lina Pagliughi, Bo Skovhus, Luisa Tetrazzini, Pasquale Amato, Josephine Jacoby, Karita Mattila, Margaret Price, Fedora Barbieri, Francis Lapitino, Nazzareno de Angelis, Reinald Werrenrath, Titta Ruffo, Tito Schipa, Giovanni Martinelli, Roberto Frontali, Carlo Tagliabue, Benno Ziegler, Jaakko Ryhanen, Hjordis Schymberg, Boje Skovhus, Alzbeta Michalkova, Irra Petina, Carlo Forti, Alessandra Ruffini, Simone Alaimo, Mariangela Spotorno, Ingrid Tobiasson, Maria Zamboni, Richard Wright, Zinka Milanov, Nicola Moscona, Margaret Roggero, Paul Franke, George Cehanovsky, Giuseppe de Luca, Studio pianist, Alan Opie, Dusolina Giannini, Joseph Schmidt, Claramae Turner, Marian Vach, Vittore Veneziani, Ladislav Neshyba, Marina Mescheriakova, Elvira Casazza, Dario Zani, Robert Merrill, Lars Cleveman, Peter Mattei, Bengt Rundgren, Hillevi Martinpelto, Iwa Sorenson, Klas Hedlund, Martti Wallen, Hilde Leidland, Amelita Galli-Curci, Flora Perini, Jozef Spacek, Robert Szucs, Jozef Abel, Ivica Neshybova, Peter Subert, Jitka Saparova, Ingvar Wixell, Dario Caselli, Victoria De los Angeles, Marcello Giordani, Maria Arghiracopulos, Martha Lipton, Thelma Altman, Salvatore Cottone, Stefano Secco, Maria Callas, Rolando Panerai, Nicola Rossi-Lemeni, Tito Gobbi, Maria Amandini, Gianni Poggi, Paolo Silveri, Giulio Neri, Armando Benzi, Piero Poldi, Blanche Thebom, Boris Christoff, Nicolai Gedda, Emil Markow, Vincenzo La Scola, Carol Brice, Indra Thomas, Kristine Jepson, Matthew Polenzani, Mariusz Kwiecien, Mario Sammarco, Meta Seinemeyer, Anna Maria Canali, Mario Filippeschi, Paolo Caroli, Rina Cavallari, Hermann Prey, Elizabeth Campbell, Edna Thornton, Birgit Nordin, Norman Cordon, Rina Gigli, Matteo Peirone, Ebe Ticozzi, Nicola Monti, Renato Ercolani, Plinio Clabassi, Kitty Wilson, Anna Maria Rota, Mattia Battistini, Hao Jiang Tian, Roberta Peters, Lawrence Tibbett, Enrico Caruso, Antonietta Stella, Orietta Moscucci, Elena Nicolai, Elvira Galassi, Luisa Mandelli, Loretta Di Lelio, Adriana Lazzarini, Giuse Gerbino, Giorgio Casciarri, Vittorio Tatozzi, Nicola Zaccaria, William Dickie, Marjorie Heyward, Richard Tucker, Giorgio Tozzi, Lado Ataneli, Renato Capecchi, Arturo la Porta, Tommaso Frascati, Leonardo Monreale, Lidia Grandi, Silvana Celli, Santa Chissari, Andrea Mineo, Hui He, Gino Del Signore, Giulio Scarinci, Ottorino Bagalli, Raymond Keast, Sarah M'Punga, Simone del Savio |
Conductor: |
Landon Ronald, Sten Frykberg, Cesare Sodero, Josef A. Pasternack, Gabriele Santini, Lawrence Collingwood, Will Humburg, Gaetano Merola, Pietro Mascagni, Michael Halasz, Antonello Gotta, Stanford Robinson, Argeo Quadri, Enrico Sivieri, Lawrence Renes, Otto Dobrindt, Pietro Cimini, Victor Trucco, Giulio Setti, Carlo Sabajno, Steven Mercurio, John Barbirolli, Lorenzo Molajoli, Giuseppe Antonicelli, Walter B. Rogers, Rosario Bourdon, Umberto Berrettoni, Renato Cellini, Constantine Callinicos, Thomas Fulton, Sixten Ehrling, Nicolas Braithwaite, Selmar Meyrowitz, Franco Ghione, Frieder Weissmann, Fausto Cleva, Oliver Dohnanyi, Nils Grevillius, Ondrej Lenard, Pier Giorgio Morandi, Ettore Panizza, Alexander Rahbari, Tullio Serafin, Bruno Walter, Johannes Wildner, Charles Rosekrans, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Percy Pitt, Jonel Perlea, Long Yu, Antonino Votto, Alberto Hold-Garrido, Leo Blech, Bruno Seidler-Winkler, Giacomo Spadoni, James Robertson, Gino Marinuzzi, Ivan Anguelov, Wolfgang Grohs, Heinz Wallberg, Giovanni Reggioli |
Choir: |
Hungarian State Opera Chorus, Kiev Chamber Choir, New York Metropolitan Opera Chorus, Slovak Philharmonic Chorus, Robert Shaw Chorale, Milan La Scala Chorus, Rome Opera House Chorus, Stockholm Royal Opera Chorus , Opera Australia Chorus, RCA Victor Chorus, Metropolitan Opera Chorus, Royal Swedish Opera Chorus, CETRA Chorus, Columbus Boychoir, Catania Teatro Massimo Bellini Chorus, RAI Chorus, Turin, Philharmonia Chorus, Bratislava National Opera Choir, Compagnia d'Opera Italiana Chorus |
Orchestra: |
Victor Orchestra, Milan Symphony Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, MGM Studio Orchestra, Rosario Bourdon Orchestra, Royal Opera House Orchestra, Covent Garden, Ukrainian National Opera Symphony Orchestra, Prussian State Orchestra, Stockholm Symphony Orchestra, Stockholm Royal Opera Orchestra , Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, New Symphony Orchestra, Munich Radio Orchestra, RCA Victor Orchestra, Belgian Radio and Television Philharmonic Orchestra, RAI Symphony Orchestra, Turin, London Symphony Orchestra, New York Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Swedish Radio Orchestra, Razumovsky Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Catania Teatro Massimo Bellini Orchestra, Rome Opera House Orchestra, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Nils Grevillius Orchestra, CSR Symphony Orchestra, Bratislava, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, John Barbirolli Orchestra, Hungarian State Opera Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra, Royal Swedish Opera Orchestra, Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra, Berlin State Opera Orchestra, San Francisco Opera Orchestra, Milan La Scala Orchestra , Studio orchestra, Europa Symphony, Compagnia d'Opera Italiana Orchestra |
Lyricist: |
Francesco Maria Piave, Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti, Guido Menasci, Felice Romani, Camille Du Locle, Ruggero Leoncavallo, Joseph Mery, Tobia Gorrio |
Label: |
Naxos |
Catalogue No.: |
8.550684 |
Format: |
CD |
Barcode: |
4891030506848 |
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Duets and Arias from Italian Operas
Verdi's La forza dei destino (The Force of Destiny) was first
performed in St. Petersburg in 1862. Set in mid-eighteenth century Spain and
Italy, the opera deals with the love of Leonora, daughter of the Marquis of
Calatrava, and Don Alvaro. The couple plan to elope, but are surprised by
Leonora's father, who is accidentally killed, and dies cursing his daughter. Don
Carlos, disguised as a student, seeks out his sister and her lover, the former a
fugitive, now disguised as a man. She later conceals herself in a hermitage,
while Alvaro, believing her dead and also in disguise, does valiant service in
Italy, rescuing Carlos from death. In the last act Alvaro has become a monk,
near the hermitage of Leonora. He is discovered by Don Carlos, who still seeks
revenge, and is challenged by him in Invano Alvaro - Le minaccie, i fieri
accenti. The patience of Alvaro, turned monk, is exhausted and the two fight.
Carlos is wounded and help is sought from the hermit, Leonora, whom Carlos has
just the strength to kill, as he dies, thus securing vengeance. The earlier duet
between Carlos and Alvaro, Solenne in quest'ora, occurs in the third act, when
Alvaro is wounded in battle, and asks Carlos to carry out his last wishes and
destroy unopened certain papers he has with him, papers that would reveal his
identity.
Verdi's Rigoletto, first performed in Venice in 1851, is based on
Victor Hugo's Le roi s'amuse. Alter various changes in period, the action
was finally set in sixteenth century Mantua, where the licentious Duke has his
will with women, including the wives of his courtiers. In this he is aided by
the cynical hunchback jester Rigoletto, cursed by one of the courtiers whose
daughter the Duke has seduced. The curse has its effect when it is discovered
that Rigoletto has a daughter, Gilda, prey of the Duke, in disguise, and finally
his victim. Rigoletto's planned revenge, by means of a hired assassin, fails
when Gilda herself is killed, leaving the Duke himself unharmed. In Pari siamo,
We are alike, Rigoletto, accosted by the murderer Sparafucile, who offers him
his services, reflects on the similarity of their situations; both of them are
hirelings. In Cortigiani, vil razza dannata, Vile cursed race of courtiers,
Rigoletto, in anguish at the seizure of his daughter by a band of courtiers,
inveighs against them.
Amilcare Ponchielli is best known today for his opera La Gioconda,
although in his own time he occupied a leading position in the world of Italian
opera. The libretto by Boito is based on the play Angelo, tyran de Padoue,
by Victor Hugo, and deals with the tragic betrayal and death of the singer of
the title, in love with Enzo Grimaldo, prince of Genoa, and desired by the evil
state spy Barnaba. In the first act, set in Venice, Enzo, proscribed in Venice
and therefore disguised as a Dalmatian sea-captain, is recognised by Barnaba,
who observes signs of recognition between Enzo and Laura, wife of Alvise, a
member of the ruling council of Venice. Enzo is pledged to La Gioconda, but had
earlier loved Laura, and Barnaba now offers his assistance to Enzo, seeking his
own revenge on La Gioconda, who has rejected his advances. Enzo, in spite of his
better judgement, accepts Barnaba's help.
L'elisir d'amore, The Elixir of Love, by Donizetti, was first staged in
Milan in 1832. The peasant Nemorino loves Adina, and seeks to further his cause
by drinking a love-philtre sold to him by the quack-doctor Dulcamara. The
sergeant Belcore is Nemorino's rival and when the latter needs more money to buy
a second bottle of elixir from Dr. Dulcamara he persuades him to enlist, an
action which will bring him at once twenty scudi. In the end all ends happily
for Nemorino and Adina, while Belcore is content to try his fortune with other
girls.
Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana, first performed in Rome in 1888, and
Leoncavallo's I Pagliacci, first staged in Milan in 1892, are often
coupled in a double bill. Both operas offer a degree of realism, the first a
village drama of love and jealousy and the second based on an actual criminal
case. Turiddu, once pledged to Santuzza, is in love with Lola, wife of the
village teamster Alfio. In the Prelude to the opera Turiddu sings of his
admiration for Lola. The later scene brings Alfio and Turiddu together. Santuzza,
in jealousy, has told Alfio that Turiddu has been with his wife, and now the two
confront each other and prepare to settle the matter between them in a duel to
the death. In the event it is Turiddu who is killed.
I Pagliacci presents the very real jealousies and loves of actors,
compelled to perform before the public, whatever their feelings. Life intervenes
when the actor Canio, rightly jealous of his young wife Nedda, murders her on
stage, provoked by the machinations of the hunchback clown Tonio. It is Tonio
who introduces the drama with a prologue.
Verdi's opera Don Carlo, with a libretto adapted from the play by Schiller,
was first mounted in Paris in 1867, to be revised and staged in Milan in its new
form in 1884. The drama centres on the love of Don Carlo, son of Philip II of
Spain, and his father's third wife, Elisabetta. Matters are further complicated
by the activities of Rodrigo, eager for the liberation of the Spanish
Netherlands and enlisting Carlo in his cause.
Giacomo Aragall
The Spanish tenor Giacomo Aragall was born in Barcelona and as a child was a
chorister at Santa Maria dei Mar. He embarked on serious study as a singer i at
the age of nineteen with Jaime Francesco Puig and success in the 1962 Bilbao J
Singing Competition won him a scholarship for study in Milan with Vladimiro i
Badiani. In the same year he won first prize in the Voci Verdiani Competition in
Bussetto. After his acclaimed debut at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice in the
opera Gerusalemme and outstanding success in Palermo, he was engaged by
La Scala, Milan, where he sang in La Bohème and L'amico Fritz,
the youngest tenor to make his debut there. Appearances in the other major
Italian opera-houses, followed. In 1965 he sang in Rigoletto at the Verona Arena
and three years later made his debut at the Metropolitan in New York. Since then
he has appeared in the principal opera-houses of Europe and the Americas. He has
recorded major operatic roles for companies that include Decca, Erato/RCA and
Eurodisc.
Eduard Tumagian
The baritone Eduard Tumagian made his debut at La Scala in the role of
Nabucco, under the direction of Riccardo Muti. He has since appeared at the same
opera-house in the first staging of Flavio Testi's opera Richard III in
1987 and in Verdi's I due Foscari and I Vespri Siciliani in 1988
and 1989. He has also appeared at the Opera in Paris, in Lyon, Toulouse,
Montpellier, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Munich, Vienna, Zürich and Amsterdam. He made
his first stage appearance at the opera in Bucharest, his native city, and after
victory in a number of international competitions he was invited to appear at
the Opera of the Rhine in Strasbourg, where he sang the roles of Posa, Germont,
Rigoletto and Scarpia. In 1985 he sang the part of Napoleon in a concert
performance of Prokofiev's War and Peace under Mstislav Rostropovich
which was later recorded. Eduard Tumagian made his American debut in 1986 in La
forza dei destino in Pittsburgh and later roles in America have included Nabucco
under Riccardo Muti in Philadelphia and New York.
Czecho-Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra (Bratislava)
The Czecho-Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra (Bratislava), the oldest symphonic
ensemble in Slovakia, was founded in 1929 at the instance of Milos Ruppeldt and
Oskar Nedbal, prominent personalities in the sphere of music. Ondrej Lenard was
appointed its conductor in 1970 and in 1977 its conductor-in- chief. The
orchestra has given successful concerts both at home and abroad, in Germany,
Russia, Bulgaria, Denmark, France, Spain, Italy, Great Britain, Hong Kong and
Japan. For Marco Polo the orchestra has recorded works by Glazunov, Gliere,
Miaskovsky and other late romantic composers and film music of Honegger, Bliss,
Ibert and Khachaturian as well as several volumes of the label's Johann Strauss
Edition. Naxos recordings include symphonies and ballets by Tchaikovsky, and
symphonies by Berlioz and Saint-Saëns.
Alexander Rahbari
Alexander Rahbari was born in Iran in 1948 and was trained as a conductor at
the Vienna Music Academy as a pupil of von Einem, Swarowsky and Österreicher.
On his return to Iran he was appointed director of the Teheran Conservatory of
Music and took a leading position in the cultural development of his country. In
1977 he moved to Europe, winning first prize in the Besançon International
Conductors' Competition and the Geneva silver medal. In the 1986- 87 season he
appeared for the first time with the BRT Philharmonic and in September 1988,
accepted appointment as principal conductor.
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