Performer:Korsten Gérard: conductor Orchestra and Chorus of the Teatro Lirico di Cagliari Enrico - Stoyanov Vladimir Lucia - Devia Mariella Edgardo - Sabbatini Giuseppe Arturo - Nacoski Blagoj Raimondo - Colombara Carlo Alisa - Pinti Damiana Normanno - Cossutta Enrico Teatro Lirico, Cagliari, 2004
Media:2 CDs
- Lucia di Lammermoor is one of the great masterpieces of musical literature, one of the world’s most famous operas and wholly deserves its celebrity. In this work Donizetti blends the best of his own creative drive, of his feeling for the theatre and skill as a composer, backed by 17 years’ experience and no fewer than 43 previous operas. - Written in the space of just a few weeks, it was first staged in Naples in 1835 and since that date has never disappeared from the repertoire. An authentic ”temple” of bel canto, Lucia is vocally a very demanding opera. - Although this was not Donizetti’s first great success in the ”serious” genre, Lucia (unlike Anna Bolena and Lucrezia Borgia) is nonetheless part of the more traditional repertoire and still today regularly enjoys world success. There are several reasons for this ability to remain up to date: on the one hand the opera’s great melodic fascination, rich in ”tunes” of sincere inspiration (especially those dedicated to the two lovers) which aptly sustain the dramatic situation and the psychology of the characters; on the other the clarity with which the plot unfolds, a simple story indeed yet one that succeeds in generating highly efficacious situations. But perhaps what really dominates is the belcanto, as a vocal and thus also virtuoso aspect. This is achieved through orchestration that is rather simple but always in line with what happens on the stage, especially through the precious solo interventions - Lucia’s madness scene is considered the madness scene par excellence, known both for the famous cadenza in which the soprano duets with the flute in an extraordinary and very difficult series of trills (not composed by Donizetti but already in use in the nineteenth century), and for the skill with which the composer exploits all the expressive possibilities of the music of his time: recitative passages that are almost declaimed, then accompanied, cantabile insertions, trills, scales, picchettato passages, ranging across the entire gamut of the vocal resources of the soprano voice. Vocal virtuosity, in short, becomes a clear sign of Lucia’s mental instability. This is a piece which recently stirred the fantasy of an artist like Luc Besson, who used it in his film The Fifth Element.
- The cast assembled for this live recording at the Teatro Lirico in Cagliari boasts one of the finest foursomes that could ever be found for this type of repertoire: Mariella Devia has been a benchmark Lucia for years and one of the finest bel canto singers to be heard in opera houses today; Giuseppe Sabbatini - who began his splendid career in the role of Edgardo - is a co-star of outstanding vocal and expressive calibre. In the other roles we find the Bulgarian baritone Vladimir Stoyanov as the terrible Enrico, and the famous bass Carlo Colombara in the role of Raimondo. - In 2000 this production was awarded the Abbiati Prize from the Critica Musicale Italiana for the direction.
”Essenziale eppur di penetrante emotività, la Lucia di Mariella Devia brilla di una fiamma interna che si riflette in un canto denso di palpiti, di trasalimenti, di rassegnata e straziante malinconia. Davvero splendida.” N. Salmoiraghi, L’OPERA
”Il tenore Giuseppe Sabbatini, un Edgardo sensibile, appassionato, vocalmente raffinato, ottimo cesellatore di note e in possesso di nobile fraseggio e di tecnica vocale agguerrita”. L. Visconti, GLI AMICI DELLA MUSICA
Track List: CD1 Part one - Single Act 01 Preludio/Percorrete le spiagge vicine 5:07 02 Tu sei turbato/E ne ho ben donde 2:48 03 Cruda funesta smania 4:07 04 La pietade in suo favore 1:48 05 Ancor non giunse 4:53 06 Regnava nel silenzio 4:22 07 Quando rapito in estasi 4:39 08 Egli s’avanza 6:01 09 Qui di sposa eterna fede 2:39 10 Verranno a te sull’aure 5:25 Part two - Act One 11 Lucia fra poco a te verrà 3:37 12 Appressati Lucia 5:23 13 Soffriva nel pianto 5:10 14 Se tradirmi tu potrai 2:23 15 Ebben?/Di sua speranza 2:13 16 Ah! Cedi o più sciagure 4:33 Total Running Time 65:15 CD2 01 Per te d’immenso giubilo 3:13 02 Dov’è Lucia?/Qui giungere 3:58 03 Chi mi frena/Chi raffrena 3:41 04 T’allontana sciagurato 5:31 Part two - Act Two 05 Si tuona o cielo 2:43 06 Qui del padre ancor respira 5:38 07 D’immenso giubilo 1:38 08 Cessi ah cessi quel contento 6:25 09 Il dolce suono mi colpì 12:46 10 S’avanza Enrico 2:50 11 Spargi d’amaro pianto 4:37 12 Tombe degli avi miei 4:34 13 Fra poco a me ricovero 4:11 14 Oh meschina 4:09 15 Tu che a Dio spiegasti l’ali 5:15 Total Running Time 71:16
LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR
