Performer:López Cobos Jesús: conductor Casas Bayer Jordi: chorus master Chorus and Symphonic Orchestra of Madrid Zulema - Cantarero Mariola Isabel - Ibarra Ana Gonzalo - Bros José Lara - Ódena Ángel Boabdil - Rubiera David Muley-Hassem - Miles Alastair Alamar - Menéndez David Teatro Real, Madrid, 2006
Media:2 CD
Program Information
Born at the start of the seventeenth century, Italian opera immediately began to spread all over Europe, quickly winning the favour of courts and becoming the most sought-after and highly appreciated genre in vogue. Italian musicians invaded Europe, often provoking complaints from local composers, who soon came round to writing operas on Italian librettos. From the eighteenth century on Italian opera also penetrated Spain, thanks in part to the support of the nobility and the court. As early as the eighteenth century some of the most significant Spanish composers set about composing Italian operas, and some even went to Italy to specialise and pick up the most fashionable composition techniques. This was also the case of Pascual Emilio Arrieta. Arrieta was born to a very poor family in Puente la Reina, in Navarra, in 1823. As an orphan he was given his first lessons in solfeggio and was then sent to the Conservatory in Milan. After completing his studies he wrote an opera on a libretto by Temistocle Solera, Ildegonda, which was performed twice in early 1845. The opera was very warmly received. On his return to Spain Arrieta earned the favour of young queen Isabella II, who summoned him to court in April 1848 to take on the post of ”Maestro de canto de S.M. la Reina y Compositor de la Real Cámara y Teatro”, offering a almost unlimited operative freedom.This was the start of Arrieta’s fortune. With the queen’s support, the young composer had a theatre built in the Royal Palace, the Teatro del Real Palacio, where in October 1849 he staged his Ildegonda. The queen was pleased with the opera, staged at great expense and its success was guaranteed. Isabella then commissioned Arrieta to write a new opera, destined to celebrate a glorious event in Spain’s national history, the conquest of Granada, in 1492 by the Reyes Católicos Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile. As poet-librettist once again the choice fell upon Temistocle Solera, remembered as the author of the libretto of Verdi’s Nabucco; This is how La Conquista di Granata was produced, Arrieta’s second and last opera. A third opera, Pergolese, again on a Solera libretto, was planned but never realised. La Conquista di Granata was first performed at the Teatro del Real Palacio in Madrid on 10th October 1850. Composed in about six months, the opera was quite successful. It was staged again five years later under the title of Isabel la Católica, at the Teatro Real, and on this occasion ran to no fewer than eleven performances, but it was never to be performed again, a situation that was to persist until it was revived at the Teatro Real in Madrid in 2006, from which our edition is taken. La Conquista di Granata intends to offer a celebration of the warrior and Catholic virtues of Isabella of Castile, significantly the namesake of the reigning queen of the day. The opera may rightly be considered one of the most important products of this period. Its musical quality is consistently high, its style absolutely up-to-date, as Arrieta proves that he is fully aware of the Italian opera repertoire of his day, markedly of Donizetti. The score also denotes his ready assimilation of the style of the young Verdi, a composer whom the Spaniard had undoubtedly met during his stay in Milan.
Strong points
This release is a WORLD PREMIERE RECORDING.
La Conquista di Granata had not been performed for 150 years. The rediscovery of this work is an important acquisition for nineteenthcentury opera, the work of a composer of unquestioned European stature, further illustrating the strong diffusion of a genre capable of capturing the attention of audiences and composers the world over. This opera was performed according to the critical edition by Ramón Sobrino and María Encina Cortizo and was staged in the concert version. This cd marks the beginning of the collaboration between Dynamic, Teatro Real and ICCM (Instituto Complutense de Ciencias Musicales) which aims at rediscovering the neglected Spanish musical masterpieces (Soon to be released Elena e Costantino by Ramon Carnicer) ”The performance was faultless from the beginning to the end.” L. Suñen - EL PAÍS ”Mariola Cantarero sings marvellously, her coloraturas are easy and assured and she is careful with the phrasing and dynamics.” G. Alonso - LA RAZÓN ”The Choir and the symphonic Orchestra of Madrid play at a very high level under the baton of López Cobos who is able to conduct this kind of repertoire just like past stars like Serafin and Votto used to.” G. Alonso - LA RAZÓN ”José Bros has become the typical Madrid tenor.his lyricism, his perfect diction and his enviable timbre portrayed a Gonzalo de Cordoba able to revive forgotten emotions.”- EL DIARIO VASCO ”Ana Ibarra is a soprano who enchants for the roundness of her voice and her lyrical and dramatical skills. She sang a perfect Isabel la Catolica and achieved brilliantly the two terrible cabalettas at the beginning and at the end of the opera.” - EL DIARIO VASCO
Track List: CD 1 Act 1 1. Prelude 04’26 2. Oh qual prodigio! 04’19 3. Queste muraglie che ne difendono 01’09 4. Santa Fé, col suo consiglio 05’29 5. Donna, al regal tuo piede 03’15 6. Fra poco le sue porte 00’53 7. Poserem sotto l’ombre più liete 02’10 8. O Lara amico 01’39 9. Io l’odio di quell’angelo 02’46 10. Gonzalo, ahi che favelli! 01’08 11. Molle zeffiro del cielo 04’30 12. Ah, tu piangi, o derelitta 03’15 13. L’udite!. L’udite! 03’13 14. Ancor l’ascolto! 00’58 15. Non avrei su questa terra 05’06 16. Che avvenne?. Ove son io? 01’48 17. Padre?. Un sol figlio avea 05’17 18. Ebben?... Rispondi 04’51 CD 2 Act 2 1. Io sposa ad Alamar 02’43 2. Non più pace, non più posa 02’47 3. L’innamorato principe 01’46 4. Ah! L’ultimo quest’è de’ miei dolor 02’21 5. Donna! Nemico araldo 06’36 6. Oh!, ma fuggi 01’55 7. Cosparse il crin di cenere 04’20 8. Ma di frequenti passi 03’58 9. Sul venerabile tuo crin prometto 03’49 Act 3 10. Ite! Allo stranio umile 03’23 11. Sola, io sola la scintilla 02’43 12. A me Gonzalo! 01’13 13. So che audace, so che indegna 02’36 14. A te prostrato e supplice 02’56 15. Mia Regina!... Or or qui fuori 01’05 16. Prendi, la lama che a te presento 03’17 17. Allha ti guardi! 02’20 18. Qui v’è il sangue ancora impresso 03’13 19. Intermezzo 04’09 20. Ei dorme! 02’09 21. La sposa mia sul culmine 02’54 22. Nella terra di Giudea 05’07 23. Re dell’empireo 02’18 24. Rumor di spade 00’34 25. Hassem, il debito per te funesto 03’07 26. Prodi, abbiam vinto! 03’32
LA CONQUISTA DI GRANATA
