Performer:Rivas Mariano: conductor Procházka Pavol: chorus master Orchestra Internazionale d’Italia Slovak Chamber Choir Pelagio - Finucci Costantino Bianca - Polito Clara Abdel-Aor - Formaggia Danilo Giralda - Natale Paola Francesca Asan - Mebonia Vladimer Aliatar - Coletta GIovanni Festival della Valle d’Itria, 2008
Media:2 CDs
PROGRAM INFORMATIONS: Mercadante had lived in Spain, where his operas had been popular and appreciated, and it was here that he had started to think about an opera based on a typically Iberian subject to win the appreciation of the local public: the story of the king of the Asturias Pelagio, who in 718 (or, according to other sources, in 722) defeated the Arabs in the battle of Covadonga. The story have left a strong mark on the composer, for almost thirty years later, in 1855, he entrusted the production of a libretto to Marco D’Arienzo, who had already worked with him writing. First performed at the San Carlo theatre in Naples on 13th February 1857, Pelagio is the last but one of the operas that Mercadante saw on stage but in chronological terms, however, this was his last one.
STRONG POINTS: - World premiere recording - Work of great originality - One of the most successful musical expressions of his artistic maturity
BIOS: Saverio Mercadante The Italian composer studied flute, violin and composition at the conservatory in Naples, and in latter times worked in Vienna, in Madrid and in Lisbon. While Mercadante never attained the international celebrity of Donizetti or Rossini he composed as impressive a number of works as either, and it was he more than they who developed the operatic structures, melodic types and orchestral techniques that provided Giuseppe Verdi with the foundations upon which he built part of his art. Of the sixty or so operas that Mercadante wrote between 1819 and 1857, over a period of almost forty years, very few (about ten in all) are available on CD today; paradoxically some of his instrumental compositions are more popular, including especially the Flute Concertos, well known and internationally appreciated for their lively and constantly pleasant solo scoring. Mariano Rivas studied violin and piano at the Music Conservatory in Oviedo. In 1997 he graduated cum laude at the ”Accademy of Music and Dramatic Arts” in Vienna and was then awarded the Magister Artium in orchestra conducting. From 2000 to 2001 he was chorus director of the Oviedo Opera Festival and conducted a concert for the Verdi Centenary with the bass Yevgeny Nesterenko and the Moscow Virtuosi. From 2001 to 2005 he was assistant director at the Teatro Liceu in Barcelona and to Giuliano Carella at the Teatro Real in Madrid and in Liege; he also was assistant to Marcello Viotti. Mariano Rivas has revised and published the musical score of PELAGIO. In 2005 he conducted the Nabucco, tournee in France and Madama Butterfly in Teatro Bolshoi, Minsk, being the first guest conductor. He has conducted the Spanish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Chorus (RTVE). In 2007 he conducted Tosca and Madama Butterfly with the Frankfurter Symphoniker and Keith Ikaia-Purdy. In 2008 and 2009 he conducted Carmen, Cavalleria Rusticana, The little sweep and La Cenerentola at the Auditorium in Tenerife. Mariano Rivas has worked with reknown stage directors such as Jean Louis Pichon, Giancarlo Del Monaco, Stefano Monti, and Emilio Sagi. Pavol Procházka studied piano and choral conducting at the Zilina Conservatory (1964-1968) and at the Bratislava Academy of Music (1968-1973). During his studies he conducted various choirs, winning first prizes in international festivals. From 1985 to 1990 he was director of the Bratislava Philharmonic Chorus, performing major choral works in collaboration with leading conductors, including Abbado, Conlon, Gielen, Kosler, Lombard, Maazel, Pesek, Prêtre, Rajter, and Lenárd. Pavol Procházka is a senior lecturer at the Slovak Academy of Music and in 2007 was appointed chorusmasterof the Slovak National Opera in Bratislava.
Martina Franca Festival Since it was founded back in 1975, the Martina Franca Festival has always sought to defend the culture of the south of Italy, rediscovering neglected masterpieces by composers trained at the Naples Conservatory, rightly considered one of the most important in the world throughout the eighteenth and early nineteenth century.
Track List: CD1 Act 1 1 Preludio ed Introduzione. O sospirata Gione - Pelagio 4:54 2 Moviamo fra le tenebre - Chorus 3:18 3 In terra solitaria - Bianca 4:12 4 Ah! No non so più reggere - Pelagio 3:30 5 Almen di vaghe - Giralda 1:19 6 Immerso nel silenzio - Bianca 3:43 7 Alla gioia or t’abbandona - Bianca 4:16 8 Bianca, de’ nostri voti - Abdel 1:20 9 Tu tremi, ah sì tu tremi - Abdel 4:33 10 Abdel viva! - Chorus 5:17 Act 2 11 Che rechi?/ Uno stranier chiede parlarti - Bianca/Aliatar 2:45 12Ei fra gli estremi aneliti - Pelagio 3:46 13 Deh! Ti mova questo pianto - Bianca 3:23 14 Ebben! Può ancor rivivere - Pelagio 4:41 15 Asan.../Partì - Abdel/Asan 2:03 16 Non sai che Bianca all’Arabo - Abdel 3:50 17 Già mano d’Iberi tra l’ombre raccolti - Chorus 4:49 CD 2 Act 3 1 Fummo noi i primi - Chorus 3:16 2 Un battello - Chorus 4:22 3 Io non avea più lagrime - Pelagio 2:32 4 Pelagio!/ Che rechi? - Un Gionese/ Pelagio 4:19 5 Ch’ella non osi offrirsi - Abdel 1:29 6 Di sue pietose lagrime - Abdel 3:28 7 Signor!/ Che rechi? - Asan/ Abdel 0:58 8 Chi sei disvelati... - Abdel 2:22 10 Sì Pelagio/ Padre! - Pelagio/ Bianca 5:13 11 Che avvenne? - Abdel Act 4 5:51 12 Ah! Più ferve la pugna - Bianca 3:29 13 D’un infelice oh ciel - Bianca 5:29 14 Preghi/ Ah! Sì - Abdel/ Bianca 0:50 15 Nel sangue arrivi - Abdel 4:54 16 Provocato il ciel istesso - Abdel 3:10 17 Padre al tuo seno - Bianca 3:13
PELAGIO
