100 Years of Italian Opera: 1800-1810
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: (Johannes) Simon Mayr, Giovanni Paisiello, Ferdinando Paer, Pietro Generali, Vincenzo Righini, Niccolò Antonio Zingarelli, Stefano Pavesi, Valentino Fioravanti, Vincenzo Lavigna, Francesco Gnecco, Luigi Mosca, Vincenzo Pucitta (Puccitta), Giuseppe Nicolini, Peter von Winter, Marco Portogallo, Joseph Weigl, Domenico Cimarosa
Label: Opera Rara
Magazine Review Date: 9/1997
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 181
Catalogue Number: ORCH101
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| (Li) Sposi in Cimento, Movement: Alto là, alto là! ... Se non avete in seno ( |
Luigi Mosca, Composer
Alexandra Mercer, Mezzo soprano Beryl Korman, Soprano David Parry, Conductor Kevin John, Tenor Luigi Mosca, Composer Philharmonia Orchestra Roderick Earle, Bass Russell Smythe, Baritone Sandra Dugdale, Soprano |
| (L')Italiana in Algeri |
Luigi Mosca, Composer
David Parry, Conductor Della Jones, Mezzo soprano Luigi Mosca, Composer Philharmonia Orchestra Russell Smythe, Baritone |
| Artemisia, Movement: Ti calma ... Tremante, confusa |
Domenico Cimarosa, Composer
Alexander Oliver, Tenor David Parry, Conductor Domenico Cimarosa, Composer Eiddwen Harrhy, Soprano Nan Christie, Soprano Philharmonia Orchestra Roderick Earle, Bass |
| (I) Baccanali di Roma |
Giuseppe Nicolini, Composer
David Parry, Conductor Giuseppe Nicolini, Composer Philharmonia Orchestra Yvonne Kenny, Soprano |
| Trajano in Dacia |
Giuseppe Nicolini, Composer
(Geoffrey) Mitchell Choir David Parry, Conductor Diana Montague, Mezzo soprano Giuseppe Nicolini, Composer Marilyn Hill Smith, Soprano Philharmonia Orchestra Robin Leggate, Tenor Roderick Earle, Bass |
| Achille |
Ferdinando Paer, Composer
David Parry, Conductor Ferdinando Paer, Composer Ian Caley, Tenor Philharmonia Orchestra Russell Smythe, Baritone |
| Sargino, ossia L'allievo dell'amore |
Ferdinando Paer, Composer
David Parry, Conductor Ferdinando Paer, Composer Keith Lewis, Tenor Philharmonia Orchestra |
| Sofonisba |
Ferdinando Paer, Composer
David Parry, Conductor Diana Montague, Mezzo soprano Ferdinando Paer, Composer Keith Lewis, Tenor Philharmonia Orchestra Yvonne Kenny, Soprano |
| (L')Agnese, Movement: Se sentissi qual fiamma vorace |
Ferdinando Paer, Composer
(Geoffrey) Mitchell Choir Beryl Korman, Soprano Christian du Plessis, Baritone David Parry, Conductor Eiddwen Harrhy, Soprano Ferdinando Paer, Composer Kevin John, Tenor Philharmonia Orchestra Robin Leggate, Tenor Russell Smythe, Baritone |
| Ginevra di Scozia |
Joseph Weigl, Composer
David Parry, Conductor Della Jones, Mezzo soprano Joseph Weigl, Composer Marilyn Hill Smith, Soprano Philharmonia Orchestra Russell Smythe, Baritone |
| Gerusalemme liberata |
Vincenzo Righini, Composer
David Parry, Conductor Eiddwen Harrhy, Soprano Philharmonia Orchestra Vincenzo Righini, Composer |
| (La) Prima prova dell'opera Gli orazi e curiazi |
Francesco Gnecco, Composer
Alan Opie, Baritone Alexander Oliver, Tenor Alexandra Mercer, Mezzo soprano David Parry, Conductor Francesco Gnecco, Composer Michael Goldthorpe, Tenor Philharmonia Orchestra Roderick Earle, Bass Sandra Dugdale, Soprano |
| Ines de Castro, Movement: Anima mia, deh cedi |
Niccolò Antonio Zingarelli, Composer
David Parry, Conductor Della Jones, Mezzo soprano Ian Caley, Tenor Marilyn Hill Smith, Soprano Niccolò Antonio Zingarelli, Composer Philharmonia Orchestra Russell Smythe, Baritone |
| Pamela nubile |
Pietro Generali, Composer
David Parry, Conductor Della Jones, Mezzo soprano Philharmonia Orchestra Pietro Generali, Composer |
| (Il) Ratto di Prosperina |
Peter von Winter, Composer
David Parry, Conductor Della Jones, Mezzo soprano Eiddwen Harrhy, Soprano Ian Caley, Tenor Peter von Winter, Composer Philharmonia Orchestra |
| Zaira |
Peter von Winter, Composer
David Parry, Conductor Diana Montague, Mezzo soprano Peter von Winter, Composer Philharmonia Orchestra |
| Elisa |
(Johannes) Simon Mayr, Composer
(Johannes) Simon Mayr, Composer David Parry, Conductor Philharmonia Orchestra |
| (L')amor coniugale |
(Johannes) Simon Mayr, Composer
(Johannes) Simon Mayr, Composer David Parry, Conductor Eiddwen Harrhy, Soprano Philharmonia Orchestra |
| Ginevra di Scozia, Movement: Per pietà, deh! non lasciarmi |
(Johannes) Simon Mayr, Composer
(Johannes) Simon Mayr, Composer David Parry, Conductor Della Jones, Mezzo soprano Marilyn Hill Smith, Soprano Philharmonia Orchestra |
| (La) Finte Rivali |
(Johannes) Simon Mayr, Composer
(Johannes) Simon Mayr, Composer David Parry, Conductor Diana Montague, Mezzo soprano Philharmonia Orchestra Phillip Doghan, Tenor |
| Adelasia ed Aleramo |
(Johannes) Simon Mayr, Composer
(Johannes) Simon Mayr, Composer David Parry, Conductor Eiddwen Harrhy, Soprano Nan Christie, Soprano Philharmonia Orchestra Sandra Dugdale, Soprano |
| (La) Semiramide |
Marco Portogallo, Composer
David Parry, Conductor Marco Portogallo, Composer Philharmonia Orchestra Yvonne Kenny, Soprano |
| Hoango |
Vincenzo Lavigna, Composer
David Parry, Conductor Della Jones, Mezzo soprano Eiddwen Harrhy, Soprano Philharmonia Orchestra Vincenzo Lavigna, Composer |
| (Il) Passaggio di Monte San Bernardo |
Giovanni Paisiello, Composer
David Parry, Conductor Giovanni Paisiello, Composer Keith Lewis, Tenor Philharmonia Orchestra |
| (I) Virtuosi ambulanti |
Valentino Fioravanti, Composer
David Parry, Conductor Marilyn Hill Smith, Soprano Philharmonia Orchestra Russell Smythe, Baritone Sandra Dugdale, Soprano Valentino Fioravanti, Composer |
| (La) Caccia di Enrico IV |
Vincenzo Pucitta (Puccitta), Composer
David Parry, Conductor Della Jones, Mezzo soprano Marilyn Hill Smith, Soprano Philharmonia Orchestra Vincenzo Pucitta (Puccitta), Composer |
| Elisabetta d'Inghilterra |
Stefano Pavesi, Composer
David Parry, Conductor Diana Montague, Mezzo soprano Eiddwen Harrhy, Soprano Philharmonia Orchestra Stefano Pavesi, Composer |
Author:
With three additional tracks, this is the volume which introduced the “100 Years of Italian Opera” series in 1983, welcomed in Gramophone in October of that year by LS with the observation that “Nothing anywhere near so ambitious and scholarly in this field has appeared before”. 12 volumes were then projected and four have been released, the latest (8/95) bringing the account up to 1830. It is a formidable undertaking, a history with a difference, the operas represented being generally known by title only, if indeed that. LS duly noted that it came “not from one of the major record companies but from the small Opera Rara Company”, and since those early days setbacks of various kinds have hindered progress. We must hope for eventual completion, but even now, with the early and least familiar decades revealingly explored, the achievement has earned an honourable place in gramophone history.
The presentation is strictly chronological, Luigi Mosca’s Li sposi in Cimento opening the programme as the “prime opera dell’ 800”. The sextet is a spirited piece of writing, well sustained, fresh in ideas and lively in characterization. As Jeremy Commons’s notes say, “The new century is launched with a flourish”. As he also points out, a different kind of ordering might provide “an ideal departure and reference point” in the conservatism of Giuseppe Nicolini’s I baccanali di Roma. Here, with a good business-like allegro, the prima donna is put through her athletic paces as the heroine of high drama belonging “very much to the classical world of the late 18th century”. There are also two composers who are admitted virtually by the skin of their teeth: Cimarosa belongs essentially to the previous age but in the last days of his life wrote Artemisia which had its premiere at Venice in 1801, and Paisiello, “oldest of the composers represented here”, produced his penultimate opera, Il passaggio di Monte San Bernardo, in 1807. That, too, links backwards with the eighteenth century, or earlier, in its masque-like use of allegorical deities. The decade indeed shows itself very much as a period in which the new century is moving cautiously towards a new style which has as yet scarcely come into view.
Of the musical value, LS wrote that “far from being an antiquarian exercise, this is the unlocking of an unsuspectedly rich treasure-chest”. At that time my own notes made much of Mosca, were keen on Nicolini and found most to admire in the sustained ensemble of Paer’sL’agnese. Revisiting the set 15 years later, I find that while less stands out as an exciting discovery (or a memory excitingly recaptured) the pleasure taken in such gracefully accomplished workmanship is now keener and more consistent. It should be added that the anthology has been strengthened by the inclusion of three excerpts from operas by Mayr, who, on this showing alone, emerges as the most distinguished of the composers represented.
The performances also survive with merits if anything enhanced. These are scores written for singers with a high degree of technical skill, and the principals here meet their challenges with complete professionalism. Some of the most brilliant of the soprano parts fall to Yvonne Kenny, who sings the aria in Marco Portogallo’s La Semiramide with such fluency and authority as would surely not have disgraced the great Catalani who created the role in 1806. If Della Jones displays most brilliance among the mezzos, Diana Montague furnishes her solos with the loveliest tone, delightfully employed in the Prayer from Peter von Winter’s Zaira. Among the men, Keith Lewis has deservedly the best of the pickings, with the tender love song of Paer’s Sargino, a hero whose shyness does not inhibit the production of a full-voiced, full-length high D natural. Many others do well: Eiddwen Harrhy is at her best in the counterpart to Leonore’s “Komm, o Hoffnung” in Mayr’s Fidelio opera,L’amor conjugale; Sandra Dugdale sings her runs neatly, places a sure high C and shows a flair for comedy; Alan Opie makes a brief but welcome appearance in Gnecco’s farce on the Orazi and Currazi. As ever, David Parry conducts in a way to convince one that to this previously unknown music he brings a natural rightness of touch. Jeremy Commons’s notes are invaluable; the booklet is finely produced and illustrated.'
The presentation is strictly chronological, Luigi Mosca’s Li sposi in Cimento opening the programme as the “prime opera dell’ 800”. The sextet is a spirited piece of writing, well sustained, fresh in ideas and lively in characterization. As Jeremy Commons’s notes say, “The new century is launched with a flourish”. As he also points out, a different kind of ordering might provide “an ideal departure and reference point” in the conservatism of Giuseppe Nicolini’s I baccanali di Roma. Here, with a good business-like allegro, the prima donna is put through her athletic paces as the heroine of high drama belonging “very much to the classical world of the late 18th century”. There are also two composers who are admitted virtually by the skin of their teeth: Cimarosa belongs essentially to the previous age but in the last days of his life wrote Artemisia which had its premiere at Venice in 1801, and Paisiello, “oldest of the composers represented here”, produced his penultimate opera, Il passaggio di Monte San Bernardo, in 1807. That, too, links backwards with the eighteenth century, or earlier, in its masque-like use of allegorical deities. The decade indeed shows itself very much as a period in which the new century is moving cautiously towards a new style which has as yet scarcely come into view.
Of the musical value, LS wrote that “far from being an antiquarian exercise, this is the unlocking of an unsuspectedly rich treasure-chest”. At that time my own notes made much of Mosca, were keen on Nicolini and found most to admire in the sustained ensemble of Paer’s
The performances also survive with merits if anything enhanced. These are scores written for singers with a high degree of technical skill, and the principals here meet their challenges with complete professionalism. Some of the most brilliant of the soprano parts fall to Yvonne Kenny, who sings the aria in Marco Portogallo’s La Semiramide with such fluency and authority as would surely not have disgraced the great Catalani who created the role in 1806. If Della Jones displays most brilliance among the mezzos, Diana Montague furnishes her solos with the loveliest tone, delightfully employed in the Prayer from Peter von Winter’s Zaira. Among the men, Keith Lewis has deservedly the best of the pickings, with the tender love song of Paer’s Sargino, a hero whose shyness does not inhibit the production of a full-voiced, full-length high D natural. Many others do well: Eiddwen Harrhy is at her best in the counterpart to Leonore’s “Komm, o Hoffnung” in Mayr’s Fidelio opera,
100 Years of Italian Opera: 1800-1810
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