Classical

Amilcare Ponchielli - Marion Delorme (2002)

2017-04-24T14:47:06Z

Amilcare Ponchielli - Marion Delorme (2002)

Disc: 1
1. Preludio (First Act) 
2. Nr. 1 Scena e duetto, Marion e Saverny E che? Mentre il bel mondo 
3. Nr. 2 Recitativo e romanza, Marion Il vil... 
4. Nr. 3 Scena e duetto, Marion e Didier Mezzanotte e non giunge (Second Act) 
5. Nr. 4 Scena e terzetto - Finale primo, Marion, Didier e Saverny A me soccorso 
6. Nr. 5 coro d'introduzione e stofe non ha che un tempo solo
7. Nr. 6 Scena, Saverny Miei cari, vi saluto 
8. Nr. 7 Scena della sfida e finale secondo Marchese di Saverny ei disse nomarsi 

Disc: 2
1. Nr. 8 Introduzione e scena Venir qui, tel ripeto (Third Act) 
2. Nr. 9 Scena e canzone, Lelio il campo finalmente 
3. Nr. 10 Scena e duetto, Marion e Didier Seguirmi volesti 
4. Nr. 11 Scena ad aria, Saverny Ma dimmi un po' 
5. Nr. 12 Coro dei comici e finale terzo Circondato e il castel
6. Nr. 13 Intermezzo Marcia funebre 	(Fourth Act) 
7. Nr. 14 Recitativo e scena, Marion Ecco... son giunta
8. Nr. 15 Scena, Marion e Laffemas Alcuno... Lui! 
9. Nr. 16 Scena ed aria, Marion Tutto quest'uom può dunque? 
10. Nr. 17 Scena, Didier e Saverny Almen più liberi qui si respira 
11. Nr. 18 Romanza, Didier Ed or si muoia 
12. Nr. 19 Scena e duetto, Marion e Didier Badate ad esser lungi 
13. Nr. 20 Scena e finale ultimo Ah! l'ora scorse 

Denia Mazzola-Gavazzeni (soprano) - Marion Delorme
Francisco Casanova (tenor) - Didier
Dalibor Jenis (baritone) - Il Marchese di Saverny
Carlo Cigni (bass) - Il Signor di Laffemas
Franck Bard (bass) - Brichanteau
Hervé Martin (bass) - Un capitaine, un geólier
Francesca Provvisionato (mezzo-soprano) – Lelio

Montpellier Opera Chorus, Latvian Radio Chorus
Montpellier National Orchestra
Friedemann Layer – conductor

History may have sided with the critics and abandoned a melodrama that was undoubtedly old-fashioned in 1885, but the first audiences at La Scala took Ponchielli’s last opera Marion Delorme to their hearts. So congratulations to Friedemann Layer for this enterprising concert performance. Enrico Golisciani’s libretto must shoulder some of the blame for Marion’s brief stage life. Verses hacked out of an unforgiving chunk of history-drama by Victor Hugo adorn a dizzyingly complicated plot that circles a love triangle between the courtesan Delorme, her new young lover Didier and an old flame, the Marquis de Saverny, set at a time when Cardinal Richelieu was the effective ruler of France. Denia Mazzola-Gavazzeni is a magnetic Marion, even when she pushes her voice in uncomfortable directions. And if Francisco Casanova is more a full-throated tenor than a carefully characterised young lover then that’s the fault of the song not the singer. The Verdian echoes that run through this score are quickly forgiven: homage to Aida, Otello and even the great friendship duet for Posa and Carlos in Don Carlos when Didier and Dalibor Jenis’s Saverny are on their way to the scaffold for illegal duelling. However, in the last act, Ponchielli is his own musician. The simple funeral march that threads its way through the denouement has the mark of death upon it, and if the verses for the tenor’s last aria, ‘Silenzio e tenebre’, are toe-curlingly awful, this is a composer who could always summon up a good tune when required. The problem was that by the 1880s Verdi had taught the world that it took more than melody to make Italian opera grand. ---Christopher Cook, classical-music.com

My late, lamented colleague, Michael Oliver, would have exulted at the prospect of reviewing this hardly-ever-heard example of verismo, a genre (like so many others) of which he made a speciality. Ponchielli’s last opera appears never to have been recorded before, and has received few performances, even in Italy, after its comparatively successful première at La Scala in 1885.

Based on a drama by Victor Hugo (source of so many 19th-century libretti), it is far from being the best plotted of operas. Taking place in 1638 France, dominated by Cardinal Richelieu, it concerns that favourite Romantic figure of the good-hearted demi-mondaine, the Marion of the title, who is greatly loved by the youthful, unhappy Didier, who has no idea of her courtesan past in Paris. Eventually he learns about it and of her numerous lovers, among them the devil-may-care Severny (who eventually goes to the stake with Didier, as a punishment for duelling, outlawed by the Cardinal) and the Scarpia-like Laffemas. As with Tosca and Scarpia, Marion agrees to give herself to him to save Didier, all to no avail.

Largely eschewing the melodramatic gestures and invigorating energy of Gioconda, Ponchielli shows the influence of the school of his French contemporaries in his light, elegant scoring and through the presence of a peripheral, travesty character, Lelio, sung by a mezzo. The work is lop-sided in that the longest, most emotion-laden Act is the fourth and last. There Marion and Didier have finely shaped solos, then a lengthy duet of recrimination with an original structure. Act 1 has a warm romance for the heroine followed by a love duet. All the other characters have solos suited to their characters, Lelio’s appropriately light and catchy. There is rather too much anonymous infilling, but enough of merit to make the opera worthinvestigating, especially to those sated by the regular repertory.

The performance is a good advertisement for the work. Denia Mazzola-Gavazzeni, widow of the conductor Gianandrea Gavazzeni, pulls out all the stops in portraying Marion’s predicament, exploiting to the full a dark chest-register and an exciting top. Casanova has a forward, Italianate production and an attractive manner, with a deal of sensitivity, to make the most ofthe lovelorn Didier. Jenis’s mellow baritone is ideal for Severny. The Italian bass, Carlo Cigni, is a welcome find in an area sparsely populated these days, and he gives a suitably saturnine account of Laffemas’ machinations.

Friedemann Layer presides over all with a refined ear for the keen scoring and for keeping the drama on the move. He is particularly good in the concertato (large ensemble) that closes Act 3. The recording, though a shade confined, is adequate enough for anyone to enjoy thiswelcome newcomer to the catalogue. ---Alan Blyth, gramophone.co.uk

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Amilcare Ponchielli – I Lituani (1979)

2010-12-12T11:21:07Z

Amilcare Ponchielli – I Lituani (1979)

CD1
1. I Lituani, opera: Prologo. Sinfonia 
2. I Lituani, opera: Prologo. Introduzione. Orrenda vista!... 
3. I Lituani, opera: Prologo. Preghiera. Preghiam pei vegliardi scorati 
4. I Lituani, opera: Prologo. Scena. Walter... fratel... 
5. I Lituani, opera: Prologo. Concertato. Fratelli: all'are vi prosternate 
6. I Lituani, opera: Prologo. Scena e duetto. Mio vecchio Alban... 
7. I Lituani, opera: Prologo. Scena e duetto. Mia sposa... angelo mio... 
8. I Lituani, opera: Act 1. Coro d'introduzione. Nel gaudio salutiam         play
9. I Lituani, opera: Act 1. Scena. I lituani... i dieci prigionier 
10. I Lituani, opera: Act 1. Concertato. Sul brando la mano 
11. I Lituani, opera: Act 1. Recitativo e romanza. Ciò che udii... O rimembranze 
12. I Lituani, opera: Act 1. Scena. Affranta son 
13. I Lituani, opera: Act 1. Duetto. Là... delle suore ancella 
14. I Lituani, opera: Act 1. Coro di menestrelli. Sull'arpe volate 
15. I Lituani, opera: Act 1. Finale primo-terzetto. Straniero...

CD2
1. I Lituani, opera: Act 2. Scena e brindisi. Esultiamo nel nome del Signor! 
2. I Lituani, opera: Act 2. Scena e strofe. Il bardo è presto... Sui lituani fiumi 
3. I Lituani, opera: Act 2. Scena e finale secondo. Io lo riveggo 
4. I Lituani, opera: Act 2. Seguito. Qui prigionier rimangano costoro 
5. I Lituani, opera: Act 3. Preludio e battaglia. Pietà die soffrenti 
6. I Lituani, opera: Act 3. Scena. Come lugubre e tetro 
7. I Lituani, opera: Act 3. Romanza. E da tre mesi io soffro 
8. I Lituani, opera: Act 3. Scena. Aldona è là 
9. I Lituani, opera: Act 3. Duetto. Mai più disgiunti 
10. I Lituani, opera: Act 3. Scena e coro. Pietà dei soffrenti 
11. I Lituani, opera: Act 3. Scena. Sciagura, anatema 
12. I Lituani, opera: Act 3. Scena. Albano!... Alban!...? 
13. I Lituani, opera: Act 3. Romanza. Alla tua morte bevo, o crociato      play
14. I Lituani, opera: Act 3. Morte. Come potrei morir

Walter - Ottavio Garaventa
Aldona - Yasuko Hayashi
Arnoldo - Alessandro Cassis
Albano - Carlo de Bortoli
Vitoldo - Ambrogio Riva
Un Menestrello - Susanna Ghione

Orchestra Sinfonica e Coro di Torino della Rai
Gianandrea Gavazzeni, 1979

I Lituani (in English, The Lithuanians) is an opera consisting of a prologue and three acts by Amilcare Ponchielli to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni, based on the historical poem Konrad Wallenrod written by Polish poet Adam Mickiewicz. It premiered at La Scala in Milan on March 7, 1874.

Casa Ricordi commissioned Ponchielli to write the opera, and the idea to use Konrad Wallenrod came from Salvatore Farina, a novelist and playwright working for Ricordi. The opera was extremely well-received when it opened, and a second, final version with additional material was performed again a year later also to good reviews. It continued to be performed in the last decades of the 19th century in Cremona, Trieste, Brescia, Rome, Turin, Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Chicago, and a single noteworthy Russian performance in 1884 at the Imperial Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre in Saint Petersburg with the title Aldona.

After a three-night run in 1903 at La Scala, where the casting was particularly poorly reviewed, I Lituani was not performed again until 1979 when RAI recovered the score. Since then, it has been revived in Chicago (1981, 1983 and 1991), Toronto (1981), Cremona (1984), Vilnius (1991) and Trakai (2009).

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Amilcare Ponchielli – La Gioconda (Callas) [1959]

2010-04-18T23:08:30Z

Amilcare Ponchielli – La Gioconda (Callas) [1959]

CD1
01. Preludio (Preludio) [0:05:01.03]
02. Act 1 - Feste e pane! [0:02:53.50]
03. Act 1 - E cantan su lor tombe! [0:02:03.17]
04. Act 1 - Figlia, che reggi il tremulo piè [0:03:24.05]
05. Act 1 - L'ora non giunse ancor del vespro santo [0:02:53.03]
06. Act 1 - Polso di cerro! [0:03:17.52]
07. Act 1 - Suo covo è un tugurio [0:03:19.58]
08. Act 1 - Che ¿ La plebe or qui si arroga [0:04:12.42]
09. Act 1 - Voce di donna o d'angelo [0:05:05.55]
10. Act 1 - Enzo Grimaldo, Principe di Santafior, che pensi ¿ [0:03:06.40]
11. Act 1 - O grido di quest'anima [0:02:45.68]
12. Act 1 - Maledici ¿ Sta ben...l'amor t'accieca [0:02:07.35]
13. Act 1 - O monumento! [0:03:49.30]
14. Act 1 - Carneval! Baccanal! [0:02:23.47]
15. Act 1 - Angele Dei [0:05:59.53]

CD2
01. Act 2 - Ho! He! Ho! He! Fissa il timone! [0:04:07.08]
02. Act 2 - Pescator, affonda l'esca [0:01:34.40]
03. Act 2 - Pescator, affonda l'esca [0:02:34.20]
04. Act 2 - Sia gloria ai canti dei naviganti! [0:04:21.35]
05. Act 2 - Cielo e mar! [0:04:27.22]
06. Act 2 - Ma chi vien ¿ [0:04:31.18]
07. Act 2 - Laggiù nelle nebbie remote [0:02:43.45]
08. Act 2 - E il tuo nocchiere or la fuga t'appresta [0:00:41.62]
09. Act 2 - Stella del marinar! [0:02:10.65]
10. Act 2 - E un anatema! [0:00:36.25]
11. Act 2 - Là attesi e il tempo colsi [0:01:13.15]
12. Act 2 - L'amo come il fulgor del creato! [0:02:02.45]
13. Act 2 - Il mio braccio t'affera! [0:01:38.20]
14. Act 2 - Maledizion! Ha preso il vol! [0:01:42.30]
15. Act 2 - Vedi là, nel canal morto [0:03:07.30]

CD3
01. Act 3 - Scene 1 - Si! morir ella de'! [0:02:37.23]
02. Act 3 - Scene 1 - Ombre di mia prosapia [0:02:27.10]
03. Act 3 - Scene 1 - Qui chiamata m'avete ¿...Bella così, madonna [0:03:12.20]
04. Act 3 - Scene 1 - Morir! è troppo orribile! [0:02:50.55]
05. Act 3 - Scene 1 - La gaia canzone [0:03:21.52]
06. Act 3 - Scene 1 - O madre mia, nell'isola fatale [0:02:06.35]
07. Act 3 - Scene 2 - Benvenuti messeri! Andrea Sagredo! [0:04:00.18]
08. Act 3 - Scene 2 - Grazie vi rendo per le vostre laudi [0:01:31.25]
09. Act 3 - Scene 2 - Prodigio! Incanto! [0:09:38.57]
10. Act 3 - Scene 2 - Vieni!...Lasciami! [0:03:19.60]
11. Act 3 - Scene 2 - Già ti veggo immota e smorta [0:05:21.13]
12. Act 4 - Nessun v'ha visto ¿ [0:05:42.37]
13. Act 4 - Suicidio! [0:04:12.40]
14. Act 4 - Ecco, il velen di Laura [0:05:17.65]
15. Act 4 - Ridarti il sol, la vita! [0:02:50.48]
16. Act 4 - O furibonda jena [0:02:38.20]
17. Act 4 - Ten va serenata [0:01:07.32]
18. Act 4 - La barca s'avvicina [0:02:01.38]
19. Act 4 - Quest'ultimo bacio che il pianto [0:05:00.37]
20. Act 4 - Ora posso morir. tutto è compiuto [0:03:53.08]
21. Act 4 - Vo' farmi più gaia, più fulgida ancora [0:03:03.50]

La Gioconda - Maria Callas
Enzo - Pier Miranda Ferraro
Barnaba - Piero Cappuccilli
Laura - Fiorenza Cossotto
Alvise - Ivo Vinco
La Cieca - Irene Companeez
Zuàne - Leonardo Monreale
Un Cantore - Carlo Forti
Isèpo - Renato Ercolani
Un Pilota - Carlo Forti

La Scala Theater Orchestra & Chorus
Antonino Votto – conductor

The mercilessly self-critical Maria Callas considered her singing in the last act here among the most satisfying of her records, saying that "it's all there for anyone who cares to understand or wishes to know what I was about." "Suicidio" emerges less a histrionic soliloquy than an interior, multi- dimensional monologue. Moreover, the soprano is in better voice than her 1952 Cetra Gioconda, which, however, boasts a more vibrant supporting cast, greater energy from the podium (especially in the first act), and avoids a small but not insignificant cut Antonino Votto makes here in the final act. EMI furnishes full texts and translations, an excellent essay that places this recording in context, and excellent remastered sonics. --Jed Distler

This recording was done in September, 1959, when Callas was right in the middle of the marital quadrangle with Aristotle Onasis. She had just ended her marriage and was all over the front pages of the newspapers. It is amazing, that in the midst of all of this media frenzy, Callas was able to go into La Scala and record such a performance as that heard here. Callas is in thrilling vocal condition here, and she creates a vivid and compelling characterization of the tormented street singer. There are actually a few instances when her top notes are more secure than they were on her earlier 1952 recording (!) Unfortunately, Callas had to carry much of this performance by herself. Fiorenza Cossotto, certainly a great mezzo, is heard at the very beginning of her career, and the power and authority she later acquired is not very evident here, though she certainly sings well. Also, an equally youthful Piero Cappuccilli provides a somewhat non-menacing Barnaba, though the potential of his voice is certainly obvious (like Cossotto, he also went on to a great career in Europe). Ivo Vinco is a sonorous Alvise. The real weakness in this cast, however, is the tenor Pier Miranda Ferraro, who never really "made it". His singing is merely adequate, but in the company of Callas and even the very young Cossotto and Cappuccilli, it comes off as less than even that.

The stereo sound here is very good, and the sound balances are excellent. I cannot give this recording an unqualified rave (due to the weakness of the tenor, and to a lesser extent, the work of Cossotto and Cappuccilli, both for whom the best work was still in the future), but Callas' performance is so outstanding, and her singing so persuasive that it washes away all else.---L.Mitnick, amazon.com

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