Libretto: Felice Romani after Victor Hugo Premièr at Teatro alla Scala, Milan – 26 December 1833
06†, 08, 10 October 1971
Teatro Donizetti, Bergamo
OPENING PERFORMANCE OF TEATRO DONIZETTI DI BERGAMO
Conductor: Adolfo Camozzo
Chorus master: Lido Nistri
Stage director: Enrico Frigerio
Scene: Bertolini - Slimbeni Costumes: Teatro alla Scala di Milano
Alfonso d’Este Duke of Ferrara GIANFRANCO
CESARINI Baritone
Lucrezia Borgia LEYLA GENCER soprano
Maffio Orsini ANNA MARIA ROTA contralto
Gennaro young nobleman in the service of Venetian
Republic UMBERTO GRILLI tenor
Liverotto young nobleman in the service of Venetian
RepublicGIANFRANCO MANGANOTTI tenor
Vitellozzo young nobleman in the service of Venetian
Republic WALTER GULLINO bass
Gazella ALFREDO GIACOMETTI bass
Rustighello BRUNO SEBASTIAN tenor
Gubetta FEDERICO DAVIA bass
Astolfo DINO MONTOVANI bass
Petrucci PAOLO CESARI baritone
Time: Early Sixteenth Century
Place: Venice and Ferrara
†Recording date
OPERA MAGAZINE
1971 September
OPERA MAGAZINE
1971 October
CORRIERE DELLA SERA
1971.10.08
OPERA MAGAZINE
1971 December
Recording Excerpts [1971.10.06]
Com'e bello... Quale incanto... Prologue Scene II
Di pescatore ignobile Prologue Scene III
Oh! a te bada Act I Scene VI
Tu pur qui? non sei fuggito Act II Scene VII
M'odi, ah! m'odi... io non t'imploroAct II Scene VII
FROM CD BOOKLET
LUCREZIA BORGIA
BERGAMO
One of the main functions - nay obligations - of private recording ventures is to rectify the sins and omissions of the commercial companies when documenting careers of important singers - and a lot of sins and omissions there are. The two great divas of the 1950s and 60s - Callas and Tebaldi - captured public attention to such a degree that the mighty recording companies were loath to venture further afield. Virtually a whole generation of important singers were relegated to undeserved secondary statues. Magda Olivero, Maria Vitale, Virginia Zeani and Leyla Gencer are four instances that come to mind immediately. Luckily it is now possible to gradually rectify some of these omissions and to document the careers of these important sopranos for posterity. Leyla Gencer's career - and versatility - is indeed something to marvel at. Born in 1924 in Ankara of Turkish/Polish parents, she studied with Elvira de Hidalgo, making her debut in 1950 in Ankara as Santuzza. Subsequently she continued her studies with the legendary Giannina Arangi-Lombardi as well as Apollo Granforte. She made her Italian debut in 1953 at the San Carlo in Naples as Butterfly. That same season she also sang Tatjana. Her rise to fame was fast. She sang Tosca in Lausanne and Munich, Violetta in Palermo, Vienna and Triest. That's all very well...but what about the versatility? Well...soon followed Charlotte in "Werther", Agathe in "Freischütz" (with Renata Scotto as Ännchen!), Zandonai's "Francesca da Rimini), Blanche in the world premiere of Poulenc's "Les Dialogues des Carmélites" (Gencer's La Scala debut in 1957) - the world premiere of Pizetti's "Assassinio nella Cattedrale" (La Scala, 1958), Marguerita and Elena in Boito's "Mefistofele", Renata in Prokoviev's "The Fiery Angel", Lisa in "Pique Dame", "Figaro" Countess in Glyndebourne, Gluck's "Alceste", Monteverdi's Ottavia in "L'Incoronazione di Poppea", Mozart's Elettra, Elisabetta in Rossini's "Elisabetta, Regina d'Inghilterra not to mention the central - and not so central roles in the Verdi, Donizetti and Bellini repertoire. It was Leyla Gencer who first rediscovered the vocal jewels hiding in such works as "Lucrezia Borgia", "Maria Stuarda", Beatrice di Tenda", "Belisario", Roberto Devereux" and "La Straniera". Her career took her to the Bolshoi Theatre, the Leningrad Opera, Stockholm, Warsaw, Brussels, Rio de Janeiro as well as the Teatro Colón. Leyla Gencer knows her worth. Asked about "her greatest success" she replied with inimitable poise and grandezza: "The enthusiasm of the public was such that I only had great successes". "What about dream roles?" "I was fortunate in being able and allowed to sing everything I wanted to." History has made amends after all, it seems. Anna-Maria Rota commenced on her stage career in the mid-1950s in Italy and already in 1959-60, she appeared at the Glyndebourne Festival as Cenerentola. In 1961 she made her La Scala debut as Nicklaus in "Tales of Hoffmann", going on to sing Gondi in "Maria di Rohan". She first sang Orsini at La Scala in 1969. She specialised in travesti roles for a time, being particularly lauded as Cherubino, Pierotto in "Linda di Chamounix", Pippo in "La gazza ladra", Romeo, Beppe in "L'amico Fritz" and Ascanio in "Benvenuto Cellini". Her numerous roles also included Adalgisa, Dorabella, Isabella in "L'Italiana in Algeri", Leonora in "La Favorita", Azucena, Preziosilla, Eboli and Charlotte in "Werther". Umberto Grilli made his debut as baritone at the Teatro Politeama in Genua as Silvio. In 1959 he made his debut as a tenor at the Teatro Nuovoa, Milan in "L'amico Fritz". Subsequently he was heard at La Scala, Triest, Rome, Venice, Turin, Parma, Palermo, at the Maggio musicale. Further guest appearances took into Vienna and Hamburg, the Teatre de la Monnaie, Brussels Monte Carlo, Teatro Colon, Dallas, Warsaw, Bukarest, Amsterdam, Lyon, Bordeaux, Nice and Toulouse. Although he was one of the most important Rossini, Bellini and Donizetti tenors of his time he recorded infrequently.
LES MARTYRS
Gaetano Donizetti (1797 - 1848)
Opera in four acts in French
Libretto: Eugene Scribe Premièr at Opéra de Paris – 10 April 1840
22†, 24 September 1975
Teatro Donizetti, Bergamo
CONCERT PERFORMANCES
Conductor: Adolfo Camozzo
Chorus master: n/a
Polyeucte A Magistrate MARIO DI FELICE tenor
Pauline Polyeucte’s wife LEYLA GENCER soprano[Role debut] Sévere Roman Pronconcul RENATO BRUSON baritone Félix Pauline’s father LUIGI RONI bass Callisthenes High Priest of Jupiter VINCENZO
SAGONA bass Néarque A Christian RENATO CAZZANIGA tenor Le Grand Pretre AMBROGIO RIVA baritone
Time: 259 A.D.
Place: Mytilene
†Recording date
LA STAMPA
1975.09.24
OPERA MAGAZINE
1975 December
COMPLETE RECORDING
1975.09.22
Recording Excerpts [1975.09.22]
Qu'ici ta main glacée Act I Scene V
Severe existe! Un dieu saveurAct II Scene IV
Un seul! ... de te revoir! Tais-toi! ... le chatimentAct III Scene I
Pour toi, ma priereAct III Scene IV
Je crois en Dieu... O sort affreux! Act III Finale
Sur un nuage d!or.... Oui, c'est lui que je vois! ...Act IV Scene III & IV
Ah voici le signal du supplice! (Finale dell'opera) Act IV Scene VI
BELISARIO
Gaetano Donizetti (1797 - 1848)
Opera in three acts in Italian Libretto: Salvatore Cammarano Premièr at Teatro La Fenice, Venice – 4 February 1836
07†, 09, 11 October 1970
Teatro Donizetti, Bergamo
OPENING PERFORMANCE OF TEATRO DONIZETTI DI BERGAMO
Conductor: Adolfo Camozzo Chorus master: Vittorio Barbieri Stage director: Alberto Fassini Scene and costumes: Pier Luigi Pizzi Belisario General of the Army RENATO BRUSON baritone Antonia his wife LEYLA GENCER soprano Irene their daughter MIRNA PECILE mezzo-soprano Giustiniano Emperor of the Byzantium NICOLA
ZACCARIA bass Alamiro prisoner of Belisario UMBERTO GRILLI tenor Eudora LINA ROSSI soprano Eutropia Head of Imperial Guards BRUNO
SEBASTIAN tenor Eusebio VIRGILIO CARBONARI bass Ottario n/a bass Time: Byzantium Place: Sixth Century
Bergamo. After the
break with tradition in 1969 with La Favorite, the Teatro Donizetti has resumed
the special and honourable task of making known its favourite composer's less
popular operas. The current autumn season opened (on October 7, although I saw
the performance on the 9) with an excellent production of Belisario. Together with Anna Bolena and Roberto Devereux, this
opera is surely one of the most valid of all the 'serious' Donizetti that has
been dug up in the past 20 years. The production has a good deal in common with
the one mounted last year in Venice: the effective production of Alberto
Fassini and the much-discussed sets of Pier Luigi Pizzi. Also in the cast, as
in Venice, were Leyla Gencer, for whom the inexorable passage of time may well
cloud the vocal gloss but most certainly not the fervour of her commitment to a
part; Mirna Pecile, so accurately capturing the vocal ambiguity of Irene;
Umberto Grilli, who would seem to have improved in power and accent more than
in his understanding of the true Donizetti style; and, finally, Nicola
Zaccaria, repeating his essentially weak Fenice performance of Giustiniano. But
there were two innovations. First, the baton passed from an inflamed and
passionate Gavazzeni to a composed and traditional Adolfo Camozzo, who is also
this short season's competent and diligent artistic director. The second
innovation is in the main part, played here not by the veteran Taddei, but by
the young Renato Bruson, who was the surprise and delight of the production. A
good actor and subtle interpreter, Bruson possesses a limpid baritone voice
particularly suited to the relaxed, smooth singing, so sad and touching at one
and the same time, of certain Donizetti characters. Moreover, he knows how to
use his voice, intelligently grading the colours to give particular
expressiveness to his phrasing. If he continues to study, and to perfect his
means, resisting the temptation to sing too often and in too many important
parts in too short a time, Bruson is most certainly destined to be much talked
about over the next decade.
COMPLETE RECORDING
1970.10.07
Recording Excerpts [1970.10.07]
Sin la tomba ... Act I (Il Trionfo) Finale
Da quel dì che l'innocenteAct III (La Morte) Scene V
Egli è spento, e del perdona ... Act III (La Morte) Finale
