Our First Ever Donizetti Enrico di Borgogna

[lennygoran]

Our First Ever Donizetti Enrico di Borgogna


I paid $22 from Amazon for this opera experience-I'll surely never get a chance to see it live. It was worth it-a nice staging in a cramped space-it wouldn't have been as cramped if they hadn't used some of the stage to show what was going on off stage. Alot of it was quite funny-the plot is ridiculous but the singers were good and the costumes and acting were just fine-some very nice music which reminded you alot and I mean alot of Rossini. Regards, Len

3 Reviews

1. Donizetti
Enrico di Borgogna
Anna Bonitatibus, Sonia Ganassi, Levy Sekgapane, Francesco Castoro, Luca Tittoto (voices); Donizetti Opera Choir; Academia Montis Regalis/Alessandro De Marchi; Dir. Silvia Paoli (Bergamo, 2018)
Dynamic 37833 57833 160.00 mins (DVD)

Recorded live at the Donizetti Festival in Bergamo, this is apparently the first performance of the opera to be released on DVD or Blu-ray; in fact it was the prolific composer’s first opera to reach the stage, at the Teatro San Luca in Venice in 1818, when he was just 18 years old. Granted its early position in Donizetti’s output, one should perhaps not expect too much; yet while inevitably there’s a good deal of Rossini in the mix, there’s already something in the style which one might regard as Donizetti’s own. At its best – the first-act finale, for instance – the score is impressive.

Set in 13th-century Burgundy, the plot concerns the restoration of the rightful King Henry following many years of tyranny by the usurper whose son Guido is now on the throne. Naturally, right triumphs and Enrico wins both the throne and Elisa, the woman he loves. Perhaps unsurprisingly, director Silvia Paoli decides to play much of the piece for laughs, and her production – set in a kind of small theatre-within-a-theatre – is busy to the point of regularly being overdone. Vocally things are better, with Anna Bonitatibus giving an expressive, stylistically secure and intelligent performance as Enrico: a considered actor, she possesses conviction as a young man.

Sonia Ganassi offers a finely-sung Elisa, while even if his is not the most ingratiating tone, Levy Sekgapane’s fluent tenor can get around all the notes written for Guido. As the stock villain and – in this production at least – the chief comic character, Luca Tittoto presents a well-crafted account of Guido’s jester, Gilberto. Both the orchestra and chorus are decent and conductor Alessandro De Marchi keeps the show on the road effectively. George Hall

https://www.classical-music.com/reviews ... -borgogna/


2. Donizetti was born one of six children in the provincial town of Bergamo on 29th November 1797 to parents in poor economic circumstances. However, when he showed some aptitude for music, his father enrolled him to study in the local Musical Institute in Bergamo (The Bel Canto Operas. Charles Osborne, Methuen 1994). It was there that by one of the most significant accidents of musical and operatic history he came under the tutelage of Johann Simon Mayr, a teacher and distinguished composer with a number of successful operatic works to his name. Throughout his life, Donizetti never failed to acknowledge his good fortune in respect of that contact. It is no exaggeration to suggest that the coming together of teacher and pupil came to define Italian opera throughout the century and after.

Donizetti’s first opera, Il Pigmalione, a one act comedy, was composed by a nineteen-year-old Donizetti while he was Mayr’s student; it was not performed in the composer’s lifetime (Osborne ibid pp 140-141). Enrico di Borgogna was Donizetti’s third opera but the first to be staged; it was premiered on 14th November 1818 at the Teatro San Luca, Venice, two weeks before the composer’s 21st birthday. Its libretto was by Bartolomeo Merelli, who later to become supremo at La Scala where he gave Verdi his first commissions. Meanwhile, with Mayr’s support, the young Donizetti went to Bologna to study with the renowned Padre Mattei who had tutored Rossini. (William Ashbrook. Donizetti and his Operas, Cambridge University Press 1982 pp10-11).

The plot of Enrico di Borgogna involves the exiled Enrico, son of the murdered Count, trying to prevent Guido, son of his father’s murderer, succeeding to the title and marrying Elisa, beloved of Enrico. The premiere was not without its unintended drama when the prima donna, Adelaide Catalani, who was appearing on the operatic stage for the first time, fainted from stage fright at the end of Act One, which necessitated the omission of some of her music in Act Two and her replacement in the finale by another singer. Nonetheless, the work was well received by the audience and the composer was saluted on stage at the end of the performance. The opera received further performances once the soprano had fully recovered. However, the accompanying booklet suggests that after the Venice performances the work was never staged again and the autograph was lost. Fortunately, two manuscript copies survived, both probably originating from Bologna, and circumstance has filled the gap in the Paris version; the result is as it is heard here in the Critical Revision by Anders Wiklund in 2018.

Given all the circumstances of its writing, the composition has echoes of Rossini whose fifth opera seria for Naples was staged on December 3rd 1818 and whose lighter compositions, particularly Il Barbiere di Siviglia had taken the Italian operatic world by storm and whose influence can be heard without being dominant. The cast in this performance is dominated by the mature figure of the vastly experienced high mezzo Sonia Ganassi and the lower voice of Anna Bonitatibus in the eponymous trouser-role. They spark of each other in an altogether delightful manner, in both acting and singing (CHs. 37-39). As the would-be usurper Guido, the tenor Levy Sekgapane is a revelation as a potentially great coloratura voice; not yet perfect, but with high notes and good acting to back up his interpretive skills. As a notable actor, to match his baritone voice, garish costume and hairstyle, Luca Tittolo is both realistic and personable.

The performance is staged in the delightful period theatre at Bergamo, home to the annual Donizetti celebration, of which this is part, as was the recently published performance of Il Castello Di Kenilworth (review). Musically, the period instruments of Academia Montis Regalis, under the secure baton of Alessandro De Marchi, hold the whole together admirably, while the design of a stage within a stage allows for complex incidents to be seen via both the small rotating stage and the off-stage sides. The Coro Donizetti Opera provides vibrant support as required, as only Italian forces in their own language seem able to do.

Robert J Farr

http://www.musicweb-international.com/c ... _57833.htm

3. Fanfare Archive
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent singing and production in a Donizetti rarity
Reviewed in the United States on December 2, 2019
David Cutler, Fanfare magazine

What a gem! This new production of Donizetti’s Enrico di Borgogna will go straight into the next Want List. It is not only marvelously sung, it is a success as a production. It is the composer’s second opera, but the first to be staged. It was first performed in November 1818 at the Teatro San Luca in Venice. After several performances, it then vanished until a recent production in Sweden in 2012! During the early years of the 19th century, Italian music was completely dominated by Rossini and his florid style. It would be perhaps in 1824 with his L’ajo nell imbarazzo that the original voice of Donizetti began to emerge, with a mix of comedy and tenderness. In Enrico di Borgogna there is not only still the huge influence and style of Rossini, but also of Donizetti’s teacher, Simon Mayr.
Much care has been taken in this production to bring an authentic 19th-century look to the small stage, and the producer had the splendid idea of creating a play within a play. As a result, there are two performances happening on the revolving stage. The opera itself is performed by the singing cast. Offstage, seen by the audience, the producer and cast rehearse, sort out the props, and try and keep the actor dressed as a bear off the main stage. All of this somewhat in the style of The play that goes wrong! The singers have also looked into how they emote and have found contemporary stage directions which the producer urged them to follow. Grand gestures and exaggerated hand movements are therefore used, and the cast and audience seem to enjoy themselves hugely. The orchestra, Academia Montis Regalis, is a period instruments band, and the whole opera is performed at a slightly lower pitch, per the contemporary instruments.
The plot is of course ridiculous. It involves Enrico, the legitimate heir to the County of Burgundy. His father was killed by a pretender when he was young. The pretender was also killed and his son Guido took over, but Enrico has to defeat Guido to regain the throne. There is also a romantic interest, as both Guido and Enrico love the same woman, Elisa. Guido is about to marry her under threat, but needless to say, Enrico and his followers appear just in time and defeat Guido. Enrico reconquers his throne and gets the girl. The opera opens with the cast members reading themselves in and a worried looking Bonitatibus studying the score. A man in the bear costume appears and is shushed away. The Overture is almost pure Rossini and is played to perfection by De Marchi. He actually conducts the whole performance with vigor and with elegance, bringing out the sparkling humor where needed. After the introduction Enrico (a trouser role) sings his first cavatina. Anna Bonitatibus has both style and authority and captures the mood immediately. The cavatina is handsomely sung by the rich and sultry-voiced mezzo with her quick vibrato. Bonitatibus has been singing for some years and made her Scala debut 20 years ago. She has a wide repertoire from the Baroque to bel canto as well as Strauss and Massenet. Bonitatibus is a wonderful singer and her disc of trouser roles, En travesti, is part of this reviewer’s 2019 Want List. The other main role, Elisa, is sung by the experienced Sonia Ganassi, luxury casting indeed. She takes a while to warm up and just occasionally seems to run out of breath. However she tackles her part well and acts the part of the grande dame with exuberance and humor. Her scene and duet with Guido is charming and very amusing, as the two try to out-compete with each other. This duet leads into a sparkling concertato finale to the first act. Act II brings an aria for the second tenor, Pietro, Enrico’s guardian. Sung by Francesco Castoro, he is quite nasal in tone and is a bit clumsy in the coloratura, but when he sings slowly the tone is quite sweet and he is certainly steady. The main tenor who sings the role of Guido is Levy Sekgapane, born in South Africa and winner of the first prize at the Operalia in 2017. He is a high-flying tenor and now Rossini specialist who has no difficulty with notes on high or the coloratura. It is hard to tell, but it sounds like quite a smallish voice. All the other singers are fine. The bass, Luca Tittoto as Gilberto does a fine imitation of Baccaloni in his main aria “E la donna un gran volume.” Perhaps the high point of this first work by Donizetti is the act II duet between Enrico and Elisa, “Taci!... Tu cerchi indarno.” This is bel canto at its best; both singers are in top form, with Bonitatibus again being something special. The opera ends Cenerentola-like with a final rondo, “Mentre mi brillo intorno,” with sparkling coloratura and burnished steady tone.
This new Donizetti discovery, with splendid singing and playing as well as an amusing production, is highly recommended. The DVD from Dynamic is sharp and the sound is as you would expect from a smallish theater. The notes are not fulsome, but there is a plot summary. There are three short interviews with the conductor and the two main protagonists. Perhaps the only drawback is the opera itself, which is not the later Donizetti we are perhaps more used to. The arias are inspired, but maybe lacking that depth and inspiration of later Donizetti. However, go out and buy this DVD for the singing and production, both of which are absolutely splendid.


https://www.amazon.com/Donizetti-Enrico ... merReviews