New Naxos Opera DVD Series Features Rarely-Performed Works
Posted by David in New ReleasesOn March 25, Naxos releases its first-ever opera DVDs. This ongoing series kicks off with performances of Verdi’s 1849 melodrama Luisa Miller and Rossini’s La cambiale di matrimonio, written when the composer was 18. In addition to beloved favorites, future releases in this series will feature rare repertoire including
Baldassare Galuppi’s L’Olimpiade, Schubert’s Alfonso und Estrella and Wolf-Ferrari’s La vedova scaltra.
Gioachino ROSSINI: La cambiale di matrimonio
Paolo Bordogna; Désirée Rancatore; Saimir Pirgu; Fabio Maria Capitanucci;
Enrico Maria Marabelli; Maria Gortsevskaya; Orchestra Haydn di Bolzano e Trento;
Umberto Benedetti Michelangeli, conductor;
Director: Luigi Squarzina;
Filmed at Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, 2006
Naxos 2110228
La cambiale di matrimonio received its premiere at the San Mosé theatre in Venice on 3rd November 1810 to fill in a void left by another composer’s desertion. The opera’s earned the then 18-year-old Rossini the commission of an opera buffa for Bologna’s Teatro del Corso.
La cambiale di matrimonio follows the farcical efforts of Tobias Mill, a rich English merchant, who seeks to combine business with pleasure by forcing his daughter, the lovely Fanny (“the merchandise”) to marry Slook, his rich colonial American correspondent, by means of a bill of exchange. Eventually it is the gallant Slook himself who persuades Mill to allow Fanny to marry her true love, Edward Milfort. This Rossini Opera Festival production in Pesaro features Désirée Rancatore and Saimir Pirgu, supported by Fabio Maria Capitanucci, Enrico Maria Marabelli, and Maria Gortsevskaya. Umberto Benedetti Michelangeli conducts the Orchestra Haydn di Bolzano e Trento.
Giuseppe VERDI: Luisa Miller
Darina Takova; Giuseppe Sabbatini; Alexander Vinogradov; Damiano Salerno;
Ursula Ferri; Arutjun Kotchinian; Elisabetta Martorana; Luca Favaron;
Orchestra and Chorus of the Teatro La Fenice, Venice; Maurizio Benini;
Chorus Master: Emanuela Di Pietro;
Director: Arnaud Bernard
Filmed at the Teatro la Fenice, Venice, Italy, May 2006
Naxos 2110225-26
Based on Schiller’s Kabale und Liebe (Intrigue and Love), Verdi’s tragedy Luisa Miller revolves around the love affair between the titular heroine and Rodolfo, son of Count Walter, and the machinations of the jealous Count’s steward, Wurm, which result in the death of all three. Directed by Arnaud Bernard, who took as his inspiration Bernardo Bertolucci’s 1976 film 1900, this La Fenice production features the outstanding Bulgarian soprano Darina Takova, whose intense characterization of Luisa emphasizes the heroine’s inner torture. Giuseppe Sabbatini brings thrilling drama to the role of Rodolfo, especially in the opera’s most famous aria, Quando le sere al placido.
UPCOMING NAXOS OPERA TITLES:
Donizetti: Roberto Devereux
Wolf-Ferrari: La vedova scaltra
Galuppi: L’Olimpiade
Verdi: Macbeth
Donizetti: Maria Stuarda
Puccini: La rondine
Rossini: Il turco in Italia
Giordano: Marcella
Donizetti: Lucrezia Borgia
Schubert: Alfonso und Estrella
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