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Donizetti - L’Ange de Nisida (Blu-ray) | Dynamic 57848

Donizetti - L’Ange de Nisida (Blu-ray)

£29.07

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Label: Dynamic

Cat No: 57848

Barcode: 8007144578480

Format: Blu-ray

Number of Discs: 1

Genre: Opera

Release Date: 16th October 2020

Gramophone Editor's Choice

Contents

Artists

Florian Sempey
Roberto Lorenzi
Konu Kim
Lidia Fridman
Federico Benetti
Orchestra e Coro Donizetti Opera

Conductor

Jean-Luc Tingaud

Works

Donizetti, Gaetano

L'Ange de Nisida

Artists

Florian Sempey
Roberto Lorenzi
Konu Kim
Lidia Fridman
Federico Benetti
Orchestra e Coro Donizetti Opera

Conductor

Jean-Luc Tingaud

About

Gaetano Donizetti’s L’Ange de Nisida was commissioned by the director of the Théâtre de la Renaissance in Paris. The libretto was entrusted to Gustave Vaëz and Alphonse Royer, and the opéra en quatre parties was completed in 1840. Unfortunately the theatre went bankrupt and the opera never reached the stage. Donizetti was aware that other venues would have rejected his work as it stood, for both repertoire and censorship reasons (the plot revolved around the King of Naples, Ferdinando d’Aragona, and his mistress). Consequently, he revised the score and incorporated a significant portion of it within his new one, La favorite.

The autograph score of L’Ange was subsequently lost and it is only thanks to the painstaking research of musicologist Candida Mantica that it was brought to light again. She took on the huge challenge of classifying the roughly 470 randomly alternate pages of L’Ange de Nisida that had survived at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France in Paris; she re-established their original order and finally managed to reconstruct roughly 97 percent of Donizetti’s music. The few gaps in the score were judged as irrelevant by both Mantica and Donizetti Opera, so that the opera was considered a complete work in itself, with no need for additions written by other composers.

180 years after its composition, the opera was finally performed for the first time in its original theatrical form in Donizetti’s native Bergamo, at the construction site of the city theatre bearing his name, a most symbolic coincidence that added emotional value to a long-awaited event.

The site became an element of director Francesco Micheli's dramaturgy, with the audience sitting in the first three tiers of boxes and on a dais on the stage, and the action taking place in the parterre, as in Elizabethan theatre. The staging's dramatic space reproduces a mass of sheets from the libretto and the score, scattered around as if they were an island, the island of Nisida. Lights, projections and costumes – amazingly made of paper – were designed to provide added reference to the plot and conceived to great effect.

The performance was hailed as a triumph by both the public and the critics and was awarded a special prize at the 39th Franco Abbiati Prize of Italian music critics.

‘Donizetti’s L’ange de Nisida proves to be a masterpiece.’ – Bachtrack

Ange de Nisida: a drama imbued in beauty.’ – Bergamo News

‘[Lidia Fridman] was sublime… Konu Kim gave a profound performance filled with different colors and emotions. A shining tenor… Florian Sempey brought an imposing baritone to his character… Federico Benetti sang with striking and booming bass that made an impression in every scene he was in.’ – Operawire

Cast:
- Don Fernand d’Aragon: Florian Sempey
- Don Gaspar: Roberto Lorenzi
- Leone de Casaldi: Konu Kim
- La comtesse Sylvia de Linarès: Lidia Fridman
- Le Moine: Federico Benetti

Director: Francesco Micheli
Set designer: Angelo Sala
Costume designer: Margherita Baldoni
Light designer: Alessandro Andreoli
Video directors: Adriano Figari, Matteo Ricchetti

Recording date & place: November 2019, Festival Donizetti Opera 2019, Cantiere del Teatro Donizetti

Video format / Aspect ratio: 16:9 1080/60 1 BD 50
Audio format: PCM STEREO 2.0 / DTS 5.1 HD Master Audio
Region code: 0 – All regions
Sung in Italian
Subtitles: Italian, English, French, German, Japanese, Korean
Notes: Italian, English Packaging:
Duration: 174 mins.

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