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Meyerbeer - Semiramide

£25.43

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Label: Dynamic

Cat No: CDS533

Barcode: 8007144605339

Format: CD

Number of Discs: 2

Genre: Opera

Release Date: 1st September 2007

Works

Meyerbeer, Giacomo

Semiramide

Artists

Clara Polito
Federico Sacchi
Aldo Caputo
Eufemia Tufano
Stefania Grasso
Orchestra Internazionale d’Italia
Slovak Choir of Bratislava

Conductor

Rani Calderon

Works

Meyerbeer, Giacomo

Semiramide

Artists

Clara Polito
Federico Sacchi
Aldo Caputo
Eufemia Tufano
Stefania Grasso
Orchestra Internazionale d’Italia
Slovak Choir of Bratislava

Conductor

Rani Calderon

About

Meyerbeer’s opera, written four years before Rossini’s Semiramide, is based on an adaptation, probably done by Count Ludovico Piossasco Feys, of the libretto written by Pietro Metastasio in the far-off year of 1729, which had already been set to music several times by leading composers of the eighteenth century.

Count Piossasco Feys worked skilfully and transformed the Metastasio tragedy, based on the classical alternation recitative - solo aria, into a more agile, modern structure, including a smaller number of arias, duets, trios and ensemble pieces.

Meyerbeer’s opera was written for one of the most esteemed singers of the day, Carolina Bassi, a performer with a great vocal range that enabled her to give of her best both in contralto and in soprano roles. In the early part of the opera, where Semiramide dresses in men’s clothing, passing herself off as her son, Meyerbeer writes her part using a rather low register. Only after she has revealed her true nature as a woman can Semiramide free herself vocally and rise up to the higher notes of the soprano register.

Perhaps because of the fact that it was made to measure for a singer with such peculiar vocal characteristics, and on account of the démodé nature of the libretto, Semiramide riconosciuta enjoyed only modest success in Italy, and after a few further performances in Bologna and Sinigallia in 1820, it disappeared completely from operatic repertoire.

Yet in this opera Meyerbeer’s talent had ample possibilities to reveal itself on more than one occasion, as indeed listening to our CD will show, providing pages of clearly marked, personal profile, like for example Semiramide’s first-act aria, Il piacer, la gioia scenda, which interestingly enough Meyerbeer was to use again five years later in Il Crociato in Egitto.