Tag Archives: Donizetti
Signor Gaetano – Review
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 7th December 2022Signor Gaetano is the title of tenor Javier Camarena’s latest CD release. It is entirely devoted to the music of Gaetano Donizetti, hence the title. Gli Originali is conducted by Riccardo Frizza who is the musical director director of the Donizetti Festival in the composer’s hometown of Bergamo. The recording took place at the Teatro…
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Lucia Di Lammermoor Met 2022
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 27th April 2022The Met’s new production of Lucia Di Lammermoor staged by Simon Stone has been roughly handled by several critics. It received its second performance last night which was broadcast on the Met’s radio network. The show will be telecast on May 21. I decided to listen to it without the gouts of blood and high…
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Finale 33 – La Favorite Act 3
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 16th March 2022Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848) was the most prolific of all the major composers of opera. He wrote about 70 operas, a lot of chamber music, and religious works All the frenzied activity before he went mad from syphylis in his 40s and then died at 50. La Favorite was written in 1840 to a French text…
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Finale 31 – L’Elisir d’Amore Act 1
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 18th November 2021Donizetti’s comic opera L’Elisir d’Amore has been performed frequently throughout the opera world since its premiere in 1832. The Met has done it 302 times. Despite its ubiquity it sometimes seems like a tenor aria in search of an opera so popular is ‘Una furtiva lagrima’. That this search is typically successful speaks to the…
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Nonets and More
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 16th December 2020Writing for nine distinct voices in opera is rare. I can only think of two examples without a deep dive into opera arcana [If there are other examples, let me know]. First, Act 1 scene 2 of Verdi’s Falstaff. And if that’s not enough Verdi goes on to write for 10. This complex writing occurs…
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Maria Stuarda Not in HD
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 9th May 2020Today was to be the final HD telecast of the Met’s 2019-20 season. But the company is as closed as an open mind. To compensate the Met broadcast, no TV, a 2013 performance of the opera that was to have been on had not the virus paralyzed the world. Maria Stuarda was Donizetti’s 100,345th opera…
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On Retirement
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 2nd May 2020Embalming fluid – the only cure for presidential fever* Forced retirement is now imposed on much of the world, I thought it of interest to comment on the retirement of four great figures, three of whom are not usually thought of as ever being retired. The fourth is a strange case of premature retirement. The…
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La Fille du Régiment in HD 2019
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 2nd March 2019Donizetti’s spaghetti stuffed eclair smeared with schmaltz reappeared on today’s Met in HD telecast. This production was previously telecast in 2008 with Natalie Dessay in the title role. I wrote this about her performance: Natalie Dessay was as bouncy as a spaldeen. She looked like a combination of Fanny Brice and Edith Piaf on steroids and happy…
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Michael Spyres in Philadelphia
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 30th November 2018New York’s Metropolitan Opera is suffering from a plague of inadequate tenors. Major productions have chugged along with tenors not up to the standard one would expect from the world’s most important opera house. The recent stagings of Samson et Dalila and Aida clearly demonstrate the Met’s tenorial difficulties. Yet the company does not engage…
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L’Elisir d’Amore in HD – 2018
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 10th February 2018Donizetti’s approach to comic opera is the opposite of Rossini’s. Rossini takes no prisoners. Everybody in his buffa operas has a tenuous connection to sanity reflecting the composers view that the entire world is mad. Donizetti, on the other hand, is more forgiving and offers characters who have redeeming attributes. The difference between the two…
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