VINCENZO BELLINI BIANCA & FERNANDO ARTISTIC SUPERVISION Danilo Prefumo SOUND ENGINEER Michael Seberich EDITING Roberto Chinellato RECORDING LOCATION Festival Belliniano, Catania, September 26 - October 6,1991 2 3 VINCENZO BELLINI bianca & fernando Melodramma in due atti di Domenico Gilardoni riveduto da Felice Romani ORCHESTRA E CORO DEL TEATRO MASSIMO “BELLINI” DI CATANIA ANDREA LICATA 2 3 bianca & fernando Young Ok Shin Gregory Kunde Aurio Tomicich ORCHESTRA E CORO DEL TEATRO MASSIMO ”BELLINI” DI CATANIA MARCELLO SEMINARA chorus master ANDREA LICATA conductor Haijing Fu Armando Caforio Sonia Nigoghossian Co-production with Teatro Massimo Bellini - Catania 4 5 bianca & fernando BIANCA Young Ok Shin FERNANDO Gregory Kunde CARLO Aurio Tomicich FILIPPO Haijing Fu CLEMENTE Armando Caforio VISCARDO Sonia Nigoghossian UGGERO Walter Coppola ELOISA Emily Manhart ORCHESTRA E CORO DEL TEATRO MASSIMO ”BELLINI” DI CATANIA MARCELLO SEMINARA chorus master ANDREA LICATA conductor Co-production with Teatro Massimo Bellini - Catania 4 5 total time 58:28 DISC 1 1 Preludio 3:03 ATTO PRIMO / ACT ONE 2 “Questa è mia Reggia: alfin vi giunsi” (Fernando) 4:14 3 “A tanto duol” (Fernando) 4:09 4 “Ascolta, o padre, i gemiti” (Fernando) 2:35 5 “Uggero sol, non altri, meco resti” (Fernando) 4:37 6 “Ah no, sì lieta sorte” (Filippo) 2:09 7 “Da che tragge suoi dì” (Filippo) 3:06 8 “O contento desiato!” (Filippo) 2:04 9 “É quegli il mio Signor” (Viscardo) 2:07 10 “Di Fernando son le cifre...” (Filippo) 1:59 11 “Taci, e serba occulto il foglio” (Filippo) 4:17 12 “Viva Bianca! Viva ognor!” (Coro) 2:55 13 “Miei fidi amici, a tanto amor son grata” (Bianca) 5:14 14 “Contenta appien quest’anima” (Bianca) 3:24 15 “Mira, o Bianca” (Filippo) 2:05 16 “Ciel! chi veggio?” (Fernando) 2:06 17 “Ah! che l’alma invade un gel!” (Fernando/Clemente/Uggero) 3:07 18 “Qual da folgore colpita” (Filippo) 5:10 6 7 total time 76:23 DISC 2 ATTO SECONDO / ACT TWO 1 “Che vuoi tu dirmi?” (Fernando) 4:49 2 “Allor che notte avanza” (Filippo) 3:45 3 “Bramato momento” (Fernando) 1:32 4 “Ove son?... Che intesi!” (Bianca) 4:07 5 “Sorgi, o padre” (Bianca) 5:58 6 “Da te chiamato, or dianzi” (Eloisa) 4:12 7 “No!... mia suora più non sei” (Fernando) 4:53 8 “Ahi donna misera!” (Bianca) 8:03 9 “Tutti siam?” (Coro) 5:45 10 “Eccomi alfin, guerrieri” (Fernando) 1:34 11 “All’udir del padre afflitto” (Fernando) 3:00 12 “Degna suora di Fernando” (Coro) 0:46 13 “Odo il tuo pianto, o padre” (Fernando) 2:13 14 “Sognai cader trafitto!” (Carlo) 2:50 15 “Da gelido sudore...” (Carlo) 3:08 16 “Ecco la tomba che rinserra il padre” (Fernando) 6:47 17 “Cadrà quell’empio cor” (Fernando/Bianca/Carlo) 1:44 18 “Ciel!” (Bianca) 1:44 19 “Deh! non ferir, deh! sentimi” (Bianca) 2:46 20 “Decidi tosto” (Filippo) 0:50 21 “Crudele, ai tuoi piedi” (Bianca) 1:42 22 “Alla gioja ed al pincer” (Bianca) 4:04 6 7 FROM “BIANCA E GERNANDO” (1826) TO “BIANCA E FERNANDO” (1828) The genesis of the opera Vincenzo Bellini’s evident, precocious talent and an intelligent instruction imparted by the “Governor” of the Naples conservatory led to the then 23-year-old pupil of Zingarelli being commissioned to compose an opera for the San Carlo in Naples in spring or summer 1825. The opera, as the instruction stated, was to be in a number of acts and not only “a cantata or opera in one act” - “for”, as Bellini’s friend and biographer noted, “his first work had already shown him to be an artist of great worth”. (“His first work” was Adelson e Salvini, a semi-serious opera which had been staged successfully in the miniature theatre of the conservatory in early 1825). The performance of the opera was set for the birthday of the heir to the throne, prince D. Ferdinando Duke of Calabria (the future king Ferdinando II): 12th January 1826. (As a sign of respect for the king the opera was entitled Bianca e Gernando in its first draft instead of Bianca e Fernando). A new writer was chosen as librettist: Domenico Gilardoni, who had recently succeeded A. L. Tottola as “Poet to the Royal Theatres”. Gilardoni’s libretto was based on a play by Carlo Roti that had been performed a few months earlier at the Teatro dei Fiorentini in Naples under the title Bianca e Fernando alla tomba di Carlo IV, duca d’Agrigento [Bianca and Fernando at the tomb of Carlo IV, Duke of Agrigento]. The drama 8 9 is set in the Middle Ages, the favoured age of Romanticism, with vehement sentiments displayed in very vivid light. The singers at Bellini’s disposal for the leading parts were Adelaide Tosi (soprano) in the role of Bianca, Giovanni David (tenor) as Fernando and Luigi Lablache (bass) in the role of Filippo. However, it was not possible to stage the opera on the appointed date: the court was obliged to cancel the gala evening due to the recent death of Ferdinando I, father of the regent Francesco I. Further sad circumstances and illness at court delayed the performance for no less than five months. The opera was finally performed on 30th May 1826, the name day of the heir apparent, during a gala evening at the San Carlo. Some of the singers were not the same as those with whom Bellini had at first rehearsed: Adelaide Tosi and Giovanni David were obliged to leave for other engagements and their places were taken by Henriette Méric-Lalande and G. B. Rubini. The opera met with some success. The review printed in the “Giornale del Regno delle Due Sicilie” on 13th June 1826 offers the following comment on Bellini’s style: “It seems to us to be infused with the vivacity, at times excessive, of modern music”. The reviewer includes some parts of the opera among the “finest pieces of new music recently enjoyed at the Royal Theatre of San Carlo”. Donizetti, who had attended the rehearsals for the first performance, wrote to Simone Mayr: “first production, very, very, very good, especially so for the first time he writes”. Two years later Bellini himself wrote in a letter to Florimo: “I remember well, and you still know, that Bianca made them want me in all the houses in Naples...”. 8 9 Adelson opened up the way for the 1826 Bianca at the San Carlo and in turn the success of Bianca opened up the way for Bellini’s Milan commissions. The renowned composer of Il Pirata - an opera which performed in October 1827 at La Scala had created one of the prototypes of romantic opera - received an invitation in January 1828 to write an opera for the inauguration of the newly rebuilt opera house in Genoa. The commission was indeed important. In the Milanese review “L’Eco” of 2nd April 1828 we read: “The eyes of all those in Italy and neighbouring states who are lovers of music are now fixed on Genoa for the opening that is to take place on the 7th of this month of April of the new Carlo Felice theatre, and the finest gentry of the surrounding regions are all flocking to it”. This occasion in the spring season of 1828 produced a veritable festival in Genoa and Bellini was given the honour of opening the series of operas that were programmed. As well as his opera, the ballet Gli adoratori del fuoco was performed (choreographer: Giovanni Galzerani, music by Vincenzo Schim). Further novelties were staged at the Carlo Felice, including the following operas: Donizetti’s Alina, regina di Golconda, a semi-serious opera; Francesco Morlacchi’s Colombo, a serious opera. The librettist of these new works, and of some of the new parts of Bellini’s Bianca e Fernando, was Felice Romani. Romani also wrote the text of a hymn to the royal house of Savoia, which was set to music by Donizetti and performed before Bellini’s opera on 7th April (“Inno reale” in the catalogue of Donizetti’s works). Lastly, a number of Rossini operas were performed: Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Otello, L’assedio di Corinto. Rossini was the only one of the above-mentioned composers who did not go to Genoa; all the others personally supervised the productions of their operas. 10 11 Why then did Bellini take part in such a prestigious festival not with an important new work but with an opera that had already been performed, albeit in a newly elaborated form? Firstly, because of the very limited time he had: the commission reached him in January/ February and the first performance took place on 7th April. Only on three occasions did Bellini manage to write an opera in about two months: in 1830 when he wrote I Capuleti e i Montecchi, then in 1831 with La Sonnambula and lastly in 1833 with Beatrice di Tenda. But in the first two cases he already had a head start: in I Capuleti he was able to reuse various melodies from the unsuccessful Zaira, and again in La Sonnambula parts which had been omitted from Ernani on account of censorship. For Genoa in 1828, given the limited time available, Bellini could probably only have set a new libretto by turning to numerous re-elaborations of pieces he had already written. He would surely have borrowed from his 1826 Bianca e Fernando. Today we are grateful for the circumstances that allowed Bellini to present this opera directly, without the vicious circle of a new libretto, and that he was thus able to concentrate his attention on substituting the parts that he felt needed to be redone.