CHAN 3032 Book Cover.Qxd 22/8/07 1:49 Pm Page 1
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
CHAN 3032 book cover.qxd 22/8/07 1:49 pm Page 1 CHAN 3032 reat Operatic CHANDOS O PERA I N Alastair G ARIAS ENGLISH Miles Bill Rafferty Bill Rafferty Alastair Miles in the 1999 English National Opera production of Boito’s Mephistopheles PETE MOOES FOUNDATION CHAN 3032 BOOK.qxd 22/8/07 1:52 pm Page 2 Alastair Miles as Jacopo Fiesco, with Phillip Joll as Boccanegra, in the 1997 Welsh National Opera production Clive Barda Clive of Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra Great Operatic Arias with Alastair Miles 3 CHAN 3032 BOOK.qxd 22/8/07 1:52 pm Page 4 Giuseppe Verdi (1813–1901) Time Page Giuseppe Verdi Time Page from Nabucco (Nebuchadnezzar)* from Luisa Miller† Chorus of Hebrew Slaves and Zaccaria’s Prophecy Scena and Walter and Wurm’s Duet 1 ‘Speed your journey’ 5 ‘He will not listen’ (Va, pensiero) – (Egli delira) – ‘Why lament ye?’ 8:51 46] ‘It was for his sake and his alone’ 7:43 48] (Oh chi piange?) (L’alto retaggio non ho bramato) with Geoffrey Mitchell Choir with Clive Bayley bass † Gioachino Rossini (1792–1868) from The Lombards at the First Crusade from Zelmira† Scena, Pagano’s Aria and Chorus Polidoro’s Cavatina 6 ‘Lord, grant us peace, we beg Thee’ 2 ‘Ah! One whole day has passed’ 3:31 47] (A te nell’ora infausta) – (Ah! già trascorse il di) ‘Wretched Woman! Did you imagine’ (Sciagurata! hai tu creduto) – from Mahomet II† ‘Only cowards would be frightened’ 10:17 50] Mahomet II’s Aria (Ni un periglio il nostro seno) 3 ‘Brave soldiers, arise and join me’ 6:37 47] with Clive Bayley bass • Geoffrey Mitchell Choir (Sorgete e in si bel giorno) with Geoffrey Mitchell Choir Carlos Gomes (1836–1896) from Salvator Rosa† from Moses in Egypt† The Duke of Arcos’s Recitative and Aria Prayer: Quartet 7 ‘And must I really sign?’ 4 ‘Look down on us from Heaven’ 3:32 47] (E il foglio io segnerò?) – (Dal tuo stellato soglio) ‘The pleasures of marriage’ 6:11 52] with Sandra Ford soprano • Antonia Sotgiu mezzo-soprano (Di sposo… di padre…) Barry Banks tenor • Geoffrey Mitchell Choir 4 5 CHAN 3032 BOOK.qxd 22/8/07 1:52 pm Page 6 Vincenzo Bellini (1801–1835) Time Page Giuseppe Verdi Time Page from Norma† from The Sicilian Vespers† Chorus of Druids and Oroveso’s Aria Procida’s Recitative and Aria 8 ‘Grant her the gift of prophecy’ 10 ‘My homeland, beloved homeland’ (Dell’aura tua profetica) – (O patria, o cara patria) – ‘Here where the ancient oak tree grows’ 2:38 52] ‘Oh, my Palermo’ 7:14 54] (Si: parlerà terribile) (O tu Palermo) with Geoffrey Mitchell Choir Vincenzo Bellini Gioachino Rossini from The Puritans† from Moses in Egypt† Giorgio and Riccardo’s Duet Invocation and Quintet 11 ‘Save his life, though he’s your rival’ 12:36 54] 9 ‘Supreme judge and ruler’ (Il rival salvar tu dèi) (Eterno! Immenso!) – with Garry Magee baritone ‘O Thou who by Thy mercy’ 6:50 53] TT 76:47 [p. 44] (Celeste man placata!) * with Sandra Ford soprano • Barry Banks tenor • Dominic Natoli tenor premiere recording in English in this version †premiere recording in English Clive Bayley bass • Geoffrey Mitchell Choir Alastair Miles bass Philharmonia Orchestra Gareth Hancock assistant conductor David Parry 6 7 CHAN 3032 BOOK.qxd 22/8/07 1:52 pm Page 8 In ‘Supreme judge and ruler’ Moses in 1826 as The Siege of Corinth. The Great Operatic Arias appeals to God to end the plague of year is 1476: Negroponte, a Venetian darkness. At a wave of his rod daylight colony in Greece, is under siege by reappears in a brilliant passage Mehmet (Mahomet) II, the Ottoman Sad to say, the bass does not have the glorious as any of the more obvious reminiscent of Haydn’s The Creation, sultan who had captured popular appeal of the higher male voices. showstoppers. All the pieces are from the after which Moses leads off the quintet, Constantinople twenty-three years Where the tenor is associated with youth nineteenth-century Italian repertoire, in which he is joined in turn by Aaron, before. ‘Brave soldiers, arise and join and love, and the baritone with love, featuring the kind of voice that the Amaltea (Pharaoh’s wife), Osiris and, me’ he sings before praising his men in jealousy or at least bonhomie, the bass Italians call ‘basso cantante’ (singing finally, Pharaoh. a florid aria. The idea of a lumbering gets all the heavy parts. Whether in bass), of which the most notable recent After various vicissitudes the children bass singing coloratura, a rare Italian, German, French, Russian or exponents have been Ezio Pinza between of Israel are at last allowed to leave, but accomplishment nowadays, may seem English opera, if the basses are not the two world wars and, in our own day, they soon come up against the strange to us; but it would not have villains they tend to be fathers, gods, Ruggero Raimondi and Samuel Ramey. impassable Red Sea. In ‘Look down on raised an eyebrow in the early kings or priests: figures of authority with The three Rossini operas represented us from Heaven’, a number which nineteenth century. As ever, Rossini whom an audience is unlikely to identify. here were all written for the San Carlo Rossini added when the opera was shows his mastery of orchestration: just Think of Philip II in Verdi’s Don Carlos, opera house in Naples. Mosè in Egitto revived a year after the premiere, Moses as he featured the horn and harp who is both father and king, or the (1818) was for a long time eclipsed by asks God for help. His prayer is echoed respectively in the Moses ensembles, so Grand Inquisitor in the same opera. Moïse et Pharaon, a refashioning of the by the people and reinforced by Aaron, here he gives Mozartian gurgles to the Alternatively, they are figures of fun, earlier work to a new libretto, which Elcia’s confidante Amenosi, and Elcia clarinet. often duped by the younger generation; Rossini composed for Paris in 1827 (and herself. A new note of confidence comes We are still in Greece – ancient, this and indeed they rarely if ever get the girl which was usually performed, confusingly when the music turns into the major time, rather than medieval – for (unless, as the Finnish bass Martti enough, in an Italian translation). The key; and, sure enough, the waters of the Zelmira (1822). Polidoro, the deposed Talvela memorably said in a television story of Moses in Egypt is the Old Red Sea part to allow the Israelites to king of Lesbos, has been hidden away interview, ‘maybe after the performance’). Testament account of the exile in Egypt pass before closing again to engulf the by his daughter Zelmira. ‘Ah! One And yet, as this recital by Alastair of the children of Israel, with a love pursuing Egyptians. whole day has passed’ is a cavatina, an Miles demonstrates, arias and duets interest provided by Elcia, a Hebrew girl, Mahomet II (1820) was also entrance aria with, in this case, an written for the bass voice can be as and Pharaoh’s son Osiris. rewritten for the Paris stage, resurfacing abridged reprise of the singer’s opening 8 9 CHAN 3032 BOOK.qxd 22/8/07 1:52 pm Page 10 music. A comparatively long orchestral widow of Charles I, to escape, leading became a symbol of the struggle for the Gilbert and Sullivan parodied so introduction gravely sets the scene for her away wearing Elvira’s wedding veil, unification of Italy, and it has since mercilessly, Pagano foresees his revenge; Polidoro lamenting the absence of his Elvira loses her reason. Riccardo, a achieved popularity as a concert piece. but instead of killing Arvino, he beloved daughter. Roundhead colonel who is in love with Less well known is what follows: the accidentally kills their father. Bellini’s Norma was first performed Elvira, announces that Arturo has been rallying-cry of Zaccaria the high priest, a Luisa Miller (1849), like the Rossini at the Teatro alla Scala, Milan, in 1831. condemned to death in absentia. spiritual descendant of both Moses and operas on this disc, was written for the The setting is Roman-occupied Gaul in The great duet that concludes the Oroveso, who foretells the destruction of San Carlo in Naples. Based on Kabale about 50 BC. In the opening scene second of the three acts is for Riccardo Babylon. The accompaniment at ‘Not a und Liebe by the German poet and Oroveso, head of the Druids, orders his and Giorgio, the Governor’s brother, sound but the cry of the screech-owl’ is playwright Friedrich Schiller and set in men to watch for the new moon and whom Elvira has earlier addressed as an early instance of Verdi’s characteristic the Tyrol in the seventeenth century, it strike the sacred bronze shield, at which ‘my beloved uncle, my second father’. ‘weeping’ figure. deals with the intrigue surrounding the point Norma, the high priestess, will Giorgio points out that Arturo’s death The Lombards at the First Crusade, love between Luisa, daughter of a appear. In ‘Grant her the gift of would bring about Elvira’s. Riccardo to give the opera its full title, appeared at retired soldier, and Rodolfo, son of prophecy’ they ask the god Irminsul to relents, unable to bear the thought of La Scala in 1843 as a follow-up to the Count Walter, and with the Count’s inspire her with hatred for the Romans. being pursued by her ghost, but in a success of Nabucco, the part of Pagano dynastic ambitions.