CHAN 3112 Book Cover.qxd 20/9/06 11:02 am Page 1 GREAT OPERATIC ARIAS GREAT OPERATIC ARIAS CHAN 3112 CHANDOS O PERA IN ENGLISH BARRY BANKS BANKS BARRY tenor sings BEL CANTO ARIAS sings BEL CANTO PETER MOORES FOUNDATION CHAN 3112 BOOK.qxd 20/9/06 11:08 am Page 2 Christian Steiner Barry Banks sings Bel canto Arias 3 CHAN 3112 BOOK.qxd 20/9/06 11:08 am Page 4 Time Page Time Page Gioachino Rossini (1792–1868) Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971) from The Italian Girl in Algiers from The Rake’s Progress Lindoro’s Cavatina (Languir per una bella) Tom Rakewell’s Recitative and Aria 1 ‘In dreams of endless pleasure’ 7:16 [p. 46] 6 ‘Here I stand’ – ‘Since it is not by merit’ 2:40 [p. 48] London Philharmonic Orchestra London Philharmonic Orchestra from Stabat Mater (Cujus animam) Gaetano Donizetti (1797–1848) 2 ‘Through her soul in endless grieving’ 6:25 [p. 46] London Philharmonic Orchestra from Don Pasquale Ernesto’s Prelude and Aria (Cercherò lontana terra) from Count Ory 7 ‘Poor lost Ernesto’ – Count’s Cavatina (Que le destin prospère) 3 ‘I shall go, no more returning’ 9:47 [p. 48] ‘May destiny befriend you’ 4:38 [p. 46] London Philharmonic Orchestra London Philharmonic Orchestra from CHAN 3011(2) Don Pasquale from Moses in Egypt from The Elixir of Love Amenophis’ and Pharaoh’s Duet (Parla, spiegar non posso) Nemorino’s Romance (Una furtiva lagrima) 4 ‘The blow at last has fallen’ 7:10 [p. 46] 8 ‘Only one teardrop’ 5:14 [p. 49] with Alan Opie baritone Philharmonia Orchestra London Philharmonic Orchestra from CHAN 3027(2) The Elixir of Love Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) Gioachino Rossini from Don Giovanni from Ermione Don Ottavio’s Recitative and Aria (Dalla sua pace) Orestes’ and Pilades’ Recitative and Cavatina (Reggia abborrita) 5 ‘Could I ever believe’ – 9 ‘Palace of horrors!’ – ‘Ah, how can I hide the flames’ 7:07 [p. 49] ‘Her joy is my joy’ 4:52 [p. 47] with Alfred Boe tenor Philharmonia Orchestra London Philharmonic Orchestra 4 5 CHAN 3112 BOOK.qxd 20/9/06 11:08 am Page 6 Time Page from The Thieving Magpie Barry Banks as Nemorino in Giannetto’s Aria English National Opera’s production of Donizetti’s The Elixir of Love 10 ‘Darling! Darling, let me embrace you!’ 5:03 [p. 50] Geoffrey Mitchell Choir • Philharmonia Orchestra from CHAN 3097(2) The Thieving Magpie from Armida Trio of Rinaldo, Carlo and Ubaldo (In quale aspetto imbelle) 11 ‘I lost the will to action’ 3:22 [p. 51] with Bruce Ford tenor and Dennis O’Neill tenor London Philharmonic Orchestra from CHAN 3100 Great Operatic Arias with Bruce Ford 2 Pietro Mascagni (1863–1945) from Our Friend Fritz Cherry Duet (Suzel, buon dì) 12 ‘Suzel, good morning!’ 8:33 [p. 51] with Janice Watson soprano London Philharmonic Orchestra Gaetano Donizetti from Don Pasquale (Com’è gentil) Ernesto’s Serenade 13 ‘The night is calm’ 4:05 [p. 52] with Geoffrey Mitchell Choir • London Philharmonic Orchestra from CHAN 3011(2) Don Pasquale TT 77:05 Barry Banks tenor David Parry Bill Rafferty 6 7 CHAN 3112 BOOK.qxd 20/9/06 11:08 am Page 8 If the reader detects in this account an exercised in their usage. So far from this being Bel canto Arias undercurrent (I would hope it to be no more) a primitive stage of opera’s development, it is of amused indulgence, one can only plead that arguable that in these years the condition of This is a recital in rondo form, where the element, light in colour, precise in definition the habits of at least a century and a half opera as a form of art was particularly healthy. recurring theme is Rossini. The very good and moving easily in those high ranges of the cannot easily be shaken off. The composition Some such line of thought is implicit in reason for this is that Rossini wrote copiously voice which Rossini particularly loved to – Rossini’s and that of Angelo Anelli, his Stravinsky’s writing of his neo-Classical and to excellent effect for the light, high, exploit. librettist – is formulaic. We know in advance, morality, The Rake’s Progress (track 6 ). The flexible lyric tenor voice; and this in turn Lindoro’s cavatina from The Italian Girl in if not in detail, the kind of thing they are operatic world evoked is of the eighteenth reminds us that the recital can also be regarded Algiers (track 1 ) is typical. The essential proposing; we know also, in general if not in century rather than the nineteenth, but its spirit as the rondo movement of an (as yet) graces and accomplishments are on display in particulars, what is expected of the singer. is not remote from Rossini’s and the forms unfinished symphony. A symphony of singers, this solo which, in the opera as in this recital, Rossini was writing in 1813. He had, in Italy, adopted are basically his. Tom Rakewell, for the ‘Great Arias’ series is designed to present, introduces the tenor to his audience. He plays two, perhaps three decades before the forces of instance, has a cavatina as does Lindoro in in each issue, not only the art of an individual a young lover whose presently unsatisfied state ‘progress’ would render such formulae The Italian Girl. The solo heard here is in the singer but also an exposition of a we hope to see remedied by the end of the irredeemably old-fashioned. Everybody would traditional recitative-and-aria form, and again a representative voice-type and of the repertoire opera (this being a comedy). An Italian captive say that a more highly developed, more pleasure for the informed listener lies in the that goes with it. Two tenors have figured so in the palace of the Bey of Algiers, he is sophisticated art-form was evolving from the appreciation of Stravinsky’s art in its handling. far, Dennis O’Neill and Bruce Ford, both of missing his girlfriend. Of course, the mid-nineteenth century onwards. What they The recitative has full orchestral whom, incidentally, can be heard, with sentiments are put on a higher level than that did not see – and we ourselves in this present accompaniment with a dotted-note motif in the Barry Banks, in this latest addition. They too but he is (in the original Italian) ‘languishing’ generation have been slow to see – is that it style of the French Overture. The aria is would be generally categorised as lyric tenors rather than in desperation and indeed is was in these rejected years that opera evolved infinitely subtle in its flexible setting of the though of different kinds, Ford having the determined to remain hopeful, cheering the form which was most truly its own; also regular ballad verses of his librettist. We note special qualities that enable him to undertake himself up with thoughts of her fidelity during that to enjoy an appreciation of the variants there is no cabaletta, that being nineteenth- the heroic roles in Rossini and O’Neill his enforced absence. A smoothly flowing within its agreed forms (as the audiences of rather than eighteenth-century usage. Stravinsky developing in the latter part of his career the melody is followed by a faster, more excitable those times appear to have done) itself involves does, however, bestow a nod in that direction, weightier tone called for in the robust or passage, while, for the singer, opportunities to a fairly high degree of sophistication. ‘Progress’ whether wittily or by chance, in giving the heroic repertoire of the later nineteenth- show the quality of his voice and the elegance led to ever more naturalism and realism on the music its head, to gallop away (the word century Italian composers, especially Verdi. of his style lead on to the opening-up of his operatic stage. The audiences of Rossini’s time ‘cabaletta’ derives from the Spanish for a horse) In this present recital we hear the lyric voice more robust powers and the display of a recognised the conventions and delighted in at the suggestion of Auden’s last lines: ‘Come, in its purest form, without any baritonal brilliant technique. the art which composers and performers alike wishes, be horses, This beggar shall ride’. 8 9 CHAN 3112 BOOK.qxd 20/9/06 11:08 am Page 10 Meanwhile we have rather lost sight of the to be found within the compass of Rossini’s original Italian version of 1818 it was sung by known as the virtuoso-piece, ‘Dalla sua pace’ lyric tenor. His progress from Rossini to style. The entrance of Count Ory (track 3 ) is Andrea Nozzari, a formidable tenor and the (‘Her joy is my joy’) is no easy option, and in Stravinsky is a somewhat surprising one, and a masterpiece of skittish solemnity; the arrival ‘creator’ of Rossini’s Otello; in the revision for this particular context makes the more indeed the role of Rakewell is usually taken by of Orestes and his friend Pylades in the palace Paris in 1827 the singer was Adolphe Nourrit, distinctive contribution. A tenor who has been a voice that has a few more decibels to of the abhorred King Pyrrhus (track 9 ) is a soon to be the first Arnold in William Tell put through his paces by one aria of Rossini summon than Rossini’s Lindoro. The line scene of tragic intensity. One thing the operas and renowned for his heroic top C. In this after another has no need to demonstrate does, however, take in the modest tenor-hero have in common is a plot which defies brief duet (track 4 ) it is not merely that the tenor further virtuosity.