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Gioachino Rossini: 9 A Tribute to Gilbert Duprez DE 3532 John Osborn, tenor Constantine Orbelian, conductor Kaunas City Symphony Orchestra 1 Kaunas State Chorus DELOS DE 3532 JOHN OSBORN • DELOS DE 3532 JOHN OSBORN DELOS DE 3532 JOHN OSBORN • JOHN OSBORN A Tribute to Gilbert Duprez VERDI: Jérusalem — Je veux encore entendre ta voix ♦ Ô mes amis, mes frères d’armes DONIZETTI: La favorite — Ange si pur ♦ Les martyrs — Oui, j’irai dans leur temple ♦ Lucie de Lammermoor — Bientôt l’herbe des champs croîtra ♦ Dom Sébastien — Seul sur la terre A TRIBUTE TO GILBERT DUPREZ DUPREZ GILBERT A TRIBUTE TO A TRIBUTE TO GILBERT DUPREZ DUPREZ GILBERT A TRIBUTE TO HECTOR BERLIOZ: Benvenuto Cellini — La gloire était ma seule idole ♦ Sur les monts, les plus sauvages GIOACHINO ROSSINI: Guillaume Tell — Asile héréditaire John Osborn, tenor Constantine Orbelian, conductor Kaunas City Symphony Orchestra Kaunas State Chorus Total Playing Time: 61:31 DE 3532 © 2017 Delos Productions, Inc., ORIGINAL ORIGINAL DIGITAL P.O. Box 343, Sonoma, CA 95476-9998 DIGITAL (800) 364-0645 • (707) 996-3844 [email protected] • www.delosmusic.com JOHN OSBORN A TRIBUTE TO GILBERT DUPREZ GIUSEPPE VERDI: 1. Jérusalem — Je veux encore entendre ta voix (5:28) 2. Jérusalem — Ô mes amis, mes frères d’armes (4:33) GAETANO DONIZETTI: 3. La favorite — Ange si pur (5:26) 4. Les martyrs — Oui, j’irai dans leur temple (3:08) HECTOR BERLIOZ: 5. Benvenuto Cellini — La gloire était ma seule idole (6:26) 6. Benvenuto Cellini — Sur les monts, les plus sauvages (8:30) GAETANO DONIZETTI: 7. Lucie de Lammermoor — Bientôt l’herbe des champs croîtra (8:23) 8. Dom Sébastien — Seul sur la terre (5:42) GIOACHINO ROSSINI: 9. Guillaume Tell — Asile héréditaire (13:53) Total Playing Time: 61:31 John Osborn, tenor Constantine Orbelian, conductor Kaunas City Symphony Orchestra Kaunas State Chorus 2 INTRODUCTION public by storm. As Duprez’s fame and fortune grew, he soon established a new standard in rench tenor, voice teacher, and minor com- vocal technique that has since become uni- poser Gilbert-Louis Duprez (1806-1896), a versal practice for succeeding generations of Fnative of Paris, is all but unknown to today’s operatic tenors. opera lovers. But he was a pivotal figure in the history and development of Romantic-era op- At the time, no effective training techniques for era and associated vocal technique in Europe such robust (and exhausting) vocal production during the first half of the nineteenth century. existed. A tragic victim of this inadequate vocal training was a lesser-known Italian tenor, Amer- When he first ventured into the Parisian operatic ico Sbigoli, who dropped dead onstage during scene in 1825, Duprez was a practitioner of the an 1831 performance of an opera by Giovanni prevailing tenore altino style, wherein top-end Pacini—apparently from a tension-induced burst notes were sung in an amplified falsetto (falset- blood vessel in his neck while attempting a partic- tone) register: for the most part, a delicate, fluty ularly resounding high note. and decidedly unheroic head-voice sound that was then the norm for operatic tenors. By the mid-to-late 1840s, Duprez’s consis- tent use of chest-voice high notes had serious- At first, Duprez achieved only scant success in ly degraded his own vocal abilities, limiting his Paris, owing largely to his comparative lack of appearances and forcing his retirement from accomplishment in the florid bel canto style of singing in 1851. But in his new career as a coloratura singing initially demanded for op- teacher, he continued to play a vital role in the eras by Rossini, Donizetti and Bellini. After de- development of vocal training techniques for ciding to explore the more robust style of sing- new generations of singers. ing practiced in Italian opera, Duprez moved to Italy in 1828, where he sought to emulate—and build on—the more vigorous vocal qualities of NOTES ON THE PROGRAM the day’s leading Italian tenors. He soon devel- oped his then-novel technique of singing notes Jérusalem, Verdi’s twelfth opera, is widely per- up to and including thrilling high C’s in full, ring- ceived as a completely original composition— ing “chest voice.” but it was actually a very free French adaptation of his earlier Italian work I Lombardi alla prima Having mastered that skill and earned renown crociata, first staged in Milan in 1843. Yet while for it in Italy, Duprez returned to Paris in 1837, Verdi used some of I Lombardi’s original music where his interpretations of the roles heard in in the new revision, Jérusalem has different role this recording (and others) took the musical names, an adaptation from Italian to French 3 history, much new music and heavy cuts to One in Gaetano Donizetti’s seemingly endless the old—all of which led Verdi to admit that parade of operas, La favorite had its 1840 pre- I Lombardi had been transformed “beyond all miere in Paris, with Duprez in the leading role recognition.” of Fernand. It tells the convoluted tale of a love triangle between the Castilian King Alphonse In portraying the heroic character of Gaston, XI, his mistress Leonor (“the Favorite”), and her Duprez played perhaps his final historically sig- lover, Fernand. The story is set in Spain in the nificant role, his voice being in decline by the era of the Moorish invasions. time of the opera’s 1847 premiere. The com- poser’s typically complex plot takes us from Fernand has led Castilian forces to victory over France to Palestine on a crusade to capture the Moors, and has been granted Leonor’s the title city. We thrill to the usual love story— hand in marriage by the king, his unknown spiced by jealousy, murder, exile, and mistaken rival. But Fernand’s last-minute discovery that identities as well as final triumph and forgive- Leonor had been the king’s mistress compels ness—and we revel in exotic scenarios, like an him to return, brokenhearted, to the monastery emir’s palace, complete with the obligatory from whence he first came. It is there, in Act IV, harem! that—in “Ange si pur”—Fernand pours out his mournful grief over his betrayed love and the The aria “Je veux encore entendre ta voix” loss of Leonor, and prays for forgetfulness. comes in the second scene of Act II. Captured and incarcerated by the Emir of Ramla, Gaston awaits a meeting with him. But his thoughts Les martyrs grew out of Donizetti’s original take him back to the last time he saw his be- three-act, Italian-libretto version Poliuto. Set in loved Hélène in France four years earlier, inspir- ancient Roman-occupied Armenia, its “sacred” ing fierce feelings of nostalgia and longing. theme of early martyrdom of a Christian saint at the hands of the pagan Romans ran afoul Gaston sings “O mes amis, mes frères d’armes” of the notoriously touchy Neapolitan censors, in scene 2 of the third act, after the crusading and—ultimately—the reigning king. Enraged at Christians have recaptured Gaston, who had the banning of his creation just before its first been falsely accused of an earlier murder at- scheduled performances in 1838, Donizetti re- tempt and condemned to die. As his execution solved to move to Paris, where he recast what draws nigh, he tearfully pleads his case, be- had been his “most personal” opera (contain- moaning the loss of his honor and proclaiming ing some of his loveliest music) into a four-act his innocence. grand opera extravaganza designed to appeal to prevailing French tastes. And, after its 1840 4 premiere, it did just that—with its exotic tem- rarely been presented, owing to its many differ- ples and other edifices, gladiators battling in ent versions, staging difficulties, and sometimes a grand coliseum, varied ballet episodes, and bizarre, rhythmically quirky music—though the even the protagonists’ final martyrdom by genius behind it cannot be denied. means of ravenous lions. As part of his adaptation for Paris’s grand opera In the second act’s “La gloire était ma seule aficionados, Donizetti extensively rewrote the idole,” Cellini rhapsodizes to his assistants that original Poliuto aria in its French version, “Oui, he considers love to be even greater than fame, j’irai dans leur temple,” specifically to showcase and sings of his passion for his beloved Terese. Duprez’s chesty high C in the role of Polyeucte. “Sur les monts, les plus sauvages” comes later He sings the aria in the opening scene of Act III, in the same act, when—fed up with the clam- when—against the fervent imploring of his wife or and hard work of city life—he sings a wist- (and leading lady) Pauline—Polyeucte bravely ful reverie of his longing for a life of pastoral agrees to go to the temple, even at the risk of peace, as a shepherd with no tasks more chal- impending martyrdom. lenging than looking after his flock. Hector Berlioz is the only native Frenchman Arguably Donizetti’s most beloved and frequent- among this album’s composers. His first opera, ly performed opera, Lucia di Lammermoor’s Benvenuto Cellini, is the album’s sole work of original Italian version was first heard in Naples “opera semiseria”—loosely defined as an op- in 1835, with Duprez performing the role of Ed- era with an essentially serious theme, but laced gardo, the work’s tragic hero. After the original with frequent episodes of comic relief. Named Italian Lucia was produced in Paris, a French after the famous sixteenth-century Florentine version was commissioned, and Donizetti’s fairly sculptor, the opera—originally cast in two acts, extensive revision, Lucie de Lammermoor, was but later in three (though shorter)—is a heavily premiered there in 1839.
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