G010003254064Q dolci momenti / belcanto arias www.lenabelkina.com Münchner rundfunkorchester / alessandro de marchi dolci momenti / belcanto arias gaetano donizetti 1797—1848 6 Per questa fiamma indomita aria giovanna 4:41 Gioachino Rossini 1792—1868 anna bolena 1 Overture 7:36 la cenerentola Gioachino Rossini 7 cavatina rosina 5:50 vincenzo bellini 1801—1835 Una voce poco fa il barbiere di siviglia 2 Lieto del dolce incarco aria romeo 7:20 i capuleti e i montecchi gaetano donizetti Gioachino Rossini 8 Fia dunque vero aria leonora 6:52 la favorita 3 Tanti affetti final rondo elena 6:48 la donna del lago Gioachino Rossini Gioachino Rossini 9 Nacqui all’affanno e al pianto rondo angelina 6:39 la cenerentola 4 Canzone del Salice romanza e preghiera desdemona 9:35 otello Vincenzo Bellini Lena Belkina / mezzo-soprano 5 Dopo l’oscuro nembo romanza nelly 5:24 münchner rundfunkorchester adelson e salvini alessandro de marchi / conductor Rossini-Colbran partnership ascended, so did tempo. Finally, usually after the intervention afraid of neither heights nor depths the public demand. By the time that Otello of an outside force (messenger, chorus), the Heroines received its première Colbran had already tempo violently accelerates and we expe- reached the peak of her artistic resources rience a rapid change of temperament and In 1829 Rossini, midway through his life and Rossini recommended himself to Naples – and popularity – a peak that she would long mood, an impulsive attack. Not only is the universally deified in the world of opera, and to his future wife. maintain. The symptoms of strain that soon pent-up emotion unleashed, we are treated suddenly stopped composing for the theatre. set in could no longer damage her prestige. to all the virtuosic pyrotechnics of which the From then on he devoted himself almost Colbran was a specialist in dramatic seria She even drew applause as a composer of human voice is capable. With this culmina- exclusively to the writing of miniatures. Asked roles for soprano. Contemporary listeners songs. The contract that Rossini had signed tion both composer and singer were intent three decades later who was, in his mind, the described her voice as ’silken’ and ’mild’ and with Barbaja gave him the necessary lee- not least on attaining the applause of the greatest soprano of the era, he replied, ’The praised her resonant middle register. Opera way to write comic operas for Rome on the audience. The star was at liberty to ensure a greatest was Colbran. She became my first buffa was not her cup of tea. But she nego- side: Il barbiere di Siviglia for the Teatro Ar- greater concentration of effects by inserting wife. But unique was Malibran.’ tiated the most intricate coloraturas and had gentina (Carnival 1816) and one year later her own tricks and devices into the stretta/ a solid low mezzo register. Rossini demanded La Cenerentola (Cinderella) for the Teatro caballetta. Rossini, however, thought little of In 1815 Domenico Barbaja, the impresario of her a perfect command of trills, gruppet- Valle. The main roles, Rosina and Angelina, such high-handedness; he wrote out all the of the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, had sum- tos, staccato runs, legato slurs, ascending respectively, were sung in Rome by another embellishments and variations himself and moned the young Rossini to his theatre and and descending scales and pinpoint octave celebrated prima donna, Geltrude Righet- made certain that his notation was strictly placed him under a seven-year contract to leaps. After Elisabetta, he wrote Desdemo- ti-Giorgi. In both cases, though for different observed. deliver two new operas every year. Barba- na in Otello (1816), Elena in La donna del lago reasons, the premières were spectacular fias- ja would go on to play an important role in (1819) and an impressive number of other cos that quickly turned into lasting triumphs. Colbran had a strong predilection for opera the lives of Donizetti and Bellini. As Rossini roles specifically for her voice. The dolorous seria. Yet even operas that take a happy turn put it, ’He would have preferred to entrust song intoned by an abandoned ’Barbara’ be- Practically every 19th-century Italian opera, at the end (La Cenerentola, La donna del lago, me additionally with the supervision of the neath a willow tree is already mentioned in whether tragic, romantic or comic, has a deci- Adelson e Salvini) are acquainted with sor- kitchen’. The Madrid-born Isabella Colbran Shakespeare’s Othello. In Verdi’s opera, too, sive moment, a turnabout caused by a change rows of the heart. Only Rosina, in Il barbiere was the prima donna assoluta at San Carlo; Desdemona refers to this girl. In Rossini’s of mind or other influences. The main figure di Siviglia, steers clear of such tribulations. she was also Barbaja’s mistress, and King Fer- opera the unknown maiden is called ’Isaura’, standing in the middle of events customari- Adelson e Salvini was Bellini’s final assignment dinand I and the whole of Naples lay at her and Desdemona strums a harp to accompany ly expressed this turn for the better (or for on completing his studies in Naples, and its feet. So brilliantly did Rossini fulfil the task of her melody. Before then a gondolier on the the worse) in a tripartite series of scena, aria/ première was consequently sung entirely by exploiting all her talents that Madame Col- Canal Grande intones, to meaningful effect, cavatina and stretta/caballetta. The singer male seminarians. Bellini, second to none in bran, without incurring Barbaja’s wrath, soon two lines from Dante’s Divine Comedy: ’There first comments somewhat prosaically on the invoking melancholy, found Nelly’s G minor became Madame Rossini. Elisabetta, regina is no greater sorrow than to recall happiness situation he or she faces. Then comes a lyri- Romance so successful that he later placed it d’Inghilterra was the début opera with which in times of misery’. As the success rate of the cal deepening of the feelings at a restrained on the lips of Giulietta (Juliet) in I Capuleti e i 4 5 Montecchi. The part of Romeo, a trouser role, her lover is thwarted by a delayed letter – was written for the mezzo-soprano Giuditta with fatal consequences. Anna Bolena, Doni- DIE WEDER HÖHE NOCH TIEFE FÜRCHTEN Grisi, who used it to lay the cornerstone for zetti’s 35th opera, received its première in Heldinnen, her world fame at its Venice première (1830). Milan’s Teatro Carcano on Boxing Day 1830, Later she sang the first Adalgisa in Norma. with Giuditta Pasta in the title role and mez- In der Mitte seines Lebens, 1829, stellte Ros- Einstandsoper, mit der sich Rossini für Neapel zo-soprano Elisa Orlandi in the role of her la- sini, der von aller Welt angebetete Operngott, und bei seiner künftigen Ehefrau empfahl. These or similar patterns of conflict are dy-in-waiting Giovanna (Jane) Seymour. The urplötzlich das Komponieren für die Bühne commonly taken up again and again in vari- historical figure of Henry VIII, a king as famed ein und widmete sich fortan fast nur noch der Die Colbran war auf das ernste dramatische So- ous operas: a pair of lovers bound by gen- as he was notorious, has tired of his consort Produktion kleinerer Musikformate. Als er drei pranfach spezialisiert. Zeitzeugen beschreiben uine affection fall victim to a family feud, a Anne Boleyn and concocts grounds for their Jahrzehnte später gefragt wurde, wer für ihn ihre Stimme als „lieblich“, „mild“ und rühmen pernicious intrigue or a political stratagem. divorce and her execution. Jane Seymour damals die größte Sängerin gewesen sei, erin- ihre ergiebige Mittellage. Die Opera buffa war In La donna del lago, after Sir Walter Scott’s winds up in a hopeless dilemma, torn be- nerte er sich: „Die größte war die Colbran. Sie ihre Sache nicht. Aber sie beherrschte die kom- verse novel The Lady of the Lake, the heroine tween loyalty to her mistress and her secret wurde dann meine erste Frau. Aber die einzige pliziertesten Koloraturen, überdies verfügte sie Elena (Ellen) is overwhelmed by happiness love for the king. Her attempts to resolve the war die Malibran.“ über das tiefe Mezzo-Register. Rossini verlangte at an unexpected turn of events. Much the dilemma only have the opposite effect: her von ihr eine perfekte Beherrschung der Triller, same happens to Angelina in the finale of La mistress suffers death, and she, for better or 1815 hatte Domenico Barbaja, zu jener Zeit Im- Doppelschläge („gruppetti“), Staccatoläufe, Cenerentola. worse, becomes her successor. Those looking presario des Teatro San Carlo in Neapel, den Legatobögen, auf- und absteigender Skalen in these operas for opportunities to practice jungen Rossini an sein Haus berufen, mit einem und treffsicherer Oktavsprünge. Für sie schrieb Romeo and Juliet, on the other hand, are not director’s theatre with depth psychology are 7-Jahres-Vertrag und der Verpflichtung, jedes Rossini nach Elisabetta die Desdemona in Otello allowed to complete their union because a on the wrong track. Rossini, Bellini and Doni- Jahr zwei neue Opern zu liefern. Auch im Leben (1816), die Elena in La donna del lago (1819) und rescuing message is left undelivered. A com- zetti were concerned with art of a different von Donizetti und Bellini sollte Barbaja noch noch eine stattliche Reihe weiterer Partien. Das parable fate awaits Leonora and Fernando in kind: the unfolding of sublime and sophisti- eine wichtige Rolle spielen. Rossini: „Am liebs- todtraurige Lied, das eine von ihrem Liebsten Donizetti’s La Favorita, premièred in French cated vocal culture at its very best using the ten hätte er mir noch die Aufsicht über die Kü- verlassenen „Barbara“ unter einer Weide singt, at the Paris Opéra in 1840.