660198-99 bk Mayr US 20/1/08 13:58 Page 12 2 CDs Also available: MAYR L’amor coniugale Rizzone • Bille • Charalgina • Machej • Bellavia • Trammell Württemberg Philharmonic Orchestra Christopher Franklin 8.660203-04 8.660220-21 8.660198-99 12 660198-99 bk Mayr US 20/1/08 13:58 Page 2 Simon MAYR (1763-1845) Also available: L’amor coniugale (1805) Farsa sentimentale in one act Libretto by Gaetano Rossi (1774-1855) after Jean Nicolas Bouilly Zeliska/Malvino . Cinzia Rizzone, Soprano Amorveno . Francescantonio Bille, Tenor Floreska . Tatjana Charalgina, Soprano Peters . Dariusz Machej, Bass Moroski . Giovanni Bellavia, Bass-baritone Ardelao . Bradley Trammell, Tenor Württemberg Philharmonic Orchestra Christopher Franklin 8.660037-38 Assistant: Marco Bellei Edition by Florian Bauer for performance at the ROSSINI IN WILDBAD festival, after the revised score of Arrigo Gazzaniga 8.660183-84 8.660198-99 211 8.660198-99 660198-99 bk Mayr US 20/1/08 13:58 Page 10 Württemberg Philharmonic Orchestra Reutlingen CD 1 43:49 CD 2 39:08 The Württemberg Philharmonic Orchestra Reutlingen was established in 1 Sinfonia 7:42 1 Scena: Qual notte eterna (Amorveno) 5:35 1945, developing into one of the leading orchestras in South Germany. It has worked under the direction of, among others, Samuel Friedman, Salvador 2 Gira gira non ti stare attortigliar 2 Aria: Cara immagine adorata (Amorveno) 4:09 Mas Conde and Roberto Paternostro and, since September 2001, Norichika (Floreska, Peters) 4:29 Iimori, who led a highly successful concert tour to Japan in 2006. In addition 3 Animo... ma... cos’hai paura? (Peters, Zeliska) 1:33 to concert series in Reutlingen the orchestra broadcasts regularly with 3 Südwestrundfunk and appears in various cities of South Germany, with tours Sono qua (Zeliska, Peters, Floreska) 4:33 to Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Spain and The Netherlands, often with very 4 Romanza: Una moglie sventurata distinguished soloists. Recordings by the orchestra include the Naxos release 4 Terzetto: Io sono allegro (Zeliska, Peters, Amorveno) 3:56 from ROSSINI IN WILDBAD of Meyerbeer’s Semiramide (8.660205-06). (Zeliska, Peters, Floreska) 2:10 5 Terzetto: Ah! Qual voce 5 Sì, Malvino sta allegro (Zeliska, Amorveno, Peters) 4:06 (Peters, Floreska, Zeliska) 2:34 Christopher Franklin 6 Nell’orror 6 Non so cosa sia (Floreska) 2:13 (Moroski, Peters, Zeliska, Amorveno) 3:09 Born in San Francisco, the conductor Christopher Franklin studied at the University of Illinois and then, on a Fulbright Scholarship, at the Saarbrücken Conservatory, and at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore. As a prize-winner in the Treviso La Bottega 7 Siate pronti miei (Moroski) 1:05 7 Quartetto Cantabile: Ah voi International Conductors Competition he served as assistant to Peter Maag in Treviso. (Moroski, Peters, Zeliska, Amorveno) 5:39 He later worked with Seiji Ozawa, Bernard Haitink and Gustav Meier at the 8 Ciel! Che lessi! (Moroski, Peters) 3:19 Tanglewood Music Festival, and with Charles Bruck at the Pierre Monteux School of 8 Duetto: Ah, sì stringo (Zeliska, Amorveno) 5:37 Music in the United States. His interest in opera brought him to the Rossini Opera 9 E sempre ti tormenti (Floreska, Zeliska) 2:41 Festival in Pesaro, where he conducted Rossini’s Il viaggio a Reims with the Orquesta 9 Scena ultima: Vendetta Sinfónica de Galicia. At the Teatro dell’Opera in Rome he conducted the first 0 Aria: L’oro ha un colore (Peters) 4:08 (Moroski, Peters, Ardelao, Zeliska, Amorveno) 3:52 performance of Cilea’s Gina (recorded for Bongiovanni) and a production of Franz Lehár’s Die lustige Witwe. Other engagements followed at the Spontini Festival in Jesi, ! 0 in Turin and, with a Mozart cycle, in Genoa. He is the regular conductor for solo Rec., Scena: Tieni quando suonan le quattro Finale: Coniugal celeste amore (Tutti) 1:32 concerts by the tenor Juan Diego Flórez and has, among other orchestras, conducted the (Peters, Zeliska) 2:39 South West German Radio Orchestra Kaiserslauten in a tour of Germany. His repertoire ranges from Spontini (the modern première of Lalla Rukh), Mozart, Rossini and Verdi to Britten and Tutino. In @ Aria: Rendi il consorte amato (Zeliska) 6:16 addition to conducting L’amor coniugale in Bad Wildbad he has also conducted Rossini’s farce La cambiale di matrimonio and the première of the revival of La gazzetta in its complete form, including a new quintetto. 8.660198-99 10 3 8.660198-99 660198-99 bk Mayr US 20/1/08 13:58 Page 4 Simon Mayr (1763-1845) Dariusz Machej L’amor coniugale The Polish bass Dariusz Machej completed his studies with distinction under Włodzimierz Zalewski at the Fryderyk Simon Mayr’s L’amor coniugale in context He was born on 14th June 1763 in Mendorf; this Chopin Music Academy in Warsaw. Since 1994 he has attended regular master-classes with Ryszard first period extends from 1763 till 1789 and covers Karczykowski. As first soloist of the state song and dance ensemble Slask and Mazowze he has sung on tour Interest began in Johann Simon Mayr at an early date, Mayr’s youth in Bavaria until his arrival in Italy. throughout Europe, in Asia and in America. In 1996 he became a soloist with the Warsaw Chamber Opera and in the particularly in German-language music history. The Included within this period are his training and studies same year made his début at the Warsaw National Opera. He has appeared with the Warsaw and Vienna Chamber native of Bavaria, who later elected to become a lifelong in Ingolstadt, and his acquaintance with Baron Thomas Operas, at Koblenz Civic Theatre and at the Wuppertal Opera House, as well as in France. He has participated in Bergamese, was an important forerunner of nineteenth- von Bassus who took him to Italy and as his mentor international festivals, including the Pesaro Rossini Opera Festival and the Strasbourg Music Festival, working with century Italian opera; but it was as a disciple of introduced him to a world of secret lodges and the so- distinguished conductors including Alberto Zedda, Carlo Rizzi and Alessandro de Marchi. At ROSSINI IN Viennese classicism acting as an agent between two called ‘illuminati’. The second period covers his early WILDBAD he sang in La pietra del paragone and Pezzi Sacri Lughesi, among other works. worlds that has earned him special significance. Ludwig years in Italy from 1789 until 1802, centred in Venice Schiedermair’s articles from the beginning of the where he composed small-scale pieces, church music twentieth century are as substantial a testimony to this and oratorios initially before his eventual promotion to as Heinrich Bauer’s practical efforts made in putting opera composer in 1794. Giovanni Bellavia forward the performance of Mayr’s operatic output for The third period from 1802 to 1813 marks the discussion during the 1960s and 70s. John Allitt should central Bergamese years when he was exceedingly Born in Palermo in 1971, the bass-baritone Giovanni Bellavia studied with the tenor R. Lo Cicero and the soprano also be mentioned here as the author of two books - one active as a composer and founded his own music school E. Smith. After success in international competitions he made his début in 1998 in Scontrino’s opera Gringoire at in English, the other in Italian – in which he tackled in Bergamo, the “Lezioni Caritatevoli”, in 1805; the Teatro Politeama Garibaldi in Palermo. He has appeared in operas by Henze, Cimarosa and Kurt Weill and won Mayr’s biography set against cultural history and its Donizetti was one of his first pupils and is said to have great success as Sharpless in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, and as Leporello in Mozart’s Don Giovanni. In addition social context; he also presented an impressive list of remained grateful to Mayr as his teacher and maintained to regular engagements at the Palermo Teatro Massimo and the Malta Teatre Manuel, where his rôles have included 1510 opus numbers. It was Allitt’s initiative that led to his friendship for the rest of his life. The fourth period Leporello, he has also made guest appearances at the Michigan Opera Theatre and the Venice Teatro La Feria, the first modern performance of L’amor coniugale in from 1813 to 1824 is marked by key operatic successes among others. His appearances for ROSSINI IN WILDBAD include the rôle of Ormondo in Torvaldo e Dorliska, London during the 1970s, albeit in a concert version; it as well as increasing pedagogical activity and Daniele in Ciro in Babilonia and Fiorello in Il barbiere di Siviglia. had been edited for performance by Arrigo Gazzaniga as composition of church music; during this period, Mayr part of the Monumenta Bergomensia in 1967. Then, in gradually bowed out of opera. The fifth and final period, the 1990s, there was a veritable upsurge of interest in from 1825 to 1845, were Mayr’s ‘elder statesman Mayr: The International Simon Mayr Society, with its years’, to quote Allitt’s phrase; increasing difficulties Bradley Trammell headquarters in Ingolstadt, an Italian organization in with eyesight and an unsuccessful cataract operation Bergamo, as well as numerous conferences and hindered his practical work. These years were highly The American tenor Bradley Trammell studied at the Chicago College of Performing Arts with Richard Stilwell and conference reports bear witness to a stirring of interest productive nonetheless: Mayr composed many religious Michael Best. He participated in courses with Janice Harsanyi, Daniel Ferro, Mark Oswald, Stanford Olsen, David in research, and to the detailed, systematic reappraisal of works, wrote treatises on the history and theory of music Holloway and Michael Koch. He has made guest appearances at the Opera Festival in Rome and at the Grandin Mayr’s œuvre that yielded remarkable results and fresh and brought about the Italian premières of several Music Festival in Cincinnati.