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Chan 3013 bookcover.qxd 15/10/07 11:14 am Page 1 Chan 3013 Clive Barda/P.A.L. reatreat OperaticOperatic CHANDOS O PERA IN ENGLISH GG AARIASRIAS Dennis O’Neill as Riccardo in the 1994 Royal Opera House production of Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera DENNIS O’NEILL PETE MOOES FOUNDATION CHAN 3013 BOOK.qxd 15/10/07 11:22 am Page 2 Great Operatic Arias with Dennis O’Neill Dennis O’Neill as Radames in the 1994 Royal Opera House production of Verdi’s Aida Photo © Donald Cooper 3 CHAN 3013 BOOK.qxd 15/10/07 11:22 am Page 4 Giacomo Puccini (1858–1924) from A Masked Ball from Turandot Gustavus’s and Amelia’s Duet 1 Calaf’s Aria – ‘None may sleep!’ 3:44 [p. 44] 6 ‘Take my hand…’ – 1:31 [p. 45] (Nessun dorma) 7 ‘Don’t you know in my heart and my spirit…’ – 4:52 [p. 46] 8 ‘The sweetest glowing fire of love…’ 3:45 [p. 47] Giuseppe Verdi (1813–1901) (Teco io sto – Non sai tu che se l’anima mia) from Luisa Miller with Susan Bullock soprano 2 Rodolfo’s Aria – ‘Oft in the quiet evening hour…’ 4:19 [p. 44] (Quando le sere al placido) Gaetano Donizetti (1797–1848) from Lucia di Lammermoor from The Lombards at the First Crusade Aria Finale 3 Oronte’s Cavatina – ‘My heart is full of happiness’ 2:20 [p. 44] 9 ‘My ancestors lie here buried…’ – 4:33 [p. 48] (La mia letizia infondere) 10 ‘A lonely grave will shelter me…’ – 3:36 [p. 44] 11 ‘Such misfortune!…’ – 4:11 [p. 49] from The Force of Destiny 12 ‘Rest in peace, for I shall follow…’ 4:58 [p. 50] Alvaro’s Recitative and Romance (Fra poco a me ricovero) 4 ‘I am condemned to live in torment…’ – 3:48 [p. 45] with Clive Bayley bass . Geoffrey Mitchell Choir (men’s voices) 5 ‘You who are among th’angelic host…’ 3:18 [p. 44] (La vita è inferno) 4 5 CHAN 3013 BOOK.qxd 15/10/07 11:22 am Page 6 Giuseppe Verdi Giacomo Puccini from The Force of Destiny from Manon Lescaut Don Carlo’s and Alvaro’s Duet 18 Des Grieux’s Aria – ‘Never has any woman moved 13 ‘Careful… Lay him here…’ – 1:46 [p. 51] me so deeply…’ 3:01 [p. 53] 14 ‘In death’s awful shadow…’ 4:37 [p. 52] (Donna non vidi mai) (Piano… Qui posi… – Solenne in quest’ora) with Anthony Michaels-Moore baritone . Clive Bayley bass from Turandot 19 Calaf’s Aria – ‘Don’t cry for me Liù!’ 3:00 [p. 54] Francesco Cilea (1866–1950) (Non piangere, Liù) from The Maid of Arles Umberto Giordano (1867–1948) 15 Federico’s Lament – ‘Surely the shepherd’s story is from Fedora a sad one…’ 5:24 [p. 52] 20 (È la solita storia del pastore) Count Loris Ipanov’s Aria – ‘A love so pow’rful…’ 1:52 [p. 54] (Amor ti vieta) Jules Massenet (1842–1912) Georges Bizet (1838–1875) from Manon from The Pearl Fishers 16 Des Grieux’s Dream Song – ‘Enchanting hour…’ – 21 Nadir’s and Zurga’s Duet – ‘And from the holy shrine…’ 6:00 [p. 54] ‘When I close my eyes…’ 3:43 [p. 53] (Au fond du temple saint) (En fermant les yeux) with Anthony Michaels-Moore baritone TT 79:05 [p. 44] Giacomo Meyerbeer (1791–1864) from The African Maid Dennis O’Neill tenor Vasco’s Recitative and Aria Philharmonia Orchestra 17 ‘What a wondrous sight…’ – Nicholas Kok assistant conductor ‘Oh land of dreams…’ 3:32 [p. 53] David Parry conductor (O paradis sorti de l’onde) 6 7 CHAN 3013 BOOK.qxd 15/10/07 11:22 am Page 8 his sorrow, ‘Rest in peace for I shall tone and a command of dynamic Great Operatic Arias follow’. Plunging a dagger in his breast, contrast. he dies at the feet of her bier to halting By the time Verdi reached A Masked phrases of deep eloquence that Ball, both his characterization and The tenor aria as a showpiece for a graphically illustrates. The adulation of pointedly describe his dying thoughts. musical style had become more complex unique voice and as a means of tenors isn’t only a phenomenon of this This scene is entirely the tenor’s and in and more demanding of his performers, expressing thoughts of love and/or century. The likes of Mario were that respect is unique in Donizetti. not least his tenors, nowhere more so anguish has been a feature of opera enormously fêted in the mid-nineteenth Coming after the soprano’s long Mad than in the Act II encounter between since its inception (think of Orpheus’s century and at its end Fernando De Scene it restores the balance between Riccardo (or King Gustavus in the magnificent solos in Monteverdi’s Lucia, the Neapolitan tenor, and one of the two principals. original Swedish setting) and his lover Orfeo). For a while the castrato usurped the first to record, had just as much of a The three solos representing Verdi Amelia, wife of his best friend [p. 45]. It the tenor’s place as primo uomo, mass-following as Pavarotti. arrestingly show the composer’s is by far Verdi’s, or any composer’s, most especially in the operas of Handel, but In the earliest piece chosen by Dennis increasing powers in using the tenor extended soprano–tenor duet to date. once that artificially created beast O’Neill, Edgardo pours out his sorrow aria as a means of expression. Oronte’s In impassioned phrases beginning ‘Take became an anachronism, the tenor was in his aria at the start of the final act of love-song, ‘My heart is full of happiness’ my hand… Don’t you know in my again leading man and lover, as in the Lucia di Lamermoor, ‘My ancestors lie [p. 44], from The Lombards at the heart and my spirit’, Riccardo appeals to operas of Mozart. By Rossini’s time, at here buried… A lonely grave will shelter First Crusade is a pleasing enough Amelia to confess her love. After she the outset of the nineteenth century, it me’ [p. 48]. At this stage he doesn’t declaration of ardour as far as it goes. does so, Verdi raises the erotic had become essential for the tenor to know of Lucia’s demise and ponders on By Luisa Miller, Verdi’s manner had temperature even further (Verdi knew have an aria, preferably to mark his his own decision to die because he become more refined and expansive: about these things through his long- entrance, and if possible at least one thinks her faithless. It is a subtly Rodolfo’s piece, ‘Oft in the quiet time association with Giuseppina more in the course of a work. Donizetti, developing piece typical of the mature evening hour’ [p. 44], in which he Strepponi) in, if we relate it to the old even more Verdi, then Puccini and his Donizetti, the phrasing shapely. At its grieves for his beloved Luisa’s apparent formats the composer improved on for coevals, deliberately conceived such arias conclusion, mourners approach and betrayal of him, is justly renowned in his own purposes, the cabaletta to the as being more than showpieces, often inform Edgardo of Lucia’s death. To one and out of context for its carefully duet. The intensity of passion expressed part of a character’s, and in some cases of Donizetti’s most plangent, wind- crafted line and instrumentation, is surpassed nowhere in Verdi’s whole the plot’s development as this recital supported melodies, Edgardo sings of a gift for a lyric tenor with honeyed opus and the end of the duet almost 8 9 CHAN 3013 BOOK.qxd 15/10/07 11:22 am Page 10 always results in a storm of applause the most famous duets in all Verdi, ‘In pieces in the vernacular, typical of all Lescaut, preceded both the indicative of its raw appeal to an death’s awful shadow’ [p. 51], (long ago the Opera in English series, is a laudable aforementioned operas. With Des audience’s emotions. achieving immortality in a recording by attempt to re-invent opera as a popular Grieux’s aria of rapture on seeing By the time he had reached The Caruso and Scotti that was in every art. Manon for the first time, ‘Never has any Force of Destiny, Verdi had adopted a opera-loving Edwardian home). In Loris’ short declamation of love for woman’ [p. 53], Puccini, to an extent, more heroic style for his leading tenor. ineffably eloquent phrases, the pair the heroine of the title in Giordano’s set the pattern of what was to follow in In the case of Alvaro’s reminsicences swear friendship and Alvaro (who Fedora, ‘A love so pow’rful’ [p. 54], is the next ten years in verismo works. The about his beloved Leonora (whom he survives after an operation to remove a the stuff of popular appeal. Caruso, who brevity of the aria as compared with believes to be dead) at the start of Act bullet) puts Carlo in charge of his created the role in 1898 in Milan, those for Verdi’s heroes is obvious, but III, ‘I am condemned to live in private effects. These will reveal to Carlo recorded the extract and sent it on its then Puccini was to make it up to his torment… You who are among his real identity – to disastrous effect. way to immortality, a piece that appears tenor with three more pieces and a deal th’angelic host’ [p.