Donizetti, Gaetano

Gaetano Donizetti - La Fille du regiment / Dessay, Florez, Palmer, Corbelli, French, Campanella, Pelly (Royal Opera House 2007)

This DVD version of Donizetti's comic opera zooms right to the top of any list of essential videos for opera fans. It may not be the composer's best work, but given a top-notch production with world class singing actors, it brings vocal thrills and an abundance of laughs, a combination that's hard to beat. The stars are Juan Diego Flórez and Natalie Dessay, both unbeatable in bel canto roles, and both in top form here. Flórez's mellifluous tenor is flexible enough to make child's play of the terrifying (to other tenors) nine high C's in Ah! mes amis," and supple enough to make his tender love arias moving. Dessay is equally comfortable in the stratospheric coloratura passages and poignant in such heart-tugging set-pieces as her farewell to her regimental "fathers" and her misery as the victim of the Marquise's well-meaning attempts to teach her to be an aristocratic lady. She's also a terrific comic actress. In her first appearance she's doing the regiment's laundry, and her antics with the iron and the ironing board while singing elaborately difficult coloratura passages induce belly laughs. But then, so do her comic acting in many other scenes, such as her Act II entry in a silk dress and full petticoat, her walk a wonderful parody of a "lady's" heel-to-toe gait. That moment alone is worth the price of admission. Lesser roles too, are done to perfection. Felicity Palmer, a long-time Covent Garden favorite, is a delicious Marquise de Berkenfield, and Donald Maxwell, is her apt partner as Hortensius, her servant. Sergeant Sulpice, the heroine's protector, is well-sung and acted by Alessandro Corbelli, and Dawn French almost steals the show as the overbearing Duchess. Conductor Bruno Campanella leads a spirited performance, enhanced by the fine playing by the Orchestra and Chorus of the Royal Opera House. Laurent Pelly's stage direction is wonderful for its comic touches and Chantal Thomas' simple but effective sets add to the delights. The video direction efficiently serves the staging, focusing on the action and the singers without adding extraneous shots that detract from the musical flow. All of which makes this DVD a can't-miss for opera fans. --Dan Davis La Fille du regiment is in 16:9 ratio. Sound options include PCM Stereo, Dolby 5.1 Surround and DTS 5.1 Surround. Subtitles include English, French, German, Spanish, and Italian.

In January 2007, superstar soprano Natalie Dessay, joined on stage by acclaimed tenor Juan Diego Florez dazzled British audiences in Laurent Pelly's new production of Donizetti's "LA FILLE DU REGIMENT". The perfectly staged & cast production became the operatic event of the year, receiving rave press reviews & rapturous audience ovations.

Donizetti - L'Elisir d'Amore / Eschwe, Netrebko, Villazon, Wiener Staatsoper

Donizetti's L'Elisir d'Amore is one of the staples of the comic opera repertory. The plot hinges on whether earnest but dim-witted Nemorino will snag Adina, the flirtatious heroine. She's a tease who takes up with Belcore, an army sergeant, to make Nemorino jealous. After numerous (and humorous) plot twists that include a phony love potion, it all ends happily. Adina and Nemorino declare their love for each other, Belcore is dumped, and the fraudulent Dulcamara does a landslide business in love potions. It's all a fast-moving bundle of fun, especially with the star-filled cast of this 2005 Vienna State Opera performance.

The leads are magnificent. Rolando Villazón as Nemorino exhibits a real gift for comic acting, manipulating his rubber face into dozens of hilarious poses, flawlessly turning stock comic gestures into laugh-out-loud moments, and even juggling apples with the panache of a circus performer. More important, he uses his lyric tenor to sing the part with impressive subtlety, suggesting Nemorino's desperation while singing of his love for Adina. His big show-stopper, "Una furtuva lagrima," features melting pianissimos and a breathtaking decrescendo in its final phrase. It literally stops the show, the audience forcing a welcome encore. Netrebko's Adina is every bit as good, with deft acting and a lovely lyric soprano voice that makes you understand why she's the only girl for Nemorino. Dulcamara is Ildebrando D'Arcangelo, whose ample bass joins a stage presence that puts him at the center of his scenes. His famous duet, "Venti scudi," with Villazón, is the highlight it should be. Veteran baritone Leo Nucci is Sergeant Belcore and while his singing tends to the dry and effortful, he's convincingly sleazy, adding to the laughs. Smaller parts and the chorus are fine and conductor Alfred Eschwé efficiently keeps the music bubbling along.

Otto Schenk's production, with sets and costumes by Jürgen Rose, dates from 1980 but still looks fresh with a village square dominating the picture-postcard view of a provincial Italian village. The costumes are realistic, with predominantly pastel colors for the villagers, bright colors for Belcore and his soldiers, and relatively nondescript outfits for the others, though Netrebko can't help exuding glamour no matter what she wears. The video direction smoothly focuses on singers and the stage action, but the sound recording is overly resonant, with inconsistent dynamics and the chorus' words obscured. Still, this is the preferred L'Elisir d'Amore. --Dan Davis

Donizetti - L'Elisir d'Amore

It would be hard to imagine a better performance of Donizetti's comic masterpiece. If there was one role that ideally suited Luciano Pavarotti's voice and stage personality, it was Nemorino, the impoverished and not-very-bright peasant who worships the village's prettiest and richest young woman from a distance, is swindled by a traveling vendor of "miracle" medicines, but wins her hand by dumb luck. The story has comedy, pathos, and a put-down of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde (or at least the Tristan story) written long before Wagner composed it.

Kathleen Battle is not only a wonderful singer and convincing actress; as Adina, she is pretty enough to make Nemorino's infatuation totally credible. Juan Pons struts convincingly as Belcore, Nemorino's self-important rival, and Enzo Dara is properly spectacular as Dr. Dulcamara, who sells Nemorino the magic potion guaranteed to improve his love life, or at least to get him drunk. The melodies in this opera include some of the best ever written, and James Levine, his extraordinary orchestra, and his wonderful chorus know exactly what to do with them. Everything comes together in this production to make it one of the best opera DVDs available. --Joe McLellan

Donizetti - Lucia di Lammermoor / Joan Sutherland, Alfredo Kraus, Pablo Elvira, Paul Plishka, Richard Bonynge, Metropolitan Opera

Donizetti - Don Pasquale

This 2006 Zurich Opera production of Donizetti's popular Don Pasquale captures not only the opera's high-spirited comedy but also its underlying cruelty. Featuring veteran bass-baritone Ruggerio Raimondi in the title role and a fine supporting cast, this DVD has what no other version of the opera has--tenor Juan Diego Flórez as the Don's nephew, the lovelorn Ernesto--and his brilliant portrayal makes this a must-see for any admirer of great singing.

The basic plot of the opera is a time-worn comedy staple: the foolish old man who seeks a young wife. The Don's doctor and advisor, Dr. Malatesta, hatches a scheme to trick the old man into a fake marriage with Norina, a young widow in love with Malatesta's friend, the Don's nephew, Ernesto. She's presented to the Don as the Doctor's sister, fresh from the convent school, whose demure demeanor captivates the victim who immediately agrees to the "marriage." Once that's accomplished, she turns into a spendthrift shrew who drives the Don to the brink of suicide. Ernesto, plunged into despair when he thinks his beloved abandoned him for his uncle, is finally brought into the scheme and plays his part in the trick. All ends well when the Don realizes his foolishness, blesses the young couple's union and agrees to a handsome annual allowance for them.

Flórez will make you forget other tenors who have sung Ernesto. His voice is sweet and tender but with a touch of steel in its upper range, adding excitement as when he ends a heavily ornamented passage with a ringing top D-flat. His pianissimos are ravishing and his last-act aria, Com'è gentil is radiant. Raimondi, drier of voice than in his younger days, is a fine Don Pasquale, acting with comic brio, breaking into dances of joy when his proposal seems to be working, and plunging into comedy-tinged despair when it turns sour. As Dr. Malatesta, baritone Oliver Widmer is appropriately slimy. Norina is Spanish soprano Isabel Rey, who delivers an accomplished vocal and acting performance, handling her coloratura turns with aplomb and acting with brio. Nello Santi conducts with appropriate Donizettian energy.

Stage director Grischa Asagoroff and designer Luigi Perego move the setting from the mid-19th century to the 1920s, so Ernesto enters in a tennis outfit, Don Pasquale's clothes include a broadly striped double-breasted white suit with spats, and the Don's drawing room changes from stuffy old-fashioned décor to a garish pink-dominated horror after Norina takes charge. The Don's prime activity when not fulminating about his nephew or donning a tawdry wig to woo Norina is caressing his collection of teddy bears. But his pain is all too evident after the transformed Norina slaps him and the inescapable undercurrent of cruelty is fully brought out, making the last act reversals less convincing. TV director Felix Breisach's cameras efficiently convey the stage action, though the many close-ups make it obvious that Ernesto's beloved is old enough to be his mother. But Flórez's vocalism alone is enough to make this the preferred Don Pasquale. --Dan Davis

Donizetti - Roberto Devereux / Rudel, Sills, Alexander, New York City Opera

Roberto Devereux, the last and probably the greatest opera Gaetano Donizetti composed for the San Carlo Opera House in Naples, is based on the intense, tangled relationship between Queen Elizabeth I and the Earl of Essex, who was beheaded for treason in 1601. The role of the queen is one of the strongest in the bel canto soprano repertoire. In this video (essentially a New York City Opera production transplanted to the Filene Center at Wolf Trap performing arts center outside Washington, D.C.), Beverly Sills gives one of the great performances of her career. She had been singing the role in New York for several years, to great critical acclaim, and had made it her own, though her voice was beginning to lose some of its freshness when this performance was filmed in 1974. In discussing the soprano stars of bel canto opera, we find a 180-degree polarity--at one extreme, the dramatic potency and vocal problems of Maria Callas; at the other, the vocal agility and smoothness of the dramatically unconvincing Joan Sutherland. Midway between these extremes is Sills, who acted almost as well as Callas, sang almost as beautifully as Sutherland, and balanced the two sides of her art more effectively than either.

John Alexander is solid in the title role. Susanne Marsee is relatively problem-free once she gets warmed up, and the supporting cast performs capably. Julius Rudel conducts with a good sense of style and proper balance between voices and orchestra. --Joe McLellan

Donizetti - La Fille du Régiment

Donizetti's La Fille du Regiment aims to please and it succeeds, with its catchy tunes, wildly difficult showpieces for the principles, and a simple, if also simplistic, narrative line. This 2005 live performance at Genoa's Teatro Carlo Felice features virtuoso singing by tenor Juan Diego Flórez as Tonio and soprano Patrizia Ciofi, as Marie, the "daughter" of the soldiers who have adopted her. Tonio's big Act I scene and aria, "Ah! mes amis," was a famous showpiece for Pavarotti and Flórez is in that league, nailing the aria's nine high Cs with an ease mere mortals reserve just for breathing. This is knock-'em-dead singing and the audience demands (and gets) an encore. Ciofi's Marie is well acted and sung with lyric beauty and coloratura fireworks. The chief supporting roles are done to a turn. Bass Nicola Ulivieri is a firm-voiced Sulpice, the sergeant who helps the lovers, while Francesca Franci is a wonderful Marquise, displaying subtle comic acting and a rich mezzo as Marie's "aunt" who has grand plans for her future. Conductor Riccardo Frizza leads the Genoa forces with stylish zest.

Stage director Emilio Sagi, has moved the action from Napoleonic times to a French village in the closing days of World War II, replacing the French regiment with victorious Yanks, which makes for some textual anomalies but none that impede enjoyment. This video version offers functional direction but it's often unflattering to the singers (especially Marie who's sometimes shot from above in lighting that shadows part of her face), and uses excessive close-ups and cuts to reaction shots that distract from the main events. Still, a don't-miss buffo opera brilliantly sung. --Dan Davis

Donizetti: Roberto Devereux

Donizetti - Lucia di Lammermoor / Devia, La Scola, Bruson, Colombara, Berti, Ranzani, La Scala Opera

Donizetti - Lucrezia Borgia / Bonynge, Sutherland, Kraus, Royal Opera

This 1980 Covent Garden production of Donizetti's opera based on the infamous dramatic heroine was undertaken so that one of the few sopranos who would dare tackle the fearsome range of Lucrezia Borgia--Dame Joan Sutherland--could do so in a setting amenable to her talent. And tackle it she does. This might not be the definite Lucrezia (a slight nod would go to Montserrat Caballe's 1965 RCA audio recording), but Sutherland shows she has the sheer chops to overcome Donizetti's piling on of difficulty after vocal difficulty. From the prologue's "Com e Bello," Sutherland never lets up through her gripping final scene of intense anguish and melodrama. Richard Bonynge conducts the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House with aplomb, and the supporting cast--Alfredo Kraus, Anne Howells, and Stafford Dean--performs ably in Sutherland's wake. --Kevin Filipski

Dame Joan Sutherland and tenor Alfredo Kraus star in Donizetti's tale of sixteenth century opulence and decadence. Joan Sutherland is unquestionably the unsurpassed Lucrezia of all-time, and this production at Covent Garden showcases her incomparable coloratura technique. Bel canto specialist Richard Bonynge conducts The Orchestra of the Royal Opera House in this historic performance.

Cast - Lucrezia Borgia - Joan Sutherland
Gennaro - Alfredo Kraus
Maffio Orsini - Anne Howells
Alfonso d'Este - Stafford Dean
The Royal Opera Chorus
Chorus Master - John Barker
The Orchestra of the Royal Opera House