Glyndebourne Opera has a history of trend setting and pioneering opera productions and Donizetti’s opera L’elisir d’amore is no exception. Popular in Donizetti’s own lifetime, L’elisir faded into relative obscurity until the 1890s when Caruso championed the role of Nemorino: his dedication and conviction were such that Covent Garden arranged a production of the opera in 1902. L’elisir was a personal favourite of Caruso’s, so much so that in 1920 he played Nemorino in his last appearance with the Metropolitan Opera. Almost 60 years later, in 1961, it was Glyndebourne who staged a production of L’elisir d’amore designed and directed by Franco Zeffirelli. Such was the success and acclaim for this production that Glyndebourne revived it in 1962, enhancing the production with the addition of the lively and capricious Mirella Freni.As the press noted: ‘Her [Freni's] looks and her cantabile singing melt, so to speak, on the tongue, and she acts her teasing charades with Sergeant Belcore as if nothing were farther from her mind than cruelty.’ (The Times, August 1962) and ‘Mirella Freni, the sparkling new Adina, rightly allowed real tenderness to shine through vanity and caprice.’ (The Sunday Times, August 1962)Mirella Freni was first engaged by Glyndebourne in 1960 (and sings Susanna in Glyndebourne’s own recording of Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro GFOCD00162).Previously she had also performed at the opera house in Torino in the late 50s and sung with Netherlands Opera in 1959-60 season, but her international break and recognition came by virtue of her role as Adina in this 1962 production.This recording, released here for the first time, precedes Freni’s EMI recording of L’elisir d’amore with Nicolai Gedda as Nemorino in a Rome Opera production by some 5 years. In this recording, Freni has a cast of equals around her. As the besotted Nemorino, Luigi Alva vividly portrays the wounded innocent with The Daily Telegraph noting in August 1962 that ‘Alva’s Nemorino is a wonderful combination of rustic clowning and exquisitely finished bel canto’, with Enzo Sordello a baritone voice big enough to fill a stadium, providing a fresh virile and bold Belcore. Conductor Carlo Felice Cillario enjoyed a 60 plus year career and is remembered for his masterful interpretations of Puccini, Verdi and Donizetti operas and stands as one of the most singer-friendly conductors of all time.The 2CD set is packaged as a hard bound book containing a full libretto translated into English, French and German along with a commissioned article about the opera, and synopsis in English, French and German.
- Wykonawca Freni Mirella , Alva Luigi
- Data premiery 2010-01-01
- Nośnik CD
