Donizetti: Songs on Opera Rara, #4

Opera Rara's Donizetti Song Project is the latest in their alchemical mix of musicology and performance. But why say with Volume Four first? Because recently we heard Bellini's La straniella (see this post), and Donizetti sets part of the source text by Charles Vivto Prévost, Viscose d'Arlincourt, here. The lovely L'Étrangère (Quand du jour paraît la lumière) has a somewhat Schubertian piano postlude.

The disc begins, though, with an early canzonetta, “Bei labbri chi Amore formò” (Beautiful lips that Cupid / Formed for his nest) to a text by Metastasio . I get the “Beethovenian” aspect of the introduction to the work's middle section in the piano, too, mentioned in the extensive booklet notes (perhaps early, second-tier Beethoven!). This is just before he words, “Se torso a lagnarmi’ (If I lament again). Lemieux derives the tx with real care, while Zappa finds each little subtlety in the piano part:

Another early Donizetti song, but one that has gained greater currency, is “Occhio nero incendiator” (Black eyes that set me on fire), a theme and three variations; in his later yeas, Donizetti refitted his song to a French text, but we hear it here in the original Italian:

Hailing from his first ever publication in 1821, “Del colle in sul pendio” (On a slope of the hill) is an Arcadian tale. Zappa makes much of the opportunities afforded by teh piano part, while Lemieux delivers he xt with sensitivity and a feeling of growth over the songs's stanzas. The piano descent at he opening is delightful in this performance, as is Lemieux's storytelling as she relishes every nuance of the melodic line:

Writen before 1830, “Sospiri, aneliti, che m'opprimete” (Sighs, yearnings / that oppress me) makes us to another side of Donizetti, the reflective. his manuscript has had quite the journey - thought lost. I was suggested it was in the library of the Countess Medici in Rome; this project has rediscovered this, and another 15 songs: the MS had been transferred by he Coues to a monastery in Linz, Austria! The pulse quickens, effectively, at “E se ma palpita” (And if ever her heart / Also throbs):

“They all say I am mad” says the protagonist of the remarkable song, ”La folle de S^te Hélène, lls disent tous que je suis folle”. No missing the “Dies irae” in the piano. The transformations in this song are numerous; those au fait with Schubert's long narrative songs may find a paralell here. It is remarkable, of great depth, and when voice and single-line find themselves in due, the effect is remarkably powerful:

This is balanced by another “first maturity” period song, Ti sento, sospiri (I hear you, sighs). The brief text is by Metastasio again. For all its brevity, there is such variety in this song. Lemieux does over-egg the pudding on occasion here, though:

Nice to hear a song in Neapolitan dialect, all the age at the time: Tengo 'no 'innamorato, a song of jealousy ad violence set in a major key (!) but how characterfully Lemieux delivers the text:

There are some nice harmonic ints of late Donizetti in the early Se to non vedi” (If you don't see / all of my heart),a Metastasio text for La Danza sung by the character Nice.

There is more than a hint of Rossini about the romanza Qual nome se ascolta (If I hear that name / my heart races): it is fascinating to hear it as part of Donizetti's efforts to scope the great man's orbit (another song that owes much to Rossini is heard later on the disc, Ah! rammenta, o belle Irene;Ah! remember, o beautiful Irene):

Taken from a poem La Trovatella by Giuseppe Regaldi, Sovra il campo della vita (On the field of life) is a late song, and has a melodic ease that flows over the piano. It is the song of a lamenting wanderer, and Lemieux shades the song beautifully:

A setting of Victor Hugo (in French), La Fiancée du Timblier (Monseigneur le duc de Bretagne). We talked in Benjamin Appl's Dresden concert reviewed this week about the Marseillaise, and its appearance in both Schumnn and Wagner's settings of Heine. Here, the Marseillaise is more hinted at than flung at us:

Somtimes Donizetti finds genius in songs which sound oh so simple and yet are perfect gems. One such is Che cangi tempra (I can never hope for / A change in mood):

Edward Batting joins Lemiux and Zappa as obbligato harmonium player (actually stipulated as "orgue espressif," the harmonium's predecessor). Stanzas end with Latin ("Ora pro nobis domine") and it comes as no surprise he harmonium pops up at one points!. The song, quite extended, is a little masterpiece, though, wide-ranging and, fo course, we are in Lemieux's native language:

The chances of anyone missing that Sull'onda cheta e bruna is.a barcarolle tend towards zero. What's nice is that this was originally a duet for two basses (how many of them are there?; almost as are as didgeridoo duets!).

Labelled as "cantata," La fuga di Tisbe, "Alto silenzio ingombra" (The fatal threshold) is, sa the notes suggest, much more of an operatic scene, with the piano part sounding like an orchestral reduction. Giulio Zappa is truly impressive here, as is Lemieux in her chacerisation. At 8'54, he song balances the 10"09 of La Folle heard earlier.

The simpler songs act as contrasts as well as little jewels in themselves (Luna e Stella della notte; Moon and stars of the night), while the Prière de S^te Catherine is remarkably jolly for an act of supplication. The easy-going Phillis plus avare que tendre cedes to the lovely final Ah! si tu voulais, toi que je t'aime (Ha! If only you, whom I love). Here's a complementary live performance by these performers:

It is an interesting exercise to return to well-known Donizetti opera and to listen in the light of these songs: here's the most famous of all (complete), L'elisir d'amore, from Bologna in 2002. There are parallels galore in the vocal writing, and just as the operatic can bleed into the song, song can bleed onto the stage:

Any complaints? The track listing isn't in the most obvious place, perhaps, but aside form that, zero.

This Opera Rara disc is available via Amazon here. Available streaming below: