Spirito Marina Rebeka

• Vincenzo Bellini (1801 - 1835): Norma:
• 1Norma: Casta Diva... Fine al rito09:01
• 2Norma: Ah! bello a me ritorna04:56
• Il Pirata:
• 3Il Pirata: Scena03:41
• 4Il Pirata: Oh! s io potessi04:40
• 5Il Pirata: Col sorriso d' innocenza... Qual suono ferale05:12
• 6Il Pirata: Oh! Sole! Ti vela di tenebre oscure03:03
• Gaetano Donizetti (1797 - 1848): Maria Stuarda:
• 7Maria Stuarda: Io vi rivedo alfin!03:36
• 8Maria Stuarda: Deh! Tu di un umile preghiera... Oh colpo!05:16
• 9Maria Stuarda: Di un cor che muore... Giunge il conte05:33
• 10Maria Stuarda: Ah! Se un giorno da queste ritorte05:12
• Anna Bolena:
• 11Anna Bolena: Piangete voi?04:49
• 12Anna Bolena: Al dolce guidami... Che mai sento06:25
• 13Anna Bolena: Coppia iniqua03:29
• Gaspare Spontini (1774 - 1851): La Vestale:
• 14La Vestale: Ô des infortunés02:22
• 15La Vestale: Toi, que j' implore avec effroi05:27
• 16La Vestale: Sur cet autel sacré02:58
• 17La Vestale: Impitoyables Dieux02:15
• Total Runtime01:17:55

Info for Spirito

In researching this collection of character-defining bel canto moments, soprano Marina Rebeka excavated the autograph manuscripts of Bellini’s Norma and Pirata, Donnizetti’s Maria Stuarda and Anna Bolena, and Spontini’s Vestale. These editions provided the foundations for the extended scenas she offers here, although, per tradition, she adds her own embellishments. The detective work is impressive, but that’s not what makes this recording worth having. With her voluptuous but scalable voice and instinctive sense of musical drama, Rebeka gives a lot of herself in these characterizations, inhabiting each heroine so fully that the music seems like her natural communicative idiom. Offering the level of drama one expects from a live performance rather than a studio recording, she varies her timbre in response to the emotional content, etching her characters with a specificity that can get lost in the barrage of florid technical demands. “Casta Diva” is commanding, with a steely Edge that presents Norma as a single-minded force to be reckoned with, hinting at the reason behind Pollione’s betrayal with Adalgisa. In Imogene’s mad scene from Il Pirata, Rebeka takes the opening recitative from delicate exploration to torment and maintains dramatic impetus even as she caresses the triplets over the sleepy arpeggios in “Col sorriso d’innocenza.” She rises to a wistfully floated pianissimo singing “A chi tanto oprò per te,” then turns around with ferocity, dipping into her satisfyingly meaty low register.

The two Donizetti queens couldn’t be more different. Her Maria Stuarda is focused and spiritual, spending the moments before her death trying to get everyone to listen to her prayers. One can hear her imagining the ascent to heaven in her angelic sustained G rising to a B-flat over the chorus in “Deh! Tu di un’umile preghiera.” The end of “Ah! se un giorno da queste ritorte” is thrilling, up to and including her high D. By contrast, her Anna Bolena offers more ingenuous shimmer, brighter coloration and romantic madness. It may be Rebeka’s most beautiful singing. Her limpid phrasing on “Al dolce guidami” is laced with longing, and the final flourish retains dramatic authority.

Julia’s arias from La Vestale are better known in their Italian translations, and hearing them in French calls to mind Berlioz more than Bellini. The galloping strings in “Sur cet autel sacré” paint the roiling passions of a vestal virgin in love, and Rebeka’s emotional and technical bravura are even more integrated here, ending the exciting “Impitoyables dieux” with a hair raising high C. Conductor Jader Bignamini shares Rebeka’s conviction and sense of urgency, which aso spreads to the four soloists (mezzo-soprano Irene Savignano, tenor Marco Ciaponi and baritones Francesco Paolo Vultaggio and Gianluca Margheri) whose cameos allow Rebeka to include the interstitial material that is often cut when these extended scenes are excerpted.

"Excerpts from Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda and Anna Bolena, and Spontini’s La Vestale, confirm Rebeka’s formidable intensity and interpretative intelligence…In many ways Rebeka recalls Callas in this repertoire – the wine-dark chest voice colorations and fearless emotional commitment in particular. A heady comparison, but justifiable given this anything-but-routine recital." (BBC Music Magazine)

"[The voice is] sturdy and rich across the range and has a formidable top, but also a certain weight that needs to be steered around tight coloratura corners. As before, Rebeka scores big points for the nobility and grandezza of her performances; she’s at her best when called on to convey determination and steely strength." (Gramophone Magazine)

"There are moments when the voice sounds pushed beyond its natural limits. However, much of her vocalism is technically skilled and her lithe and pliant instrument produces some glorious sounds. There’s a nice swing to the rhythm in the prayer from Maria Stuarda, where Rebeka’s gentle, dreamy approach sounds just right." (Opera)

Marina Rebeka, soprano
Coro del Teatro Massimo
Orchestra del Teatro Massimo di Palermo
Jader Bignamini, conductor

Marina Rebeka
Her debut at the Salzburg Festival in a new production of Rossini’s Moïse et Pharaon (Anaï), under the baton of Riccardo Muti, staged by Jürgen Flimm, in August 2009, has established Marina Rebeka as one among the most interesting singers of the new generation, on the international scene.

Her acclaimed debuts at Covent Garden as Violetta in La traviata (July 2010), and at Deutsche Oper Berlin as Donna Anna in Don Giovanni (October 2010) came after a rich 2009/10 season, during which she also performed Britten’s War Requiem with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra conducted by Stéphane Denève, and two productions of Carmen (Micaela): at the Festspielhaus in Baden-Baden, with Theodor Currentzis, and at the Palau de les Arts in Valencia, with Zubin Mehta.

In Fall 2011 she will make her much awaited debut at the Metropolitan in a new production of Don Giovanni (Donna Anna), under the baton of James Levine, staged by Michael Grandage. She will also perform as Donna Anna at the Opernhaus in Zürich, at the Wiener Staatsoper, at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, and she will be back at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, next time as Violetta in La traviata. Her future engagements include as well Moïse et Pharaon (Anaï), upon her Carnegie Hall debut, Guillaume Tell at the Nederlandse Opera in Amsterdam, La traviata at the Lyric Opera of Chicago and at the Metropolitan, Les Pécheurs de perles, Così fan tutte, L’elisir d’amore, La traviata and Lucia di Lammermoor at the Opernhaus in Zürich and Les contes d’Hoffmann at the Wiener Staatsoper. The role of Violetta in La traviata will also mark her debuts at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Festival and at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich. Her concert activity will include her debut with Orchestra Sinfonica dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, in Roma, with a performance of the orchestral version of Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle, under Antonio Pappano, with the recording of a cd for EMI.

In 2013 she will be back to La Scala, to sing a Händel/Mozart concert program with the Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala, under Ottavio Dantone. After a recital at the Rossini Opera Festival 2011, her London recital debut will take place at St. John's Smith Square, in Spring 2012 as well as two recitals with the Latvian National Symphonic Orchestra and Latvian National Opera Orchestra. Among other conductors with whom she has worked and will work are Alberto Zedda, Yves Abel, Mikhail Jurowski, Kirill Karabits, Alessandro De Marchi, Roberto Abbado, Gustav Kuhn, Michele Mariotti, etc.

Celebrated as the revelation in the summer 2007 when she sang the roles of Contessa di Folleville and Madama Cortese in Il viaggio a Reims at the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, she was immediately reinvited to Pesaro to sing the role of Anna in Maometto II in August 2008, where she had a remarkable success, imposing herself on the international scene. During season 2008/09 she made her Teatro alla Scala debut, singing Il viaggio a Reims (Contessa di Folleville), and her role-debut as Adina in L’elisir d’amore at the Latvian National Opera in Riga.

During the most recent seasons she performed as well La traviata at the Hamburgische Staatsoper, at the Volksoper in Wien, at the Latvian National Opera in Riga and at the Theater Erfurt, Maometto II during a Japan tour with the Rossini Opera Festival. She also made several important debuts: at the Komische Oper in Berlin in Teseo (Agilea) by Händel, and her Mozartian debut, as Elettra in Idomeneo at the Opéra National de Lorraine in Nancy. In Riga, with the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra, she has sung Ein Deutsches Requiem by Johannes Brahms. In Altenberg, Koeln and Liverpool she has sung War Requiem by Britten with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra.

Born in Riga (Latvia), Marina Rebeka began her musical studies at the “Ridze” Music School, and she graduated at the “Jazeps Medins” Music College, under the guidance of Natalia Kozlova. A winner of several vocal competitions, in June 2006 she graduated at the Accademia Internazionale delle Arti in Rome, and in June 2007 she graduated at the “Conservatorio di Santa Cecilia” in Rome. She also attended the “Internationale Sommerakademie Universität Mozarteum“ in Salzburg where she studied with Grace Bumbry, and the “Accademia Rossiniana” in Pesaro, under the guidance of Alberto Zedda. She was the winner of various vocal competitions, among which the renowned competition “Neue Stimmen” of the Bertelsmann Foundation in Gütersloh in October 2007.

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