Donizetti: Caterina Cornaro BBC Symphony Orchestra & David Parry

• Gaetano Donizetti (1797 - 1848): Caterina Cornaro, Prologue:
• 1Donizetti: Caterina Cornaro, Prologue: Preludio01:32
• 2Donizetti: Caterina Cornaro, Prologue: "Salve o beati, al giubilo" (Coro)01:50
• 3Donizetti: Caterina Cornaro, Prologue: "Tu l'amor mio, tu l'iride" (Gerardo, Caterina)04:55
• 4Donizetti: Caterina Cornaro, Prologue: "Dell'empia Cipro il popolo" (Mocenigo, Andrea)03:49
• 5Donizetti: Caterina Cornaro, Prologue: "Parta pur, ma vendicato sarà" (Coro, Andrea, Gerardo, Caterina)02:13
• 6Donizetti: Caterina Cornaro, Prologue: "Or che l'astro in mar si cela" (Coro)01:24
• 7Donizetti: Caterina Cornaro, Prologue: "Torna all'ospite tetto" (Caterina, Matilde)02:16
• 8Donizetti: Caterina Cornaro, Prologue: "Vieni, o tu, che ognora" (Caterina)03:03
• 9Donizetti: Caterina Cornaro, Prologue: "Deh! Vieni, t'affretta" (Caterina)03:14
• 10Donizetti: Caterina Cornaro, Prologue: "Ah! Qui ancor padre mio?" (Caterina, Andrea, Mocenigo)04:29
• 11Donizetti: Caterina Cornaro, Prologue: "Spera in me, della tua vita" (Gerardo, Caterina)04:37
• 12Donizetti: Caterina Cornaro, Prologue: "Ah, va crudel maledetto quel giorno" (Gerardo, Caterina)03:00
• Caterina Cornaro, Act 1:
• 13Donizetti: Caterina Cornaro, Act 1: "Sei bella, o Cipro!" (Mocenigo, Strozzi)03:28
• 14Donizetti: Caterina Cornaro, Act 1: "Credi che dorma, o incauto" (Mocenigo, Strozzi)01:15
• 15Donizetti: Caterina Cornaro, Act 1: "Lasciami, o Cavalier" (Lusignano, Cavaliere)00:57
• 16Donizetti: Caterina Cornaro, Act 1: "Da che z sposa Caterina" (Lusignano)03:45
• 17Donizetti: Caterina Cornaro, Act 1: "Core, e pugnale" (Coro, Strozzi)03:27
• 18Donizetti: Caterina Cornaro, Act 1: "Mano a' pugnali" (Coro, Strozzi, Gerardo, Lusignano, Sgherri)02:42
• 19Donizetti: Caterina Cornaro, Act 1: "Parla, ardisci io son quel desso" (Gerardo, Lusignano)01:14
• 20Donizetti: Caterina Cornaro, Act 1: "Vedi io piango" (Gerardo, Lusignano)03:13
• 21Donizetti: Caterina Cornaro, Act 1: "Che qui non batte un core ingrato" (Gerardo, Lusignano)02:21
• 22Donizetti: Caterina Cornaro, Act 1: "Si, dall'ardir degli empi" (Gerardo, Lusignano)02:41
• 23Donizetti: Caterina Cornaro, Act 1: "Gemmata il serto" (Coro)04:12
• 24Donizetti: Caterina Cornaro, Act 1: "Guarda, s'avanza il Re" (Caterina, Lusignano)01:41
• 25Donizetti: Caterina Cornaro, Act 1: "Ah, non turbarti a questi accenti" (Lusignano, Caterina)03:01
• 26Donizetti: Caterina Cornaro, Act 1: "O re! ... Strozzi?" (Strozzi, Lusignano, Gerardo, Caterina)03:00
• 27Donizetti: Caterina Cornaro, Act 1: "Da quel di che lacerato" (Gerardo, Caterina)03:51
• 28Donizetti: Caterina Cornaro, Act 1: "De me fosti ognor compianto, fratel mio" (Caterina, Gerardo)03:57
• 29Donizetti: Caterina Cornaro, Act 1: "Parti" (Caterina, Gerardo, Mocenigo, Lusignano)01:39
• 30Donizetti: Caterina Cornaro, Act 1: "Indietro! Io, vil carnefice" (Lusignano, Mocenigo, Caterina, Gerardo)02:48
• 31Donizetti: Caterina Cornaro, Act 1: "Olà? Gran re, la collera vendicatrice è tarda" (Lusignano, Mocenigo)00:57
• 32Donizetti: Caterina Cornaro, Act 1: "Va fellon di questa terra" (Lusignano, Caterina, Gerardo, Mocenigo, Coro)02:23
• Caterina Cornaro, Act 2:
• 33Donizetti: Caterina Cornaro, Act 2: "Misera patria!" (Cavaliere, Gerardo)01:53
• 34Donizetti: Caterina Cornaro, Act 2: "Io trar non voglio campi ed onori" (Gerardo)02:25
• 35Donizetti: Caterina Cornaro, Act 2: "Guerra! Guerra" (Coro, Gerardo)00:59
• 36Donizetti: Caterina Cornaro, Act 2: "Morte, morte! Fur troppi gl'insulti" (Gerardo, Coro)03:04
• 37Donizetti: Caterina Cornaro, Act 2: "Oh ciel! Che tumulto!" (Coro)01:29
• 38Donizetti: Caterina Cornaro, Act 2: "Dolorosa incertezza!" (Caterina, Coro)01:18
• 39Donizetti: Caterina Cornaro, Act 2: "Pietà, o Signor" (Caterina)03:07
• 40Donizetti: Caterina Cornaro, Act 2: "Vittoria! Vittoria!" (Coro, Caterina, Gerardo, Lusignano)01:28
• 41Donizetti: Caterina Cornaro, Act 2: "Orsù della vitoria" (Lusignano, Gerardo, Caterina, Coro)02:32
• 42Donizetti: Caterina Cornaro, Act 2: "Non più affanni" (Caterina, Coro)03:32
• 43Donizetti: Caterina Cornaro, Act 2: "Vittoria! Vittoria!" (Coro, Caterina, Lusignano)02:34
• 44Donizetti: Caterina Cornaro, Act 2: "Piangi, sì piangi, o misera" (Coro, Caterina, Lusignano)02:50
• Total Runtime01:56:05

Info for Donizetti: Caterina Cornaro

Caterina Cornaro was written in the extremely productive last period of Donizetti's life (between Don Pasquale and Linda di Chamounix) and was the last of his operas to be premiered in the composer’s lifetime. Like every other work of this period, it is intensely original, in this case being unusually dark in both subject matter and general musical tone.

This is the only opera of Donizetti’s later period not to have had a quality modern recording. Conductor David Parry says: “The opera requires a prima donna with a wonderful voice, extraordinary technique and exceptional histrionic ability, which we have in Carmen Giannattasio: the role could actually have been written for her.

The story is resonant and believable, a woman forced into a political marriage with a king she does not love, but who turns out to be noble and good, so that she feels that she cannot abandon him, and who is assassinated at the instigation of a bitter enemy, leaving her to rule on her own. This calls up from Donizetti one of his most deeply felt, atmospheric and dramatically truthful scores. It is concise and hard-hitting, and I simply cannot understand why the opera is not in the repertoire; it is badly in need of a proper studio-recording.”

The double album set is accompanied by a complete libretto with an English translation alongside an article and synopsis by the eminent 19th-century musical scholar, Jeremy Commons.

"this recording reveals an interestingly coloured voice [from Giannattasio] with some effective phrasing and efficient coloratura...Add idiomatic and spirited conducting and playing from David Parry and the BBC Symphony Orchestra and this release is well worth adding to the collection of anyone interested in nineteenth century Italian opera." (Opera Now)

"Giannattasio brings an easy confidence to the rich lyricism of the writing, though a cleaner attack on the text would stamp more personality on the role...Colin Lee is sweet and graceful...and Vuyani Mlinde impresses...Parry secures a fine overall performance, drawing out the subtle drama of the piece." (BBC Music Magazine)

"Giannattasio shows once again how admirably suited she is to the bel canto repertoire. Her opening Romanza encapsulates her virtues: a good legato line wih no Sutherland droopiness, followed by an equally expressive cabaletta...I have heard Colin Lee described as 'the poor man's Florez'...he is very much more than that." (Gramophone)

"[Lee] is up to his usual high standard. His bright, high-placed voice is in fine condition...there are some meaty morsels for the middle of Giannattasio's compass, which she treats to the occasional touch of chest-voice, yet she can take upward flight with flowing ease...She completes a fine cast, in which there is now weakness." (International Record Review)

Carmen Giannattasio, soprano (Caterina Cornaro)
Colin Lee, tenor (Gerardo)
Troy Cook, baritone (Lusignano)
Graeme Broadbent, bass (Andrea Cornaro)
Vuyani Mlinde, bass (Mocenigo)
Loïc Félix, tenor (Strozzi, a Knight of the King)
Sophie Bevan, soprano (Matilde)
BBC Symphony Orchestra
BBC Singers
David Parry, conductor

David Parry
is acknowledged as an inspirational champion of operatic, concert and symphonic repertoire across a vast range. He has been responsible for the re-appraisal of countless lesser-known compositions in a series of multi-award-winning productions and recordings, featuring some of the world’s finest singers. Engagements in 2011 included Lucia di Lammermoor for Opera Murcia, Il turco in Italia for Garsington Opera, Il barbiere di Siviglia for Staatstheater Stuttgart, Petrushka, Le Spectre de la Rose and Les Sylphides in new productions at Grand Théâtre de Genève, concert appearances with the Philharmonia Orchestra featuring Sir John Tomlinson and Carmen Giannattasio, and recordings with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, including a new recording for Opera Rara of Donizetti’s Caterina Cornaro, a work with which he enjoyed enormous critical and public success at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam in 2010. His much-anticipated recording for Opera Rara of Il pirata, featuring Carmen Giannattasio, has just been released in May 2012.

Significant credits, including the world premiere of Jonathan Dove’s The Adventures of Pinocchio (in separate productions for Opera North and Staatstheater Stuttgart), Der fliegende Holländer (for Portland Opera), Madama Butterfly (in Anthony Minghella’s production for ENO which earned him an Olivier Award), Così fan tutte and the world premiere of Jonathan Dove’s Flight (both for Glyndebourne Festival Opera) and more recently Maria Stuarda (for The Stockholm Royal Opera), are testimony to a maestro of unique versatility, influence and enthusiasm, and have deservedly earned him his place in the operatic history books.

David Parry studied at Cambridge University and the Royal Academy of Music, London. He went on to study conducting with Sergiu Celibidache and began his career at Glyndebourne Festival Opera, later joining Sir John Pritchard as assistant conductor for Glyndebourne Touring Opera and at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels. His operatic breakthrough came with La Cenerentola for English Music Theatre, which was followed by an invitation to join the Opernhaus Dortmund, before going on to become Resident Conductor at the then newly-formed Opera North. He was Music Director of Opera 80, and in 1992 founding Music Director of Almeida Opera, with whom he gave the world premieres of Nigel Osborne’s Terrible Mouth, Kevin Volans’s The Man who Strides the Wind, Elena Firsova’s The Nightingale and the Rose and Ion by Param Vir. Other significant world premieres have included Stephen Oliver’s Mario and the Magician at the Batignano Festival and Jonathan Dove’s Tobias and the Angel in 2006 and his oratorio There was a Child with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in 2009, while the UK premiere of Bruno Maderna’s Satiricon for Opera Factory was also presented under his baton.

Highlights of his appearances in the UK have included, for ENO: Le Comte Ory, Don Giovanni, Così fan tutte, The Rape of Lucretia, Ernani, La Vestale, The Turk in Italy and The Barber of Seville; for Opera North: Nabucco, Idomeneo, L’elisir d’amore, Der Zwerg, Pagliacci, and La gazza ladra; for Garsington Opera: La Cenerentola, Don Pasquale, La gazza ladra, Il barbiere di Siviglia, L’equivoco stravagante, Armida and La donna del lago.

Among his numerous international successes feature the Spanish premiere of Peter Grimes, The Rake’s Progress and Jenůfa in Madrid, La Fille du régiment, La traviata and Il barbiere di Siviglia at the Oviedo Festival, Carmen and Les Contes d’Hoffmann in San Sebastian, Nixon in China at the National Theatre of Greece, Jonathan Dove’s Flight at the Nationale Reisopera, Die Zauberflöte for Oper Köln and Don Giovanni at Staatstheater Hannover. Further afield, he conducted Tosca and Die Zauberflöte for the Hong Kong International Festival, Kat’a Kabanova and Fidelio for the New Zealand International Festival and Lucia di Lammermoor for New Israeli Opera, with other significant European credits including Maria Stuarda and La finta giardiniera for Theater Basel. He enjoys a close association with Staatstheater Stuttgart, where, in addition to the second production of Dove’s The Adventures of Pinocchio, he has conducted Don Giovanni, Le Comte Ory, Il barbiere di Siviglia, and Turandot.

David Parry boasts an enviable discography of recordings for Opera Rara, one of the most authoritative and comprehensive of its kind, which has been responsible for the re-evaluation of many re-discovered masterpieces of the bel-canto era, with notable examples including Rossini’s Ermione (winner of the 2011 Gramophone Award for Opera), Donizetti’s Rosmonda d’Inghilterra, L’assedio di Calais, Mercadante’s Orazi e Curiazi and Meyebeer’s Il crociato in Egitto.

In addition, David’s series of classic repertoire for Chandos Records continues to top the best-selling charts in both CD and state-of-the-art digital downloadable format, with particular successes including Fidelio, The Flying Dutchman, Don Pasquale, Tosca, Der Rosenkavalier, La Bohème, Il trovatore, Faust and Carmen.

Booklet for Donizetti: Caterina Cornaro