The Summer Collection
Saturday, 19 June 2010 , 19.00

In the Summer Collection of CDs which are going to be listened to for the first time this summer, the complete opera Imelda di Lambertazzi meets all the requirements to be considered an opera rara: it has been rarely performed – it has had only four or five reruns right after its première and it is a a vocally challenging work. This could be a reason for its eternal confinement in obscurity, with a subject basically similar to that of the famous story of Romeo and Juliet – for which there were, there are and there will always be preferred in the world of the opera works such as I Capuletti e i Montecchi (composed by Bellini only a few months prior) or Romeo and Juliet (composed by Charles Gounod in 1867).

And still: does this work by Gaetano Donizetti deserve to be given more attention?

My answer is yes, which is why I am inviting you to listen to it.

Composed in 1830, a year in which Gaetano Donizetti had been looking for his muse, Imelda di Lambertazzi is unusually particular for an Italian bel-canto: first of all the heroine (the soprano) is in love with the character interpreted by a baritone instead of a tenor; secondly, the innovative orchestration which is wonderfully and melodically inspiring; it has powerful sentimental effusions and even if it has ultimately remained split between progress and conservatism, it has found the ideal tone to retell an old story through opera... As a matter of fact, when it was performed in Venice in 1831, the opera was considered the Romeo e Giulietta dei poveri (the Romeo and Juliet story for the poor). Why? Tune in to listen to An Evening at the Opera this Saturday from 19.00.