Set in Paris immediately before and during the French Revolution, Andrea Chénier is Umberto Giordano’s passionate and most successful opera. Placido Domingo stars in the title role as the idealistic poet of the French Revolution, and Maddalena, the object of Chénier’s adoration, is portrayed by the Bulgarian soprano Anna Tomowa-Sintow. A servant-turned-revolutionary, Gérard, also loves Maddalena, and when he is elevated to the revolutionary court he wreaks his revenge against Chénier who is condemned to death. Maddalena joins Chénier in his cell and they go to the guillotine together. Gérard, torn between political and amorous loyalties, is the Italian baritone Giorgio Zancanaro. “Triumphantly successful” THE SUNDAY TIMES
La Fanciulla del West
Puccini’s penultimate opera, based on the play by David Belasco, and which marked a new stylish departure for him, is set at the height of the notorious Californian Gold Rush. The orchestration and musical colour of this opera represent a major advance on Puccini’s previous work, especially in the careful interweaving of Western elements into an altogether larger canvas than anything he had tackled before. In this recording Piero Faggioni’s highly detailed staging is matched by Ken Adam’s superbly atmospheric sets. Carol Neblett sings the role of Minnie – ‘The Girl of the Golden West’ – Placido Domingo is as ignitable as ever in the role of Dick Johnson, alias the bandit Ramirez, and Silvano Carroli is the sinister Sheriff, Jack Rance.
Manon Lescaut
Manon Lescaut is one of the world’s great love stories. It is a tragic tale of a beguiling young woman, torn between true love and a desire for wealth, who discovers she can’t have both. A young student, Des Grieux, meets the beautiful, but capricious, Manon. They fall in love and he saves her from abduction by a rich old roué. But Manon cannot resist the lure of wealth and later allows herself to be seduced by the old man. Before long, however, she is bored, and when Des Grieux appears, her love is reignited. When the old man catches them together, Manon is arrested and deported to Louisiana. The compassionate ship’s captain allows Des Grieux to go with her, and she dies in his arms in the desert.
La Fille mal gardée
Frederick Ashton’s delightful ballet has proved irresistible to audiences of all ages and The Royal Ballet’s production has immediate appeal for newcomers to ballet as well as for those who return time and again to enjoy its lyrical comedy. It is a ballet set in the English countryside, telling how Lise manages to win the hand of the man she loves – the young farmer, Colas – despite her mother’s determination to marry her off to the dim-witted son of a wealthy vineyard owner. This is one of the great masterpieces of The Royal Ballet’s repertory, created by Frederick Ashton, set amid the witty designs of Osbert Lancaster, with Hérold’s delightful melodies to inspire the performances by some of the Company’s leading artists.
Falstaff
When Carlo Maria Giulini returned to conducting public performances of opera after an absence of fourteen years, he chose for the occasion one of the enduring comic masterpieces – Verdi’s Falstaff. The composer was almost eighty when he broke the six-year silence following the premiere of Otello, and startled the musical world by revealing his complete mastery of comic invention. It is true that much of the success for this consummate work of genius is due to a libretto of extraordinary brilliance by Arrigo Boito, who took the substance of the piece from The Merry Wives of Windsor and Henry IV, but nothing can detract from Verdi’s capacity for matching it with music of real wit and humour. Renato Bruson, the renowned interpreter of Verdi and one of the leading lyric baritones of the day, sings the title role. Katia Ricciarelli leads the trio of merry wives with Lucia Valentini-Terrani as Mistress Quickly and Brenda Boozer as Meg Page. Leo Nucci sings the role of Ford and the young lovers are here portrayed by Dalmacio Gonzalez and Barbara Hendricks. Stunning designs by Hayden Griffen and Michael Stennett provide the perfect setting for this witty interpretation of Shakespeare’s masterpiece.