Fondazione Pesenti supported this year the first staged performance of L’Ange de Nisida, in its world premiere at the Donizetti Festival in Bergamo.
The opera was first performed (but in concert form) last July at Covent Garden in London.
Composed before 1840, it never went on stage because the Théâtre de la Renaissance in Paris, which had commissioned it, suspended its programming due to financial problems.
The score was rediscovered and reconstructed by the musicologist Candida Mantica.
Opera in four acts by Alphonse Royer and Gustave Vaëz
Music by Gaetano Donizetti
First performance: London, Covent Garden, July 18, 2018
Edition edited by Candida Mantica (realizations by Martin Fitzpatrick) © OperaRara / Peters, Leipzig; Italian representative Casa Musicale Sonzogno di Piero Ostali, Milan
Unpublished cabaletta edited by Candida Mantica (realization by Federico Biscione) © Fondazione Teatro Donizetti
Conductor Jean-Luc Tingaud
Director Francesco Micheli
Set design Angelo Sala
Costumes Margherita Baldoni
Lighting design Alessandro Andreoli
Assistant directors Davide Gasparro and Erika Natati
Costume assistants Silvia Pasta and Valentina Volpi, Orchestra Donizetti Opera, Coro Donizetti Opera
Chorus master Fabio Tartari
Don Fernand d’Aragon Florian Sempey
Don Gaspar Roberto Lorenzi
Leone de Casaldi Konu Kim
La comtesse Sylvia de Linarès Lidia Fridman
Le Moine Federico Benetti
Mimi Enrico Buongrazio, Luca Maniglio, Emanuele Marchetti, Michele Onori
New production and staging by Fondazione Teatro Donizetti di Bergamo
First ever staged performance
It was known that La favorite (1840) had an immediate predecessor, L’ange de Nisida, which Donizetti had written for the Parisian Théâtre de la Renaissance (1839–1840) but which never reached the stage, as that theater had to suspend programming in May 1840 due to financial difficulties. The composer had shelved that score without putting the final touches on it.
However, those words and that music were not lost, because shortly thereafter they were incorporated into La favorite, written for the Opéra, where it debuted on December 2, 1840.
By extracting from La favorite the parts originating from Ange de Nisida, and integrating them with discarded but surviving portions, musicologist Candida Mantica was able to reconstruct this work from Donizetti’s full maturity, which now finally arrives on stage in its absolute ‘first’ (it had only been heard in concert form this summer in London).
Set on the Neapolitan coast at the end of the 15th century, L’ange de Nisida tells the story of the love of King Ferdinand of Aragon for Sylvia and their future marriage obstructed by the power balance between the court of Naples and the Church. Intertwined with this story is the love for this woman of a young man both brave and naïve.
Once the situation is discovered after their marriage, favored for selfish reasons by the king, shame for dishonor and the conflict between love and atonement destroy the young man.
L’ange de Nisida begins as a comedy but darkens progressively until the dramatic conclusion. Even those familiar with La favorite will see that this is not a first version with some modifications, but a dramatically different kind of drama.
DONIZETTI OPERA
The international Donizetti Opera festival is an event promoted by Fondazione Teatro Donizetti to safeguard and promote the immense musical heritage left to the city of Bergamo by its most illustrious citizen, the composer Gaetano Donizetti.
Donizetti Opera, under the artistic direction of Francesco Micheli, realizes in-depth musicological research and involves internationally renowned top artists in its productions. Alongside the revival of lesser-known Donizetti works, the festival stages the most famous operas whose edition/revision is overseen by the scientific section led by musicologist Paolo Fabbri. The musical direction is entrusted to Riccardo Frizza.
Scarica il foglio di sala www.donizetti.org