Il diluvio universale
Il diluvio universale (The great flood) is an azione tragico-sacra, or opera, by Gaetano Donizetti. The Italian libretto was written by Domenico Gilardoni after Lord Byron's Heaven and Earth and Padre Ringhieri's Il diluvio.
Contents |
[edit] Performance history
The opera premiered at the Teatro San Carlo, Naples on February 28, 1830, but it failed to become an instant success.
It is known that the premiere production had to be handed in as an Oratorio to the censors of the church, as its date was within the period of fasting and was only allowed due to its biblical story.
A production of a version revised by Donizetti was opened on January 17th, 1834 at the Genoa Teatro Carlo Felice. After another staging in 1837 in Paris, the opera was not presented for 147 years before being staged in Genoa in 1985. The first production in Switzerland took place at St. Gallen where, since 2006 an opera is produced in the open air in front of the Cathedral around the first weekend of July. [1] This production was also presented at the St. Galler Festspiele 2010 when Mirco Palazzi, Majella Cullagh and Manuela Custer appeared. [2]
[edit] Roles
| Role | Voice type | Premiere Cast, 28 February 1830 (Conductor: - ) |
|---|---|---|
| Noè | bass | Luigi Lablache |
| Jafet | baritone | Gennaro Ambrosini |
| Sem | tenor | Giovanni Arrigotti |
| Cam | bass | Lorenzo Salvi |
| Tesbite | soprano | Fabiani |
| Asfene | soprano | Cecilia Grassi |
| Abra | mezzo-soprano | Edvige Ricci |
| Cadmo | tenor | Berardo Winter |
| Sela, Azael's mother | soprano | Luigia Boccabadati |
| Ada, Sela's friend | tenor | Maria Carraro |
| Artoo | tenor | Gaetano Chizzola |
| Azael, child | silent | |
| Chorus | ||
[edit] Synopsis
The opera is a telling of the biblical story of the great flood.
[edit] Recordings
| Year | Cast (Noe, Sela, Ada, Cadmo) |
Conductor, Opera House and Orchestra |
Label[3] |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | Mirco Palazzi, Bernadette Cullen, Manuela Custer, Colin Lee |
Giuliano Carella, London Philharmonic Orchestra and Geoffrey Mitchell Choir |
Audio CD: Opera Rara Cat: ORC 31 |
[edit] References
- Notes
- ^ St Gallen Festival website
- ^ Daniel Pardo, Opera Today, 11 December 2005, online at operatoday.com Retrieved 27 June 2010
- ^ Source for recording information: Recording(s) of Il diluvio universale on operadis-opera-discography.org.uk
- Sources
- Ashbrook, William, Donizetti and His Operas, Cambridge University Press, 1982, ISBN 052123526X ISBN 0-521-23526-X
- Holden, Amanda (Ed.), The New Penguin Opera Guide, New York: Penguin Putnam, 2001. ISBN 0-140-29312-4
- Osborne, Charles, The Bel Canto Operas of Rossini, Donizetti, and Bellini, Portland, Oregon: Amadeus Press, 1994 ISBN 0931340713
- Weinstock, Herbert, Donizetti and the World of Opera in Italy, Paris, and Vienna in the First Half of the Nineteenth Century, New York: Pantheon Books, 1963. ISBN 63-13703
[edit] External links
- Libretto (Italian)
 |
This article about an Italian language opera is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
