FULL How to rescue a rare and forgotten opera OPERA RARA Documentary London 2018
Information on the Performance
- Work Title: How to rescue a rare and forgotten opera
- Composer: Donizetti Gaetano
- Libretto: Alphonse Royer, Gustave Vaëz
- Venue & Opera Company: London, UK
- Recorded: 2018
- Type: Other
- Singers: Michael Spyres, Joyce El-Khoury
- Conductor: Mark Elder
- Orchestra:
- Stage Director:
- Costume Designer:
Information about the Recording
- Published by: OperaRaraOfficial
- Date Published: 2023
- Format: Streaming
- Quality Video: 4 Audio:4
- Subtitles: nosubs
- Video Recording from: YouTube FULL VIDEO
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE
Roger Parker from Opera Rara discusses and plays from a new recital disc with Michael Spyres and Joyce El-Khoury.
He also describes the work of unearthing, documenting and recording Donizetti’s rare opera L’Ange de Nisidia
L’Ange de Nisida (The Angel of Nisida) is an opera semiseria in four acts by Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti, from a French-language libretto by Alphonse Royer and Gustave Vaëz.
Parts of the libretto are considered analogous with the libretto for Giovanni Pacini’s Adelaide e Comingio, and the final scene is based on the François-Thomas-Marie de Baculard d’Arnaud play Les Amants malheureux, ou le comte de Comminges. Donizetti worked on the opera in late 1839—its final page is dated 27 December 1839. Because the subject matter involved the mistress of a Neapolitan king, and may thus have caused difficulties with the Italian censors, Donizetti decided that the opera should be presented in France. The theater company Donizetti contracted went bankrupt; the opera was reworked as La favorite in September 1840. L’Ange finally received its premiere in its original form in 2018 in a concert performance at London’s Royal Opera House.