Verismo recommendations, please!

[Alan Howe]

Just spent the afternoon listening to Mascagni's Isabeau (Bongiovanni/Bakels: 1982). Anyone expecting Cav Mk2 would probably be disappointed, but in truth the idiom is considerably more advanced - and subtle. It's much more through-composed, but the big moments still pack an almighty wallop. The singing of American soprano Lynne Strow Piccolo in the title role is extraordinary - perfectly secure and lustrous in tone right up into her highest register - and she is supported very well indeed by Dutch tenor Adriaan van Limpt. The orchestra play well under Bakels who obviously has a gift for this sort of thing. Highly recommended to adventurous verismo fans!

[BerlinExpat]

It's great pity that poor Mascagni is more or less only associated with Cav and almost always tagged onto Pag. Nowadays some other combinations are being tested but no one seems to come up with adding Mascagni's own Silvano. Also no one thinks about pairing Pag with Leoncavallo's Gli Zingari which he too hoped would form his own double bill.
Four years ago the state theatre in Brunswick (Braunschweig) staged Isabeau - excellent musically but with a questionable interpretation. That is often a problem with modern stagings of mediaeval legends.
Bongiovanni/Bakels added Mascagni's Il Piccolo Marat to their catalogue in 1992 and musically I prefer it to Isabeau. Dealing with an aspect of the French Revolution, it's on a par with Giordano's André Chenier, so is quasi versimo.
This year's Wexford Festival are mounting Mascagni's Guglielmo Ratcliffe and having seen it years ago in Bonn, I can thoroughly recommend it. Tickets are selling fast but Ireland's Lyric FM radio station usually broadcast all the Wexford performances and they are also available for a while afterwards.

[Alan Howe]

Thanks for those comments - and Wexford news.

[Alan Howe]

I can certainly hear Debussy in the prelude to Fedra. I must also go back and listen to Fauré's Pénélope, although that post-dates the Pizzetti. What's most striking is the modal writing - which one finds in later Respighi also. A pretty radical opera, certainly - and quite unlike the verismo works of the same period. Very interesting indeed.

[Alan Howe]

Of course, what would militate against Fedra ever becoming popular is the declamatory nature of the vocal writing. Essentially Pizzetti is setting speech to music - the lyricism in the score is mainly carried by the orchestra, which is thrilling when it occurs, but this is clearly a serious attempt to move Italian opera in a quite different direction.

[Jor]

I agree with BerlinExpat, Mascagni is much more than Cavalleria Rusticana.
Iris, L'amico Fritz, Isabeau, Parisina, Il piccolo Marat, Guglielmo Ratcliff and to a lesser extent Le maschere, Lodoletta and Zanetto are all worthy to listen.

If "verismo" is meant more as a time period/composers wave then I would recommend Cassandra by Vittorio Gnecchi, Mirra by Domenico Alaleona, I quatro rusteghi by Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari (which is very different from the spirit of the period, I gioielli della madonna is Wolf-Ferrari take on verismo),  L'amore dei tre Re and L'incantesimo by Italo Montemezzi.
Of course there are also example of verism operas which were first performed after 1920 like Salvatore Allegra's Ave Maria or Giancarlo Colombini's Jade (both not commercially available, I think).

Another unsung composer is Giacomo Orefice which most famous work is Chopin, Opera based on Chopin life (loosely) and music.
Not a masterpiece but I like to listen to it sometime.

[Alan Howe]

Thanks for that contribution - and welcome to UC!

[Alan Howe]

Some rather exciting audio excerpts from Colombini's Jade are available here:
http://www.giancarlocolombini.org/Jade/Jade.html

[Jor]

Jade is pretty good but it feels like it had already 50 years on the shoulders when it was composed.

http://orfeovedovo.weebly.com/20th-century-italian-opera-catalogue.html

[Alan Howe]

I understand. But maybe one should ask not 'when was it written?', but 'how good is the music?'

[Jor]

I agree.
Mine was just an observation.

[Alan Howe]

It's one that is often made.

[BerlinExpat]

I have long wondered why theatres have so long avoided Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari's The Jewels of the Madonna. It is such a wonderful opera and really doesn't deserve to languish in the archives. The new production in Bratislava has everything the composer demanded and really is versimo opera at its best. The large stage of the wonderful new (2007) opera and ballet theatre comfortably allow the mass scenes of the 1st and 3rd acts. The orchestra played with dedication and interpreted this fine score wonderfully. The singers' Italian wasn't always quite clear but they sang with emotion and verve. Surtitles are in Slovak and German. My only disappointment was the omission of the first intermezzo. The dates of future performances are below.

Maybe the piece is having a just revival. The theatre in Freiburg in Briesgau have announced a production for next season but it could be in German as no information is given about the sung language in any of their premières next season. Again performance dates are below.

Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari
The Jewels of the Madonna (Sperky Madony)
Hall of Opera and Ballet, the new building of SND, Bratislava
Performances in Italian:
Saturday 27. June 2015
Tuesday 29. September 2015
Tuesday 20. October 2015
Tuesday 1. December 2015
Friday 29. January 2016
Saturday 23. April 2016
Tuesday 14. June 2016

Der Schmuck der Madonna
Theater, Freiburg in Breisgau
Performances
Saturday 5. March 2016
Thursday 10. March 2016
Saturday 19. March 2016
Saturday 26 March 2016
Thursday 9. June 2016
Sunday 12. June 2016

[Alan Howe]

...and it was given at Opera Holland Park, London, in 2013. Here's a review:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/opera/10203891/I-Gioielli-della-Madonna-at-Holland-Park-Opera.html
It was very loud, very exciting and way over the top. Verismo as it should be!!

[Alan Howe]

Just spent the afternoon listening to Mascagni's Guglielmo Ratcliff in this performance:
http://premiereopera.net/product/guglielmo-ratcliff-by-mascagni-new-york-2003
For an 'unofficial recording' it's pretty good. The orchestra play well and the recording's clear, if not ideally spacious-sounding. The performance is a brave one: no top-flight voices, and the much undervalued heroic tenor Lando Bartolini in the lead tenor role - at the age of 66!! He has the notes, which is just as well as what he has to sing is quite the most taxing stuff I've ever heard in the Italian repertoire. I shouldn't imagine the tenor's been invented who can adequately sing this music - Franco Corelli would have been glorious in it, but he may have ruined his voice trying. Overall, there's just too much declamatory writing for the voices to make this an enjoyable listen. Mascagni himself reportedly thought highly of the opera; I disagree. Now that I've heard it, I never want to hear this bawling match again...