This is a magnificent opera; of course, there's a lot of Verdi in it (as one would expect of an Italian opera written in the mid-1870s), but there's a substantial part for the chorus and the sort of writing which has definite pre-echoes of verismo. The Bongiovanni recording of a radio broadcast from 1979 conducted by Gavazzeni is sonically excellent and very well sung indeed. It now seems to be available as a download only.
You are right, Alan, an excellent performance - I once had this on LP, let me search for a CD, perhaps there are still some around.
Yes, as I mentioned in my Turandot/verismo? comment, the performance is an excellent one. I was fortunate to find a cd copy on ebay a few years ago. My only complaint about the opera would the treatment of the Lithuanians in the extended choral scenes. Rather decorous barbarians, I thought, as if we were sitting in on an afternoon with the Vilnius Choral Union. Lovely, but awfully polite. David
I've just found a copy on ebay too, and not at such a high price some Amazaon Marketplace guys offer :-)
"I Lituani" was in large part responsible for sending me down the "unsung" path, as far as late romantic Italian opera is concerned. "Gioconda" gets the attention, but I actually find "Lituani" a more compelling work. There's lyricism and melody in abundance - much of it delivered by the chorus - and the final ensemble takes the breath away.
I've also heard it sung in a Lithuanian translation. Compelling in its own way, but not a patch on the Bon Giovanni recording mentioned. I can't imagine a better rendition of the work.
Unlike so many rather provincial-sounding Bongiovanni performances, this is a first-class production, well recorded and well sung.
I attended that performance in 1979. Then RAI (Radio Televisione Italiana) had four orchestras in four cities and could afford to face, at least on some occasions, a varied repertoire. I attended Gavazzeni conducting another very intriguing opera: the "Nerone" by Boito (unfinished and completed, if I remember well, by Toscanini and Tommasini). Also Verdi's Jerusalem (less rare as I saw it also, years later, on stage).
Then I was not really that great opera fan; the most striking experience, among those remote concert performances was Alfano's "Risurrezione" with Magda Olivero. Also Verdi's Luisa Miller with a fairly young Pavarotti , conducted by Maag.
As a more intellectual experience I appreciated Busoni's "Doktor Faust" , conducted by Segerstam, and "La Sposa Sorteggiata" (Die Brautwal?) conducted by Previtali.
Almost all those concert performances were pirated by more or less obscure labels, generally with mediocre sound.
Ciao Alberto :-)
And before all this, already in 1976, the Rome RAI had also produced a concert broadcast of Respighi's "La campana sommersa", conducted by Bruno Bartoletti, with an excellent cast including Slaska Taskova Paoletti, Gabriella Tucci, Enrico Carlo Maillauro, Lorenzo Saccomani and Nicola Tagger. I still cherish this audio file, which was given to me by the RAI as a gift for my Respighi activities and that I had helped them to get a longer interview with Ela Respighi.
Ah, la Tucci! What a singer!
I've posted a recording of Amilcare Ponchielli's ,,I Lituani", an opera in a prologue and three acts:
http://www.unsungcomposers.com/forum/index.php/topic,8003.msg83817/boardseen.html#new (http://www.unsungcomposers.com/forum/index.php/topic,8003.msg83817/boardseen.html#new)
Presumably this one of the revised versions in view of the fact that acts 1 & 3 are considerably shorter than in the 1979 Bongiovanni recording.
Re-broadcast by Deutschlandfunk Kultur on 17th October 2020 from a broadcast by Lithuanian Radio on 5th September 2020
Thanks very much, Colin.