Ponchielli I Lituani

[Alan Howe]

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.

[adriano]

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.

[edurban]

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

[adriano]

I've just found a copy on ebay too, and not at such a high price some Amazaon Marketplace guys offer :-)

[scottevan]

"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.

[Alan Howe]

Unlike so many rather provincial-sounding Bongiovanni performances, this is a first-class production, well recorded and well sung.

[alberto]

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.

[adriano]

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.

[Alan Howe]

Ah, la Tucci! What a singer!

[BerlinExpat]

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

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

[Mark Thomas]

Thanks very much, Colin.