Riccardo Frizza – Donizetti: L’elisir d’amore (Live) (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 02:12:32 minutes | 2,51 GB | Genre: Classical, Opera
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Dynamic
Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore is a melodrama giocoso in two acts and has remained one of the world’s most popular and often performed operas. Nemorino is in love with Adina, who is indifferent, but eventually falls for him, helped by the huckster Dr. Dulcamara’s elixir (in reality, cheap red wine). This performance restores cuts and is heard in full, as Donizetti intended, played on original instruments of the time at the original pitch. This allows one to hear more fully how he turned a traditional opera buffa into a masterpiece of characterisation and theatrical power.
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Hungarian Radio Choir, Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Riccardo Frizza – Brusa: Orchestral Works, Vol. 5 (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:05:48 minutes | 1,18 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Naxos
Most of Elisabetta Brusa’s compositions have been written for orchestral forces, with four volumes currently available on Naxos. The two new choral pieces in this fifth volume offer a revealing look at the composer’s response to spirituality and her own feelings about the end of life. The Stabat Mater was written as a trial for the Requiem and features vocal parts that are often pushed to the limit of their extensions for maximum expressivity. Following traditional models, Brusa’s Requiem evokes an archaic atmosphere which gives the piece a medieval aura, contrasted with moments of luminous and transcendent music.
Read moreAnnalisa Stroppa, Javier Camarena, Florian Sempey, Evgeny Stavinsky, Edoardo Milletti, Caterina Di Tonno, Donizetti Opera Orchestra and Riccardo Frizz, Riccardo Frizza, Donizetti Opera Orchestra – Donizetti: La favorite, A. 58 (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 02:59:31 minutes | 2,86 GB | Genre: Classical, Opera
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Naxos
Written for the Opéra in Paris, Gaetano Donizetti’s La Favorite contains some of his most famously enthralling arias. While its much-reduced Italian version has continued in popularity, this superb production from the Donizetti Opera Festival in his birthplace of Bergamo returns the work to its rarely heard 1840 French grand opera origins. Set in 14th-century Spain, the tragic story is of a pious novice (Fernand) who falls in love with a noble lady and abandons the cloister, meeting her in secret. He becomes a war hero and asks the King for her hand, later finding out to his horror that she is Léonor de Guzman, the King’s beloved mistress.
Read moreSondra Radvanovsky, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Riccardo Frizza – The Three Queens (Live) (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:37:15 minutes | 1,62 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © PentaTone
Lyric Opera of Chicago presents “The Three Queens”, a program that brings together the finales of Gaetano Donizetti’s Tudor trilogy, showcasing three of the most fascinating heroines of opera history. These extraordinary women are interpreted by soprano Sondra Radvanovsky, who performs them together with an excellent ensemble of soloists under the baton of Donizetti specialist Riccardo Frizza. Singing these three breathtaking roles on one night is an enormous challenge for any soprano, and this live recording captures all the excitement of this exceptional achievement.
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Javier Camarena, Gli Originali, Riccardo Frizza – Signor Gaetano (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:16:01 minutes | 2,60 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © PentaTone
Star tenor Javier Camarena makes his Pentatone debut with Signor Gaetano, together with Gli Originali under the baton of Italian opera specialist Riccardo Frizza, presenting a carefully-curated exploration of Donizetti’s greatest tenor arias. Besides famous excerpts from L’elisir d’amore, Don Pasquale and Roberto Devereux, this project focuses on hidden gems from rarely-recorded works such as Betly, Maria de Rudenz and Il giovedì grasso. Camarena and Frizza’s exceptional sense of style is enhanced by the period instrument playing of Gli Originali. The recording took place at the Teatro Donizetti in the composer’s hometown Bergamo, as part of the yearly Donizetti Festival, of which Frizza is the musical director. Javier Camarena is one of the most in-demand tenors of his generation, and one of the world’s leading bel canto specialists. Riccardo Frizza frequents major opera houses, was awarded the Best Conductor prize at the International Opera XXI Awards, and returns to Pentatone after having featured on The Three Queens (Donizetti) with Sondra Radvanovsky and Lyric Opera Chicago (2022). Gli Originali was founded within the context of the Bergamo Donizetti Festival, and aims to revive the sound world of early nineteenth-century opera with period instruments and a historically-informed approach.
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Orchestra Giovanile Luigi Cherubini, Riccardo Frizza – Donizetti: Lucrezia Borgia, A. 41 (Live) (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 02:15:15 minutes | 2,39 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Dynamic
Gaetano Donizetti’s Lucrezia Borgia is a dark and scandalous tale of murder and excess. Initially criticised for its audacious nature, the opera has since become appreciated as one of the great masterpieces of Italian bel canto repertoire with glorious arias and stirring choruses. Created using Roger Parker’s new critical edition and with acclaimed soprano Carmela Remigio in the title role, Andrea Bernard’s spectacular Donizetti Festival production is ‘gripping and intense at every moment… this production ranks among the best all year’ (operawire.com).
Read moreOrchestra e Coro Donizetti Opera & Riccardo Frizza – Donizetti: Belisario, A. 47 (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 02:06:47 minutes | 2,21 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Dynamic
Donizetti’s three-act tragic opera Belisario was a resounding success in its day, driven by its composer’s superlative theatrical instinct and his skillful interweaving of intense tragic narrative and emotional pathos. Belisario is betrayed by his wife Antonina, who falsely accuses him of high treason. Belisario is blinded and exiled, with proof of his innocence coming too late, and is mortally wounded during a final military victory. This production was performed and recorded without an audience in Bergamo in November 2020 – a moving performance reflecting a spirit of defiance amidst ruin and darkness.
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