Maria Stuarda (Mary Stuart) is a tragic opera (tragedia lirica), in two acts, by Gaetano Donizetti, to a libretto by Giuseppe Bardari, based on Andrea Maffei's translation of Friedrich Schiller's 1800 play Maria Stuart.

The opera is one of a number of operas by Donizetti which deal with the Tudor period in English history, including Anna Bolena (named for Henry VIII's second wife, Anne Boleyn), Roberto Devereux (named for a putative lover of Queen Elizabeth I of England) and Il castello di Kenilworth. The lead female characters of the operas Anna Bolena, Maria Stuarda, and Roberto Devereux are often referred to as the "Three Donizetti Queens". The story is loosely based on the lives of Mary, Queen of Scots (Mary Stuart) and her cousin Queen Elizabeth I. Schiller had invented the confrontation of the two Queens, who in fact never met.

After a series of problems surrounding its presentation in Naples after the final dress rehearsal – including having to be re-written for a totally different location, a different time period, and with Buondelmonte as its new title – Maria Stuarda as we know it today premiered on 30 December 1835 at La Scala in Milan.

Classical Music Discoveries is sponsored by La Musica International Chamber Music Festival and Uber.

@khedgecock
#ClassicalMusicDiscoveries
#KeepClassicalMusicAlive
#LaMusicaFestival
#CMDGrandOperaCompanyofVenice
#CMDParisPhilharmonicinOrléans
#CMDGermanOperaCompanyofBerlin
#CMDGrandOperaCompanyofBarcelonaSpain
#ClassicalMusicLivesOn
#Uber

Support us on Patreon
https://www.patreon.com/user?u=4186107

staff@classicalmusicdiscoveries.com

Caterina Cornaro ossia La Regina di Cipro (Caterina Cornaro or The Queen of Cyprus) is a tragedia lirica, or opera, in a prologue and two acts by Gaetano Donizetti. Giacomo Sacchèro wrote the Italian libretto after Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges' libretto for Halévy's La reine de Chypre (1841). It is based on the life of Caterina Cornaro (1454 - 1510), Queen of Cyprus from 1474 to 1489. It premiered at the Teatro San Carlo, Naples on 12 January 1844.

Classical Music Discoveries is sponsored by La Musica International Chamber Music Festival and Uber.

@khedgecock
#ClassicalMusicDiscoveries
#KeepClassicalMusicAlive
#LaMusicaFestival
#CMDGrandOperaCompanyofVenice
#CMDParisPhilharmonicinOrléans
#CMDGermanOperaCompanyofBerlin
#CMDGrandOperaCompanyofBarcelonaSpain
#ClassicalMusicLivesOn
#Uber

Support us on Patreon
https://www.patreon.com/user?u=4186107

staff@classicalmusicdiscoveries.com

Poliuto is a three-act tragedia lirica (or tragic opera) by Gaetano Donizetti from the Italian libretto by Salvadore Cammarano, which was based on Pierre Corneille's play Polyeucte written in 1641–42. It reflected the life of the early Christian martyr Saint Polyeuctus.

Regarded by one author as Donizetti's "most personal opera" with the music being "some of the finest Donizetti was to compose", Poliuto was written in 1838 for performances planned at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples later that year. However, close to the time for rehearsals to begin, King Ferdinand II refused to allow the martyrdom of a Christian saint to be seen on stage and forbade the production.

Angry at the decision and with a commission for the Paris Opéra due from the composer, Donizetti paid the penalty to the San Carlo for not producing an original work as a substitute, and left Naples for Paris arriving on 21 October. As his first commission for Paris, he decided to revise Poliuto and between 1839-40 a French text, with the title Les martyrs, was prepared by Eugene Scribe which conformed to the conventions of a French four-act grand opera, but which incorporated 80% of the music from Poliuto. It was presented in Paris on 10 April 1840. When eventually given in Italy, it was initially presented in a translation from the French version under the title of I martiri. It took until 30 November 1848, months after the composer's death, in order for Poliuto to finally appear for six performances at the San Carlo in its original Italian three-act version.

Classical Music Discoveries is sponsored by La Musica International Chamber Music Festival and Uber.

@khedgecock
#ClassicalMusicDiscoveries
#KeepClassicalMusicAlive
#LaMusicaFestival
#CMDGrandOperaCompanyofVenice
#CMDParisPhilharmonicinOrléans
#CMDGermanOperaCompanyofBerlin
#CMDGrandOperaCompanyofBarcelonaSpain
#ClassicalMusicLivesOn
#Uber

Support us on Patreon
https://www.patreon.com/user?u=4186107

staff@classicalmusicdiscoveries.com

Alina, regina di Golconda (Alina, Queen of Golconda) is an opera in two acts by Gaetano Donizetti. The Italian libretto was written by Felice Romani after Michel-Jean Sedaine's French libretto for Pierre-Alexandre Monsigny's ballet-heroine Aline, Reine de Golconde (Paris Opera, 1766), in its turn based on the novel by Stanislas de Boufflers.

The opera was commissioned for the opening festivities of the Teatro Carlo Felice, Genoa, where it premiered with success on 12 May 1828. Soon after, a revised version debuted at the Teatro Valle, Rome on 10 October 1829.

Classical Music Discoveries is sponsored by La Musica International Chamber Music Festival and Uber.

@khedgecock
#ClassicalMusicDiscoveries
#KeepClassicalMusicAlive
#LaMusicaFestival
#CMDGrandOperaCompanyofVenice
#CMDParisPhilharmonicinOrléans
#CMDGermanOperaCompanyofBerlin
#CMDGrandOperaCompanyofBarcelonaSpain
#ClassicalMusicLivesOn
#Uber
#LaunchAmerica

Support us on Patreon
https://www.patreon.com/user?u=4186107

staff@classicalmusicdiscoveries.com

Lucia di Lammermoor is a dramma tragico (tragic opera) in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti. Salvadore Cammarano wrote the Italian-language libretto loosely based upon Sir Walter Scott's historical novel The Bride of Lammermoor.

Donizetti wrote Lucia di Lammermoor in 1835, a time when several factors led to the height of his reputation as a composer of opera. Gioachino Rossini had recently retired and Vincenzo Bellini had died shortly before the premiere of Lucia leaving Donizetti as "the sole reigning genius of Italian opera". Not only were conditions ripe for Donizetti's success as a composer, but there was also a European interest in the history and culture of Scotland. The perceived romance of its violent wars and feuds, as well as its folklore and mythology, intrigued 19th-century readers and audiences. Sir Walter Scott dramatized these elements in his novel The Bride of Lammermoor, which inspired several musical works including Lucia.

The story concerns the emotionally fragile Lucy Ashton (Lucia) who is caught in a feud between her own family and that of the Ravenswoods. The setting is the Lammermuir Hills of Scotland (Lammermoor) in the 17th century.

Classical Music Discoveries is sponsored by La Musica International Chamber Music Festival and Uber.

@khedgecock
#ClassicalMusicDiscoveries
#KeepClassicalMusicAlive
#LaMusicaFestival
#CMDGrandOperaCompanyofVenice
#CMDParisPhilharmonicinOrléans
#CMDGermanOperaCompanyofBerlin
#CMDGrandOperaCompanyofBarcelonaSpain
#ClassicalMusicLivesOn
#Uber

Support us on Patreon
https://www.patreon.com/user?u=4186107

staff@classicalmusicdiscoveries.com

Il borgomastro di Saardam (The mayor of Saardam) is an 1827 melodramma giocoso (opera buffa) in two acts by Gaetano Donizetti. The libretto, by Domenico Gilardoni, was based on the 1818 play Le bourgmestre de Sardam, ou Les deux Pierres by Mélesville, Jean-Toussaint Merle and Eugène Cantiran de Boirie. Albert Lortzing's 1837 opera Zar und Zimmermann is ultimately based, via a German translation, on the same French play. The plot concerns a famous episode in the life of Peter the Great, in which he disguised himself under an assumed name as a worker in the shipyards of Saardam, and has certain similarities to Donizetti's earlier 1-act farce Il falegname di Livonia.

Classical Music Discoveries is sponsored by La Musica International Chamber Music Festival and Uber.

@khedgecock
#ClassicalMusicDiscoveries
#KeepClassicalMusicAlive
#LaMusicaFestival
#CMDGrandOperaCompanyofVenice
#CMDParisPhilharmonicinOrléans
#CMDGermanOperaCompanyofBerlin
#CMDGrandOperaCompanyofBarcelonaSpain
#ClassicalMusicLivesOn
#Uber

Support us on Patreon
https://www.patreon.com/user?u=4186107

staff@classicalmusicdiscoveries.com

Gaetano Donizetti’s ‘mini opera’ Aristea follows the 19th-century fashion for composing celebratory scenic works with a large cast and full orchestra, in this case to honour Ferdinand I, King of the Two Sicilies. Librettist Giovanni Schmidt recycled Aristea from an earlier abandoned opera set in idyllic Greek surroundings. This tells the classical story of enforced separation of a father from his daughter, their subsequent confusions and final happy reunion. Donizetti’s early style was influenced by Rossini but is nevertheless independent and innovative, often hinting at his later operatic masterpieces.

Classical Music Discoveries is sponsored by La Musica International Chamber Music Festival and Uber.

@khedgecock
#ClassicalMusicDiscoveries
#KeepClassicalMusicAlive
#LaMusicaFestival
#CMDGrandOperaCompanyofVenice
#CMDParisPhilharmonicinOrléans
#CMDGermanOperaCompanyofBerlin
#CMDGrandOperaCompanyofBarcelonaSpain
#ClassicalMusicLivesOn
#Uber

Support us on Patreon
https://www.patreon.com/user?u=4186107

Deux Hommes et une femme (Two Men and a Woman), also known as Rita, is an opéra comique in one act, composed by Gaetano Donizetti to a French libretto by Gustave Vaëz. The opera, a domestic comedy consisting of eight musical numbers connected by spoken dialogue, was completed in 1841. Never performed in Donizetti's lifetime, it premiered posthumously at the Opéra-Comique in Paris on 7 May 1860.

Classical Music Discoveries is sponsored by La Musica International Chamber Music Festival and Uber.

@khedgecock
#ClassicalMusicDiscoveries
#KeepClassicalMusicAlive
#LaMusicaFestival
#CMDGrandOperaCompanyofVenice
#CMDParisPhilharmonicinOrléans
#CMDGermanOperaCompanyofBerlin
#CMDGrandOperaCompanyofBarcelonaSpain
#ClassicalMusicLivesOn
#Uber

Support us on Patreon
https://www.patreon.com/user?u=4186107

CMD dedicates this performance to the thousands we have lost from the COVID-19 pandemic. If man would only follow God's commandments, this never would have happened.

This is broadcast is without any narratives or commercials.

Began in October 1835 to commemorate the death of Donizetti's friend and rival Vincenzo Bellini in Naples, the work was left unfinished (probably due to composer unable to conduct it in December, because he was not in the city). It was published in 1870 by Lucca in a vocal with organ arrangement. The first known performance took place the same year in Donizetti's native Bergamo, in the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, under Alessandro Nini. It was repeated in 1875 on the occasion of the translation of the remains of Donizetti and his teacher Simon Mayr to Santa Maria Maggiore; then on the centenary of Donizetti's birth (1897) and death (1948, under Gianandrea Gavazzeni).

The manuscript is preserved in the Conservatorio di San Pietro a Majella (Naples). In 1974 Vilmos Leskó prepared a new Ricordi edition of the Requiem, and since then it came to be regarded as one of the most important non-operatic compositions by Donizetti.

The Requiem for Bellini is one of four Requiem settings by Donizetti, but the only one to survive to the present day. Among the others were a Requiem for Niccolò Zingarelli (composed 1837 in 3 days) and a Requiem for Lorenzo Fazzini (performed in San Ferdinando, Naples, 7 November 1837).

Classical Music Discoveries is sponsored by La Musica International Chamber Music Festival and Uber.

@khedgecock
#ClassicalMusicDiscoveries
#KeepClassicalMusicAlive
#LaMusicaFestival
#CMDGrandOperaCompanyofVenice
#CMDParisPhilharmonicinOrléans
#CMDGermanOperaCompanyofBerlin
#CMDGrandOperaCompanyofBarcelonaSpain
#ClassicalMusicLivesOn
#Uber

Support us on Patreon
https://www.patreon.com/user?u=4186107

Parisina (also known as Parisina d'Este) is an opera (tragedia lirica), in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti. Felice Romani wrote the Italian libretto after Byron's 1816 poem Parisina.

The characters of Parisina and Duke Azzo in both Byron's poem and Donizetti's opera are very loosely based on the historical figures of Parisina Malatesta (the daughter of Andrea Malatesta) and Niccolò III d'Este.

Parisina premiered on 17 March 1833 at the Teatro della Pergola in Florence. A performance at the Teatro Argentina in Rome is the setting for a key scene in chapter 34 of the novel The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas.

Classical Music Discoveries is sponsored by La Musica International Chamber Music Festival and Uber.

@khedgecock
#ClassicalMusicDiscoveries
#KeepClassicalMusicAlive
#LaMusicaFestival
#CMDGrandOperaCompanyofVenice
#CMDParisPhilharmonicinOrléans
#CMDGermanOperaCompanyofBerlin
#CMDGrandOperaCompanyofBarcelonaSpain
#ClassicalMusicLivesOn
#Uber

Support us on Patreon
https://www.patreon.com/user?u=4186107