Donizetti - Dom Sébastien, roi de Portugal
£35.19
Collectors item. Worth every penny of retail price - This is a live recording from the ROH s season opening concert performances (10, 13 Sept 2005). Great sound quality, tho. Audience is awesomely quiet.The version performed is the unabbreviated new critical edition by Mary Ann Smart. Just short of 3 hrs (including 3 ballets) on 3 CDs... and an extra CD of highlights from other Opera Rara bel canto opera recordings. Wonderfully thick booklet with full synopsis, history of opera and performances (in English, French, German, and Italian), and libretto (French & English). A really nice package.Despite having 5 acts, it is a fast moving opera. Based on a historical-fiction of Sebastien of Portugal and his ill conceived invasion of Morocco. His entire army is annihilated on the battlefield and he is saved only when Zayda (whom he had saved from the Inquisition earlier) promises to marry the victorious Abayaldos in return for Sebastien s life... (the real-life Sebastien didn t survive, however... along with most of the Portuguese nobility). They all go to Portugal where the Regent is very cozy with the Spanish Inquisitors. Sebastien s resurrection got him thrown in jail as an imposter, and Zayda joined him when she testified in his favor. After being coerced into signing the bill of sale of Portugal to Spain, the 2 lovers are killed in their escape attempt.Mark Elder is really on fire in his conducting and the Orchestra of the ROH responds nicely. Very brisk and decisive. If you like the opening of the overture, it returns later in a more magnificent form as the Funeral music (Requiem) during Act III. Really splendid hybrid between the French Grand opera and the bel canto styles... tho the ending doesn t stand up well to what came before it.Singing cast is awesome. Giuseppe Filianoti is a nicely clear and noble voiced Sebastien (tho dodges all his high notes for Act II Seul sur la terre and gets drown out at times by orchestra. Vesselina Kasarova is a very exotic Moorish Zayda, very convincing dramatic singing without compromising the bel canto quality... tho her French could (and would) improve a lot. This was her debut in the role.Simon Keenlyside is a most wonderful Abayaldos... both musically and dramatically. He is supposed to be the bad guy, but is so deliciously hot-blooded and awe-inspiring I would follow the guy to battle. Alastair Miles is a very good Juam de Sylva with a beautifully dark bass voice. Carmelo Corrado Caruso was a late replacement at the shows... He is a sympathetic and touching Camoens, though has rather prominent vibrato that everything sounds a bit shaky. The rest of the cast are very good also.The chorus of the ROH is also wonderful. Roaring right with the orchestra when needed, and touching in the more lyrical passages. This really is an excellent recording of this very rarely staged opera (Donizetti s last... before he went mad from syphilis). Worth every penny of the retail price to me.