Gaetano Donizetti wrote some 80 operas, but only a few remain in the repertory. Il Paria (The Pariah), as recorded here with care by the specialist label Opera Rara, may make a good place to start with the rest. Composed in Naples in 1829, it dates from just before Donizetti's first enduring hit, Anna Bolena. It bombed when it first appeared, closing after just six performances; it's unlikely setting in India might have been just the ticket 50 years later, but in what was still Rossini's day, it probably mystified audiences, and the story is dramatically unsatisfying and falls apart at the end. None of these complaints, however, apply to the music, which shows many aspects of Donizetti's mature style already in place, with pregnant orchestral scene-setting, arias that turn dramatic corners, and a highly varied vocabulary in the recitatives. The orchestra has a lot to do in the arias as well, as in Zarete's "Notte, ch'eterna a me parevi" from Act II, where the soloist doesn't appear at all until halfway through. There is a splendid love duet, "Da sì caro e dolce istante," and many other fine moments. The singers are very strong, none stronger than René Barbera as the heroic soldier Idamore, who has a perilously high tenor range. Unlike many of the Opera Rara albums, this one has big names; Sir Mark Elder leads the Britten Sinfonia, and the sense of urgent forward motion he brings to the music is another reason for the recording's success, which has been both artistic and commercial. The opera is short, and this recording could easily inspire further productions and recordings, with the tenor part being the only impediment to university productions and the like. Opera Rara's studio sound is ideal.
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