Giovanni Pacini - Il contestabile di Chester - Duet part I

Giovanni Pacini Opera: Il contestabile di Chester, Melo-dramma romantico in three parts, first performance 23 november 1829 Teatro S.Carlo, Naples. Libretto: Domenico Gilardoni Duettino: Ah sì ch'io t'amo... Evelina: Yvonne Kenny Damiano Susan McCullough Evelina's followers: Geoffrey Mitchell Choir Orchestra: Philharmonia orchestra Conductor: David Parry A great and quite lasting success. Pacini's choise of voice to the hero Damiano, a soprano, may seem a little odd for this period. But the housetenor, a certaine Winter, was overworked so Pacini chose a soprano instead. When this duet was first heard in 1829, it was the central section, Là sotto il salice, which met with overwhelming. For though many parts of the opera were still written in the florid bravura manner of Rossini, this movement struck a new and original note. The flanking introductory and concluding movements, although effective in the theatre, were ultimately less noteworthy: the opening has urgency and excitement and an unexpected key change in the middle, but musically it is comparatively ordinary; while the third section, after a sudden, even disconcerting gear-change into the bounce and syncopation of the choruss entry, is again and pleasing, but not particularly memorable. But the central section, remarkable both for its expressive vocal lines and for its elegant and effective orchestration, gives the duet real stature. The elegiac tonal colouring, the use of harp, three horns, woodwinds and strings, the melting melodic sequences to which the words Chio son misera/misero! Nacqui al dolor! are set all these features show that, in this item at least, we are moving away from the world of Rossini towards the more romantic and more melancholy world of Donizetti.

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YouTube | September 17, 2008

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