Tag Archives: Gaetano Donizetti

Delightful. No single word better describes the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s current rendition of “The Daughter of the Regiment.” There’s a giddy magic about the production that conjures laughter and applause at every turn and has the audience floating on air. Donizetti’s beloved French-language comedy tells the tale of Marie, the orphaned “daughter” of a military unit, who defies both the regiment and her long-lost relatives to be with Tonio, the young man she has fallen in love with. As Marie, Lisette Oropesa appears for all the world to be an impetuous tomboy, dancing gracefully in the upper reaches of …

As any music historian will tell you, composer Gaetano Donizetti didn’t intend his three operas about Tudor queens as a trilogy. Written in separate years with different librettists, the operas focus on climactic and at times highly fictionalized moments in the lives of Anne Boleyn in “Anna Bolena,” Mary Queen of Scots in “Maria Stuarda” and Queen Elizabeth I in “Roberto Devereux.” While long looked upon individually as proving grounds for the greatest divas of our time, the trio was forever linked when Beverly Sills sang all three roles with the New York City Opera in the 1970s. Jumping forward …

  It has been said about theatrical reviewing that if the reporter writes about the directing, sets and whatnot, then the dramatic performances were probably not all that great. But I will say that the Chicago Lyric Opera 2016-17 staging of Donizetti’s “Lucia di Lammermoor” is one of the very best directed and designed productions I have ever seen. At the same time, however, the performance on Tuesday evening, Nov. 1, was sung magnificently, thanks in great part to the Lyric’s wonderful Lucia, soprano Albina Shagimuratova. Solid conducting, choral and instrumental work all combined to make this performance most memorable. …

  Ever since its première at the Teatro San Carlo on Sept. 26, 1835, “Lucia di Lammermoor” has held a firm position in the standard opera repertoire. For one thing, it’s Gaetano Donizetti’s greatest musical masterpiece, chock full of brilliant pieces from beginning to end, all brightly colored by the composer’s creative orchestration. For another, the text was very cleverly adapted by Salvatore Cammarano, whom Verdi declared to be the best librettist in Italy, from the 1819 novel, “The Bride of Lammermoor” by Sir Walter Scott, himself no slouch when it came to spinning a tale or turning a phrase. …