Annalisa Stroppa, Javier Camarena et al; Orchestra Donizetti Opera/Riccardo Frizza; dir. Valentina Carrasco (Bergamo, 2022)
Dynamic DVD: 57992; Blu-ray: 37992 190 mins
Bravo the Teatro Donizetti! La Favorite not La Favorita. At last, the four-act Grand Opera that Bergamo’s most illustrious musical son wrote for the Paris Opéra in 1840 and not the somewhat haphazard Italian version that singers have kept alive. With the ballet too and cuts restored in a relatively new critical edition.
The dark history of Léonor, mistress of King Alphonse of Castile, in love with Fernand who has abandoned his monastery for her and found glory on the battlefield against the Moors makes psychological sense now. Sombre sense, played out in the pit by the new role Donizetti finds for the cellos and basses.
Dressed in black and grey in the current historical-contemporary style with boots and great coats for the men and Barbie pink and orange satin for the women in the chorus, La Favorite looks squeezed on the Bergamo stage. Mountains of furniture covered in dust sheets, sliding bars and a statue of the Virgin and a huge gilded cross sometimes overwhelm the action.
Yet the principals never lose their vocal footing. Javier Camarena is exemplary as Fernand, every inch the bel canto tenor in his celebrated final act aria ‘Ange si pur’. Florian Sempey’s Alphonse is a gravel-voiced villain, struggling to keep both his mistress and a disapproving church onside – though the flailing arms and a slap too much rouge suggest a Panto refugee. Annalisa Stroppa’s Léonor is gold: her Act 3 recitative and aria brings the house down.