Donizetti: Linda di Chamounix
Published:
COMPOSERS: Donizetti
LABELS: Philips
WORKS: Linda di Chamounix
PERFORMER: Antonietta Stella, Rina Corsi, Fedora Barbieri, Cesare VallettiSan Carlo Theatre Chorus & Orchestra, Naples/Tullio Serafin
CATALOGUE NO: 442 093-2 AAD (1956) ) Reissue
This opera semiseria is late Donizetti, composed a good ten years after the popular L’elisir d’amore, a work whose charm it emulates, though its score is less consistently inspired. A huge success at its 1842 premiere in Vienna, Linda never completely disappeared from the international repertoire, and ought to be seriously considered by British opera houses. Serafin conducts a great performance, with a first-rate all-Italian cast of Fifties favourites. Charles Osborne