Belisario (Belisarius) is a tragedia lirica (tragic opera) in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti. Salvadore Cammarano wrote the Italian libretto after Luigi Marchionni's adaptation of play, Belisarius, first staged in Munich in 1820 and then (in Italian) in Naples in 1826. The plot is loosely based on the life of the famous general Belisarius of the 6th century Byzantine Empire.

It premiered to critical and popular success on 4 February 1836 at the Teatro La Fenice, Venice, and was given many additional performances that season, although Donizetti scholar William Ashbrook notes that there would have been more had the opera not been presented so late in the season.

However, in spite of its initial short-term success and critical reaction, as represented by a review in La Gazzetta privilegiata which stated that "A new masterwork has been added to Italian music...Belisario not only pleased and delighted, but also conquered, enflamed and ravished the full auditorium", in the long run, had "Donizetti poured music of the calibre of his Lucia di Lammermoor into the score of Belisario the shortcomings of its wayward plot and dramatic structure would matter less". By April 1836, even the composer himself recognized that the work stood below Lucia in accomplishment. but he had already begun working with Cammarano who was revising – to the composer's satisfaction – an earlier version of Belisario which the librettist had submitted to the Teatro San Carlo management in 1832. By the time Donizetti arrived in Venice on 6 January 1836, the score of Belisario was almost finished, and because of delays, he had time to hear several of the proposed singers in a performance of Rossini's L'assedio di Corinto given on 12 January, the day before rehearsals of Belisario were to begin.

In the case of Antonietta Vial (who was to sing the role of Irene and whom he described on first hearing her as "both a bastard soprano and a veiled contralto", he was able to make adjustments to suit her vocal limitations. By the time of the first performance, which was well received, Donizetti reported to his publisher the audience's reaction to most of the numbers, specifically that "in the duet for Vial and Salvatore, many shouts of bravi, but at the end (so they say) the situation is so moving that they were weeping".

In a review of a 2011 London performance, some of the strengths of Donizetti's score are outlined:

<blockquote>The central couple are played by bass and soprano, which brings Verdi's Macbeth immediately to mind. But Donizetti's score has none of Verdi's furious compression, and dramatically we are in very different territory. Belisario and Antonina, the latter more Regan than Lady Macbeth, are at each others' throats rather than united by desire for power. Her machinations lead to his being blinded then expelled from Byzantium into the natural world beyond. The emotional centre lies, however, in Donizetti's forceful depiction of Belisario's relationship with his strong-willed daughter Irene – you think at once of Cordelia – and his eventual reunion with Alamiro, the son who vanished in infancy and in whose supposed murder Belisario is implicated.</blockquote>

Performance history

19th century

The opera's popularity continued through the 19th century, with stagings in 31 cities both in Europe and America. in 1970 at Bergamo, in 1972 in London, in 1973 in Naples, in 1981 in Buenos Aires, and in 1990 at Rutgers University in New Jersey. using a then brand-new performance score prepared by Ottavio Sbragia. Realizing close to the beginning of rehearsals that a performance score was not available, NCSA enlisted the help of musicologist Philip Gossett, who was able to put them in touch with Sbragia, and his version, which was based on the original 1836 performances in Venice, became the work's critical edition.

The same year saw stagings by Turkish State Opera and Ballet in Istanbul.

In July 2010, the opera was performed by the Buenos Aires Lirica and a concert performance, starring Nelly Miricioiu with London's Chelsea Opera Group under conductor Richard Bonynge, was given at Queen Elizabeth Hall on 13 February 2011

Belisario was given a new production at the Teatro Donizetti in Bergamo as part of the Donizetti Festival in September 2012 using the critical edition, while the BBC Symphony Orchestra presented a concert performance in London on 28 October 2012 with Canadian soprano Joyce El-Khoury as Antonina and Sicilian baritone Nicola Alaimo as the title character.

The cast recorded the opera for Opera Rara.

|-

|1969

|Giuseppe Taddei,<br>Leyla Gencer,<br>Mirna Pecile,<br>Umberto Grilli,<br>Nicola Zaccaria

|Gianandrea Gavazzeni,<br>Teatro La Fenice Orchestra and Chorus<br>(Recording of a performance at Teatro La Fenice, Venice, on 9 or 14 May)

|CD: Melodram<br>Cat: MEL 27051<br>Mondo Musica<br>Cat: MFOH 10301<br>Opera d'Oro<br>Cat: OPD 1258

|-

|1970

|Renato Bruson,<br>Leyla Gencer,<br>Mirna Pecile,<br>Umberto Grilli,<br>??

|Adolfo Camozzo,<br>Orchestra and Chorus of the Teatro Donizetti di Bergamo<br>(Recording of a performance at Bergamo, October)

|CD: Hunt<br>Cat: CD 586

|-

|1981

|Renato Bruson,<br>Mara Zampieri,<br>Stefania Toczyska,<br>Vittorio Terranova,<br>Nino Meneghetti

|Gianfranco Masini,<br>Teatro Colón Orchestra and Chorus

|CD: HRE<br>Cat: 385

|-

|1997

|Jacek Strauch,<br>Ines Salazar,<br>Natalia Biorro,<br>Sergei Homov,<br>Konstantin Sfiris

|Dan Ratiu,<br>Grazer Philharmonisches Orchester and Chorus<br>(Video recording of a performance in a modern production at the Graz Opera, November or December)

|Video Cassette: Premiere Opera Ltd<br>Cat: VID 2234 (NTSC)

|-

|2012

|Nicola Alaimo,<br>Joyce El-Khoury,<br>Camilla Roberts,<br>Russell Thomas,<br>Alastair Miles

|Sir Mark Elder,<br>BBC Symphony Orchestra and the BBC Singers<br>(Studio recording made at BBC Maida Vale Studios, London, October 2012)

|CD: Opera Rara,<br>Cat: ORC 49

|-

|}

References

Notes

Cited sources

  • Ashbrook, William (1982), Donizetti and His Operas. Cambridge University Press.
  • Ashbrook, William (1992). "Belisario", vol. 1, pp.&nbsp;384–385, in The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, edited by Stanley Sadie. London: Macmillan. .
  • Ashbrook, William; Hibberd, Sarah (2001). "Gaetano Donizetti", pp.&nbsp;237 in The New Penguin Opera Guide, edited by Amanda Holden. New York: Penguin Putnam. .
  • Commons, Jeremy (2013), Belisario: introductory essay in booklet accompanying the 2013 Opera Rara recording.
  • Osborne, Charles (1994). The Bel Canto Operas of Rossini, Donizetti, and Bellini. Portland, Oregon: Amadeus Press .
  • Smart, Mary Ann; Budden, Julian (2001). "Donizetti, (Domenico) Gaetano (Maria)" in Sadie 2001.
  • Weinstock, Herbert (1963). Donizetti and the World of Opera in Italy, Paris, and Vienna in the First Half of the Nineteenth Century. New York: Pantheon Books. .

Further reading

  • Allitt, John Stewart (1991), Donizetti: in the light of Romanticism and the teaching of Johann Simon Mayr, Shaftesbury: Element Books, Ltd (UK); Rockport, MA: Element, Inc.(USA)
  • Black, John (1982), Donizetti’s Operas in Naples, 1822–1848. London: The Donizetti Society.
  • (1921). The Opera Goer's Complete Guide, p. 35 (source of the synopsis)
  • Belisario: Past productions report, Donizetti Society, London.
  • Libretto, opera.stanford.edu