Donizetti: Alfredo Il Grande - Teatro Donizetti Bergamo (2023) [Blu-ray]

Gaetano Donizetti had big tasks to fulfill on his debut in Naples in 1823, when he arrived at the Teatro di San Carlo, shortly after Rossini's arrival at the Teatro di San Carlo, full of talent but still searching for his true voice. Alfredo il Grande is influenced by Rossini, but also shows hints of great things to come. The story is a celebration of heroism and magnanimous royalty that takes us to 9th century England, where King Alfred the Great is on the run from the Vikings. Revived two centuries after the spectacular failure of its premiere, this little-known opera seria can now be seen as a reflection on humanitarian values and gestures of resistance against the destructiveness of war.

For the #donizetti200 project, thanks to which each edition of the Festival presents an opera composed by Gaetano Donizetti in the same year but two centuries earlier, Alfredo il Grande will be staged for the first time in modern times. With this heroic melodrama, in 1823, 26-year-old Donizetti made his debut at the Real Teatro di San Carlo in Naples, at that time the most important opera venue in Italy. The libretto by Abbot Andrea Leone Tottola – ‘dramatic poet of the Royal theatres’ who had already written the librettos of many titles by Rossini – follows the one written with the same title in Rome, five years earlier, by Bartolomeo Merelli for Johann Simon Mayr, Donizetti’s beloved maestro. With this subject, Donizetti thus measured himself directly against his Pygmalion.

The opera debuted at the Teatro San Carlo on 2 July 1823, starring the celebrated baritenor from Bergamo, Andrea Nozzari, a milestone of the Neapolitan company and a regular interpreter of Rossini’s most complex roles. The premiere also featured other famous singers. However, despite the prestige of the company, the opera was not a success and was not repeated, partly due to an extremely improbable libretto. Donizetti was discouraged: “I speak frankly (whatever will be will be), I do not know how to do more,” as he wrote to Mayr before the premiere. As we know, Donizetti knew how to do much more and, in fact, did it. Yet, the Donizetti Opera Festival will offer Alfredo il Grande, on its bicentenary, an appeal trial, as we are sure that there is no work by Donizetti that does not contain at least a spark of his genius.

Venue & Opera Company: Teatro Donizetti, Bergamo, Italy
Recorded: November 19, 2023