Donizetti: Chiara E Serafina - Teatro Sociale, Bergamo (2022) [Blu-ray]

Despite the triumphant reception of his first opera, Gaetano Donizetti was young and inexperienced when he was commissioned to write Chiara e Serafina in 1822 for La Scala. Composed in haste, it was met with disapproval at its premiere and subsequently disappeared without a trace. Thanks to this revival at the Bergamo Donizetti Festival, after exactly 200 years Chiara e Serafina has returned to the stage with a fine production that brings to life an entertaining tale of pirates, lovers, disguises, deceit and peril in 17th-century Majorca.

“Sesto Quatrini conducted with enthusiasm... All in all, the Donizetti Opera Festival put together an intellectually honest, valuable cultural operation, in reviving this lost opera.” – Bachtrack.com

“…The amusing show staged by Gianluca Falaschi on the stage of the Teatro Sociale, a small jewel nestled among the narrow alleys of the upper city, is all played out in a slightly nostalgic key to a surreal varieté, ramshackle but vital.” – giornaledellamusica.it

“Quatrini reads this semi-serious drama with the right combination of the lightness of the most brilliant parts and the sentimental momentum of the love scenes. There is meticulous work on the instrumentation, colours and dynamics, which best underlines the Rossini influence on the style of the young composer from Bergamo. Among other things, the harmony with the Gli Originali Orchestra is perfect, an ensemble of ancient instruments who, with great skill and precision, try to make us savor this composition with the sounds of its first nineteenth-century performance…The cast, entirely made up of young people from the Advanced Academy for opera singers of the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, is close-knit and well blended with more than one element of interest.” – OperaLibera

Recording place: Teatro Sociale, Bergamo, Italy
Recording date: 4 December 2022