This recording of Donizetti's La Favorite was made on November 15 and 18, 2022, during the Donizetti Opera Festival at the Teatro Donizetti in Bergamo, Italy.
Composition History
A cabaletta in the duet between Léonor and Alphonse was cut after the first performances of La Favorite due to political reasons, as Alphonse's expressions against the Church were deemed unacceptable by Louis Philippe's regime.
Compositional Technique
The role of Léonor in La Favorite was written for Rosina Stolz, a 'soprano-Falcon' type of voice, which was a special vocal category between a soprano and a mezzo-soprano, typical of the French repertoire.
Composer Biography
Gaetano Donizetti, a native of Bergamo, was the leading composer of Italian opera for nearly a decade after Vincenzo Bellini's death in 1835.
Composition History
Donizetti's opera La Favorite was first performed on December 2, 1840, at the Académie Royal de Musique in Paris, France.
Compositional Technique
In La Favorite, Donizetti used a five-part string writing, with the double bass playing the bassline and the cello taking on new prominence, differing from his usual four-part writing in Italian operas.
Interpretation
This recording of Donizetti's La Favorite uses the critical edition and is performed in French, the language in which it was originally written.
