Composer: Vincenzo Bellini, Michele Enrico Carafa, Gaetano Donizetti, Giuseppe Saverio Raffaele Mercadante, Giovanni Pacini, Gioacchino Antonio Rossini, Carlo Valentini
Performer: Joyce DiDonato
Orchestra: Orchestre de l’Opéra National de Lyon
Conductor: Riccardo Minasi
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Erato
Catalogue: 2564636562
Release: 2014
Size: 1.25 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Pacini: Stella di Napoli
01. “Ove t’aggiri, o barbaro” (Stella, Marta)
Bellini: Adelson & Salvini
02. “Dopo l’oscuro nembo” (Nelly)
Carafa: Le nozze di Lammermoor
03. “L’amica ancor non torna… Oh, di sorte crudel” (Lucia)
Rossini: Zelmira
04. “Riedi al soglio” (Zelmira, Polidoro, Ilo)
Mercadante: La vestale
05. “Se fino al cielo ascendere” (Giunia)
Donizetti: Elisabetta al castello di Kenilworth
06. “Par che mi dica ancora” (Amelia)
Bellini: I Capuleti e I Montecchi
07. “Tu sola, o mia Giulietta… Deh! tu, bell’anima” (Romeo)
Valentini: Il sonnambulo
08. “Lasciami… Se il mar sommesso mormora” (Adele, Sofia)
Donizetti: Maria Stuarda
09. “Io vi rivedo alfin… Deh! Tu di un’umile preghiera” (Maria)
Pacini: Saffo
10. “Flutto che muggi… Teco dall’are pronube… L’ama ognor qual io l’amai” (Saffo, Faone, Climene, Alcandro)
World premiere recordings and Italianate rarities from the queen of Bel Canto and coloratura. Following the success of her crowd-sourced ‘Best Of’ collection reJoyce and her electrifying Drama Queens album of Baroque arias, Joyce DiDonato returns to her heartland repertoire to celebrate the birth of Bel Canto opera in 19th-century Naples.
On Stella di Napoli (Star of Naples), the American mezzo-soprano’s creamy tone and dramatic prowess breathe new life into little-known arias by Mercadante, Michele Carafa (a student of Cherubini and close friend of Rossini), Carlo Valentini and the prolific opera composer Giovanni Pacini, whose Stella di Napoli (1845) gives the album its title. Joyce worked closely with Italian conductor Riccardo Minasi (whose previous projects include Bellini’s Norma with Cecilia Bartoli) to bring three unjustly neglected arias to light in new editions and world premiere recordings.
Alongside these little-known gems, Joyce presents a sumptuous Bel Canto banquet with music by the three greats — Bellini, Rossini and Donizetti — including the latter’s Maria Stuarda: a tour-de-force signature role for Joyce, recently screened in cinemas and released on DVD from the New York Metropolitan Opera.
Joyce DiDonato won a 2013 Grammy for her last Bel Canto album Diva, Divo, declared “an ideal vehicle for her glorious mezzo voice in which the most fiendish coloratura ornaments and trills sound effortless”. (The Observer)
“Ms DiDonato’s performance will be pointed to as a model of singing in which all components of the art form — technique, sound, color, nuance, diction — come together in service to expression and eloquence. Ms. DiDonato is simply magnificent, singing with plush richness and aching beauty.” The New York Times