Imelda de'Lambertazzi.

Gaetano Donizetti 

Opera Rara: ORC 36

Donizetti composed more than 60 operas, of which only seven or eight remain in the active repertoire. Opera Rara, however, has considerably expanded our appreciation of the others with sumptuously packaged recordings of such rarities as Emilia di Liverpool, Gabriella di Vergy, Maria de Rudenz, and Rosmonda d'Inghilterra, to name a few. We can now add Imelda de'Lambertazzi (1830), written immediately before the composer's first major success, Anna Bolena.

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The melodramma tragico deals with a pair of star-crossed lovers from two feuding families who come to rather nasty ends (the opera concludes with poor Imelda attempting to save her lover by sucking the poison out of his wound, only to die herself). In this live 2007 performance, the lovely American soprano Nicole Cabell sings the title role. Although she may not be fully comfortable stylistically as a bel canto soprano, she sings with both security and beauty of tone. Canadian baritone James Westman, as Bonifacio, Imelda's ill-fated lover, also makes fine work of his role, particularly his Act II aria, "Imelda a me volgea." Frank Lopardo, with his robust baritonal tenor, is perfectly cast as Imelda's father, Orlando, as is tenor Massimo Giordano as her vengeful brother, Lamberto.

Jeremy Commone, in an informative essay included with this set, makes a strong case for the work as "the most avantgarde opera Donizetti ever wrote." How good it is is debatable, but one cannot deny that Imelda is a bristling, compact score that marches quickly and resolutely towards its brutal finale, particularly in the hands of conductor Mark Elder and The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment--NC.