Beverly Sills LUCREZIA BORGIA ENTRANCE Restored and Remastered and now uncut with added music!

From the Prologue, beginning with “Tranquillo ei possa”, continuing on to the cavatina “Come Bello” and concluding with the cabaletta "Si voli il primo congliere".
Richard McKee is the Gubetta, Jerold Siena is the Rustighello, and Richard Fredricks is the Don Alfonso.
New York City Opera Premier, March, 18. 1976, New York City Opera Orchestra, Julius Rudel conducting.
When La Sills finally sang La Borgia in 1976, it was performed, very surprisingly to me, with pretty substantial cuts to the score. It always bothered me because Sills was a champion of performing Donizetti uncut. I think Lucrezia Borgia is a masterpiece, and cut so heavily, it felt inferior.
When Dame Joan sang La Borgia, Richard Bonynge found some lost Borgia music.
Conductor and musicologist William Crutchfield has also championed Bel Canto operas and Donizetti operas in particular including Lucrezia Borgia in 2014 at his Caramoor Festival.
In the last few years, a new critical edition by Roger Parker and Rosie Ward has been published with new music as well, and that is being performed now.
So I decided to restore not just the live recordings fidelity, but also restore all the cuts to the score in this wonderful scene!

[@samueljaramillo4221]

The master of bel canto. Beautiful

[@BellaFirenze]

Beautiful performance. Great restoration. Thank you. Warm greetings from Florence, Italy.

[@zaffranbodhi]

Thank you for doing this, it really adds to it. Sills had cancer at the time she was supposed to record this and never did a commercial recording. I think you can blame Rudel for the cuts. Same thing he did to Handel. Wish we could have all the sections she sang in put together in a recording. Great job!

[@ef7952]

Thank you! I don't know if she was supposed to ever record Borgia, but the Dallas Borgias were cancelled in 1974 because of the cancer. It sounds like the Dallas performances with Gencer subbing for La Sills conducted by Rescingo were performed more uncut than the NYCO performances in1976.

[@joeygodin8861]

To me early Caballe owns this role! Bubbles does a spectacular job also.

[@tencontento9177]

Yes, Sills sang it brilliantly at the beginning of her career, but her voice was always too light to do the role justice. She sounded more like Lucreziatina then Lucrezia Borgia, "the meanest woman alive."

[@christophecesar4761]

This cabaletta was very rarely sang (Caballe in studio, Ricciarelli once) and Sills is the only one I know who add an high note at the end. So the cut of the first part of it was a pity. Thank you for you "trick" ;-)

[@mathjf4768]

Before Caballe but in a recital (Philadelphia 1963) Anna Moffo also sang - and wonderfully - the cabaletta "Si voli il primo congliere".

[@christophecesar4761]

@@mathjf4768 Oh my God! With by my beloved Anna Moffo and I didn't know it. Please, could you upload it on YT. Thank you in advance!!!

[@revmiguel2000]

Rarely SUNG.

[@ransomcoates546]

It’s rather feeble music.

[@XPRT10R]

FYI: "Tranquillo ei posa" "Com'è bello" "Si voli il primo a cogliere"

[@ahogbin2644]

An interesting trick with the cabaletta. Of course Sills would have massively embellished the second verse of the cabaletta. Incidentally, it was added from another opera when Donizetti re-wrote the ending, deleting the final cabaletta. Surprisingly Sutherland did not sing it in any of her performances.

[@tencontento9177]

Oh my goodness, I would have LOVED to hear Sutherland sing this, with the first and second verse of the cabaletta! I was always surprised that she didn't do it, because it would have been glorious. Curiously, when Fleming sang it in San Francisco (disastrously, I thought), she sang this cabaletta AND the final cabaletta. There is a recording somewhere here on KZbin where you hear her attempt the final E flat; it was so hideously flat and cracked that the audience gasped instead of clapping. It was upsetting because she got her start in San Francisco in the Merola Young Artist program.

[@jorgealbertojoselettera4829]

Grandisima cantante.... pero como Caballé nadie en este rol.

[@crazyorganist1609]

Sutherland

[@emitch9213]

Montserrat Caballe reigns with her Lucretia Borgia...dear Sills always a disposition of balance with a content joy.

[@tencontento9177]

Oh my! That wasn't an E flat. It was a flat E!!!!!!

[@eric644]

Oh boy the E flat is under pitch

[@baritonebynight]

It wobbles a bit but she was in the home stretch of her career. Still....she was an incredible singing actress who brought the character to life....and so what if her top E flat was a little wobbly at this stage...I've heard worse.

[@josephcollins6033]

They often were at this time. One reason is that the instrument was exhausted from the treatment it received from the earliest days. And, she always, always pushed the middle; it was not entirely focused- a "spread' sound. The support system she employed was always a mystery to me, as if she sang with guts and gift but no actual support. She just could do it! So much tension in the jaw and shoulders. That can destroy a voice, no matter how prodigious. This made me sad because she sang with such appreciation of beauty and drama and DICTION.The words!!! I described her voice once as a flute with pearls coming out of it. And, WHAT BALLS!! I loved her and still do.

[@ef7952]

@@josephcollins6033 Sills had a solid technique and was taught by Estelle Liebling. She was raised on support. The issue was after the cancer surgery in 1974, she did not retrain her muscles. That combined with pushing her voice into heavier repertoire was the beginning of her vocal decline.

[@josephcollins6033]

@@ef7952 No. She didn't have solid breath management knowledge. I know she studied with Libeling, and I also know a lot about the teaching in those days. I stick with everything I said above. If you would read it again perhaps I will make more sense to you. I realize that she believes she is supporting. But, she had a gift that most do not have. This can be a huge problem. Thanks.

[@patrickandrew2785]

I am with you on this one all the way!

[@nostoon4332]

I wish Renee Fleming sang this.

[@revmiguel2000]

She tried in San Francisco with Michael Fabiano.

[@samueljaramillo4221]

She did in San Francisco

[@nostoon4332]

@@samueljaramillo4221 I actually meant, I wish Fleming sang the bonus cabaletta at the end of first aria, just as Sills does here.

[@tencontento9177]

@@samueljaramillo4221 And it sucked big time, even worse than the final cabaletta. She should NEVER have attempted Borgia -- it just wasn't in her voice....................

[@tencontento9177]

@@revmiguel2000 And failed miserably. It was catastrophic, indeed.