Donizetti * Parisina _ "Forse un destin che intendere" Montserrat Caballé / E. Queler, cond. _ 1974

Donizetti's Choice
By Raymond Ericson
NYTimes, March 8, 1974, page 20.
Donizetti's “Parisina d'este” falls a little beyond the halfway mark in the list of 73 operas that he wrote. First produced in 1833, it had a career like most of the composer's works, making its way quickly throughout Europe and into various Western Hemisphere centers, including New York in 1850. Then neglect, until it was brought to light in Siena, Italy, in 1964.
One reason the opera demands attention is that it was Donizetti's favorite among his output for many years after its creation. It made the revival in concert form by the Opera Orchestra of New York on Wednesday night in Carnegie Hall something to look forward to. In addition, Eve Queler, the ensemble's music director, had persuaded Montserrat Caballé to sing the title role.
What the opera has to recommend it is a strong, melodramatic vigor in the music. There are many sections that seem as if they are from early Verdi works; along with these go some characteristically beautiful Donizetti melodies.
The music adorns a stock libretto, which has one odd twist: When Duke Azzo discovers that Ugo, lover of his second wife, Parisina, is actually his son, there is no reconciliation, only greater hatred between the two men. Azzo has Ugo killed, and Parisina dies after seeing his corpse.
Miss Caballé was at her best, and she stopped the show several times. Concert performances, where she need not concern herself with stage movement, seem to make her more comfortable, for she sang more freely and with greater impetus than usual. The voice rang out brilliantly in Carnegie Hall when she wanted it to. There were seductive, meltingly soft phrases and spectacular cadenzas, one of them up and down a long chromatic scale.
Louis Quilico, in the baritone role of Azzo, and James Morris, in a bass role, had commanding voices and styles, which provided some exciting, ripsnorting moments. Jerome Pruett, a tenor, making his New York debut as Ugo, was overshadowed in the ensembles because he has a light lyric voice, but he went at the difficult fioriture in his solos with gusto and fairly decent results. Eleanor Bergquist, soprano, as the heroine's inevitable attendant, sang well what little she had to do.
Mrs. Queler led a performance that never flagged and showed off the music as energetically as possible. It will be interesting to see what operatic rarities she decides to revive next season.
***Video thumbnail: costumes of a Parisina production at the Teatro Nuovo, Naples, 1841-1860.

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