This DVD box-set is entitled Donizetti Heroines because many of the composer’s operas are named after their female protagonists. Even in the few cases where they aren’t, they give musical portrayals of unforgettable female characters, tragic and passionate figures, often innocent victims of the infernal gears of power and therefore destined to a hapless fate.

Between 1818 and 1843 Gaetano Donizetti composed some seventy operas, many of which became very popular in his day. His first success came in 1830 with Anna Bolena and from that moment he rivalled Bellini as the ‘leading operatic composer in Italy’, churning out works with the constant rhythm of a typical 18th-century composer.

Some of Donizetti’s best works rank among the masterpieces of 19th-century opera. A few of them have remained in the repertoire worldwide since their debut, while others were to be revived only from the second half of the 1900s, in the wake of what has rightly been called the ‘Donizetti Renaissance’. Today operatic audiences are radically different from those of two hundred years ago and during the 2018/19 season Donizetti was placed fifth in the list of the world’s most represented composers. We believe that the credit for this goes to his splendid heroines and their great interpreters who, yesterday and today, brought them alive on stage and continue to do so. This collectors’ release offers a selection of nine operas featuring some of the most iconic and unforgettable Donizetti characters, performed by outstanding singers such as Mariella Devia, Jessica Pratt, Carmela Remigio, Patrizia Ciofi and Sonia Ganassi.

Artists

Jessica Pratt (soprano), Eva Mei (soprano), Jessica Pratt (Rosmonda), Eva Mei (Leonora), Dario Schmunck (Enrico), Nicola Ulivieri (Clifford), Raffaella Lupinacci (Arturo), Mariella Devia (soprano), Sonia Ganassi (mezzo-soprano), Mariella Devia (Elisabetta), Sonia Ganassi (Sara), Stefan Pop (Roberto), Mansoo Kim (Duke of Nottingham), Alessandro Fantoni (Lord Cecil), Claudio Ottino (Sir Gualtiero Raleigh), Matteo Armanino (A page), Loris Purpura (A servant of Nottingham), Teatro alla Scala (opera company), Antonino Siragusa (Pigmalione) & Aya Wakizono (Galatea), Veronica Simeoni (Leonor), Celso Albelo (Fernand) & Mattia Olivieri (Alphonse), Joseph Calleja (tenor), Carmela Remigio (Maria), Sonia Ganassi (Elisabetta), Joseph Calleja (Leicester), Riccardo Zanellato (Talbot), Marzio Giossi (Cecil), Cinzia Rizzone (Anna), Jessica Pratt (Elisabetta), Carmela Remigio (Amelia), Stefan Pop (Warney), Xabier Anduaga (Leicester), Dario Russo (Lambourne) & Federica Vitali (Fanny), Désirée Rancatore (soprano), Désirée Rancatore (Lucia), Roberto De Biasio (Sir Edgardo di Ravenswood), Luca Grassi (Lord Enrico Asthon), Enrico Giuseppe Iori (Raimondo Bidebent), Matteo Barca (Lord Arturo), Tiziana Falco (Alisa) & Vincenzo Maria Sarinelli (Normanno), Patrizia Ciofi (soprano), Laura Polverelli (mezzo-soprano), Teatro La Fenice (opera company), Dario Schmunck (tenor), Andreas Schroeder (baritone) & Laura Polverelli (mezzo), Dimitra Theodossiou (soprano), Dimitra Theodossiou (Anna), Gian Luca Pasolini (Percy), Riccardo Zanellato (Enrico), Sofia Soloviy (Giovanna), Mauro Corna (Rochefort), José Maria Lo Monaco (Smeton), Luigi Albani (Hervey), Orchestra Donizetti Opera, Teatro Carlo Felice, Orchestra dell’Accademia Teatro alla Scala, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Teatro Donizetti di Bergamo, Orchestra Donizetti Opera & Coro Donizetti Opera, Orchestra and Chorus of Bergamo Musica Festival Gaetano Donizett, Teatro La Fenice di Venezia, Bergamo Musica Festival Gaetano Donizetti, Sebastiano Rolli, Paola Rota, Francesco Lanzillotta, Alfonso Antoniozzi, Gianluca Capuano, Roberto Catalano, Fabio Luisi, Ariel García Valdés, Fabrizo Maria Carminati, Francesco Esposito, Riccardo Frizza, Pilar Perez Aspa, Antonino Fogliani, Paolo Arrivabeni, Christian Gangneron, Fabrizio Maria Carminati