Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848)
Il diluvio universale, Azione tragida-sacra in three acts (1830)
Noè: Nahuel Di Pierro (bass), Cadmo: Enea Scala (tenor), Sela: Giuliana Gianfaldoni (soprano), Ada: Maria Elena Pepi (mezzo-soprano)
Coro dell’Accademia Teatro alla Scala
Orchestra Donizetti Opera/Riccardo Frizza
rec. live, 17 November 2023, Teatro Donizetti, Bergamo, Italy
Italian libretto and English translation online
Naxos 8.660580-81 [2 CDs: 130]

This is a live recording of a festival production employing the critical edition of the first version of Il diluvio universal (The Great Flood); it was quite recently released as a DVD video and on Blu-ray on the Dynamic label and the latter was reviewed here by Mike Parr, who praised the singing with one exception but disliked the production and opined that the better way to experience this music was via the release by Opera Rara in 2006 of the revised, Genoa-Paris 1834 version. That was well received here on MusicWeb by Bob Farr (review) although the general critical verdict remains that the music itself is not as inspired as that we encounter in Donizetti’s best operas. It is interesting in that it is a kind of continuation (from Rossini) and even a forerunner of operas by such as Verdi which exploited the dramatic device of portraying personal turmoil against the backdrop of larger, often biblical or historical events.

Following a fairly conventional, rum-ti-tum overture, the parallels between Il diluvio and an opera similar in genre, Rossini’s Mosè in Egitto, are instantly confirmed with a prayerful ensemble reminiscent of the famous “Preghiera” opening Act III of that earlier opera – then in Act II Scene 4, Donizetti gives us his own “Preghiera”, heralded by a charmingly atmospheric harp solo. It is not perhaps as grand and melodically memorable as Rossini’s but is nonetheless effective and one of several highpoints.

As previous reviewers have noted, the most striking voice here is that of soprano Giuliana Gianfaldoni singing the Christian convert Sela. She has a large, powerful, slightly unwieldy voice with a strong but not over-obtrusive vibrato and easily dominates the orchestra and her co-singers. I like Maria Elena Pepi’s warm, dark mezzo-soprano; she makes a good foil , as “the other woman”, Ada, reminding us of what became a 19C operatic trope repeated countless times: the rivalry of two women for one man, sung by two contrasting voice types – think Nabucco, Aida, La gioconda, Adriana Lecouvreur et al. I am not especially struck by the quality of Nahuel Di Pierro’s bass; he is a solid, not very exciting singer with a fairly soft-grained timbre  and weak low notes – perfectly pleasant without being very distinctive – but he makes a lovely job of his prayer introducing the ensemble closing the second act, with good legato and steady tone. Critical response to tenor Enea Scala has been mixed; he has a robust, grainy tenor, somewhat effortful and a little strained and bleating on high notes, but I much prefer to hear a chunky, committed voice like his than a white, swallowed tenorino twittering away at Donizetti’s quite demanding score and I actually find him quite listenable. The opera demands an usually large supporting cast which has probably been an obstacle to its revival but they are for the most part well sung here and the chorus is excellent.

Conductor Riccardo Frizza’s passionate, pacy advocacy of Il diluvio universale is admirable but I find it hard to agree with him that the music is “truly extraordinary”…”first class Donizetti”. Certainly there are engaging and even striking passages, and the composer was right to recycle some of it in Anna Bolena, Gianna di Parigi and La fille du régiment (Marie’s regimental song sung by Noah!) but much of it is conventional and not as inspired as Donizetti’s best operas. I think that much of the time its significance resides in how it represents a developmental stepping-stone in both style and subject matter towards later superior works by Donizetti and his successors. I am not familiar with Donizetti’s revision of the score four years after the premiere of this version, but he was apparently satisfied with what he saw as improvements, and in the notes Frizza somewhat gives the game away when in reply to the question why he chose to stage the original, he says “Because it is the lesser-known one and it is part of the festival’s mission to explore the lesser-known works” – and of course Opera Rara has already recorded the second version.

The sound is first rate, with hardly any evidence of this being a single, live, staged performance. Balances between voices and the orchestra are fine and there is very little clumping, and the performers deserve praise for being so well-rehearsed and error-free. The opera is neatly split between two discs, with Act I on the first and Acts II and III on the second CD – and having the libretto and an English translation readily available online is certainly an asset to appreciating this work.

Over the years, the Naxos label has released recordings of the standard Donizetti operatic repertoire and several of the more obscure works in his oeuvre; only recently I praised their Lucie de Lammermoor (the French version) and both the curious and completists will find this latest issue attractive.

Ralph Moore

Other cast
Jafet: Nicolò Donini (bass), Sem: Davide Zaccherini (tenor), Cam: Eduardo Martínez (baritone), Tesbite: Sabrina Gárdez (soprano), Asfene: Erica Artina (soprano), Abra: Sophie Burns (mezzo-soprano), Artoo: Wangmao Wang (tenor)

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