Umberto Giordano Fedora opera to a libretto by Arturo Colautti. Directed by Rosetta Cucchi at the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genova (assistant director Stefania Panighini). Stars Daniela Dessì (Fedora), Fabio Armiliato (Loris), Alfonso Antoniozzi (De Siriex), Daria Kovalenko (Olga), Margherita Rotondi (Dimitri), Manuel Pierattelli (Desirè), Alessandro Fantoni (Baron Rouvel), Luigi Roni (Cirillo), Claudio Ottino (Boroff), Roberto Maietta (Gretch), Davide Mura (Lorek), Sirio Restani (Lazinski), and Sebastiano Carbone (Peasant Boy). Valerio Galli conducts the Orchestra and Chorus of the Carlo Felice Theatre (Chorus Master Patrizia Priarone). Set design by Tiziano Santi; light design by Luciano Novelli, costume design by Claudia Pernigotti. Directed for TV by Matteo Ricchetti. Sung in Italian. Released 2017, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: NA
In Memoriam: the esteemed soprano Daniela Dessì died on March 20, 2016. Opera News (August 21, 2016) called her "the most versatile Italian soprano of her generation." Her long-time partner in life and on the stage, Fabio Armiliato, delivered her eulogy and sang at her funeral. Dessì was born in Genova. Subject title was filmed in Genova in March 2015, apparently before her illness was evident, at the Teatro Carlo Felice. It appears this will be the last Blu-ray disk that will appear with Dessì and Armiliato singing together. We have Dessì on several other Blu-rays, the most remarkable of which is her Tosca with Armiliato as Cavaradossi. This version of Tosca could be called the epitome of Italian opera.
Hugo Shirley, writing in the June 2018 Gramophone (pages 84-85) mourns and praises Dessì as Fedora, but he is less enthusiastic about the rest of the production including "swoops and sobs" from Armiliato and lackluster playing by the orchestra. Henson Keys, reporting in the July Opera News at page 55, calls this a "rip-roaring, no-holds-barred verismo fest, with passionate singing that's occasionally over the top." At the time this was made, it was just another Italian opera recorded by Dynamic, which covers the Italian beat. But now it's an appropriate final statement by Dessì who, per Keys, wore the role of Fedora "like a velvet glove."
Here is an official clip:
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