Donizetti Lucrezia Borgia opera to a libretto by Felice Romani. Directed 2019 by Andrea Bernard at the Donizetti Foundation Theater in Bergamo, Italy. Stars Marko Mimica (Don Alfonso), Carmela Remigio (Donna Lucrezia Borgia), Xabier Anduaga (Gennaro), Varduhl Abrahamyan (Maffio Orsini), Manuel Pierattelli (Jeppo Liverotto), Alex Martini (Don Apostolo Gazella), Roberto Maietta (Ascanio Petrucci), Daniele Lettieri (Oloferno Vitellozzo), Rocco Cavalluzzi (Gubetta), Edoardo Milletti (Rustighello), Federico Benetti (Astolfo), Claudio Corradi (Usher), Alessandro Yague (Servant), and Francesca Verga (Princess Negroni). Riccardo Frizza conducts the Orchestra Giovanile Luigi Cherubini, the stage band of the Conservatory of Bergamo, and the Coro del Teatro Municipale di Piacenza (Chorus Master Corrado Casati). Sets by Alberto Beltrame; costumes by Elena Beccaro; lighting by Marco Alba; choreography by Marta Negrini; assistant direction by Tecla Gucci. Directed for TV by Matteo Ricchetti. Sound recording by Rino Trasi and Giuseppe Famularo; sound editing and post-production by Rino Trasi. Sung in Italian. Released 2021, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: NA
Tim Ashley, writing in the June 2021 Gramophone at pages 97-98, approves the orchestra and the singers, especially Anduaga as Gennaro. He was not so enthusiastic about the production which often “swamps insight beneath symbolism” with such touches as a mostly dark stage, an empty cradle on stage throughout, Princess Negroni performing as a table dancer, and a Christ-like figure daubing corpses in blood. You can see for yourself what Ashley writes about in the official trailer:
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