Giordano: La Cene Delle Beffe.

[Revilod]

I've recently been getting to know this opera in the 1955 recording conducted by Oliviero de Fabritiis. It is very well sung and superbly conducted and the recording is perfectly acceptable. The opera itself is really quite compelling. The story is melodramatic as you would expect  but the opera is fast moving and, after a slow start, from Track 4 or so onwards, it  is full of colourful and highly melodic music. The quality is maintained, certainly throughout Acts 2 and 3 and much, if not all, of the final act. Does anyone else know it...or any other recordings of it?

[adriano]

There is also a 1972 recording, conducted by Nino Bonavolontà, which I also find quite good. It's also a RAI concert performance.
We had this opera in 1997 years ago at the Zurich Opera. Daniela Dessì was the lead, the tenor was Umberto Cupido - whose voice was not anymore in good shape. The bartione was Giorgio Zancanaro. Bruno Bartoletti was too busy conducting the orchestra, so I conducted the singers from the prompter's box...
I just found this:
https://soundcloud.com/gbopera/umberto-giordano-la-cena-delle-beffe-zurigo-1996

[Alan Howe]

Alberto Cupido, I believe. A fine tenor in his younger days.

[wexoperafan]

Its a great opera, that deserves to be performed more often.
There is also a recording from Bongiovanni
Gian Paolo Sanzogno (conductor), Orchestra Sinfonica di Piacenza, with Fabio Armiliato as Giannetto, Rita Lantieri as Ginevra, and Marco Chingari as Neri. Live recording of a stage performance in Piacenza, 1988.

Fabio Armiliato was the Gianetto in the Wexford performances back in 1987, which also had Alessandra Marc and Miriam Gauci.

Wex

[adriano]

Yes, of course, Alberto and not (like Giordano) Umberto. Sorry about that :-)
The staging of that Zurich production was by Liliana Cavani, the Italian director of that nightmarish Bogarde/Rampling movie "The Night Porter". And, of course, she staged this opera in the Italian Fascist period. We never saw her in a good mood, she always complained; and her dream would have been to have but an all-female assistant's crew. With women she was charming, with men (singers included), simply horrible. Next to her always sat a girl turning the vocals scores's pages, indicating where we were with the music (which she could not read) and during reharsals everybody not involved with the stage would have to sit at least 2-3 meters behind her - and not even near the side walls of the rehearsing studio; the front region was only reserved for her and her girl. There was another girl serving her coffee or water from time to time, but we were only alloved to drink during breaks.

[Mark Thomas]

Sounds like a fun time!

[Revilod]

Sounds like a fun time!

It certainly does. Thanks for that insight, Adriano. Sometimes you have to suffer for your art!

[adriano]

Well, in that case, fortunately, it was not my own art :-)
But caprices and the need of power make of some creative artists unpleasant personalites.