One-act comic opera, with words and music by Donizetti (sung in Italian). The Night Bell is a farce - wildly popular in its day - about the thwarted wedding night of an elderly chemist, kept from his young bride by the repeated visits to his dispensary of one of her former admirers in a variety of disguises.
Rodney Milnes introduces the performance, recorded at this year's Bregenz Festival.
Cast in order of singing:
VIENNA STATE OPERA CHORUS chorus-master
HElMUTH FROSCHAUER VIENNA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA conducted by BRUNO AMADUCCI
The scene is the reception room adjoining Don Anni bale's dispensary in Foria, a suburb of Naples.