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Opera on 3

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Programme presenting rare and fascinating operatic performances

Programme presenting rare and fascinating performances and vividly communicating the immediacy of the live experience

Opera on 3: Rossini's La Donna del Lago

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Music: Classical

Rossini's La Donna del Lago

15/06/2013

BBC Radio 3 - Opera on 3, Rossini's La Donna del Lago

Rossini's opera La Donna del Lago performed at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden.

Ivan Hewett presents a performance of Rossini's opera La Donna del Lago given at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, starring Juan Diego Florez, Joyce DiDonato and Colin Lee.

Ivan Hewett introduces Rossini's La Donna del Lago, recorded last month at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, starring Juan Diego Florez, Joyce DiDonato and Colin Lee.

Based on Walter Scott's The Lady of the Lake, Rossini's opera illustrates the Romantic fascination with Renaissance Scotland as a place of wild emotion and political confrontation.
Elena, the Lady of the Lake, longs to be united with her true love, Malcom. But her father, the rebel Duglas, is determined that she will marry the Highland chief Rodrigo. Torn between love and duty, she finds her plight is made all the more complicated by Uberto, a handsome stranger who nobody seems to know much about.
This new production by John Fulljames contains, in the words of one critic, "some of the most spectacular singing to be heard at Covent Garden for a while", and celebrates not only the historic Scotland in which the action of the opera takes place, but also the Scotland of the nineteenth century, the period of Rossini and Sir Walter Scott (when fascination with Scots history was at its height). The production highlights the beauty of Scottish landscape, of which the heroine, Elena, is a symbol, while not forgetting the struggles and battles that feature in all retellings of Scottish history.


Elena.....Joyce DiDonato (mezzo-soprano)
King James of Scotland.....Juan Diego Flórez (tenor)
Malcolm.....Daniela Barcellona (mezzo-soprano)
Douglas.....Simon Orfila (bass)
Rodrigo.....Colin Lee (tenor)
Albina.....Justina Gringyte (mezzo-soprano)
Serano.....Robin Leggate (tenor)
A Bard.....Christopher Lackner (baritone)
King's Soldier.....Pablo Bemsch (tenor)
Chorus and Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden
Michele Mariotti, conductor.

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