Adelson e Salvini was Vincenzo Bellini's first opera, written in 1825 while he was still a student at the Naples Conservatory and performed there by an all-male cast. The work has had to be reassembled from several versions that were used at the time, and it has rarely been performed. Those who love Bellini will absolutely find adumbrations of the mature composer here, but the opera is a bit of an odd duck. It has spoken dialogue, for one thing, in the manner of a German Singspiel . Bellini handles several instrumental ...
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Adelson e Salvini was Vincenzo Bellini's first opera, written in 1825 while he was still a student at the Naples Conservatory and performed there by an all-male cast. The work has had to be reassembled from several versions that were used at the time, and it has rarely been performed. Those who love Bellini will absolutely find adumbrations of the mature composer here, but the opera is a bit of an odd duck. It has spoken dialogue, for one thing, in the manner of a German Singspiel . Bellini handles several instrumental transitions elegantly, but is hampered by this structure. And the opera is essentially a comedy, although it doesn't have much of a comic groove. The story, in a libretto by Andrea Tottola, is a marginally coherent tale of an Irish nobleman, Adelson, who employs an Italian artist named Salvini, who has fallen in love with Adelson's fiancée. A minor character, the servant Bonifacio, speaks in Neapolitan dialect, for which the hefty booklet is a lifesaver. There are plenty of arias...
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