Donizetti: Belisario Nicola Alaimo, Joyce El-Khoury, Camilla Roberts, Russell Thomas, Alastair Miles, BBC Symphony Orchestra & Mark Elder

• Gaetano Donizetti (1797 - 1848): Belisario: Sinfonia
• 1Donizetti: Belisario: Sinfonia06:44
• Belisario, Act 1:
• 2Donizetti: Belisario, Act 1: "Plauso di eterna gloria" (Chorus)01:58
• 3Donizetti: Belisario, Act 1: "Corri amica, voliam sulla sponda" (Irene, Chorus)05:26
• 4Donizetti: Belisario, Act 1: "Plauso! Voci di gioia!" (Antonina, Eutropio)02:20
• 5Donizetti: Belisario, Act 1: "Sin la tomba è a me negata!" (Antonina)02:53
• 6Donizetti: Belisario, Act 1: "Ti conforta dell'eccesso" (Eutropio, Antonina)00:56
• 7Donizetti: Belisario, Act 1: "O desio della vendetta" (Antonina, Eutropio)03:57
• 8Donizetti: Belisario, Act 1: "O nume degli exerciti" (Giustiniano, Chorus)03:24
• 9Donizetti: Belisario, Act 1: "Cesare, hai vinto e l'itala contrada" (Belisario, Giustiniano, Alamiro)02:28
• 10Donizetti: Belisario, Act 1: "Liberi siete...Quando di sangue tinto" (Belisario, Alamiro)04:28
• 11Donizetti: Belisario, Act 1: "Sul campo della gloria" (Belisario, Alamiro)03:28
• 12Donizetti: Belisario, Act 1: "Padre!..." (Irene, Belisario, Antonina, Eutropio, Alamiro, Eudora, Chorus)02:37
• 13Donizetti: Belisario, Act 1: "Che mai sarà" (Chorus)03:38
• 14Donizetti: Belisario, Act 1: "Sostegni del mio trono, un fero evento" (Giustiniano, Chorus, Eutropio, Belisario, Antonina, Irene)03:23
• 15Donizetti: Belisario, Act 1: "Figlia, consorte..." (Giustiniano, Chorus, Eutropio, Belisario, Antonina, Irene)01:58
• 16Donizetti: Belisario, Act 1: "Ah, da chi son io tradito!" (Belisario, Irene, Alamiro, Antonina, Eutropio, Giustiniano, Chorus)03:33
• 17Donizetti: Belisario, Act 1: "Madre tu fosti, e moglie" (Belisario, Antonina, Irene, Alamiro, Giustiniano, Chorus)01:43
• 18Donizetti: Belisario, Act 1: "Sognai... fra genti... Barbare..." (Belisario, Antonina, Irene, Alamiro, Giustiniano, Chorus)02:23
• 19Donizetti: Belisario, Act 1: "Ah! Pera l'empio che offese natura" (Antonina, Irene, Belisario, Alamiro, Giustiniano, Chorus)02:48
• Belisario, Act 2:
• 20Donizetti: Belisario, Act 2: "Oh, duce! Oh eccesso orribile!..." (Chorus, Alamiro)02:25
• 21Donizetti: Belisario, Act 2: "Comando fu di Cesare" (Chorus, Alamiro)02:30
• 22Donizetti: Belisario, Act 2: "A sì tremendo annunzio" (Alamiro)02:43
• 23Donizetti: Belisario, Act 2: "Vien la figlia!" (Chorus, Alamiro, Irene)01:38
• 24Donizetti: Belisario, Act 2: "Misera figlia... Irene addio...Trema Bisanzio!" (Alamiro)03:50
• 25Donizetti: Belisario, Act 2: "Amici, è forza separarci" (Irene, Belisario, Eusebio)04:46
• 26Donizetti: Belisario, Act 2: "Se vederla a me non lice" (Belisario, Irene)02:00
• 27Donizetti: Belisario, Act 2: "Ah, se potessi piangere" (Belisario, Irene)04:52
• 28Donizetti: Belisario, Act 2: "Dunque andiam de' giorni miei" (Belisario, Irene)03:58
• Belisario, Act 3:
• 29Donizetti: Belisario, Act 3: Introduzione02:29
• 30Donizetti: Belisario, Act 3: "Qui siedi, o padre, e le tue stanche membra" (Irene, Belisario)02:24
• 31Donizetti: Belisario, Act 3: "Diffondasi terrible" (Chorus)01:22
• 32Donizetti: Belisario, Act 3: "Impavidi guerrieri" (Alamiro, Belisario, Irene, Chorus, Ottario)00:56
• 33Donizetti: Belisario, Act 3: "Fermate! Belisario" (Alamiro, Belisario, Irene, Chorus, Ottario)02:22
• 34Donizetti: Belisario, Act 3: "Mi mancano gli accenti" (Belisario, Alamiro, Irene, Ottario, Chorus)01:35
• 35Donizetti: Belisario, Act 3: "Se il iglio/fratel/padre stringere" (Irene, Belisario)02:44
• 36Donizetti: Belisario, Act 3: "Figli, partiam qui l'aura" (Belisario, Ottario, Chorus, Irene)03:56
• 37Donizetti: Belisario, Act 3: "Itene al campo, e sia palese al duce" (Giustiniano, Antonina)02:52
• 38Donizetti: Belisario, Act 3: "Da quel dì che l'innocente" (Antonina)03:28
• 39Donizetti: Belisario, Act 3: "Vittoria! Vittoria!" (Chorus, Giustiniano, Antonina, Irene)01:25
• 40Donizetti: Belisario, Act 3: "Di pianto, di gemiti" (Antonina, Irene, Giustiniano, A Centurion)06:05
• 41Donizetti: Belisario, Act 3: "Egli è spento, e del perdono" (Antonina)03:58
• Total Runtime02:04:23

Info for Donizetti: Belisario

Belisario is, quite simply, one of Donizetti’s finest achievements. It proved a triumph on stages throughout the 19th century, yet, incredibly, it is little known today. The libretto, by Salvadore Cammarano (who collaborated with Donizetti on Lucia di Lammermoor), tells the moving and typically complicated story of the 6th century Byzantine general.

Falsely accused by his wife, Antonina (Joyce El-Khoury), of killing their son, he was blinded and exiled as his punishment. Only the recognition by his daughter, Irene (Camilla Roberts), that her father’s former captive, Alamiro (Russell Thomas), was her long-lost brother restores Belisario’s (Nicola Alaimo) reputation; tragically, too late to save his life.

Recorded in the studio, with the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Opera Rara’s Artistic Director Sir Mark Elder, this two disc set is accompanied by a complete libretto with an English translation alongside an article and synopsis by the eminent 19th-century musical scholar, Jeremy Commons.

"I have nothing but praise for Sir Mark Elder's vigorous and sensitive direction." (Gramophone)

"Everyone and everything combined to make listening a most pleasurable experience." (IRR)

"Elder’s conducting displays great belief in the opera and he leads a passionate performance. As Antonina, Joyce El-Khoury’s naturally fast and highly distinctive soprano is hugely welcome in an age of increasing vocal homogeneity; she attacks the role’s considerable demands head-on and delivers a thrilling performance." (Opera Now)

"this Opera Rara recording makes amends for [Belisario's] long neglect. That is above all thanks to the conducting of Mark Elder...He injects it with such energy and pathos that you are reminded of how the conductor can be the most important person when it comes to performing opera...Alaimo does the [title] part justice...[Thomas] lifts it all onto a higher plane." (BBC Music Magazine)

Nicola Alaimo, baritone (Belisario)
Joyce El-Khoury, soprano (Antonina)
Camilla Roberts, soprano (Irene)
Russell Thomas, tenor (Alamiro)
Alastair Miles, bass (Giustiniano)
Julia Sporsen, soprano (Eudora)
Peter Hoare, tenor (Eutropio)
Edward Price, baritone (Eusebio)
Michael Bundy, baritone (Ottario)
Darren Jeffery, baritone (Centurione)
BBC Singers
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Sir Mark Elder, conductor

Joyce El-Khourys
Lebanese-Canadian soprano Joyce El-Khoury made her Royal Opera debut in the 2016/17 Season as Violetta (La traviata). In the 2017/18 Season she sings Musetta (La bohème) and Sylvia (L’Ange de Nisida) in concert.

El-Khoury studied at the University of Ottawa, the Academy of Vocal Arts, Philadelphia, and the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artists Development Program, New York. Opera engagements include Imogene (Il pirata) for Opéra National de Bordeaux and in St Gallen, Violetta for Glyndebourne Festival, Welsh National Opera, Dutch National Opera, Savonlinna Opera Festival and Canadian Opera Company, Léila (Les Pecheurs de perles) in Bordeaux, Maria Stuarda for Seattle Opera, Desdemona (Otello) for Castleton Festival, Musetta (La bohème) for Teatro Real, Bavarian State Opera, Canadian Opera Company and Dutch National Opera, Mimì (La bohème) for the Canadian Opera Company, Micaëla (Carmen) for Santa Fe Opera and Rosalinde (Die Fledermaus) for Vancouver Opera.

El-Khoury’s engagements in contemporary opera include the title role in Tobias Picker’s Emmeline for Opera Theatre of Saint Louis and Tatyana Bakst (Jake Heggie’s Great Scott) for San Diego Opera. Concert engagements include an appearance with the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, Beethoven’s Missa solemnis with Munich Philharmonic Orchestra and Lorin Maazel, the title role in Rusalka at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw with James Gaffigan, Pauline (Donizetti’s Les Martyrs) at the Southbank Centre with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Mark Elder, Antonia (Donizetti’s Belisario) at the Barbican, Rossini’s Stabat Mater with Orchestre de Paris and Jésus López Cobos and galas with Juan Diego Flórez at the Beiteddine Festival with the NDR Symphony Orchestra. Her recordings include Les Martyrs, Belisario and Écho for Opera Rara.

Nicola Alaimo
is one of the leading singers of his generation. His recent successes include Fra Melitone (La forza del destino), Taddeo (L’italiana in Algeri), Falstaff and Belcore (L’elisir d’amore) at the Metropolitan Opera in New York; Falstaff, Raimbaud (Le Comte Ory), Neri Chiaramantesi in Giordano’s La cena delle beffe, Don Pasquale, Ernesto (Il pirata) and Dandini (La Cenerentola) at La Scala, Milan; Dandini at the 2014 Salzburg Festival; Rossini’s Guillaume Tell at La Monnaie in Brussels, at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw and at the Chorégies d’Orange; Fra Melitone, Dandini, Bartolo (Il barbiere di Siviglia) and Paolo (Simon Boccanegra) at the Paris Opéra; Don Pasquale and Gianni Schicchi at the Teatro Real in Madrid; and Francesco (I masnadieri) and Falstaff in Monte Carlo. Other recent highlights have been his Arena di Verona debut as Bartolo, Germont (La traviata) in Toulouse, Geronio (Il turco in Italia) and Marcello (La bohème) in Bologna and his role debut as Rigoletto in Marseille.

Nicola Alaimo can look back on a long and fruitful collaboration with Riccardo Muti, under whose baton he made his Salzburg Festival debut at Whitsun 2008 in Paisiello’s Il matrimonio inaspettato in a production subsequently seen at the Ravenna Festival. Other performances under Muti include Iago (Otello) at the 2008 Salzburg Festival and in Rome, Pharaon (Moïse et Pharaon) at the 2009 Salzburg Festival, at La Scala and in Rome and Don Pasquale at the Vienna Musikverein, in Liège and Cologne, at the Salle Pleyel in Paris, at the Ravenna Festival, on the island of Malta and in Moscow and St Petersburg.

Since making his debut as Dandini at the Rossini Opera Festival, Nicola Alaimo has been closely associated with Pesaro as a leading Rossinian and has been heard there as Bartolo, Aliprando (Matilde di Shabran), Guillaume Tell, Don Pomponio (La gazzetta) and Geronio and the Duke of Ordow (Torvaldo e Dorliska) as well as in a series of concerts.

Among the conductors with whom Nicola Alaimo regularly works are not only Muti but also Bruno Campanella, Ottavio Dantone, Gianluigi Gelmetti, James Levine, Michele Mariotti and Zubin Mehta.

Plans include Mustafà (L’italiana in Algeri), Belcore and Don Pasquale at the Vienna State Opera, Guillaume Tell in Lyon, Falstaff in Budapest, Hong Kong and Madrid, Don Magnifico (La Cenerentola) in Amsterdam and Madrid, where he will also be singing Germont, Malatesta (Don Pasquale) at the 2020 Salzburg Whitsun Festival, Bel-core and Ezio (Attila) in Chicago, Mustafà in Zurich and a number of other important productions at the Met.

Booklet for Donizetti: Belisario