"Ero desso, il figlio mio"

Of all of the Italian beasts of Bel Canto composition, Donizetti is the one I am least acquainted with, so I hope Lucrezia Borgia is a good place to start...

Based on Victor Hugo's play (which itself was based on the legend of Lucrezia Borgia), Gaetano Donizetti's opera didn't get off to the best of starts. When the opera opened in Paris in 1940, Monsieur Hugo said the production breached copyright and performances were forced to be cancelled. But the day was saved when someone had a stroke of genius and simply changed the Italian characters to Turks and slapped a new title on it; 'La Rinegata'. This was deemed sufficient for the French copyright bigwigs, and performances were resumed.

The plot centers around Lucrezia Borgia herself; resident masked murderer and wife of the Duke of Ferrara. Gennaro is her son, though he doesn't know it yet, and in an act of defiance against the havoc wreaking Borgia family, he defaces the coat of arms outside the house, knocking off the 'B' to leave 'orgia'...and I'm sure you can guess what that means. Lucrezia is clearly pissed off and orders the vandal to be killed, though only just manages to give Gennaro the antidote to the poison given by the Duke, before imploring her son to escape from the city. Her thirst for murder clearly isn't quenched though, and in a revenge attack for a barrage of insults on her family, she poisons all of Gennaro's friends at a party. Only...Gennaro never left the city, and as his friends all die around him, he attempts to kill Lucrezia, who only narrowly escapes death by laying down the 'Stop, I'm your Mother' card. Lucrezia once again offers her son the antidote, but he choses to die with his friends; and in this final cabaletta 'Ero desso, il figlio mio', Lucrezia mourns her loss. EPIC.

You can tell, from the very first beat of this piece that it's going to be tragic in truly epic proportions. Not only is the tragedy in place very quickly, but as is Lucrezia's love for her son. The powerful, almost violent, beginning suddenly gives way to a softer flute interjection; which is so reminiscent of Bellini's magic morbidezza. Thinking about this, of all of the famous Bel Canto composers, I'd say (from my very small dose of Mr. D!) that Donizetti seems to have an overall style of composition most similar to that of Bellini. Also, the first chord and subsequent pulsing violin accompaniment instantly (and oddly) reminded me of Prokofiev's ballet Romeo and Juliet for some reason...but either way, the stage is set for anguish and calamity before Lucrezia's even opened her mouth.

And when she does, all of the musical forces of tragedy come together. In the version sung by Renée Fleming on youtube, you can sum up the entire piece by listening to the second word she sings - all of the anguish in her heart is pushed out like some grand scale catharsis on the word 'desso'. Fleming isn't well known for her Bel Canto technique, and therefore the cadenzas are a little more murky than what you'd expect from a singer experienced in this repertoire, however no one could fault her vocal acting, which is just superb. Her best cadenza is an 'improvised' unwritten one, where she goes up to an eye-watering G if I'm not mistaken, which is quite breathtaking.

I'd be quite interested to hear a mezzo soprano singing this...Renée Fleming is great in that she has the dark vocal colour that is needed - however, this is lost slightly on the extreme lows. Though I'm not sure I'd trade those passing moments for the sparkling high register...though I suppose there are plenty of mezzos out there who can more than handle the two octave runs with impressive agility (DiDonato springs to mind...watch this space!).

I wish Lucrezia Borgia was performed more often, as based on this short extract, I would most definitely buy my ticket; albeit the cheapest ticket 'up in the gods'...