The Final Act

Gaetano Donizetti was one of Italy’s most prolific tunesmiths, with almost 70 operas to his name – about as many as Rossini, Bellini and Verdi all combined - whose arias still cut straight to the heart today. All this week, Donald Macleod follows his irresistible rise: from a child brought up in a dark, cramped cellar to become a pioneering master of the style known as bel canto. And like any opera plot, there’s triumph and tragedy, headaches and heartbreak…

Today, in a tale of two cities, we’ll see unfold the final act of Donizetti’s career as his productivity ramps up and he gets the long-coveted post of Director of Music to the Austrian Emperor. We hear about his unfortunate fate that mirrored one of his most famous operatic scenes, and the somewhat surprising relic made from his corpse.

Trovatella “Sovra il campo della vita”
Marie-Nicole Lemieux, soprano
Giulio Zappa, piano

Don Pasquale, Act II: “Che interminabile andirivieni”
Munchner Rundfunkschor
Munchner Rundfunksorchester
Roberto Abbado, conductor

String Quartet No 18 (i. Allegro)
Revolutionary Drawing Room

Don Pasquale, Act III: “Com’è gentil… Bravo, bravo Don Pasquale”
Frank Lopardo, tenor (Ernesto)
Eva Mei, soprano (Norina)
Renato Bruson, bass (Don Pasquale)
Thomas Allen, bass-baritone (Malatasto)
Munchner Rundfunkschor
Munchner Rundfunksorchester
Roberto Abbado, conductor

Dom Sebastien: Seul sur la terre
Benjamin Bernheim, tenor
Orchestra del Teatro Comunale di Bologna
Frédéric Chaslin, conductor

Requiem: Offertorio – Lux Aeterna
Marcel Rosca, bass
Tiziana K. Sojat, soprano
Vittorio Giammarrusco, tenor
Jaroslava Horska-Maxová, mezzo-soprano
Zdeněk Hlávka, baritone
Prague Chamber Chorus
Prague Virtuosi
Alexander Rahbari, conductor

Produced by Amelia Parker for BBC Audio Wales and West.