Search - Gaetano Donizetti, Ingrid Surgenor, Dennis O'Neill :: Donizetti: Songs

Another Enjoyable Disc of Rare Italian Songs

Timothy Kearney | Hull, MA United States | 07/20/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This collection of songs by Donizetti is the third recording of songs by Italian composers performed by Irish tenor Dennis O'Neill accompanied by Ingrid Surgenor on piano. The other two collections was a disc of Verdi songs and another disc is devoted to songs by Bellini. The strength of this collection, as is also the case of the other two discs, is that we have some good performances of songs that have a charm and sparkle to them but are unfamiliar to most modern listeners. We also get a sense of the composer himself, in this case Donizetti, and the simple tenor/piano arrangements seem to showcase the natural gifts of the composer. While overall the recording is very good, there are times when it seems to lack nuance, which is not the case in the Bellini or Verdi sets. Since I'm not a musicologist and I didn't have scores in front of me, I'm not certain that it's due to a few flat performances or the way the music is written. It could be the case that O'Neill performed the music as written. Donizetti could be a somewhat uneven composer, writing powerful dramatic works, some great comic masterpieces, grand historical dramas, some which were successful, other which are all but forgotten, and some that have disappeared entirely. Critics have claimed that he was inconsistent either showing genius or was somewhat mundane. Still, no one can deny he did know how to reach people's heart through music, as the seemingly never ending popularity of LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR, DON PASQUALE, and LE ELISIR DE AMORE attests, and in listening to some of these songs we understand why, and given the price of this set, as well as the fact that it contains some are works, can anyone who loves Italian opera and songs really resist?"