Search - Donizetti, Tamas Pal :: Marino Faliero

AN UNEVEN WORK

Halvor | United States | 09/09/2000

(3 out of 5 stars)

""Marino Falliero" was first performed at the Theatre-Italien in Paris on 12 March, 1835, and is the opera immediately preceeding the masterpiece "Lucia di Lammermoor." That doesn't mean "Marino" is a masterpiece, however. On the contrary, the opera, though received fairly warmly at its first performance, has some workaday scenes and some very uninteresting construction. It is also performed unevenly. The overture is read somewhat idiosyncratically especially in regards to tempi. Maria Farkasreti, despite a wide vibrato, seems to be the best singer on this performance. Others, such as tenor Tamas Albert, leave something to be desired. The chorus occasionally experiences pitch trouble. But the orchestra is for the most part well-guided under the baton of Tamas Pal, and the Agora live recording is just fine. There is a libretto, but alas, it is not in English. To sum up, I find this opera uninteresting despite a fairly good performance."