Search - Giuseppe Verdi, Alfredo Simonetto, Lina Pagliughi :: Verdi: Un Giorno Di Regno

Good 1951 cast in surprisingly graceful comedy

L. E. Cantrell | Vancouver, British Columbia Canada | 09/30/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Source: Performance recorded live on January 25, 1951 for broadcast on RAI.



Sound: 1951 Italian mono. As usual for recordings of this period, voices are well-captured and given emphasis. The orchestra sounds somewhat compressed and rather distant; the piano, in particular, sounds as though it is locked away in someone's dressing room. One's ear quickly becomes accustomed to the period sound, however, and it is perfectly listenable.



Format: Disc 1, Act I, 21 tracks, 62:01. Disc 2, Act II, 15 tracks, 39:58.



Documentation: Libretto in Italian, keyed to the track listing. A paragraph on the historical underpinnings of the story. Brief plot summary in English. The usual strange little essay this series provides on a long-lost monument to Verdi's operas that once infested the Parma train station, followed by a short recital of Verdi's career as a composer. Nothing on the cast, conductor or circumstances of the recording.



This is Verdi's other comedy, his second opera. It premiered in 1840 with no success and served as a marker for the bleakest period of the composer's life, during which his two children and his first wife died. As Verdi, himself, famously told the story, he despaired of ever writing another opera, and fell into an uncreative depression until a publisher forced the libretto for what came to be his third opera, "Nabucco," into his pocket.



"Un giorno di regno," is hardly ever performed and seldom recorded. Like "Alzira," it is regarded as one of Verdi's misfires and better left untouched. Prior to listening to this performance, I knew that I would not hear a youthful "Falstaff." I did have some hazy expectation, however, of listening to a sort of primordial, protoplasmic Fra Melitone along with some touches of Oscar and of that drummer-girl, whatever her name is, from "La forza del destino."



I could not have been more wrong. From the overture on, I defy anyone unfamiliar with the piece to identify this as a work by Verdi. It now seems to me that in 1840, the 27 year-old hayseed from Busetto had concluded that the very model of a modern operatic comedy had been devised by Rossini and Donizetti, so he set out to write one for himself. If "Un giorno di regno" is not exactly Rossinian and not precisely Donizettian, it is absolutely not Verdian. It even has--and this I never expected of Verdi!--passages of dry recitative accompanied by piano. It also has charming and light little tunes that might sneak in the back door of Don Pasquale's house, but would be trampled by the horses at Ernani's fortress or wither beneath Iago's sneers. Still, for all that, "Un giorno" is a charming piece of work. Just as "Andrea Chenier" is the very best Puccini opera that Puccini did not happen to write, "Un giorno di regno" might be the best Donizetti comedy not by Donizetti. This is certainly the only Verdi opera I know of which the word "pretty" can be used appropriately.



The cast is a good example of the wartime generation in Italy. Capecchi and Bruscantini acquired international fame. Lina Pagliughi's great girth kept her from performing very often on Italian opera stages but she was a strong presence in radio performances. Before the war she recorded a very formidable "Lucia" in the pre-Callas style that is available on cd from Naxos. Juan Oncina's voice had a pleasing quality to it and a resemblance to Tito Schipa's that I suspect was not entirely accidental.



This is a pleasing performance of a most un-Verdilike Verdi opera. I think it is worth five stars."