Francesco Lanzillotta

Aida

Recorded at Macerata Opera Festival, Arena Sferisterio, 2021

Allegro un po' troppo

From the Rai Auditorium in Turin, the history of symphonic music told by the great quick-change artist Arturo Brachetti. Music by the Rai Symphony Orchestra conducted by Francesco Lanzillotta.

Elisir d'amore

Small things of unquantifiable value

A police officer records an unusual deposition from a young woman: all her dreams have been stolen.

Norma

Norma is a woman torn between two systems. As a chaste druid priestess, she decides on war and peace in an occupied land; secretly, she’s the lover of Roman commander Pollione and mother of his two children. Her double life unravels when Pollione plans to leave her for the younger priestess Adalgisa. Caught between love and vengeance, faith and reason, tradition and empire, Norma nearly kills her children—before choosing another, equally radical path. Vincenzo Bellini’s 1831 opera is a masterpiece of Italian Romanticism. The role of Norma, with its emotional and vocal range from bel canto to raw outcry, is iconic. Director Vasily Barkhatov sets the tragedy amid political upheaval, where old idols are replaced by new. Star soprano Asmik Grigorian debuts in the title role. Adalgisa is sung by Aigul Akhmetshina.

La Sonnambula - Rome

In an apparent idyll high in the Swiss Alps, a secluded village society prepares for the next wedding. Amina is to be the lucky one this time. The groom Elvino, however, soon turns his attention back to his former wife because Amina sleepwalks into the bed of a stranger who has just arrived. Count Rodolfo, son of the former lord of the manor and travelling incognito, cannot convince the villagers of his innocence nor that of Amina, until she sleepwalks again and the collective belief in the supernatural is put to the test.

William Tell

Opera in four acts Libretto by Victor-Joseph Étienne de Jouy and Hippolyte-Louis-Florent Bis