Paolo Bordogna, Francesco Lanzillotta & Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini - Tutto Buffo (2015) [Official Digital Download 24/96]

Nearly a century ago, in 1914, Charlie Chaplin invented his tramp character. Not long before that date, in 1908, the celebrated Italian writer Luigi Pirandello had published an essay entitled L’umorismo (“humour”), referring to a quality that is something rather more than comedy: by way of laughter the contradictions of real life and the truth behind the mask are revealed. Ours is an age of humour, but it is also an age that has seen a renewed awareness of musical theatre, a time when the genre is being re-interpreted in the light of an increasingly complex and sophisticated exploration of the reasons behind it. There is a special place in this revival for comic opera. New life has been breathed into Rossini’s three great comedies, L’italiana in Algeri, Il barbiere di Siviglia, and Cenerentola by way of much-needed critical editions and memorable productions such as those staged by Jean-Pierre Ponnelle and conducted by Claudio Abbado. Part and parcel of this has been a rethinking of the characteristic roles of comic opera, including that of the buffo.

The buffo is a voice-type that composers use for characters who refer back to commedia dell’arte and beyond that to the Latin theatre of Plautus and Terence. Masked characters like Pantalone are the ultimate sources of those merchant fathers preoccupied with arranging the best possible marriage for their daughters, and determined not to be hoodwinked, the elderly Ganymedes who are anxious to make up for the lost days of their youth, and the tutors who want to fill their bed and their purse by making a match with an attractive pupil – as long as she comes with a healthy dowry. On the other hand, Sganarello and Brighella are the origins of those crafty servants who turn everything to good use in order to survive the cruelty of their masters and the harshness of life.

Characters who belong to the first category include, to name only a few, Don Geronimo in Il matrimonio segreto, Don Magnifico in Cenerentola, Don Bartolo in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Don Pasquale in Donizetti’s opera of the same name, and Don Annibale Pistacchio in the same composer’s Il campanello. The second category covers such roles as Leporello in Don Giovanni or Dandini in Cenerentola. As well as these characters, which are easy assign to a well- defined typology, the buffo takes on others that are less easy to classify, ones that are more original, and derive for the most part from 18th-century opera.

Examples are Selim or Taddeo in L’italiana in Algeri, Macrobio and Pacuvio, the two hack poets in La pietra del paragone, Don Geronio in Il turco in Italia, Trombonok in Il viaggio a Reims, and Dulcamara in L’elisir d’amore. The list could go on. … (see booklet)

Tracklist:
01. Cimarosa: Il matrimonio segreto / Act 1-Udite, tutti udite
02. Mozart: Don Giovanni, K.527-Prague Version 1787 / Act 1-Madamina, il catalogo è questo
03. Rossini: Il barbiere di Siviglia / Act 1-A un dottor della mia sorte…
04. Rossini: Il Turco in Italia / Act 2-Se ho da dirla avrei molto piacere
05. Rossini: La Cenerentola / Act 2-Sia qualunque delle figlie
06. Donizetti: Le Convenienze e le Inconvenienze Teatrali-Neapolitan vernacular version / Act 1-Lazzarune, scalzacane, lengua n’canna o ve straviso
07. Donizetti: L'elisir d'amore / Act 1-Udite, udite, o rustici
08. Donizetti: Don Pasquale / Act 1-Son nov'ore
09. Donizetti: Don Pasquale / Act 1-Bella siccome un angelo
10. Donizetti: Don Pasquale / Act 1-Ah! Un foco insolito
11. Verdi: Falstaff / Act 1-Ehi! Paggio!… L'onore!
12. Puccini: Gianni Schicchi-Era eguale la voce?
13. Mascagni: Le Maschere / Act 1-Quella è una stra-stra-strada
14. Rota: Il Cappello di Paglia di Firenze / Act 3-È una cosa incredibile!

Personnel:
Paolo Bordogna, baritone
Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini
Francesco Lanzillotta, conductor

Recorded at Auditorium Nicolò Paganini, Parma, 9-13 September 2014
Sound and balance engineered by Jonathan Stokes
Produced by John Fraser