Donizetti: L’Ange De Nisida – Mark Elder

   in Opera Now (May, 2019)
L’Ange de Nisida is an opera that Donizetti composed for Paris, only for it to remain unperformed when the intended theatre went bankrupt. Much of the music was then used in La Favorite, so some may be familiar to you. Opera Rara has issued a recording of last year’s concert performance at Covent Garden, the opera’s world premiere, after its reconstruction from a jumble of documents. Is it a lost masterpiece? I am not convinced. It’s certainly interesting to hear, and Mark Elder’s conducting is its strongest card as he elicits emotional playing from the Royal Opera House Orchestra. But the compositional inspiration is patchy and the libretto from stock. …