Cyrano de Bergerac (Alfano)

Franco Alfano
Operas Risurrezione (1904) Cyrano de Bergerac (1936) Sakùntala (1952)
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Cyrano de Bergerac is a four-act opera with music by Franco Alfano, and libretto by Henri Caïn, based on Edmond Rostand's drama Cyrano de Bergerac. The opera received its first performance in Rome on 22 January 1936, conducted by Tullio Serafin, with Maria Caniglia and José Luccioni. The first performance in Paris was on 29 May 1936 at the Opéra-Comique.^[1]

Although Alfano originally set the text in French, the premiere was sung in Italian, as were many early Italian productions. In recent years, most productions have returned to the original French text.

Contemporary commentary on the opera by Guido M. Gatti criticised the composer as fearing "to seem too melodramatic", and the opera for being "overdecorated and labored" and containing "difficult and tortuous vocal writing". However, the same analysis also mentioned that "the opera has moments of definite effectiveness and exquisite poetry".^[2]

The US premiere was on 13 May 2005 when the opera was presented at the Metropolitan Opera with Plácido Domingo in the title role.

Roles

Role	Voice type	Premiere cast, 22 January 1936 (Conductor: Tullio Serafin)
Roxane	soprano	Maria Caniglia
La duègne	mezzo-soprano	Agnese Dubbini
Soeur Marthe	mezzo-soprano	Edmea Limberti
Lisa	soprano	Matilde Arbuffo
Cyrano de Bergerac	tenor	José Luccioni
De Guiche	baritone	Giuseppe Manacchini
Carbon	bass	Giacomo Vaghi
De Valvert	baritone	Mario Bianchi
L'officer espagnol	baritone	Millo Marucci
Christian	tenor	Alessio De Paolis
Ragueneau	bass-baritone	Emilio Ghirardini
Le Bret	bass-baritone	Ernesto Dominici
Lignière	baritone	Saturno Meletti

Recordings

• Opera d'Oro, a division of Allegro Corporation (OPD 1411): William Johns, Olivia Stapp, Ezio di Cesare; Maurizio Arena, conductor; recorded in Turin 1975
• CPO 5210620: Manuela Uhl, Jennifer Arnold, Susanna Bernhard, Roman Sadnik, Wolfgang Newerla, Simon Pauly, Paul McNamara, Matthias Kelin, Bernd Gebhardt, Konstantin Heintel; Chorus of Kiel Opera; Kiel Philharmonic Orchestra; Markus Frank, conductor (2002)
• Deutsche Grammophon 4688259 (DVD): Roberto Alagna, Nathalie Manfrino, Richard Troxell, Nicolas Rivenq, Marc Barrard, Jaël Azzaretti; Orchestre National de Montpellier; Marco Guidarini, conductor (2003)
• Live broadcast from the Met (not commercially released): Radvanovsky/Barasorda/Very/Michaels-Moore/de Candia; in New York; Armiliato, conductor (2006)
• Naxos (DVD): Radvanovsky/Domingo/Chacón Cruz/Gilfry/Corrado Caruso; in Valencia; Fournillier, conductor (2007)

References

1. ^ Sciannameo, Franco, "Turandot, Mussolini, and the Second String Quartet: Aspects of Alfano" (Winter 2002). The Musical Times, 143 (1881): pp. 27–41.
2. ^ Gatti, Guido M. (1937). "Recent Italian Operas". The Musical Quarterly XXIII (1): 77–88. doi:10.1093/mq/XXIII.1.77. http://mq.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/XXIII/1/77. Retrieved 15 September 2007. 

• Amadeus Almanac, accessed 26 October 2008 (Italian)