Customer Reviews

Verdi: Un Giorno di Regno

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GREAT FUN!, 9 Aug 2008


If you want to explore Verdi's second -and failed- opera, and his only comic opera before Falstaff, then RUSH here. It's all wonderful, tuneful fun in the Rossini / Donizetti mould, but with lots of real, individual Verdi-in-the-making (Act 1 finale, for instance). Unlike some of his early stuff (Battaglia di Legnano, Aroldo, even some of Lombardi...) there are few, if any, longeurs or moments of dull musical inspiration.

Feeling that an opera like this must benefit from a live performance,I decided to by-pass the more refined studio recording (which I had heard, but not owned, many years ago) and go for this one. It's from Bregenz in 1974, and the fabulous ensemble cast includes Rinaldi, Trimarchi, and even Giuseppe Taddei! Conductor Piero Bellugi keeps things sparkling and bubbling along merrily. No libretto, and only a brief synopsis, but my bet is that those of us who are exploring the lesser-known Verdi will have books on Verdi's works, such as those by Budden or Osborne, each of which contains detailed synopsises (synopsi?) of all the operas. You don't really need a libretto, which is silly stuff and hardly great literature.

There's a substantial bonus of Act 1 and part of Act 2 of Macbeth (Philadelphia 1983 - Muti) with Bruson and Connell...but it only whets the appetite for the full opera!

TRUST ME; JUST BUY THIS ONE!