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Don Gregorio Melodramma Giocoso in Two Acts on DVD

Giorgio Valerio (Marchese Don Giulio Antiquati), Giorgio Trucco (Marchese Enrico), Elizaveta Martirosyan (Madama Gilda Tallemanni), Livio Scarpellini (Marchese Pippetto), Paolo Bordogna (Gregorio Cordebono), Alessandra Fratelli (Leonarda), Luca Ludovici (Simone), Orchestra and chorus of the Bergamo Musica Festival Gaetano Donizetti, Stefano Montanari, Roberto Recchia Bergamo, Italy, Teatro Donizetti , second edition of the Bergamo Music Festival, November 2nd-4th, 2007. Staged for the first time at Teatro Nuovo in Naples in 1826, Don Gregorio is the Neapolitan version of one of Donizetti’s earliest masterpieces, L’ajo nell’imbarazzo (1824). This is the first representation in Italy in modern times, and a world premiere recording. Director Roberto Recchia sets the performance in the 1920s, at a time when restrictions and false morality were strongly linked with Italian political and social situation. In its new adaptation, the work differs from the original version in several aspects, the most important being the insertion of spoken dialogues in Neapolitan dialect in place of the recitatives. But Donizetti’s musical verve remains unchanged as he underlines the very enjoyable farcical situations of this comic work. The characters are inspired by Italian Commedia dell’Arte, but possess at the same time a deeper psychological and human dimension.