Onwards and Upwards

Available for 29 days

Gaetano Donizetti was one of Italy’s most prolific tunesmiths, with almost 70 operas to his name – about as many as Rossini, Bellini and Verdi all combined - whose arias still cut straight to the heart today. All this week, Donald Macleod follows his irresistible rise: from a child brought up in a dark, cramped cellar to become a pioneering master of the style known as bel canto. And like any opera plot, there’s triumph and tragedy, headaches and heartbreak… Today, Donizetti is plucked from the cramped underground cellar of his birthplace to become a choirboy. He finds a musical father figure to make up for his own father’s cantankerous attitude, and despite a plague of bad luck in his early stage productions, he’s hailed as a “new hope for Italian opera”. L’Elisir d’amore: Cantiam, facciam brindisi English Chamber Orchestra Richard Bonynge, conductor Sinfonia for Winds in G minor Camerata Budapest László Kovács, conductor Gloria (from Messa di Gloria) Siri Karoline Thornhill, soprano Marie-Sande Papenmeyer, mezzo Mark Adler, tenor Martin Berner, baritone Simon Mayr Chorus Bayerischer Staatsopernchor Concerto de Bassus Franz Hauk, conductor String Quartet No 5 in E minor (1st and 2nd movements) Quartet Pleyel Köln Enrico di Borgogna, Act I: “Care augette che spiegate” Della Jones, soprano Philharmonia Orchestra David Parry, conductor Waltz in G major Larissa Kondratjewa, piano Reinhard Schmiedel, piano Zoraida, Act I: Finale “Il silenzio…..qual tradimento” Bruce Ford, tenor (Almuzir) Majella Cullagh, soprano (Zoraida) Paul Austin Kelly, tenor (Abenamet) Matthew Hargreaves, bass (Ali) Dominic Natoli, tenor (Almanzor) Cristina Pastorello, soprano (Ines) Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields David Parry, conductor Produced by Amelia Parker for BBC Audio Wales and West.