GREAT IS LOVE - MARZOLLA, FERRARA, FIORENTIN

GRANDO XE AMOR (CVLD192)

Author: ANTONIO BUZZOLLA
Performer: PAOLA MARZOLLA, MATTEO FERRARA, ALDO FIORENTIN

Available in: HD File, CD

Tracks

01 - Love
02 - The advice
03 - The gift
04 - The bocolo
05 - The enamoured one
06 - Discretion
07 - The desolate one
08 - A gondola ride
09 - The coolness
10 - The little boat
11 - The choice
12 - The evil tongue
13 - Betrayed love
14 - Repentance
15 - The butterfly
16 - The little mask
17 - The gallant one
18 - Jealousy
19 - Disillusionment
20 - The woman
21 - The fashionable husband
22 - The magic virtue
23 - The naive one
24 - The women

Notes

CLASSICAL. Original compositions by Antonio Buzzolla. Paola Marzolla soprano, Matteo Ferrara bass baritone, Aldo Fiorentin piano.
24bit/88.2 original digital recording made at Magister Area Studios, Preganziol, Italy, on April 2010

Antonio Buzzolla was born in Adria in 1815 and died in Venice in 1871. A child of art (his father Angelo was choirmaster of Adria Cathedral and director of the Società Filarmonica), he quickly learned to play the violin, piano, organ and other instruments, and at 17 he joined the orchestra of the "La Fenice" theatre in Venice; 5 years later, having already composed and staged his first short opera, "Ferramondo", he moved to Naples where he studied under Donizetti and Mercadante.
After composing and staging two more operas, "Mastino I della Scala" in 1841 and "Gli avventurieri" in 1842, he embarked on a long journey across Europe in 1843, first going to Berlin as conductor of the Italian Opera Theatre orchestra, then to Dresden, Poland and Russia; in 1845 and 1846 he was occasionally back in Adria, before going to Paris as director of the Opéra Italienne, and later again to Berlin.
From 1848 he settled permanently in Venice, where he held the prestigious position of choirmaster at St. Mark's Basilica from 1855 until his death in 1871.
In addition to the three operas already mentioned, Buzzolla composed and staged two other operas, "Amleto" in 1848 and "Elisabetta di Valois" in 1849-1850; the rest of his imposing musical output consists largely of sacred music, although his fame is mainly linked to vocal chamber music: he also wrote a considerable number of arias and canzonettas, many of them in Venetian dialect, for voice and piano, which met with considerable public favour in Italy.
Rossini himself declared that Buzzolla surpassed all his predecessors in this genre, including Perucchini and Simone Mayr, authors of the famous "Biondina in gondoleta".
Indeed, the Venetian ariettas and canzonettas, while retaining the popular aspect in the text and in certain rhythmic cadences and melodic features, show remarkable compositional care: these are pages of chamber music "full of brio, variety, spontaneity, Venetian flavour" but also of good taste, skill and compositional mastery, "small gems skilfully harmonized" as Antonio Casellati, a pioneer of Adriese musical studies, defined them.
This album offers a significant collection of joyous arias and canzonettas, splendidly performed by Paola Marzolla and Matteo Ferrara, accompanied by the solid pianism of Aldo Fiorentin. Recorded live-in-studio in high digital resolution at the now well-known Magister Area Studios by Marco Lincetto.