Radio New Zealand Concert network
Sunday 4th of November 2007 at 3 pm
LIBRETTO
SYNOPSIS
Il Diluvio Universale (The Universal Deluge/Flood) tells the biblical story of Noah and ends spectacularly as the world is submerged and the Ark is left floating on the waves.
It also presents the tragic story of Sela, the favourite wife of Cadmo, Governor of the Babylonian city of Senaar. Sela is a follower of Noah and a believer in his god, but is torn between her faith and her love for her husband.
Cadmo, Noah’s principal persecutor, has his mind poisoned against Sela by Ada, her handmaiden, who wants to take her place.
The wedding of Cadmo and Ada is being celebrated as the thunder is rumbling. Sela goes in to say goodbye to her son; Cadmo offers to take her back if she will renounce Noah's god; she complies and is struck down by a thunderbolt. The deluge begins.
DONIZETTI: Il diluvio universale, an opera in three acts
Noè........................................ Mirco Palazzi
Jafet....................................... Simon Bailey
Sem........................................ Mark Wilde
Cam....................................... Dean Robinson
Tesbite................................... Irina Lungu
Asfene.................................... Ivana Dimitrijevic
Abra....................................... Anne Marie Gibbons
Cadmo................................... Colin Lee
Sela........................................ Majella Cullagh
Ada........................................ Manuela Custer
Artoo..................................... Roland Wood
Geoffrey Mitchell Choir, London Phil/Giuliano Carella
(Opera Rara ORC 31)
Benjamin Britten's Noyes Fludde is another opera on the subject of the devastating deluge in the time of Noah, appointed to be performed in churches (and I have seen it done locally with Graham Parsons as Noye). Gaetano Donizetti's version (one of his 75 stage works) is described as a sacred-tragic drama, and is more oratorio than opera. This performance is from the Opera Rara series, and will have already been broadcast locally from John Ward's Gramophone Room, in Palmerston North, New Zealand.
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