SOLER : IL BURBERO DI BUON CUORE

Radio New Zealand Concert network
Sunday 12th of August 2012 at 3 - 5.40 pm

SOLER: Il burbero di buon cuore
(The Good-Hearted Curmudgeon) 1786
an opera in two acts
Angelica........................ Elena de la Merced
Castagna....................... Josep Miquel Ramón
Cavalier Giocondo........ David Alegret
Madama Lucilla............. Véronique Gens
Marina.......................... Patricia Bardon
Dorval........................... Marco Vinco
Ferramondo.................. Carlos Chausson
Valerio.......................... Paolo Fanale
Grand Theatre of Lyceum SO, Barcelona/Jordi Savall  
(recorded in the Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona, 
by Radio Spain, Catalonia)

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OVERVIEW
SYNOPSIS
RECORD (audio)
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This is a pleasant surprise from a contemporary of Mozart. We now realize that the Italian Antonio Salieri was a rival of Wolfgang Amadeus in the production of operas, but the Spaniard Vicente Martin y Soler was also in the picture in Vienna, around 1786. The libretto of this work is by the great Lorenzo da Ponte (who also gave Mozart his magnificent trio, Don Giovanni, Figaro, Così).
The plot revolves around rich old Ferramondo, an irascible burbero (a crabby and cantankerous person) who finally performs an act of kindness, involving generosity with money, to provide a dowry for his niece Angelica; and so he becomes "the grouch with a good heart",  or "the kind-hearted curmudgeon".
   See also the notes on his da Ponte opera The Tree of Diana.