Leoncavallo - I Medici
Domingo; Álvarez; Dessi; Owens; Kowaljow; Florence Opera Orchestra and Chorus / Veronesi
DG 477 7456 (2CD)

Release date April 2010

Leoncavallo intended I Medici to form the first part of a trilogy called Crepusculum (‘Twilight’), based on lurid scenes from Italian Renaissance history. He was inspired by the Italian premières of Lohengrin in 1871, Rienzi in 1876 (in Bologna, where he met Wagner), and Holländer in 1877, and by his studies with the ardent Wagnerian poet and academic Giosuè Carducci. Had he completed the project he might now be recognised rather as the Italian exponent of Wagnerism than as the verismo composer of I Pagliacci. In the event, however, I Medici stood alone. Though written earlier, it was not performed until 1893 after the triumph of Pagliacci; operas on Savonarola and Cesare Borgia were to have followed but Leoncavallo had by now lost interest in historical-romantic drama. This recording, featuring a stellar cast including Plácido Domingo, Carlos Álvarez, and Daniela Dessì, is the first ever of the complete score and was made, appropriately enough, during the 2007 Maggio Musicale of the Medici city of Florence. The story is a violent mix of passion and politics, in which events precipitated (with papal support) by the conspiracy of the rival Pazzi bankers to murder Giuliano and Lorenzo de’ Medici are inflamed by the love triangle of Giuliano, Simonetta Cattanei, and Fioretta de’ Gori. At the end Giuliano is fatally wounded, but his brother Lorenzo escapes the assassins and lives on as ruler in Florence. If the first two acts are Wagnerian in atmosphere and even in allusion (Valkyrie-like fanfares and Tristanesque hunting-horn calls early on, quotations from Siegfried in the Giuliano–Simonetta duet at the end of Act I), the third and fourth acts owe much to Verdi, including in Act III a divided stage embracing two simultaneous strands of action in a manner reminiscent of Rigoletto. The performance is dominated by Domingo (as Giuliano), who makes up for a loss of youthful freshness (the historical Giuliano was 25 at the time) with a rich burnished tone supporting a radiant ardour. Of the women, Renata Lamanda (Fioretta) makes a stronger musical (if not dramatic) impression than Dessì (Simonetta), who is a little unsteady at times. The orchestra plays with fervour, and with sweetness when needed, and the recording effectively conveys the atmosphere of the theatre. This is much more than a fin-de-siècle operatic curiosity and leaves you wishing that Leoncavallo had stuck with his original intentions. A Borgia opera we already have, but Savonarola? Now there’s a thought.

Reviewed by Robert Allen