This performance documents the 1976 Tito Capobianco production of this opera as a vehicle for the NYCO’s diva. The version used is a heavily cut version, with the soprano singing only the first part of her important arias and omitting the (usually embellished) da capo verses. This trimming, sources confirm, was also done for the Met’s “Siege of Corinth” production in Fall 1975 to help the ailing Sills make it through performances. Reviews of her Met “Traviata” performances earlier in 1976 likewise note her vocal distress. An alternative bootleg exists of the March 16 premiere of this production, but sources say she was in better voice in this repeat.It is a game effort from a professional artist, and much of her singing reflects the bright upper register that made her reputation, albeit with a wider vibrato. However, the role (like Elizabeth in “Roberto Devereaux”) includes scenes where the soprano needs to make a formidable presence. Sills’s lower and chest registers had weakened, so that these notes aren’t sustained. This works against the soprano in her entry aria “Com'è bello!” which requires a legato line covering both higher and lower registers. Her high notes are also at times forced: the E at the end of her opening scene is on pitch but harsh. A concluding note at the end of her Act 2 duet with her jealous husband is a even more startling squawk, the scattered applause from the surprised NYCO audience underlining its dubious effect.On the other hand, intimate scenes in which the character shows anxiousness or fragility better fit the state of her voice, and here Sills’ dramatic sense tells. Her command of coloratura is still intact, and she concludes the opera-ending showpiece, "Era desso il figlio mio," with an astonishingly brilliant high E that compares well with those her fans remember from her heyday. The rest of the cast consists of NYCO regulars. Suzanne Marsee is a lightweight Orsino, a role written for a virtuoso contralto with powerful low chest notes. She does get to sing both stanzas of “Il segreto per esser felici" (embellishing the second verse). But her best work is in the less familiar Act 2 “eternal friendship” duet with Gennaro, sung agreeably by house tenor Henry Price. Adib Fazah, another NYCO hand, does an okay job with Don Alfonso, though his voice is likewise lightweight for a role that requires important low notes. The many comprimario roles are also handled ably; tenor Jerold Siena deserves a call-out for his job as Rustighello, a chief minion who fleetly carries out a number of skullduggery missions.That said, this recording is for sympathetic Sills aficionados; those interested in the opera as written will want one of the complete performances available with Caballe or Sutherland in the leading role.

Finally after all these years. I found a Sills Lucrezia in GREAT sound!Sills was in great voice for 1976 and Henry Price is so unrecorded,it was a pleasure to hear him again. I am so happy I found Opera Depot! Now if we can find an audible IL Trittico with Sills I would die a happy woman. No singer ever has moved me so. If you cannot find the Trittico I especially would love to own an audible Sour Angelica from Sills. All the ones I have are in horrible sound. Yet I still weep when I hear it. To have it in great sound would be sublime.Oh ...by the by. Some Marilla Devia would be wonderful if you could find some please. GRAZI guys!

This beautiful performance of M° Donizetti’s «Lucrezia Borgia» (a wonderful and elegant Opera) is distinguished for no less than four reasons: first of all, the artistic, musical and vocal concertation and orchestral conduction by M° Julius Rudel, very competent about the interpretative practices of Italian Early Nineteenth-Century Operas; then, naturally, the very intense and florid interpretation by Mme Sills, whose embellishments are precious and in style (less, the high notes at the end of the musical numbers); the very valuable rendering of the not easy role of Gennaro by M° Henry Price, each time incisive, pathetic and soft-tone; and the appropriate choice of a Bass-Baryton for the role of Duke Alfonso, the valent M° Adib Fazah. In particular, a very intelligent support is offered by M° Rudel to Mme Susanne Marsee, an high mezzo-soprano in the role of Maffio Orsini (written for the contralto Mme Marietta Brambilla). To “compensate” for the little cuts in the performance (cuts which are always a pity), at the end of the recording there are five bright cadeaux of the Belcanto Art of Mme Sills: three numbers from M° Donizetti’s «Lucia di Lammermoor», and two from M° Bellini’s «I Puritani», both recorded live in 1972 (San Francisco, Philadelphia). All very remarkable artistic achievements, definitely recommended also for the quality of the sound.

Very good singers in all roles. I liked Henry Price as Gennaro, nice lyric tenor. He was a great surprise for me, because it was the first time I heard him. Orchestra and chorus of NYCO are excellent. A nice addition to my collection.

By the time of these performances, Sills had been singing the three Donizetti Queens as well as almost everything else for a good 6-7 years. She had an incredibly busy schedule, one that would leave most of us mere mortals in the dust. Consequently the enamel had come rather quickly off the voice, leaving a tone that could still be beautiful, but could also be shrill and a bit wobbly up top. That is the case here. Sills still gives an impressive performance. She dispatches the coloratura with insolent ease and trills like a bird when so inclined. She includes one verse of the final cabaletta, ending the opera on a strong E-flat. She also indulges in her habit of speaking key lines. "Tu sei una Borgia!" is spat out like "Spietato cor!" in Roberto Devereux. Nonetheless every Sills fan should get this as it is perhaps the only document of her in this role, one she didn't get to record commercially.Price and Marsee are both terrific in their roles as is Adib Fazah as the vindictive Din Alfonso. The NYCO had excellent singers for the many comprimario roles in this opera. Rudel conducts with spirit and a real knowledge of how to pace a bel canto opera.The sound is very good with the voices more present than in some other NYCO recordings.

Great performance.

In 1974, Beverly Sills was to assume, for the first time, the title rôle of Donizetti's "Lucrezia Borgia," après the infamous daughter of Pope Alexander VI, for the Dallas Civic Opera. As soon as rehearsals commenced, however, the diva was rushed back to New York City to undergo emergency surgery. The other great interpreter of the anti-heroine, Leyla Gencer, then undertook the part in Tito Capobianco's production.Thereby, it was not until November 20, 1975, that Miss Sills appeared in this opera, in the Capobianco production borrowed from Dallas, when the New York City Opera toured to Los Angeles. The cast also featured Susanne Marsee, and Gaetano Scano, conducted by the late Julius Rudel, and three performances were given in California.On March 18th of the next year, the production was first seen in New York, with the same principals. For the matinée performance of the 27th, however, Henry Price replaced the Italian tenor. Four days later, the performance under review was heard, with Sills, Marsee, and Price.The in-house recording is electrifying. Miss Sills is here enveloped in melancholy and, as one can see from the few minutes of this production that was privately filmed, her physicality was more hieratic, more stylized, than usual. Her sovereign command of Donizetti's idiom is a given, of course. The underrated and under-recorded Marsee is absolutely superb as Maffio Orsini. In those years, Sills and Marsee were rather the singing-actress version of the celebrated pairing of Dame Joan Sutherland and Marilyn Horne, and the combination is tremendous and thrilling. Dr Price's beautiful voice sounds the epitome of youthfulness, and certainly seems like he could be this Duchess' son. Rudel conducts with exceptional authority, and the edition includes the cabaletta at the finale.We are greatly in Opera Depot's debt for publishing this rare, exciting performance.