Gaetano Donizetti’s rarely performed 1827 light comic opera receives its world premiere video recording in this invigorating 2017 production staged at the Festival Donizetti Opera in Bergamo, Italy. The slight tale of mistaken identities and secret romances finds the Russian Tsar Peter the Great working incognito in a shipyard in the Dutch city of Saardam, where he plans to learn about shipbuilding in order to enhance his kingdom’s naval power. Alongside him is Pietro Flimann, a deserter from the Russian military who is in love with Marietta, a woman whose legal guardian is the mayor of the city. The arrival of a visiting sultan in search of the disguised tsar creates confusion, with the mayor mistaking the jittery Flimann for the monarch. And when Peter receives word of a revolt at home, he needs to bring his Dutch adventure to a close and tie up the loose romantic ends. The plot is, admittedly, very silly, but the vigorous performances by Giorgio Caoduro as the confident Peter, Juan Francisco Gateli as the anything-but-confident Flimann, and Andrea Concetti (buried under theatrical makeup) as the elderly and bumbling mayor help to float the farcical shenanigans, while the house orchestra plays solidly under the baton of Roberto Rizzi Brignoli. Presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 and PCM stereo, this is highly recommended. (P. Hall)
Il Borgomastro di Saardam
(2017) 108 min. DVD: $29.99, Blu-ray: $39.99. Dynamic (dist. by Naxos of America). Volume 33, Issue 5
Il Borgomastro di Saardam
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