Bianca e Fernando
Encyclopedia
Bianca e Fernando is an opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...

 in two acts by Vincenzo Bellini
Vincenzo Bellini
Vincenzo Salvatore Carmelo Francesco Bellini was an Italian opera composer. His greatest works are I Capuleti ed i Montecchi , La sonnambula , Norma , Beatrice di Tenda , and I puritani...

.

There are two versions of this opera: the first, entitled Bianca e Gernando (1826) has a libretto
Libretto
A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...

 by Domenico Gilardoni, after Bianca e Fernando alla tomba di Carlo IV, duca di Agrigento (Bianca and Ferdinand at the Tomb of Charles IV, Duke of Agrigento) by Carlo Roti. This version had its first performance at the Teatro San Carlo, Naples
Naples
Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...

, on 30 May 1826.

The second version, Bianca e Fernando (1828) has a modified libretto by Felice Romani
Felice Romani
Felice Romani was an Italian poet and scholar of literature and mythology who wrote many librettos for the opera composers Donizetti and Bellini. Romani was considered the finest Italian librettist between Metastasio and Boito.-Biography:Born Giuseppe Felice Romani to a bourgeois family in Genoa,...

, who was to become Bellini's collaborator on seven of his operas.

Performance history

The first performance of Bianca e Fernando took place on the occasion of the opening of the new Teatro Carlo Felice
Teatro Carlo Felice
The Teatro Carlo Felice is the principal opera house of Genoa, Italy, used for performances of opera, ballet, orchestral music, and recitals. It is located on the Piazza De Ferrari....

, Genoa
Genoa
Genoa |Ligurian]] Zena ; Latin and, archaically, English Genua) is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria....

 on 7 April 1828. The opera is rarely, if ever, performed today.

Roles

Role Voice type Premiere Cast, April 7, 1828
(Conductor: - )
Bianca soprano
Soprano
A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...

Adelaide Tosi
Adelaide Tosi
Adelaide Tosi was an Italian operatic soprano.Born in Milan, Tosi studied with Girolamo Crescentini before making her professional opera debut in her native city in 1821. She portrayed Azema in the premiere of Giacomo Meyerbeer's L'esule di Granata at La Scala on 12 March 1822...

Fernando tenor
Tenor
The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...

Giovanni David
Giovanni David
Giovanni David was an Italian tenor particularly known for his roles in Rossini operas....

Carlo, Duke d'Agrigento,
father of Bianco and Fernando
bass Giuseppe Rossi
Filippo bass (modern-day baritone) Antonio Tamburini
Antonio Tamburini
Antonio Tamburini was an Italian operatic baritone.Born in Faenza, then part of the Papal States, Tamburini studied the orchestral horn with his father and voice with Aldobrando Rossi, before making his debut as a singer, aged 18, in La contessa di colle erbose . He went on to become one of the...

Clemente bass Agostino Rovere
Agostino Rovere
Agostino Rovere was an Italian operatic bass. After studying singing in Milan, he made his professional opera debut in 1826 at the opera house in Pavia. In 1828 he portrayed Clemente in the world premiere of Vincenzo Bellini's Bianca e Fernando at the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa...

Viscardo mezzo-soprano
Mezzo-soprano
A mezzo-soprano is a type of classical female singing voice whose range lies between the soprano and the contralto singing voices, usually extending from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above...

Elisabetta Coda
Uggero tenor Antonio Crippa
Eloisa mezzo-soprano Marietta Riva

Recordings

Year Cast
(Bianca, Fernando, Filippo, Carlo)
Conductor,
Opera House and Orchestra
Label
1976 Yasuko Hayashi,
Antonio Savastano,
Mario Macchi,
Mario Macchi
Gabriele Ferro,
RAI Turin Orchestra and Chorus
Audio CD: Opera d'Oro
Cat: OPD 1419
1991 Young Ok Shin,
Gregory Kunde,
Haijing Fu,
Aurio Tomicich
Andrea Licata,
Teatro Massimo Bellini
Teatro Massimo Bellini
The Teatro Massimo Bellini is an opera house in Catania, Sicily, southern Italy. Named after the local-born composer Vincenzo Bellini, it was inaugurated on 31 May 1890 with a performance of the composer's masterwork, Norma...

, Orchestra and Chorus, Catania
Audio CD: Live Opera
Unnumbered

DVD: House of Opera,
cat: DVDCC 247
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