by Antonio Cagnoni
Filippo Morace
Angelica Girardi
Francesco Marsiglia
Mizuki Date
Francesca De Giorgi
Massimiliano Silvestri
Graziano De Pace
Massimiliano Caldi conductor
International Orchestra of Italy
Slovak Chamber Choir
Dymanic label – Year 2009
King Lear is an opera in four acts by Antonio Cagnoni, with a libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni. The first performance took place on July 19, 2009 in Martina Franca during the XXXV edition of the Festival della Valle d’Itria
Cagnoni began thinking about an opera based on Shakespeare’s King Lear in 1880. The libretto was written in 1885 by Ghislanzoni a printed edition appeared in 1900, after Cagnoni’s death but the opera was never performed. The Itria Valley Festival decided to stage the opera after the success of another work by Cagnoni, Don Bucefalo, in 2008. In the music, perhaps partly because of the long period between the conception of the work and the realization of the libretto, one finds disparate influences, from Verdi to Donizetti to Wagner. The opera, despite “beautiful melodies orchestrated with a skillful hand,” was judged to have little dramatic depth.