On May 14, 2023, the Berliner Operngruppe, under the direction of Felix Krieger, performed the highly acclaimed world premiere of Donizetti’s DALINDA at the Konzerthaus Berlin:
Information from Ricordi Publishing on Dalinda:
Pre-report in the Tagesspiegel:
Reviews:
https://www.der-theaterverlag.de/opernwelt/aktuelles-heft/artikel/bildnis-einer-dame/
Arno Lücker/Opernwelt July 2023
“(…) The belated premiere of Dalinda in mid-May at the Konzerthaus Berlin: a sensation. (…) So much immediacy and emotion was rare. The audience is sheerly out of its mind. Standing ovations are rare in the Konzerthaus. Felix Krieger is recommended for medium and large houses, as a German conductor he obviously has the unusual gift of bringing the intoxicating piccolo Italianità of Donizetti and Co. to life. An extraordinary evening. “
https://www.nmz.de/online/androzid-in-nahost-die-urauffuehrung-von-donizettis-dalinda-in-berlin
Roland H. Dippel/Neue Musikzeitung
“(…) The bar cannot be high enough: The Berlin opera group and its noble ensemble delivered a stellar performance on May 14, and in the title role an exceptional voice that ambitious stages should be clamoring for: Lidia Fridman. (…)
The miracle of the “Dalinda” evening is that the others do not fall behind this top performance, but increase the excellent level honestly and of high quality, inspire, enthuse. The today rather rare jubilant hurricanes were not an influencer party among friends, but also a defensive initiative against the emotional heat loss and the resource ignorance of many opera houses. In the Berlin opera group, vocal sport and emotions generate an impulsive density of friction. Luciano Ganci, as Ildemaro uninformed of his kinship proximity to his incest-prone mother Dalinda, confirms himself confidently in the youthful dramatic Donizetti repertoire; Paolo Bordogna, as Acmet, a bastard inevitably toxic in marital discord, is sado-baritone with vocal velvet traces. On the same level is Yajie Zhang as Ugo d’Asti.
(… ) With the Berlin opera company, the much-maligned and much-loved score has not a single slack bar; everything develops free of naivety in lyrical-dramatic grandeur that exploits the melodrama with relish without remorse: Congenially involved in this stellar hour are the super-chorus expertly led by Steffen Schubert as well as Dalinda’s lackeys and poison victims acting with elegant fervor: David Ostrek (Corboga), Kangyoon Shine Lee (Garniero), Fermin Basterra (Guglielmo), Egor Sergeev (Ridolfo) and Kento Uchiyama (Ubaldo). The planned CD is something to look forward to.”
https://www.mdr.de/klassik/index.html
Manuel Brug / MDR Klassik
“(…) In the meantime the group around Felix Krieger is so established that they got the chance from the publisher to do the probably last premiere of a Donizetti opera. (…)
First-class cast, first-class singing (…)
Chapeau and Bravo! (…)
Again a great success for the Berlin opera group, fortunately recorded it remains to hope that the recording will be released as an album.”
https://www.deutschlandfunk.de/dalinda-urauffuehrung-einer-donizetti-oper-im-berliner-konzerthaus-dlf-2d2f0133-100.html
Kai Lührs-Kaiser/Deutschlandradio
“(…) A coup, magnificently realized (…).
Mad cheers of the bel canto fetishists, to which I will probably also belong(…)”
https://www.nzz.ch/feuilleton/donizetti-urauffuehrung-in-berlin-diese-oper-wurde-gleich-zweimal-verboten-ld.1738589
Konstantin Sakkas/ Neue Zürcher Zeitung
“(…) In Donizetti’s opera, all this is clothed in the beautiful formal language of bel canto, with rushing ups and downs, the style-typical crescendo surges and sparkling coloratura. In the Berlin performance, Lidia Fridman (Dalinda), Luciano Ganci (Ildemaro) and Paolo Bordogna (Acmet) bring this to bear in a stirring manner in the semi-staged arrangement by Giulia Randazzo. And in the end it is clear: here a long-hidden treasure has been unearthed for the opera world, which in the future is to be wished a firm place in the repertoire.
https://www.inforadio.de/rubriken/kultur/beitraege/2023/05/stilett-beim-duett—dalinda–im-konzerthaus.html
Harald Asel/RBB Inforadio
“(…) Do we need to know all this in order to enjoy the frenetically acclaimed evening? No, Donizetti digs above all into the depths of the mother-son relationship.
Mid-twenties Lidia Fridman in the title role is already Donizetti experienced, knows that it pays to think of the end at the beginning of a phrase, so that arrival is also guaranteed.
And then the most gratifying thing for me: when there are passages in which the sonorous bass baritone seems to drag with the tempo, conductor Felix Krieger nestles in without a problem – this is not someone who conducts instrumental music over the heads of the singers, as we often experience in opera houses as well (…)”
https://onlinemerker.com/berlin-konzerthaus-dalinda-berliner-operngruppe-begeistert-mit-der-welturauffuehrung-einer-lange-verschollenen-donizetti-oper/
Dr. Ingbert Waltenberger / Online Merker
“(…) Conclusion: The heavily acclaimed evening was once again proof that rousing opera evenings are carried by great voices full of character and a passionate artistic director who joyfully animates all participants. We are already looking forward to what we hope will soon be a CD release.”
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator