Verdi: I Due Foscari (2CDs, BR-Klassik)

This concert performance of I due Foscari by the Munich Radio Orchestra was recorded on November 25, 2018 in the Munich Prinzregententheater. Excellent interpreters ensure authentic aura and vocal sound splendor; for the role of the Doge of Venice none other than the award-winning Italian baritone Leo Nucci could be won. After his brilliant start with Luisa Miller in autumn 2017, chief conductor Ivan Repu i confirmed his reputation as an excellent Verdi interpreter. Verdi’s early masterpiece I due Foscari was the first of his operas that he wrote for the Teatro Argentina in Rome. Although the premiere on November 3, 1844 was only moderately successful and Verdi later even distanced himself from his work, the opera was to be performed frequently until the 1870s; it was rediscovered in the early 1950s and has been part of the international operatic repertoire ever since. The concert performance (in Italian original language) in the Munich Prinzregententheater was cheered by the audience and praised by the specialist press. The program planning of the Munich Radio Orchestra to enliven underestimated musical theater works with standard-setting performances has been emphasized repeatedly. Ivan Repu i conducts a real theater Verdi: vital, robust, fiery and extremely lively.