Margherita Rinaldi - Donizetti: LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR, Lucia's mad scene and cabaletta, 1958

THE SONGBIRD: Margherita Rinaldi (1935 - 2023) was born in Turin, Italy. She won a voice competition in Spoleto and made her debut there in 1958 as Lucia (which was recorded). This led to her debut at La Scala as Sinaide in Rossini's "Mosè in Egitto." Rinaldi sang many roles at La Scala and in major Italian opera houses including Amina, Adina, Norina, Gilda, Linda, Lucia, Nannetta, and Bellini's Giulietta opposite Luciano Pavarotti in 1966. Other career highlights included Amenaide in "Tancredi" with Marilyn Horne in Rome in 1977 and a rare lyric-soprano Adalgisa opposite Renata Scotto's Norma in Florence in 1978. Key engagements outside Italy included Violetta in Dublin, Ines in London, Carolina in "Matrimonia Segreto" at Glyndebourne, Alice Ford in Bregenz, Gilda in Dallas, Lucia in San Francisco, and Adina in Chicago.

THE MUSIC: Donizetti's "Lucia di Lammermoor" has become one of the quintessential operas for a coloratura soprano -- it's one of the most widely produced bel canto operas in the world and the title character is a benchmark role for this voice type. Donizetti composed it in 1835, which was a peak of his artistic and popular success -- Rossini had recently retired, Bellini had just died, and Verdi had not yet had his first premiere ("Oberto" in 1837). Based on Walter Scott's novel, the opera premiered in Naples. The plot in a nutshell: after being tricked into marrying a man she doesn't love, and lied to that her true love has betrayed her, Lucia loses her mind and murders the groom on her wedding night. The mentally unstable young woman appears in a bloodied gown and sings a long, complex, and haunting "mad scene" mixing delusion and grief that is a tour-de-force of bel canto vocalism and gripping tragedy. The primary section of the mad scene culminates in a long cadenza with a flute (and occasionally the glass harmonica). Donizetti allowed the original Lucia, Fanny Tacchinardi Persiani, to improvise her own cadenza (she apparently had a talent for this). The most commonly performed cadenzas for the past 100+ years are based closely on three that were written and published by Mathilde Marchesi, including one for her famous student Nellie Melba when she sang the role in Paris in 1889. The cabaletta "Spargi d'amaro pianto" is included in this recording.