Donizetti Society Recordings Page

Small picture of Donizetti

Given the volatility of the recordings market with CD's and DVD's now supplemented by downloads and the availability of www.google.com and www.amazon.com for searching for recordings, only a few specialist sites are included below.

The Donizetti Society has received an additional batch of CDs of Donizetti's Songs written in the bass clef sung by Ian Caddy with Melvyn Tan at the fortepiano (Meridien CDE 84143). Please link here for song listing, to hear sound extracts and to get an order form.

Opera Rara specialise in opera recordings of this era. Dynamic and Bongiovanni also issue quite a lot of bel canto works. Victorian Opera Northwest specialise in recordings of English opera of this era and a little later. The more mainstream companies:- Decca, Deutsche Grammophon, EMI, Sony, Virgin etc. offer both new recordings and from their back catalogues but usually of the more common works.

The late Brian Capon's compilation of Donizetti and many other composers' opera recordings can be found at http://www.operadis-opera-discography.org.uk/ . It runs up to the end of 2009 and is not being updated with new recordings but is a valuable resource for old ones, particularly of the LP era.

The Fondazione Donizetti site http://www.donizetti.org/index.php?catid=83&blogid=22 , includes an extensive list of Donizetti opera recordings.

Video clips from operas by Donizetti (and many other composers) can be found at http://www.youtube.com/ by putting either the composer or the piece required in the Search box.. As the files are very large, you will really need broadband (DSL). The voice/picture coordination is not always very good but it gives the chance to see excerpts of performances that you may not have seen.

http://www.operacast.com/ have details of opera broadcasts on the web.as well as information on the New York based Vocal Records Collecting Society. Associated with the site is Norbeck, Peters & Ford who sell a wide range of historic recordings

The University of California’s Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/ has placed the music from some 8000 cylinders on line as well as interesting articles on their history and the project. There are several hundred opera recordings, although this includes quite a few arrangements for band or various instruments. Currently, there are 40 Donizetti pieces. There are some well known names such as Bonci, Ancona and Kurz but the bulk of the singers are towards the more journeyman or woman end of the music business of the cylinder era. Perhaps few absolute jewels but a wonderful insight into its time nevertheless.

Gramophone Magazine has now made an online archive of all its reviews at http://www.gramophone.net. You need to register but it is free.

Remember when buying a DVD to check that it is playable in your country, as some are restricted by region.