Wolf Ferrari. Sly. José Carreras. Liceu. Barcelona 2000.

Ermanno Wolf Ferrari
Sly (ovvero La Leggenda del dormiente risvegliato) -
dramma lirico in 3 atti e 4 quadri su testo di Giovacchino Forzano
Personaggi ed interpreti:
Sly: José Carreras (ten) -
Dolly: Isabelle Kabatu (sop) -
Il conte: Sherrill Milnes (br) -
John Plake: Alessandro Guerzoni (br) -
Il nobile francese: Vincent Madrid (ten) -
Lo sceriffo: David Rubiera (bs) -
L'ostessa: Mireia Pinto (msop) -
Il magistrato: Santiago Calderón (ten) -
Rosalina: María Uriz (msop) -
Direttore: David Giménez
Orchestra e coro del Gran Teatro del Liceu de Barcelona
2000.

[@mariapinheiro3566]

Com més escolto Josep Carreras, més i més m'agrada ell, el seu cant impressionista, el personatge Sly i tota la ópera! Gràcies, Josep!

[@BaroneVitellioScarpia1]

Bravo Maestro Milnes!

[@wanderleyreis7233]

BRAVISSIMI !!!!!

[@luisalfonsocorbachorodrigu9655]

Gran ópera

[@angusmcrandy]

Carreras's character is Christopher Sly, who has nothing whatsoever sly about him. It is equally peculiar that another main player, in this story of common folk taken advantage of by aristocrats seeking amusement in a London tavern, is called Plake, an unlikely surname.
Sly is the life and soul of the pub crowd, always good for a laugh and a song, a poet who always ends up as a butt for fun, inebriated and incapable, and liable to be apprehended as a debtor. There is a class collision with the arrival of the Earl of Westmoreland (Sherrill Milnes) and his entourage. His bored mistress (Isabelle Kabatu) is drawn to this very different, free spirited man, but persuaded to take part in the plot to take him off in drunken sleep and have him awakened, fitted up in finery in the Earl's castle, ostensibly its owner, with all roles reversed and the aristocrats purporting to be his servants.
Through the second act he is confused and disorientated, eventually brought to his senses and the truth of what has been done to him. Unable to credit the sincerity of his assigned temptress (Kabatu) he finally learns and accepts the whole truth too late, after he has fatally slashed his wrists using 'the only companion that has always helped me to oblivion and joy', i.e. a bottle, broken this time, to become a weapon to injure himself.

[@richardduployen6429]

Thank you. Did Forzano use many ideas from the Induction to the "Shrew"? I didn't like this omitted from the play. Another instance of a minor character given centre stage is Don Cézar de Bazan from Hugo's "Ruy Blas" promoted in the play by D'Hennery and Dumanoir (from which Gilbert borrowed ideas for "Yeomen") & later in the opéra-comique by the thirty year old Massenet. Hughes "Composers of Operetta" 1963 is rather harsh on it but is probably proved wrong by the first (& only recent) complete recording starring Naouri. I shall be partly in the world of Shakespearean taverns: in a Zoom reading of "Henry lV" Part 1 (this afternoon), & Part 2 (on 30 November). I made my professional début in the former at the RedgraveTheatre, Farnham, Surrey, when I was at the Guildford School of Acting for the first time (1975). The theatre is now partly demolished for another shopping centre. I love Wolf-Ferrari.

[@angusmcrandy]

@@richardduployen6429 I don't know the answer to your question, and don't claim any scholarship in this area. I just copied what information I could find to supplement my (and others') understanding of what I was hearing. Thanks for the information on the other pieces.

[@wanderleyreis7233]

BRAVISSIMI !!!!!