湖上女郎 (La Donna Del Lago)

作品源自歌劇《湖上女郎》(La Donna Del Lago)講述一個有關於蘇格蘭國王“曲折”而成人之美的愛情故事。改編版本遴選精華部分、呈現來自歌劇中的音樂美和單簧管高超的演奏技藝。借用羅西尼的旋律，單簧管輕快、俏皮，時而又憂鬱、多情，由於是La Donna Del Lago)否則真會產生歌唱家的錯覺。

La donna del lago (The Lady of the Lake) is an opera by Gioachino Rossini with a libretto by Andrea Leone Tottola, based on The Lady of the Lake, a poem by Sir Walter Scott.

This opera was the first to be based on Scott's romantic works. By 1840, barely 20 years after La donna del lago, there were 25 Italian operas based on works by Scott (the most famous being Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor), and by others in German, French and English).

Performance history

It received its premiere at the Teatro San Carlo, Naples on 24 October, 1819. The debut cast included Isabella Colbran (Elena), Benedetta Rosmunda Pisaroni (Malcolm) and Giovanni David (King James). It was performed in London in February 1823 and had its American debut in New Orleans in June 1829.The work went virtually unperformed for a century until a revival in Florence in 1958. It was performed at the Camden Festival, London, in 1969, with Kiri Te Kanawa in the lead role.

In 1981, after an absence in America of almost 150 years, a production was mounted by the Houston Grand Opera, starring Frederica von Stade, Marilyn Horne, Rockwell Blake and conducted by Claudio Scimone. The same production and cast were later presented at Covent Garden. In 1983, the Rossini Opera Festival at Pesaro presented the work with Katia Ricciarelli, Lucia Valentini Terrani and Samuel Ramey.

In 1992, to mark the bicentenary of Rossini's birth, La Scala mounted its first production of the opera in 150 years, with a cast that included bel canto experts June Anderson, Rockwell Blake, and Chris Merritt, directed by Werner Herzog and conducted by Ricardo Muti.

The Paris Opera staged its first production of the work in June 2010 at the Palais Garnier with a cast headed by Rossini specialists Joyce DiDonato as Elena and Juan Diego Flórez as King James/Uberto. The production by Lluís Pasqual was conducted by Roberto Abbado . This production will travel from Paris to La Scala (October 2011) and Covent Garden, and it is speculated that it will be presented at the Metropolitan Opera in 2014-15.