We’re journeying to Paris for two vastly different works on this week’s Sunday Opera (3/10 3:00 p.m.). First, we’ll go back to the tenth century as portrayed in an often overlooked opera by Gaetano Donizetti, “Ugo Conte di Parigi.” Based loosely on the life of Hugo the Great, the opera is yet another story of misplace love, vengeance gone wrong, guilt, and repentance, all the things that make for a good opera libretto!
The cast includes Doina Dimitriu, Yashuharo Nakajima, Sim Tokhyurek, and Carmen Giannattasio with Antonio Fogliani leading the Chorus and Orchestra of the Academy of Arts and Crafts of La Scala. Second, we’ll turn to Paris at the beginning of the 20th century and the love of the seamstress Mimi-Pinson, a stock character of French fiction at this time who is a simple but loving girl of limited means who gets caught-up in an affair of sorts and remains faithful regardless of the outcome. Here, the outcome is love and marriage – three marriages actually as the operetta by Henri Goublier entitled "La Cocarde de Mimi-Pinson" comes to one of those ridiculously quick but deliriously happy endings. This cast includes Liliane Berton, Peter Gottlieb, Pierjac, Pauline Carton, and Robert Pizani. The conductor is Roberto Benedetti.
