Note: This page is still under construction, and additional details on the composer's life and operas will be added shortly.

Nicolai Vaccai was born to a middle class family in Tolentino, Italy on March 15, 1790, which makes him two years older than Rossini, and several years older than Mercadante, Pacini, Donizetti and Bellini. He died in August 1848. During his lifetime, he composed 17 operas, of which Zadig ed Astartea and Giulietta e Romeo (both 1825) were the most successful. A list of these operas, by Thomas Lindner, is available on the Opera Glass List of Vaccai's operas

Giulietta Paula Almerares

Roméo Maria José Trullu

Adelia Elena Marinangeli

Capellio Dano Raffanti

Tebaldo Armando Ariostini

Conductor Tiziano Severini

Performed at the Teatro Comunale, Jesi, Oct. 4, 1996

This performance has been released on the Buongiovanni label late in 1997. It gives me great pleasure to be able to quote a review, by Alexander Weatherson, chairman of the Donizetti Society, which was published in Donizetti Society Newsletter 70, February 1997.

"Vaccai's score has been denigrated for 150 years. Blamed for its presumption in inserting itself (actually Malibran was the culprit) into Bellini's I Capuleti, everyone has assumed that the original opera must have been a poor affair. How foolish, and how foolish many writers must now feel after this staging in the certain knowledge that it was Rossini who had pointed out that Vaccai's extraordinary music was more effective than that which had upstaged it. At Jesi it was clear that Vaccai's opera had nothing to lose in comparison with Bellini's opera, Giulietta e Romeo is passionate, melodic, and quite riveting to the very end and leaves the audience transfixed, and it is hard to resist the temptation of saying that Malibran could perhaps have replaced more of Bellini's opera - if not most of it - where sheer drama is at issue. This said, Vaccai's idiom is decidedly old-fashioned, he is in debt to a Rossini of the past, not that of the Parisian Siége de Corinthe so soon to come, and as for the sensational vehemence with which Giulietta berates her dreadful father in the closing moments of the opera Vaccai even has recourse to Gluck. But this is of no account, everything is grist to his dramatic mill, a total conviction shines throughout the score so that the end transcends the means. Nowhere in Giulietta e Romeo are the melodies inferior to those of Bellini, if you have been led to believe that full-blooded nineteenth century vocalism made its debut with Il pirata you had better listen to Giulietta's magical invocation (Act I Sc.XV)

at which point romantic opera is literally born on the Italian stage, and in music worthy of the moment.

There is, in fact, plenty of innovation in this Giulietta e Romeo, the orchestra in Ilaria Narici and Bruno Gandolfi's admirable edition of the original version of the opera (Vaccai made many subsequent changes) is carefully colored and abounds in horn obbligati later borrowed by his supplanter for his version, and Lucia-like harp accents; from the Sinfonia onwards the listener is alerted to a "new" voice, the choral interventions are scarcely less than sensational, above all this is not - as might be imagined - a chilly essay by a Master of "Belcanto" (whatever that means) - but demonstrates a use of the human voice, varied, flexible and poignant according to the convolutions of the heart. As a cumulative drama, Vaccai's remarkable creation is worthy of the Shakespearian tale, step by step glueing the listener to the seat unto at the terrifying denouement the whole house is awed into silence. The production at Jesi was not without comedy, shades of Jane Austin crossed with King Lear permitting a generous recourse to Oxfam (or its Italian equivalent) and all-purpose sets, as well as an input from the local ladies of the fencing club. All the main roles were perfectly adequately sustained, as the rabid Capellio, Dano Raffanti was rough but rose to his big aria; as Tebaldo, Armando Ariostini aroused compassion as he should: as Giulietta's mother, Elena Marinangeli made something out of rather little. The starring lovers come in a special category, both young singers, both new to me. Maria José Trullu's Roméo was nicely focussed and most energetically acted, though often placed too far from the footlights to make a full impact, she is a promising contralto who, in this 1825 version of the opera, is not obliged to emulate the Malibran histrionics which Vaccai later wrote into the score; as Giulietta Paula Almerares not only sang with great beauty, fully into the neurasthenic character ascribed to her in this production, rising to real heights, but knew how to act this kind of role perfectly, there were moments when Henriette Méric-Lalande was invoked with perfect conviction. Did she learn to act like this herself? Or did she have wonderful teachers in her native Argentina? if she did, please Miss Almerares ask them to come over and do some teaching here where they are really needed. The Teatro Comunale di Jesi is to be congratulated on this splendid revival, which does it the greatest credit."

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