Opera Rara’s Mercadante: Il proscritto album review — boiling revival of a forgotten score

After familiar examples by Donizetti and Bellini here is another 19th-century Italian opera to add to the tally of those set in historical times in England. Mercadante even shifted Il proscritto from quite a different time and country specifically to the era of Oliver Cromwell.

Following a less than triumphant premiere in Naples in 1842, Il proscritto disappeared without trace for nearly 200 years. Opera Rara’s recording, using a freshly prepared edition, brings it to life with unfettered élan.

An interesting essay in the booklet describes how Cammarano’s libretto improves on the original play by Frédéric Soulié and Timothée Dehay, unlikely though that may seem as one follows its implausible story. Everything hinges on the reluctance of the heroine’s husband, long believed dead in a shipwreck, to say who he is, and the opera climaxes in unashamed melodrama.

At its premiere the opera was criticised for being too complex in its music and cold-hearted, not Italian enough. That is not how it seems now and this recording’s selling point is a performance that feels urgent and viscerally exciting — indeed thoroughly Italianate.

The key performer is conductor Carlo Rizzi, who heats up the drama, and probably the fine Britten Sinfonia, to boiling point. Ramón Vargas brings Latin flair to the role of the tongue-tied husband, Giorgio Argyll. Unusually, a mezzo-soprano and a second tenor, both roles well taken, are the other main principals. Throw in some innovative finales to each act and Il proscritto deserves its rediscovery.

★★★★☆

‘Mercadante: Il proscritto’ is released by Opera Rara