Disc One:
1.	Overture, Act I
2.	Fedele, mio diletto
3.	Ah venga quell momento
4.	Mia cara, cara, cara
5.	Per me è facilissima
6.	Che vuol dire
7.	recit: Orsu, finiscila
8.	Oh, cielo!
9.	recit: Mio povere Fedele
10.	Quai pensieri
11.	Esecrabil Pizzarro
12.	I tuoi gemiti
13.	Fiero aquilon furente
14.	recit: Signora Marcellina
15.	Corri, corri da qualche astrologo
16.	Nè traccia d’esistenza
17.	Signor mio, son sessant anni
18.	Vi trovo a tempo, mio genitore
19.	Ola! non piu rumori

Disc Two:
1.	Introduction, Act II
2.	Ciel! Che profonda oscurita
3.	Dolce oggetto del mio amore
4.	Oh Giustizia
5.	Da bravo, via lesto!
6.	Deh, per piatade
7.	Che l’eterna providenza
8.	Fermate! Io lo difendo!
9.	Ah! Qual suon, qual nouvo affano
10.	Leonora!
11.	Volontieri, volontieri
12.	Dolce sposo! Tenero amico mio
13.	Signor, eccoli la!
14.	Voi donna impareggiabile
15.	Ragazza bella
16.	Di virtude il bel sentiero

Leonora - Urszula Koszut
Marcellina - Edita Gruberova
Florestano - Siegfried Jerusalem
Don Pizarro - Norbert Orth
Don Fernando - John van Kesteren
Giacchino - Wolfgang Brendel
Rocco - Giorgio Tadeo

Symphonie-Orchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks
Peter Maag – conductor

Ferdinando Paer, the Parma-born music director at the Kärntnertortheater in Vienna and a regular performer in Marie Therese’s private concerts, moved to another court in Dresden while Austria was at war with Napoleon. It was in Dresden that Paer finished his Leonora for the Empress in 1804. The overture and first act of Paer’s Leonora are the musical basis for A Roadkill Opera. After Napoleon defeated the Austrians, Paer moved to Paris where he eventually headed up the Opéra-Italien, to be succeeded by Rossini. When Paer died in 1839, his Leonora was forgotten. Forgotten, that is, until another musical denizen, intrigued by Beethoven’s high praise for Paer’s music, recovered Paer’s Leonora. Peter Maag was a renowned Swiss conductor who, among other things, took two years off from conducting to meditate in a Buddhist monastery. At one point he was the artistic director at the Vienna Volksoper. When he found Paer’s Leonora, Maag was artistic director of the Teatro Regio di Parma in Paer’s home town. Maag was so taken with it that he mounted a radio production in 1976 and followed up with a 3-disc boxed set on London Records in 1978. After 140 years of neglect, Paer’s Leonora was back. ---Stephan Alexander Parker, amazon.com

In 1803, Ferdinando Paër began work on his version of Bouilly’s drama, with an Italian translation by Giovanni Schmidt titled Leonora ossia l’Amor Coniugale. A prolific composer who wrote 55 operas, Paër had served as music director at Vienna’s Kärtnertheater, a post he held until 1801, before being appointed the following year as composer at the court theater in Dresden. In 1804, the Elector appointed him to a lifetime position as Hofkapellmeister (conductor of the court orchestra). It was in this year, at this theater, that his Leonora was premiered. Perhaps this opera was written as a tribute to a beloved spouse, since the soprano singing the title role was Francesca Riccardi-Paër, the composer’s wife.

Of the three operas beside Fidelio that used a version of Bouilly’s text as the libretto, Leonora has been the most popular – “popular,” of course, being a relative term. It still ranks as a rarity, but has been performed several times in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. It was championed by the Swiss conductor Peter Maag in the 1970s, who first led a performance at Schwetzingen in 1976 that was recorded live by the small MRF label. This recording is no longer available; however, the studio version released by Decca two years later can still be obtained from Amazon – assuming one has a turntable upon which to play the LPs, since Decca never issued this recording on CD. The cast is noteworthy for featuring some well-known singers at the beginning of their careers: Siegfried Jerusalem as Florestano, Edita Gruberova as Marcellina, Norbert Orth as Pizzarro (the spelling used in Paër’s opera), and Wolfgang Brendel as Giacchino. The title role is sung by Urszula Koszut, and while her lyric soprano has an attractive quality, it’s really a little underpowered for the demands of Paër’s writing.

In his introduction to the opera that is included with the libretto that accompanied the Decca recording, Maag noted that it was Beethoven’s own enthusiastic comments about Paër that prompted him to track down information on the Italian composer and his operas. Beethoven and Paër were acquaintances, and Maag found in the latter’s score “an almost disturbing resemblance” to Fidelio, adding, “I am absolutely convinced that Beethoven knew Paër’s work well.” Maag’s observation is echoed by Jonas Kaufmann in a Feb., 2008, interview he gave to “Klassikakzent.” Asked about composers or works that he believed to be currently overrated or underappreciated, the tenor responded, “Ferdinando Paër. He wrote the original Leonore long before Ludwig von Beethoven, who appropriated some of it.” ---MAuer, operalively.com

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1. Act I
2. Act II

Linda Campanella (soprano) : Agnese
Giorgio Valerio (bass-barytone) : Uberto
Emanuele D'Aguanno (tenor) : Ernesto
Riccardo Novaro (bass) : Don Pasquale
Giuliana Castellani (mezzo) : Carlotta
Jeremy Palumbo (tenor) : Don Girolamo
Alena Dantcheva (soprano) : Vespina

Coro della Radio Svizzera
Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana
Diego Fasolis – conductor

Lugano, Auditorio Stelio Molo
Friday 15 February 2008
Broadcast , Radio Suisse Romande Espace 2, live

Ferdinando Paer (1771 – 1839) was an Italian composer. Paer was born at Parma. His father was a trumpeter with the Ducal Bodyguards and also performed at church and court events. His name, Ferdinando, was after Duke Ferdinand of Parma and was given to him by Archduchess Maria Amalia of Austria, Duke Ferdinand's wife. He studied the theory of music under the violinist Ghiretti, a pupil of the Conservatorio della Pietŕ de' Turchini at Naples. His first Italian opera, Circe, was given in Venice during carnival 1792; others rapidly followed, and his name was soon famous throughout Italy. In 1797 he went to Vienna, where his future wife, the singer Francesca Riccardi, had obtained an engagement and he became music director of the Kärntnertortheater until 1801; here he produced a series of operas, including his Camilla (1799) and his Achille (1801). In 1802 he was appointed composer to the court theatre at Dresden, where his wife was also engaged as a singer, and in 1804 the life appointment of Hofkapellmeister was bestowed upon him by the elector.

He wrote the opera Leonora (1804), based on the same story as Beethoven's Fidelio. In 1807 Napoleon while in Dresden took a fancy to him, and took him with him to Warsaw and Paris at a salary of 28,000 francs.

1809 Paer composed his most famous opera: Agnese a dramma semiserio per musica in two acts: Agnese, became successful throughout Europe and was performed at the most important theatres (Milan, Naples, Rome, Vienna, London and Paris). It had a deep influence on the following generations of composers and aroused the admiration of many celebrated musicians and musical critics such as Stendhal, Berlioz, Castil-Blaze and Chopin. The primary reason for this success is most certainly the high quality of the music involved, but the dramaturgical structure also presents significant material such as the madness scene of Agnese’s father Uberto (bass).

In 1812 he succeeded Spontini as conductor of the Italian opera in Paris. He retained this post at the Restoration, also receiving the posts of chamber composer to the king and conductor of the private orchestra of the duke of Orleans. In 1823 he retired from the Italian opera in favor of Rossini. It was around this time that he taught composition lessons to the young Franz Liszt. In 1831 Paer was elected a member of the Academy, and in 1832 was appointed conductor of his orchestra by King Louis Philippe.

Paer wrote a total of 55 operas, in the Italian style of Paisiello and Cimarosa. His other works, which include several religious compositions, cantatas, many songs and a short list of orchestral chamber pieces, are worthy of further study and performance. His music is highly imaginative and melodic. One of his pupils was Ferdinando Orlandi.

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