Edita Gruberova, Don Bernardini - Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848) - Linda di Chamounix / Mikaeli Chamber Choir, Members of The Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Friedrich Haider / Nightingale Classics 3x Audio CD 1993 / NC 070561-2

UPC 9004686705618

Edita Gruberová (Slovak: [ˈedita ˈɡruberoʋaː]; 23 December 1946 – 18 October 2021) was a Slovak coloratura soprano. She made her stage debut in Bratislava in 1968 as Rosina in Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia, but successfully auditioned at the Vienna State Opera the following year, which became her base. She enjoyed huge success internationally in roles such as Mozart's Queen of the Night in Die Zauberflöte and Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos by Richard Strauss. In her later career, she explored heavier roles in the Italian bel canto repertoire, such as the title role in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor, Elvira in Bellini's I puritani, and Elisabetta in Roberto Devereux. In 2019, she portrayed Elizabeth I who leaves her throne, concluding a stage career performing leading roles over 51 years. She is remembered as the "Slowakische Nachtigall" (Slovak Nightingale), and as the last prima donna assoluta.

Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti (29 November 1797 – 8 April 1848) was an Italian composer, best known for his almost 70 operas. Along with Gioachino Rossini and Vincenzo Bellini, he was a leading composer of the bel canto opera style during the first half of the nineteenth century and a probable influence on other composers such as Giuseppe Verdi. Donizetti was born in Bergamo in Lombardy. At an early age he was taken up by Simon Mayr who enrolled him with a full scholarship in a school which he had set up. There he received detailed musical training. Mayr was instrumental in obtaining a place for Donizetti at the Bologna Academy, where, at the age of 19, he wrote his first one-act opera, the comedy Il Pigmalione, which may never have been performed during his lifetime.

Linda di Chamounix is an operatic melodramma semiserio in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti. The Italian libretto was written by Gaetano Rossi. It premiered in Vienna, at the Kärntnertortheater, on 19 May 1842.