There are few reliable facts about the genesis of Verdi’s Un giorno di regno (also called Il finto Stanislao), which was premiered at La Scala in 1840. The most important (but not the most reliable) source is Verdi’s memoirs, written in 1879, according to which, after the success of Oberto, Bartolomeo Merelli, the impresario of La Scala at that time, signed a contract with Verdi for three more operas, the first of which was to be an opera buffa.
Un giorno di regno has always been regarded by Verdi critics as a not entirely successful excursion into the realm of opera buffa on the composer’s way to the so-called “Risorgimento opera”, and indeed many external factors, including the death of Verdi’s first wife, may have had a negative influence on the creative process and contributed to the work’s failure. There are not many recordings of the work, but fortunately there are three essential recordings that are sufficient to enjoy this opera.
Modern attempts
There are four modern recordings of Un giorno di regno, conducted by Rico Saccani (2009), Donato Renzetti (2013), Gabriele Bonolis (2014) and Marcus Bosch (2018), which, unfortunately, are not interesting enough. However, as there are very few recordings of the opera, they are clearly there to fill the collection.
The essentials
A fairly unknown but excellent recording is a live one from Bregenz in 1974 with two rather big names in the cast: Margherita Rinaldi and Giuseppe Taddei, the latter a well-known master of Verdi’s second and last comic opera, Falstaff. The sound quality is not ideal, but the performance is of the highest quality.
Alfredo Simonetto made great Verdi recordings for Cetra in the early 1950s, and his recording of Un giorno di regno (1951) is a must, not only for his extremely fresh and direct interpretation, but also for the cast, which includes some of the finest singers of that time: Sesto Bruscantini, Lina Pagliughi, Renato Capecchi and Juan Oncina.
As every Verdi lover knows, few conductors have devoted themselves more to Verdi’s early works than Lamberto Gardelli. His recording for Decca (1974) stands alone, and Decca was able to persuade some of the biggest names of the day to record this opera: Jessye Norman, José Carreras, Ingvar Wixell and Fiorenza Cossotto.
