Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

It is no secret that Rossini never wasted his energy and, partly out of haste and partly out of laziness, he was always ready to resurrect pages of music which would have otherwise been destined to oblivion. Thus, when in 1822 he was invited by Prince Klemens von Metternich to commemorate with suitable music the Congress of the European heads of state which would take place in Verona-to "harmonize" the souls, as it were-this proclaimed "God of harmony" gladly accepted. Il vero omaggio ("sincere" act of devotion toward the Austrian Emperor) was a recycling of the pastoral cantata La riconoscenza, performed by Rossini in Naples the year before. The sequence of pieces which constitute Il vero omaggio confirm Rossini's own statement: the musical nature of the cantata is quite similar to the first act of a normal opera. As such, it was enjoyed by the public of the period, partly due to the fact that the performance was staged. What distinguishes such a cantata from an opera is not, indeed, the visual aspect, as one might assume, but rather the absence of a veritable dramatic design. The subject of the cantata was thus a mere pretense for staging a public panegyric to the Austrian Emperor by means of a grandiose concert of vocal music. The work is interpreted here by conductor Herbert Handt.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Directed by Christopher Franklin. Starring Julija Samsonova, Daniele Zanfardino, Giulio Mastrototaro.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Elisabetta, regina d’Inghilterra was premiered on 4 October 1815 at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, the major opera venue of the time. This event was the 23 year-old Rossini’s triumphant debut there and established his all-conquering dominion over the Italian music scene. Rossini approached his task with a desire for total success in opera seria, the genre which earned a composer immortality, and completed the opera in three months – a luxury by his usual standards. Elisabetta presents two new elements, both in Rossini’s output and in 19th century opera as a whole. The first is that he wrote out in full the coloratura passages and the second is that he abolished “dry” recitatives in favour of orchestral versions. However, the first was not entirely new because even in his early Demetrio e Polibio, Rossini had treated vocal flourishes as an underlying structure for the music and not as mere decoration for a melody line as baroque composers did. The second was already standard practice in Neapolitan opere serie, which allowed no “dry” recitative. Thus apart from the new accompanied type, recitatives were simply an orchestral transcription of the chords played by the harpsichord and this was perhaps the oldest and most static part of the way the opera was put together. The truly new element in Elisabetta is its being an opera tailored for a primadonna, i.e. resting firmly upon the crucial presence of the leading lady, with a series of topoi that would be copied at least until the arrival of Nabucco.

Rossini's penultimate opera, premiered in 1828 at the Op�ra National de Paris, is a musical comedy about a love triangle set during the Crusades. At the Op�ra Comique it's plot is transported to the time of the works' creation with France's military expeditions to Algeria. It is staged by a first-rate creative team: Stage director Denis Podalyd�s and costume designer Christian Lacroix provide stunning visuals, whilst conductor Louis Langr�e leads the Orchestre des Champs-�lys�es, the Ch�ur Les �l�ments and a stellar cast of soloists in this delightful fool's game. Mezzo-soprano Ga�lle Arquez shines with her "superlative technique" (Le Monde) and Julie Fuchs's Ad�le performance elicits "more than just admiration, namely enthusiasm in the etymological sense of the word: inspired by the divine" (Le Monde). "A masterpiece!" (T�l�rama), "Pure pleasure!" (Les �chos). Le Comte Ory at the Op�ra Comique is "a true musical and theatrical celebration where everything sparkles!" (Bachtrack)

The Italian composer Gioachino Rossini is best known for his operas. Many of their overtures and arias were catchy tunes at the time and have remained so to this day. Although it is Rossini’s comic operas that are primarily performed today, more than half of his stage works are in fact based on serious themes. One veritable rarity is the stage work "Sigismondo", which premiered in 1814 at the famous Teatro La Fenice in Venice but was only ever rarely performed afterwards. Presumably, the story on which it was based had no appeal for the audience at that time, because musically, the work is hardly less impressive than the "Italian Girl in Algiers", written during the previous year, or the "Barber of Seville", which followed two years later. The subject of the opera is, however, based on a long tradition. Rossini shows his protagonist, the fictional King Sigismondo, in extreme states of mental distress. Confusion and insanity reveal inner feelings, and it is only delirium that finally brings the truth to light. This "madness opera" is highly topical, both in its subject matter and its musical language – after all, Rossini is among the top ten most-performed composers of our time. A concert performance of this little-known and unjustly neglected masterpiece was given at Munich’s Prinzregententheater on October 14, 2018 - in the original language, and by performers highly familiar with Rossini’s music, which seems so easy but is in fact extremely difficult to sing. This extraordinary opera event – a festival of singing that received tumultuous applause as well as great critical acclaim – is now being released on BR-KLASSIK as a live recording.

 

REVIEW:

 

It would appear at first glance that the release of this recording of one of Rossini’s more egregious operas has been primarily designed as a promotional exercise for the conductor Keri-Lynn Wilson. How else does one explain that hers is the only artist biography in the 36-page German-English booklet?

 

She is good. But the singers are good too: an exceptional cast to be assembled for a Sunday radio transmission. But that’s Germany for you, the one country in Europe which still has the desire and the wherewithal seriously to invest in opera.

 

Singing Rossini live under a skilled if sometimes hard-driving conductor is not without its perils, as is occasionally evident with the one soprano in the cast, the gifted Hera Hyesang Park, who sings the role of the exiled wife of the delusional Polish king Sigismondo. But she, too, generally acquits herself with distinction, not least in Aldimira’s striking Act 2 aria.

 

Sigismondo, an old-fashioned travesti role, is sung by Marianna Pizzolato. Both she and Kenneth Tarver as the king’s devious and sexually ambitious Prime Minister are class acts. It’s also good to hear the young Irish mezzo Rachel Kelly in the comprimario role of the minister’s sister, Anagilda.

 

Keri-Lynn Wilson — or Mrs Peter Gelb as one’s probably not allowed to call her — is an experienced conductor who has worked in leading houses across the world. Here the drive and authority of her conducting work wonders for the piece. I like the way she rescues the Overture from buffo banality by giving it a rumbustious, even dangerous feel. I also like the way the performance culminates in an electrifying account of the Act 2 quartet. Identifying and realising any work’s one true climax is a skill that eludes all too many stick-wavers.

 

Rossini wrote Sigismondo for Venice’s Teatro La Fenice in the autumn of 1814. He was 22 and on the cusp of a move to Naples and the second great phase of his career. The impresario of La Fenice warned him that the libretto wasn’t up to much and Rossini seems to have agreed. Still, he set to and came up with some vital and at times forward-looking music that had the singular merit of appeasing the first-night audience. Which is why it doesn’t perhaps matter that BR-Klassik has been negligent in its presentation—no text and translation, such as one has with Bongiovanni’s highly recommendable 1992 Rovigo theatre recording conducted by Richard Bonynge, nor the kind of track-by-track synopsis such as Naxos provides in its altogether less well-sung and less efficiently recorded 2016 Rossini in Wildbad performance.

 

 

– Gramophone

Classical Music