Meyerbeer had already won renown in Italy before conquering Paris with a sequence of much-acclaimed grand operas. In a musical climate dominated by Rossini, Meyerbeer’s...

Meyerbeer had already won renown in Italy before conquering Paris with a sequence of much-acclaimed grand operas. In a musical climate dominated by Rossini, Meyerbeer’s first Italian opera, Romilda e Costanza, earned the still-unknown 26-year-old composer the sobriquet of ‘the genius of the Spree’. The work is a rescue opera overlaid with a love triangle, which was written for specific performers, and the passionate intensity of feeling – from lyricism to unfettered virtuosity – reflects the semi seria nature of the opera. It is performed here in the original version heard at the 1817 premiere. In 1996 Luciano Acocella won the International Prokofiev and Dimitri Mitropoulos conducting competitions which led to his appointment as assistant to Daniele Gatti. He has conducted extensively across Europe, Asia and the US to critical acclaim. He was general music director of the Opera de Rouen-Haute Normandie between 2011 and 2015. At the Rossini in Wildbad festival he has conducted Le Comte Ory and the acclaimed Naxos recordings of Adelaide di Borgogna (8.660401-02) and Demetrio e Polibio (8.660405-06).

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REVIEW:

This production from the 2019 Rossini in Wildbad Festival in Germany being its first outing in modern times. A little complex, the story was the familiar love triangle between the two women, Romilda, and Costanza, the object of their love being Teobaldo. There is much for Costanza to sing, which sorely tests the vocal stamina of the German-based soprano, Luiza Fatyol, Meyerbeer only offering Romilda one major aria, and not until late in the second act. It is beautifully sung by the mezzo soprano, Chiara Brunello. The part of Teobaldo requires a high tenor, Patrick Kabongo, more than equipped for those taxing passages, while the weighty voice of the baritone, Javier Povedano, as Retello, fills out the ensembles. From Poland, the Passionart Orchestra falls something short of the very high quality we have come expect from the festival’s orchestras. It is a pity the interrupting applause was not removed in a very good recording from South-West German radio.

– David's Review Corner (David Denton)