After the premiere of Semiramide
in Venice on 3 February 1823 Rossini
and his wife travelled to London via
Paris. They stayed in London for six
months. Rossini presented eight of his
operas at the King’s Theatre, Haymarket,
and also met and sang duets with the
King. The stay in London was reputed
to have brought Rossini many tens of
thousands of pounds. On his return to
Paris, Rossini was offered the post
of Musical Director of the Théâtre
Italien. In that position the composer
was able to stage his own opera seria
as well as his buffa works and the compositions
of others. Rossini’s contract provided
an excellent income and a guaranteed
pension. It also demanded a new opera
from him in French, a command of which
linguistic prosody he needed to learn.
He also needed to amend his compositional
style to re-align his Italian tradition
and move it towards the French. Before
any opera in French however, was the
unavoidable duty of a work to celebrate
the coronation of Charles X in Reims
Cathedral in June 1825. Called Il
viaggio a Reims (a journey to Reims)
it was composed to an Italian’s libretto
and presented at the Théatre
Italien on 19 June. It was hugely successful
in three sold-out performances after
which Rossini withdrew it considering
it purely a pièce d’occasion.
Rossini’s first compositions
to French texts for The Opéra
were revisions of earlier works with
new libretti, settings and additional
music. The first, Le Siège
de Corinth, premiered on 9 October
1826, was a revision of Maometto
II with the addition of an overture
and other pieces. It was a resounding
success. Moïse et Pharon,
a revision of the Italian Mosè
in Egitto, premiered in Rome in
1817, followed on 26 March 1827 to even
greater acclaim. During the composition
of Moïse et Pharon, Rossini
agreed to write Guillaume Tell.
Before doing so he wrote Le Comte
Ory, making use of five of the nine
numbers from Il viaggio a Reims.
Le Comte Ory is not a comic opera
in the Italian tradition where secco
recitative was to last another decade
or so, but more in the French manner
of opéra-comique. There are no
buffoon characters and no buffa type
patter arias. The work is one of charm
and wit in the best Gallic tradition
and a link towards Offenbach.
The plot concerns the
Countess Adele and her ladies who swear
chastity and retreat into the countess’s
castle when their men go off to the
crusades. Comte Ory, a young licentious
and libidinous aristocrat is determined
to gain entrance to the castle in pursuit
of carnal activity. He first does so
as a travelling hermit seeking shelter
and charity. When this fails he returns
disguised as the Mother Superior of
a group of nuns, really his own men
in disguise and who also fancy their
chances with the pent-up ladies. His
young page Isolier, a trousers role,
who is in love with the countess himself
thwarts Ory’s plans. The timely return
of the crusaders does likewise for the
intentions of Ory’s fellow ‘nuns’. Love
remains ever pure and chastity unsullied!
Photographs of conductor
John Eliot Gardiner tend to indicate
a rather cerebral aesthete, a view perhaps
reinforced by his work in Bach, Monteverdi
and the baroque operas of Gluck. How
would he cope with conveying the final
trio of Comte Ory, when in a
variation of the three-in-a-bed situation
Ory, deceived by the Countess’s voice,
makes advances to his page Isolier?
This scene is delectably conveyed in
the DVD of the Glyndebourne production
(review).
The answer is that Gardiner conveys
the humour of that scene (CD 2 trs 10-11)
and the rest of this music quite delightfully.
He is matched in his skill by the singers.
Sumi Jo as Countess Adele sings with
light tone, has no difficulty with the
tessitura and is quick in her vocal
interplay with the other characters
(CD 1 trs 2-3 and 15-18). This capacity
to sing of a colleague is so essential
in a work such as Ory where ensembles
are more central to the plot than arias.
One role that does get a substantial
aria is Ory’s tutor The Governor (CD
1 trs 7-10) sung by Francophone Gilles
Cachemaille with strong fulsome tone
and good diction. The lighter baritone
of Gino Quilico sings Ory’s partner
in seduction, Raimbaud. He does so with
a fine sense of style and without recourse
to too much characterisation. He has
the aria Dans ce lieu solitaire (CD
2 tr. 7) where having gained entrance
to the castle and discovered the wine
cellar, he with his co conspirators
all disguised as nuns, have a boisterous
time (CD 2 trs. 8-9). Raimbaud’s aria
is the nearest the work comes to the
Italian buffo patter tradition in one
of the pieces lifted from Il viaggio
a Reims. Periodically Countess Adele
and Isolier disturb the drinking enquiring
after the ‘nuns’’ well being. The timing
in Elle revient ... silence (CD
2 tr. 9) has to be spot-on. It is a
further credit to Gardiner’s feel for
Rossini’s creation that this scene is
so well realised. The role of Ory himself
has many varied histrionic and vocal
demands. His opening cavatina Que
les destines prospères (CD
1 tr. 3) when Ory tries to gain access
to the castle disguised as a hermit,
shows Jon Aler’s light heady tenor and
expressive singing to perfection. His
interpretation grows as the plot thickens.
His duet with his page, and nemesis,
Isolier, Une dame de haut parage
(CD 1 tr. 11) is a particular vocal
highlight. It is only surpassed by the
duet with Countess Adele when, in disguise
as a woman on a pilgrimage, Ory discusses
womanly virtue whilst in asides making
his libidinous intentions clear (CD
2 trs. 2-4). As on the Glyndebourne
DVD, Diana Montague sings the role of
Isolier. Her expression and legato are
exemplary in a consummate portrayal
with many vocal inflections and nuances
that enable the humour of the opera
to express itself in the way intended.
The sound has warmth
and clarity with an excellent balance
between orchestra, soloists and chorus.
The booklet has a full libretto with
translation in English. The illuminating
essay by Philip Gossett and the synopsis
present in the original issue are now
missing. A good track-related synopsis
would have been particularly valuable
in a work of some textual complexity
for newcomers. It would not have taken
much space or effort to provide one.
Its omission is the only reservation
I have about this very welcome re-issue
whose performance I cannot praise highly
enough.
For those who know
Rossini’s comic works Il Barbiere
di Siviglia and La Cenerentola,
Le comte Ory is an ideal introduction
to his later musical style. Whilst it
may not surpass those earlier operas,
it is one of his finest creations. Rossini
sold the score of the work for the then
unprecedented sum of sixteen thousand
francs. This very welcome re-issue of
the 1988 recording will cost a micro-fraction
of that. It should be part of any collection
of the composer’s works.
Robert J Farr
Orchestra and chorus of the Opéra de Lyon/John
Eliot Gardiner 
