Gioachino Rossini was
born in Pesaro, a small town on the
Adriatic on 29 February 1792. Both his
parents were musicians. His father,
an Italian nationalist, was briefly
imprisoned in 1800 by the Papal authorities.
This may well have influenced Rossini’s
later lukewarm attitude towards the
unification cause so fervently espoused
by Verdi and other creative artists.
As a young man Gioachino was an accomplished
singer. Whether this skill was the basis
or motivation for his compositional
skills is not known. By 1805, as well
as singing in Paer’s Camilla in
Bologna, by then his home-town, he had
composed the six sonate a quattro
as well as overtures and several masses.
At age 14 he entered the Bologna Liceo
Musicale. In his time there he put the
gloss of academic rigour on his innate
compositional gifts. His first opera
was composed during his time as a student
and was to a commission by the tenor
Domenico Marbelli. Marbelli, together
with his two daughters, formed the nucleus
of an itinerant operatic group of a
type commonly found at that time. That
work, Demetrio e Polibio, was
not staged until May 1812 by which time
five of Rossini’s other works had been,
including three of the farse included
here.
The Teatro San Moise
in Venice was the smallest of the theatres
regularly presenting opera in that city.
The audience expected new works and
the impresario would commission several
each season guaranteeing at least three
performances to each. The theatre was
run on a shoestring and such farse required
little scenery or staging. Given that
the San Moise had a good roster of singers
it was an ideal opportunity for Rossini
when another composer reneged on his
contract and he was offered the opportunity
to replace him. La Cambiale di Matrimonio
with its pace, energy and wit was
well received. At age twenty Rossini’s
career was off to a cracking start.
In the chronological
sequence of these recordings, originally
issued separately by Claves, La Cambiale
di Matrimonio (CD 7 in this set)
was second. Most significantly the recording
venue changed to All Saints Tooting.
This is a venue notorious difficult
to tame in respect of reverberation.
The original recording engineers didn’t
manage it. The voices have a bathroom
acoustic added to which the orchestra
is too recessed. These factors do limit
enjoyment of the work. Nonetheless its
vitality shines through, aided by Marcello
Viotti’s stylish and idiomatic conducting.
The singing is variable. In my review
of Naxos’s recently issued recording
of Il
Signor Bruschino I criticised
Alessandra Rossi’s singing as lacking
both agility and steady legato. In this
recording, made ten years earlier, she
is no better. She sounds thin, even
acidic, despite the excess bloom around
the voice (CD 7 tr. 13). Maurizio Comencini
as the suitor Edoardo lacks spontaneity
and is unsteady at times. Thankfully,
because the work deserves better, Bruno
Pratico as Tobia and Bruno de Simone
as Snook are real Rossinian troupers.
Their duet (CD 7 tr. 13) is superb,
whilst in solo both sing and characterise
well.
It was a full year
after La Cambiale that Rossini’s
next opera was staged. It was a relative
failure. However, the Teatro San Moise
was eager for another Rossini farsa
and L’Inganno Felice was premiered
to acclaim. Within a year it had been
staged in Bologna, Florence, Verona
and Trieste as well as at the Teatro
San Benedetto, second only to La Fenice
in Venice. The innate quality of the
music also enabled Rossini to use the
opera as a calling card when he settled
in Naples in 1815. He was also able
to secure performances in Paris in 1824,
although the work had already been heard
at the Theatre Italian in the latter
city in 1819. Most importantly for this
series of recordings, L’Inganno Felice,
La Scala di Seta and L’occasione
fa il Ladro, numbers two, three
and four in Rossini’s compositional
sequence, were recorded in a more suitable
venue in terms of balance and reverberation
than La Cambiale. This enables
the listener to hear the composer’s
inventive and characterful orchestration
more clearly. As with La Cambiale
the singing is variable with the
lower voices well taken. Natale de Carolis
as Batone is well tuned but lacks some
sap in the voice (CD 8 tr. 6) whilst
the Ormondo of Danilo Serraiocco is
impressively full toned (CD 8 tr. 10).
Good vocal flexibility is in evidence
in the duet between Batone and Tarabotto
(CD 8 tr. 12). Regrettably, whilst the
tenor of Lorio Zennaro has pleasing
timbre he is not ideally steady (CD
8 tr. 4). Amelia Felle as Isabella is
rather raw-toned in her aria (CD 8 tr.
14) as she declares her love for her
long lost husband.
After his sacred opera,
Ciro in Babilonia was premiered
in Ferrara for Lent, Rossini was back
at the Teatro San Moise in May to present
La Scala di Seta. This was the
last of the farse recorded by Claves.
Again using Rosslyn Hill Chapel. Spread
over two CDs (3-4) it is a scintillating
piece with bright orchestral colours
and distinctive writing for the woodwind.
The silken ladder of the title is used
nightly by Dorvil to join Giulia who
he has secretly married. She is still
living in the house of Dormont, her
father, who wishes her to marry Blansac
who is loved by Lucilla. The opera’s
overture is amongst Rossini’s most popular
and Viotti brings out its character
well with strong rhythms and good string
work. The cast is amongst the best in
the series with Alessandro Corbelli
outstanding as Germano and Teresa Ringholz
up to the heroine’s task with agility
and warm tone. Their duet (CD 3 tr.
4) is Rossini coloratura singing of
the highest order. The young Ramon Vargas
as Giulia’s husband sings with pleasing
tone and without strain and one wishes
he had more to sing.
Nine days after the
premiere of La Scala di Seta Rossini’s
very first opera, Demetrio e Polibio,
was staged in Rome. By 1820, as Rossini’s
fame spread, it had been staged elsewhere
in Italy as well as in Vienna, Dresden
and Munich. Thereafter it disappeared
until a revival in 1979. A recording
exists on the Bongiovanni label.
Back in Bologna Rossini
received a commission to compose an
opera for La Scala, which was then,
as now, the leading opera house in Italy.
The two-act opera buffa La pietra
del paragone was premiered on 26
September 1812. It was a big success
and ran for no fewer than fifty-three
performances in its first season. In
my review
of the recent Naxos issue of a recording
made at the Bad Wildbad Festival in
2001 I recount how the work not only
made Rossini the pre-eminent young opera
composer in Italy, but also got him
exemption from military service.
Whatever his new found
eminence, Rossini, not yet 21 years
of age, was loyal to the Teatro San
Moise and accepted two further commissions
for one act farse. The first of these
was L’occasione fa
il Ladro (CDs. 5-6). He composed
the score in eleven days. It was not
received with enthusiasm and was dropped
after five performances. However, as
Rossini’s fame spread it was revived
in Barcelona (1822), Lisbon (1826),
St Petersburg (1830) and Vienna (1834).
Its first UK performance was at the
1987 Buxton Festival. In the summer
season 2004, Opera North presented it
as Love’s Luggage Lost.
L’occasione fa il
Ladro (CDs 5-6) is described as
a burletta and revolves round a typical
farsa libretto involving mistakenly
exchanged suitcases at a country inn.
The work was recorded at the same series
of sessions as L’Inganno Felice and
several singers appear in both works.
It is unique among the five farse, and
unusual in the Rossini oeuvre, in having
no formal overture. Instead a brief
andante prelude leads into allegro storm
music of the kind that is familiar in
several of Rossini’s operas, both buffa
and seria. As in L’Inganno Felice
the tenor Lorio Zennaro whilst having
a light, if dryish timbre and a pleasing
heady tone, is not always steady (CD
5 tr. 3). This is also in evidence in
his delightful aria D’ogni piu sacro
(CD 6 tr. 2). He duets well with the
Ernestina of Francesca Provvisionato
(CD 5 tr. 9) whose singing is a pleasure
throughout. Maria Bayo as Berenice is
rather careful in her introduction to
Vieino e il momento but flings
off the coloratura with accuracy, aplomb
and warm tone (CD 5 tr. 7). Both female
singers are dependable and characterful
throughout. The buffo character of the
work is underscored by the music for
Don Parmenione sung by Natale de Carolis
and Martino sung by the character bass
Fabio Previati. As in the other operas
in the series these two nicely contrasted
voices are towers of strength, singing
with accuracy and bringing out the character
of their parts. Their contrasting voices
and well articulated fast singing is
particularly good in duet (CD 5 tr.5).
Viotti shapes the melodies and moves
the music along well. Why L’occasione
fa il Ladro was not better received
at the Teatro San Moise I do not know.
In a city where the opera theatres also
reflected social undercurrents may have
been significant. Certainly, the fact
that the composer had signed a contract
to produce an opera for the prestigious
La Fenice was well known and his upward
movement may have caused resentment.
This is certainly suggested as one reason
for the lukewarm response at Teatro
San Moise to Il Signor Bruschino,
the last of the five farse, when it
was premiered two months later.
As I have intimated
Il Signor Bruschino was not well
received at the Teatro San Moise. In
my
review of the recent Naxos issue
of a 2002 studio recording I suggest
additional, musical reasons, why this
might have been the case. It was several
decades later that the work was revived
in Milan (1844), Madrid (1858), Berlin
(1858) and Brussels (1859). It is now
recognised as the most musically innovative
and mature of Rossini’s farse. There
is more spoken dialogue than in previous
works which may not have pleased the
San Moise audience. In this performance,
as with the Naxos, an all-Italian cast
move this on swiftly and easily.
Il Signor Bruschino
(CD 1-2) was the first of
these five farse recorded by Claves.
Recorded in Turin, the sound is a little
flat and the players do not have the
brio of their English counterparts.
The tenor and soprano pairing of Luca
Canonici and Patrizia Orciani as the
lovers is the best of the series. Their
long duet (CD 1 tr. 2) is a vocal highlight
of this issue. In the character part
of Gaudenzio, Bruno Pratico sings strongly
(CD 1 tr. 6) although he is drier in
tone than Tobia Mill in Il Cambiale
(CD 7). Natale de Carolis as Bruschino
is his characterful and dependable self,
as he has been on four of these recordings.
This is certainly a better all round
performance than the Naxos issue with
Viotti finding plenty of humour in the
music.
Whilst this collection
from the Brilliant label has cast weaknesses,
it is an excellent idea to issue all
the one act farse in one collection
and the company are to be commended
for doing so. I cannot see it being
rivalled in the near future and at its
price all lovers of Rossini and the
bel canto period should add it
to their collection. The discs are contained
in cardboard slipcases in a robust box.
The downside is that the brief booklet
essays are badly translated and poorly
proof read. More importantly, there
is no list of the operas with reference
to the appropriate pages in the supplied
librettos that are printed in full but
without translation. Nor are the track
numbers easy to pick out in the librettos.
The sequence of the recordings is haphazard,
rather than by chronology of composition,
which adds to the unnecessary frustrations.
Nonetheless my advice is to go out and
buy whilst the opportunity is there.
Robert J Farr
BRILLIANT CLASSICS 92399 [8CDs: 75.54 + 79.47
+ 45.27 + 40.52 + 43.53 + 41.16 + 43.32 + 40.02]
