Following the last
performance of Zelmira, his ninth
opera seria for the city, Rossini left
Naples in early March 1822. The composer
was thirty. With increasing financial
security his pace of composition had
slackened allowing for a greater maturity
and complexity in his operas. The impresario
Domenico Barbaja, who had invited the
composer to Naples, had arranged to
take the Naples Company to Vienna and
present a Rossini Festival there, starting
with Zelmira. On the way Rossini
and Isabella Colbran, his long-term
mistress and the leading lady in all
his Naples operas, were married.
The Festival in Vienna
was a great success with Rossini being
feted everywhere. He made a lot of money,
met Beethoven and saw a performance
of Der Freischütz conducted
by the composer. Whilst Barbaja hoped
Rossini would sign another contract
and return to Naples, Rossini was angling
to present his works, and a new opera,
in London. After the premiere of Semiramide
in Venice on February 3rd
1823 Rossini and his wife travelled
to London via Paris where they enjoyed
a foretaste of Parisian salon society.
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 but no new opera was forthcoming.
On his return to Paris,
Rossini was offered the post of Musical
Director of the Théâtre
Italien, where casts featured the likes
of Giuditta Pasta, creator of Norma,
and Maria Malibran, daughter of the
tenor Manuel Garcia who had sung in
Rossini’s first opera in Naples. With
the emergence of the tenors Donzelli,
Nouritt and Rubini 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 guaranteed pension.
It also demanded a new opera from him
in French, a command of which linguistic
prosody he needed to learn. He would
also need to amend his compositional
style in the cause of re-aligning his
Italian tradition and moving towards
the French. All this was to take time
and whilst there was some impatience
at the lack of a new opera from him
in French it was recognised that his
revitalisation of the Théâtre
Italien was demanding of his time. First
though was the unavoidable duty of a
work to celebrate the coronation of
Charles X in Rheims Cathedral in June
1825. Called Il viaggio a Reims (a
journey to Rheims) it was composed to
an Italian libretto and presented at
the Théâtre Italien on
19th 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 were revisions of earlier
works with new libretti, settings and
additional music. The first, Le Siège
de Corinth, premiered on October
9th 1826, was a revision
of Maometto II with the addition
of an overture and additional pieces.
It was a resounding success. Moïse
et Pharon, a revision of the Italian
Mosè in Egitto, premiered
in Rome in 1817, followed on 26th
March 1827.
During the composition
of Moïse et Pharon, Rossini
agreed to write Guillaume Tell,
his first, and as it turns out his last,
completely new work for the Paris Opéra.
Before doing so he wrote Le Comte
Ory, making use of five of the nine
numbers from Il viaggio a Reims.
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 does so first 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. Ory’s plans are thwarted by
his young page Isolier, a trousers role,
who is in love with the Countess himself.
The timely return of the crusaders does
likewise for the intentions of Ory’s
fellow ‘nuns’. Love remains ever pure
and chastity unsullied!
I caught up with this
production in the autumn of 1997 on
the Glyndebourne tour following its
successful run at the summer Festival
itself from which this recording is
derived. I am as enchanted now with
the production and sets as I was then.
The costumes are of the time of the
crusades and the sets, with the backdrop
of a pastoral scene and of the impregnable
castle complete with drawbridge, are
realistic and uncluttered. The production
has one rather silly quirk with a group
of dinner jacketed sommeliers bringing
drink to Ory’s henchman Raimbaud as
he sets up the local country folk for
the arrival of the ‘hermit’ (Ch. 2).
Elsewhere the plot is treated with respect
although there are moments of not wholly
inappropriate burlesque as Ory’s nuns
attack the castle’s wine cellar (Ch.
16). Ory, as Mother Superior, joins
Isolier and the Countess in a trio as
they shuffle round a tilted double bed
in a humorous A la favour de cette
nuit obscure (Under cover of dark
night) (Ch. 18 and No. 10 in the vocal
score). Such scenes require perfect
timing.
The extensive rehearsal
time for which the Glyndebourne Festival
is renowned is evident in both the acting
and the singing of the soloists and
young vibrant chorus. Annick Massis’s
high, light and flexible coloratura
soprano sings and acts an impressive
countess Adele. Her entrance aria En
proie à la tristesse as Adele
relates her melancholy and sickness
(psychosomatic subliminal yearning for
some male company?) is expressed with
tonal variety and pure well held vocal
runs up the stave (Ch. 7). Elsewhere
she shows rich colours in her lower
voice (Ch. 11). Her only fault is some
smudged diction among the vocal acrobatics.
As the page Isolier Diana Montague is
gamine of figure but her lovely high
cheekbones and over-vivid lipstick betray
her femininity. Her mezzo voice is in
pristine shape and part of that package
is plenty of vocal colour, steady legato
and a wide range of expression that
adds a convincing patina to her characterisation
(Ch. 6).
There are no weaknesses
among the male singers. Ory, with a
wide range and some high notes to reach
is well sung and portrayed by Marc Laho
without any evident vocal strain. I
do not know him as a Rossini singer.
His tone is firm and he has plenty of
metal and heft in his voice. His high
notes are taken from the chest and perhaps
would have benefited from some honeyed
heady tone as is found by singers of
the role in some of the audio recordings
of the opera. What makes his assumption
compelling is his acting, particularly
his facial expressions as both hermit
in act 1 (Chs. 8-10) and nun in act
2 (Chs. 13-19). As Ory’s tutor Julien
Robbins is physically imposing although
his generally sappy and sonorous bass
baritone has the odd dry patch in the
mid-upper range of his voice (Chs. 4-5).
Ludovic Tézier acts and sings
with firm tone and clear diction as
Ory’s henchman Raimbaud.
Le Comte Ory was
a Glyndebourne favourite of Vittorio
Gui. His mid-1950s performance was recorded
by EMI. Together with recordings of
Il Barbiere and La Cenerentola
it very often stood alone under
the composer’s name in the catalogue
for nearly twenty years. Gui’s handling
of the ensembles and finales has a touch
not matched by Andrew Davis here or
by John Eliot Gardiner on the 1988 Philips
recording from the Opéra de Lyon.
I have not heard the recent live recording
from Pesaro featuring Juan Diego Florez
(DG).
I cannot see this masterly
production being bettered on DVD in
the near future. The high quality of
the ensemble and the unity of the solo
singing is matched by first rate audio
quality. The video direction is by non-pareil
director, Brian Large, who takes full
advantage with close-ups that contrast
nicely with the predominantly mid and
long shots of scenes and arias. This
set is a must for every lover of Rossini’s
music and an excellent addition to the
collections of those who only know the
composer’s earlier buffa works Il
Barbiere and La Cenerentola.
Very strongly recommended.
Robert J Farr
The
Glyndebourne Chorus. London Philharmonic Orchestra/Andrew
Davis 
WARNER
MUSIC VISION DVD VIDEO 0630-18646-2 [141:00]
