For every composer
who becomes successful many do not and
either fall by the wayside or rapidly
speed past their sell-by date, being
quickly forgotten. This was never more
true than for opera composers in the
provinces of what we now call Italy,
the motherland of opera, in the later
decades of the 18th century
and the first half of the 19th
century. Every major city had two or
three theatres presenting opera, which
was the popular entertainment amongst
the population, whatever their social
status. For those who made it to the
top of the milk to become the most popular
opera composer of their day there was
often a defining opportunity, or moment,
or a particular composition. For Donizetti
it was Anna Bolena (1830), for Bellini
it was La Sonnambula (1831), for Verdi
it was Nabucco (1842) and for Puccini
it was Manon Lescaut (1893). For Rossini
it was Tancredi.
Born in Pesaro in 1792,
the son of musician parents, Rossini
was not yet 21 years of age when he
scored a success with La pietra del
paragone (LINK)
at La Scala in May 1812. It was his
seventh opera. It came in the middle
of five one act farsa (LINK)
which he wrote in a hectic compositional
period for Venice’s small Teatro Moise.
It was while Rossini was in Venice in
November 1812 preparing for the premiere
of the fourth of those farsa, L’occasione
fa il ladro premiered on 24th
November, that he was invited by the
Teatro La Fenice, the city’s premier
theatre, to compose an opera seria for
the following season. The subject of
Voltaire’s Tancrède (1760) had
already been chosen, as had the librettist,
Gaetano Rossi. It was Rossi who had
provided Rossini with the verses for
the first of his operatic compositions
to be staged, the one act farse, La
Cambiale di matrimonio, on November
3rd 1810.
Rossini’s Tancredi
is set in the Sicilian city of Syracuse
around 1005. Argirio (ten), ruler of
the city has promised his daughter Amenaide
(sop) in marriage to Orbazzano (bass)
so as to unite their families against
the Saracens. Amenaide however is in
love with Tancredi (mezzo) son of the
deposed king of Syracuse. Tancredi returns
from exile in time to stop the marriage
despite believing Amenaide to be unfaithful
to him. When Orbazzano has Amenaide
condemned to death on a trumped up charge
Tancredi fights and kills him. Tancredi
leads a successful expedition against
the Saracens and is united with Amenaide
in a happy ending.
Tancredi was favourably
received and was subsequently seen in
other Italian towns to great acclaim.
For its second staging in Ferrara, several
weeks after its premiere, Rossi’s libretto
was altered to match the tragic ending
of Voltaire’s play. Rossini composed
new music but the ending was not popular
with audiences. Over the next few years
it was translated into twelve languages
and performed all over Europe and the
Americas. It was Rossini’s defining
work and set him at the forefront of
his contemporaries, a position he quickly
consolidated with L’Italiana in Algeri
three months later. It was after a revival
in Venice in 1815 that the catchy tune
from the cavatina Di tanti palpiti
(CD 1 tr.6) spread to have ‘a wider
and more universal popularity of [than]
any aria in the world’ (Stendahl. ‘The
Life of Rossini’, 1824). Despite its
immense popularity, Tancredi like all
the bel-canto seria fell into neglect
until revival in the 1950s, after which
it was regularly revived becoming a
favourite of Marilyn Horne. Her interpretation
was recorded live by Fonit Cetra at
La Fenice in 1983 and originally issued
in the CBS Masterworks series. It is
not currently available. That performance,
like many theatre revivals in the past
fifty years, used the Ferrara tragic
ending, as does the 1978 studio recording
with Fiorenza Cossotto as Tancredi,
reissued by Warner Fonit in 2003.
As I noted in my review
of a Rossini recital disc by Ewa Podles
(LINK)
her steady sonorous low-timbred mezzo
is ideally suited to the ‘breeches’
roles in the Rossini operas. Her voice
is even and true over a considerable
range to which she adds the ability
to shade her tone and expression to
convey the moods of the role being sung.
She brings appropriate gravitas to Tancredi’s
recitatives and appropriate variety
of expression in the duet with Amenaide,
particularly in Lascia: non t’ascolto
(‘leave me I will not hear you’ CD 2
tr. 13). Similarly her characterisation
in the solo scena Dove son io
(‘where am I’), the following Ah!
Che scordar non so (‘I cannot forget’)
and the rondo Perche turbar (CD
2 tr. 16) is superb. This scene, and
the final reconciliation of the lovers
(CD 2 tr. 20), can be seen in retrospect
as not merely the epitome of bel canto
but the stirring of Romanticism. No
wonder the work set Rossini at the forefront
of rivals and the opera travelled so
widely to acclaim!
The rest of the singing
cast, the vibrant chorus and the conducting
of Rossini scholar Alberto Zedda are
of an equally high standard. Sumi Jo
exhibits wonderful colours in her flexible
voice to give a formidable realisation
of Amenaide’s agonies and uncertainties.
Her act 2 Gran Dio! (CD 2 tr.
8) as she asks God to protect her warrior
and cabaletta Giusto Dio (‘God
who I worship and can read my heart’,
CD 2 tr.9) are as perfect in emotion
and expression as is possible whilst
maintaining line. Jo’s singing and characterisation
are perfect complements to Podles’s
Tancredi. Excellent too is the portrayal
of Argirio by Stanford Olsen. He is
far preferable to the dry-toned Ernesto
Palacio on the CBS version with Marilyn
Horne. He handles the florid demands
of his Ah! Segnar invano io tenta
and cabaletta, after Argirio has unwittingly
condemned his daughter to death, in
a particularly fine manner (CD 1 trs.
18-19). Pietro Spagnoli as Orbazzano
and Lucretia Lendi as Roggiero also
contribute well with good, characterful
and well-tuned expressive singing.
The booklet has a decent
track-related synopsis, artist profiles,
and an essay on Rossini. There is also
another rather diffuse essay deriving
from an interview with Alberto Zedda
attempting an analysis of the nature
of Rossini’s music and the interpretation
of an opera such as Tancredi. All these
are in English, French and German. There
is a full synopsis without any translation.
What is significantly missing is a track-listing
and timings. Naxos normally provides
this and it makes moving between the
synopsis and the libretto much easier.
That reservation apart this Naxos issue
of a work that was not only defining
for the composer, but also opera in
general is outstanding. The fact that
this excellent performance and recording
of the original version of the opera,
and which seems to stand alone in the
current catalogue, is without weakness
is particularly gratifying. All lovers
of bel canto and the evolution of romantic
opera should have it on their shelves.
Robert J Farr
Chorus Capella Brugensis 
