Lauro ROSSI (1812–1885)
Cleopatra - Melodrama in Four Acts (1876)
Cleopatra - Dimitra Theodossiou (soprano); Marco Antonio - Alessandro Liberatore
(tenor); Ottavio Cesare - Paolo Pecchioli (bass); Diomede - Sebastian Catana
(bass-baritone); Proculejo - William Corrò (bass); Ottavia - Tiziana Carraro
(alto)
Coro Lirico Marchigiano ‘V. Bellini’
Orchestra Filarmonica Marchigiana/David Crescenzi
rec. Teatro Lauro Rossi, Sferisterio Festival, Macerata, Italy, 24-29 July
2008
Director, set and costume designer: Pier Luigi Pizzi
Dual Layer Disc. Sound format Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo. Dolby Surround 5.0.
Video format, NTSC: No Region Coding. Aspect Ratio: 16:9
NAXOS DVD 2.110279 [114:56]
Dates tell you an awful lot when it comes to opera. Take Lauro Rossi for example.
Born two years after Verdi, he died two years before the premiere of the great
Italian master’s Otello. His Cleopatra, based on an Egyptian
theme, was premiered four and a half years after Verdi’s Aida, also
based on an Egyptian theme. Although Rossi seems not to merit even a mention
in Michael and Joyce Kennedy’s Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music (Fifth
Edition, 2007), he was no operatic or composer ingénue. On the contrary, he
was among those chosen by Verdi to compose a section of the proposed Messe
per Rossini - in his case the Agnus Dei. It is also true that his
name does not feature, along with seven others of the twelve chosen by Verdi
for that composition, in the esoteric list of operatic composers found in
the Opera Rara catalogue. This is perhaps forgivable as even the vastly
experienced Pier Luigi Pizzi, director of this production, claimed not to
have heard of him until this production! He should have done more home-work.
I have a performance of Rossi’s comic opera Il Domino Nero recorded
live with the Orchestra Filarmonica Marchigiana, the same as here, on 28 September
2001. Nor should Pizzi have been surprised given the name of the theatre where
this performance of Cleopatra took place, rather than in the open-air
arena normally the venue of the large-scale opera performances of the Sferisterio
Festival (See reviews of Maria
Stuarda, Macbeth
and Norma
from the 2007 Festival). Meanwhile, we should be grateful that Pizzi’s efforts
at fund-raising saved the Festival, albeit with some changes of programme
after the withdrawal of state funding; perhaps shadows of things to come nearer
home in the UK.
Fortunately the essay in the accompanying leaflet is highly informative. Rossi
premiered a shared composition at the San Carlo, Naples, in 1830 after which
his compositions came thick and fast. On Donizetti’s recommendation
he was offered an appointment at the Teatro Valle in Rome. His tenth opera
was premiered at La Scala in 1834 indicating that Rossi composed at a similar
pace to Donizetti and Rossini, as was necessary to earn a living in an era
when the diva was paid more than the composer. After the failure of a commission
for the great diva Maria Malibran in Naples in 1834, Rossi took his talents
to North and South America where he was music director and organizer of several
opera companies. After a return to Europe Rossi was not short of work, composing
both comic and tragic operas. His comic opera Il Domino Nero, presented
in Milan in 1849, was a great success. But when the security of an
academic post was offered in Milan in 1850 he took it and his pace of composition
lessened. Even so six of his works were a success during this period. He moved
to Naples Music Conservatory in 1870, working there until 1878 during which
time he wrote his penultimate work Cleopatra, and after which he retired
to the musical town of Cremona.
Premiered at the Teatro Regio, Turin, on 5 March 1876, Rossi’s Cleopatra
caught the public’s imagination. Whether or not Verdi’s Aïda premiered
five years earlier influenced his composition, or its reception, is
conjectural. Whilst the musical style lacks the bravura of Verdi’s creation
it is composed with the dramatic situations well supported by the music, be
that in aria, duet or ensemble. Despite the well-known nature of the love
of Anthony, Antonio here, and the eponymous heroine, Rossi’s Cleopatra
requires a clear and easily comprehensible production. In this respect
none does that better than the vastly experienced Pier Luigi Pizzi, especially
as - his norm these days - he also designs the sets and costumes. The costumes
of the Roman contingent are very much in period with bare knees and togas
for the men and long decorous red dresses for the women; the colour differentiating
them from the white of the Egyptians. Cleopatra herself is dressed wholly
in a black, somewhat voluminous dress. Her admirer, Diomede is also dressed
in all black but with an ornament. The single set is very much standard Pizzi
mainly comprising wide-stepped stairs with the odd black flat surface downstage
where the eponymous heroine has some of her dramatic moments in clear focus.
I do not know which came first, the signing of Dimitra Theodossiou or the
choice of opera. They certainly go well together. The work requires a big
dramatic-voiced Cleopatra who can throw her voice and whole being into the
portrayal. The downside of Dimitra Theodossiou in any repertoire of this type
is an intrusive vibrato at dramatic climaxes. I would not wish to overstate
this, as the impact is less than it might be. Her vocal contribution is significantly
superior to that of her colleagues, most notably in Cleopatra’s act two-aria
sequence starting with Lieto in raggio (Chs.9-11) as bereft in her
palace Cleopatra yearns for Antonio. As her advisor and would-be suitor Diomede,
Sebastian Catana, more bass than baritone, is among the best of a variable
supporting cast (Chs.4, 5,12,13). The tenor Antonio, Alessandro Liberatore,
is musical but lacks the required heft and clear ping to his voice (Chs.24-26).
As Ottavio Cesare, who wishes Antonio to marry his sister in order that he
can wage a successful war in the east, Paolo Pecchioli’s bass has more cover
than clarity and the role loses some dramatic impact as a consequence (Chs.9,
28); one senses a good voice trying to escape. With her strong contraltoish
tones Tiziana Carraro, as Cesare’s sister Ottavia, has too much dramatic impact
than the role really calls for (Chs.16-18). David Crescenzi, the chorus master,
conducts the performance. He stepped in at the very last minute and as a consequence
the extant overture was not performed. Like the chorus he prepared, his achievement
in Rossi’s little known opera is considerable.
The music itself falls somewhere between that of the Italian bel canto
and the verismo composers. You will look in vain for the fibre
and character of Verdi’s Aida, let alone of Otello. Nonetheless
it is melodic and contains several dramatic confrontations and some notable
scenes, including the thrilling ensemble that closes Act 3.
The DVD direction shows a little of the intimate theatre. During the opera
itself not much is seen of the whole of the stage, the director focusing on
close-ups or mid-shots. The sound and picture quality are good.
Robert J Farr
see also review by Brian
Wilson
A welcome hearing of a competent, but little known, Italian opera composer
overshadowed by Verdi.