Gioachino Chiarini

A puzzling piece with a tormented history, Rossini's Edipo a Colono for bass, male choir and orchestra is rarely performed today and represents a unicum in the entire repertoire of Italian music. The fruit of an unusual collaboration between librettist Giambattista Giusti and Italy's most sought-after composer at the time, Rossini's astonishing incidental music for Sophocles' Oedipus at Colonus is brought to life again by Nahuel Di Pierro, the Coro del Teatro della Fortuna and the Filarmonica Gioachino Rossini conducted by Fabrizio Ruggero. Recorded live at the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro.

An opera about a company who are staging an opera? Donizetti is at the height of his comic powers and provides an abrasively disenchanted take on a world he knew all too well, with it tantrum-throwing primadonnas and narcissistic tenors, its spite and envy, its mean and noble sides… a world which is still very much with us.

Gioachino Rossini - Armida - Daniele Gatti, Orchestra del Teatro Comunale di Bologna (2009) {3CD Set, Sony Music 88697579072}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 803 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 417 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (png) -> 195 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1993, 2009 Sony Classical | 88697579072
Classical / Opera / Romantic

This is a truly thrilling performance of a rare Rossini opera. I listened to it twice through upon receiving it. I can understand why it is rarely performed, although this is a live performance. One needs to marshall a tremendous cast to pull this opera off satisfactorily. Renee Fleming is the only female voice in the cast and shines in her role as the sorceress. The various tenors, and in particular Carlo Bosi, all perform with total commitment and are endowed with the skill to execute Rossini's twists and turns with apparent ease. To be quite honest, I don't even care about the story line; many of them are silly anyway. However, if you want to listen to glorious voices performing difficult music with seeming ease and agility, this recording will thrill you as it did me.

Semiramide, based on a play by Voltaire about an ancient Assyrian queen, was Rossini's last Italian opera. Some five hours long in performance, it has always been subject to cuts from producers worried that it was a butt-breaker, but Rossini insisted that it be performed as written. He was right: its massive two acts have a logic and flow that do not flag. Despite its size and difficulty (check the hefty list of sponsors and patrons in the booklet), the opera is being revived increasingly often. The work has been called the last Baroque opera, with its tragic plot from antiquity encrusted with glittering, highly ornamented arias, and you might suppose that a performance stands or falls with the singers. This version certainly offers strong ones, including the superb pair of sopranos Albina Shagimuratova in the title role and Daniela Barcellona in the travesti or cross-dressing role of the commander Arsace.

The most comprehensive edition devoted to Gioachino Rossini marking his 150th anniversary. Born in 1792, Rossini was the most popular opera composer of his time. Although he retired from the Opera scene in 1829, he continued to compose in other genres, including sacred music, piano and chamber works. He did gather his late works under the ironic title Péchés de vieillesse (Sins of Old Age), which veils a true collection of masterworks.