Rossini Otello (antonino Fogliani) [2010]

Following his triumphant visit to Vienna in 1822, when several of his operas were extremely well-received, international success beckoned for Rossini. First performed at La Fenice, Venice in 1823, Semiramide was Rossini’s last Italian opera, written at the height of his creative powers. Its subject is Greek tragedy for which librettist Gaetano Rossi drew on an adaptation by Voltaire. Instrumentally sophisticated and classically structured, the opera remains one of the most remarkable examples of Rossini’s cultivation of bel canto.

The great writer Stendhal wrote of Il viaggio a Reims that “this opera is a feast”. The plot is a contemporary farce tailor-made for a particular occasion—the coronation festivities of Charles X—though Rossini valued the music so highly that he reused at great part of the score three years later in the opera Le Comte Ory. With a cast of ten principal and eight smaller rôles, this sparkling work is heard complete for the first time and in accordance with the critical edition prepared by the Fondazione Rossini and Casa Ricordi.

Numerous myths surround the supposed failure of Ermione, and while Rossini himself feared the subject might be ‘overly tragic’, he was clearly fond of the work, keeping its manuscript until his death. Ermione is set in the aftermath of the Trojan War, with the Greek princess Ermione consumed with jealousy because Pirro has forsaken her and fallen in love with Andromaca, the widow of Hector. This complex web of emotional turmoil explores the calamitous consequences of passion between larger-than-life characters, with Rossini’s captivating lyrical expressiveness and spectacular vocal acrobatics superbly performed in this acclaimed Rossini in Wildbad production.

Numerous myths surround the supposed failure of Ermione, and while Rossini himself feared the subject might be ‘overly tragic’, he was clearly fond of the work, keeping its manuscript until his death. Ermione is set in the aftermath of the Trojan War, with the Greek princess Ermione consumed with jealousy because Pirro has forsaken her and fallen in love with Andromaca, the widow of Hector. This complex web of emotional turmoil explores the calamitous consequences of passion between larger-than-life characters, with Rossini’s captivating lyrical expressiveness and spectacular vocal acrobatics superbly performed in this acclaimed Rossini in Wildbad production.

Numerous myths surround the supposed failure of Ermione, and while Rossini himself feared the subject might be ‘overly tragic’, he was clearly fond of the work, keeping its manuscript until his death. Ermione is set in the aftermath of the Trojan War, with the Greek princess Ermione consumed with jealousy because Pirro has forsaken her and fallen in love with Andromaca, the widow of Hector. This complex web of emotional turmoil explores the calamitous consequences of passion between larger-than-life characters, with Rossini’s captivating lyrical expressiveness and spectacular vocal acrobatics superbly performed in this acclaimed Rossini in Wildbad production.

Performed for the first time in its original uncut version, this production of Guillaume Tell was the jewel in the crown of the 25-year history of the ‘Rossini in Wildbad’ opera festival. Rossini’s final, great, operatic masterpiece is a story of liberation, the oppressed Swiss attaining their ideal of emancipation by hounding the tyrannical Habsburgs out of their country. Although it was composed for the complex demands of the Paris Opéra, numerous dances, choruses and arias were dropped for reasons of practicality. These are restored in the present recording which also includes the stunning finale of the shorter 1831 version of the opera.

Bianca e Falliero was commissioned by La Scala, Milan, for its prestigious Carnival season of 1819–20, enjoying a run of no fewer than 39 performances. Rossini responded with a score the virtuosity and expressivity of which outdid even his Neapolitan works. Prevailing tastes at La Scala meant that ensembles predominated over arias but behind the conventional dictates Rossini lavished the utmost care on his work, fashioning an opera full of dramatic coloratura and powerful theatrical craft and notable for its rich and often surprising use of harmony.