The 39th edition of the Rossini Opera Festival (ROF) in Pesaro, the composer's birthplace, coincided with the 150th anniversary of his death. Perhaps for this reason, the festival, which ran from August 11 to 23, concluded with a performance of his "Petite messe solennelle". On the program, as usual, three staged opera productions alongside the by now traditional performance of "Il Viaggio a Reims" by students of the Accademia Rossiniana "Alberto Zedda" and a number of concerts and recitals.
The festival opened with "Ricciardo e Zoraide", a rarely performed or known "dramma serio per musica" created at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples on December 3, 1818, during Rossini's prolific Neapolitan period. But unlike "Mosè in Egitto" (also created in Naples in the same year), "Ricciardo e Zoraide" never achieved the same success. The reason? Perhaps the uninspired, rather complicated libretto by Francesco Berio Di Salsa about the trials and tribulations of the Asian prince Ircano who, during the period of the Crusades, sought refuge in Nubia and there comes into conflict with the local king Agorante. The latter wants to marry Ircano's daughter Zoraide, much to the fury of his wife Zomira. But Zoraide loves the brave paladin Ricciardo, and he will ultimately rescue her from Agorante's clutches, reconcile the daughter with her father, and grant forgiveness to Agorante and Zomira. Moreover, the opera requires three tenors with contrasting vocal demands, a soprano and mezzo with ample voices, and in addition to the orchestra in the pit, a "banda" for stage music is also needed. Reason enough, then, to think twice about a possible performance.
But Pesaro was not deterred by this and assembled a cast of singers who did justice to Rossini's score. The three tenor roles were excellently performed by harmonizing voices. Juan Diego Florez, the star of Pesaro (where his career was launched in 1996), was Ricciardo, courageous and in love, deploying his distinctive timbre and vocal virtuosity without reserve. Agorante, a role for a "bari-tenore", was performed with style by Sergey Romanowky, although he could have had somewhat more vocal power at times. With his sunny, delightfully flowing sound, beautiful phrasing and rich tone, Xabier Anduaga (Ernesto) was a real discovery. As Zoraide, Pretty Yende proved herself worthy of Isabella Colbran, for whom the role was written, through her sensitive, radiant singing and intense performance. Victoria Yarovaya (to be heard at Opera Vlaanderen in "Sadko") lent her rich mezzo to the scheming Zomira, and Nicola Ulivieri was a worthy Ircano.
Giacomo Sagripanti conducted the ensemble, the choirs of the Teatro Ventidio Basso and the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della Rai in a coherent performance that made Rossini's score sound good and brought the opera beautifully to life, something in which Marshall Pynkoski's staging lamentably failed. This Canadian director, who made a name for himself especially through his stagings of baroque operas, decided to completely ignore the Asian-African context and concentrate his staging on the power relations between the protagonists. An approach that is completely defensible and does not betray the opera in any way, as so many productions do today. Nothing wrong with that, then, except that his direction of the characters and especially the chorus was unconvincing and often too static and even rather clumsy, and there was little dramatic élan to be seen. The sets and costumes (Gerard Gauci, Michael Gianfrancesco) combined East and West in peculiarly contrasting styles (lavish 18th-century Western dresses, warriors straight out of the Balkans, and a crusader in bishop's robes)! Completely unnecessary were the ballet numbers (choreography Jeannette Lajeunesse Zingg) in well-behaved, classical style that didn't fit anywhere and were rather irritating. Part of the audience made their disapproval quite clear during the final applause!
Adina, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Il viaggio a Reims
The second opera on the programme was "Adina" a "farsa in un atto" a short comic opera in one act, for which Rossini received the commission in that same year 1818 but which ultimately premiered only in 1826 at the opera San Carlo in Lisbon. Because there was initially haste to complete the composition, Rossini would have combined some fragments from existing operas with new numbers and entrusted the recitatives to collaborators. But that haste apparently was unnecessary as "Adina" premiered eight years later. The libretto by Gherardo Bevilaqua Aldobrandini follows the Eastern subjects that were popular for comic operas in the 17th and 18th centuries — think of Mozart's "Entführung aus dem Serail" or Rossini's own "l'Italiana in Algeri" or "Il Turco in Italia". It concerns a caliph who wants to marry the young slave girl Adina because she reminds him of Zora, his great, lost love. Adina agrees because she believes her beloved Selimo is dead. But he turns out to be very much alive and that changes matters. Eventually the caliph discovers that Adina is his and Zora's daughter and of course a happy ending follows. All of this was set to music by Rossini and his assistants with melodious melodies and the necessary ironic touches. For her staging of this coproduction with the Wexford festival in Ireland, Rosetta Cucchi (like Rossini born in Pesaro) chose a frivolous, film-inspired approach. The set by Tiziano Santi does not represent an Eastern harem but an enormous wedding cake around which a colourful company is (overly) busy. Adina and her short-skirted companions populate the upper layer of the cake, the caliph the lower one. Selimo hides under a large gardener's hat and his friend Mustafa appears to be busy under the cake. Surrounded by the many, sometimes distracting, extras the story is told with the necessary imagination and the protagonists can express their feelings. This happens convincingly through Lisette Oropresa, a charming, sexy Adina with supple, virtuosic, expressive soprano, the nobly singing Vito Priante as the lovesick caliph, who changes from betrayed ruler to loving father, and Levy Sakgapane as Adina's beloved Selimo with slender tenor. Good minor parts by Matteo Macchioni (Ali) and David Giangregorio (Mustafa) and fine performance by the Coro del Teatro della Fortuna M. Agostini. Diego Matheuz conducted the Orchestra Sinfonica G. Rossini with a light, nimble hand.
"Il barbiere di Siviglia", perhaps Rossini's most popular opera but not for that reason the most frequently performed work in Pesaro, received a new staging by the master Pier Luigi Pizzi (now 88 years old!) a regular guest in Pesaro since 1982 who now for the first time dealt with Rossini's barber. It was a particularly stylish, aesthetic staging in Pizzi's own set and costume designs with dominating black and white colours, no wild affair but a bourgeois comedy in essence with sharply drawn but never exaggerated characters, closely adhering to Beaumarchais' play on which librettist Cesare Sterbini based himself. Text and music were scrupulously respected: we heard an "edizione critica integrale" (complete critical performance) with some short, rarely heard fragments, which thus never betrayed the work but also gave it a somewhat streamlined, more modern interpretation in which the humour was brought with fine touches. This very enjoyable vision was superbly performed by a host of excellent singer-actors with strong personalities. Perhaps the weakest was Aya Wakizono, a beautiful Rosina with a homogeneous, warm mezzo-soprano but somewhat lacking in character. That cannot be said of the brilliant Figaro by Davide Luciano with bronze voice and strong presence or of the sweet-sounding Count Almaviva by Maxim Mironov with much authority and the necessary vocal virtuosity to perform the demanding tenor finale "Cessa di piu resistere" which was previously usually omitted. Michele Pertusi presented an impressive Basilio in its sobriety with expressive and where necessary thundering voice and Pietro Spagnoli not only provided the necessary comic touches but also dignity to Don Bartolo. Elena Zilio acquitted herself bravely as Berta and William Corro did fine work as Fiorello and Ufficiale. A good performance also by the chorus of the Teatro Ventidio Basso and the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI conducted by Yves Abel who gave the performance pace, lightness and drive and let the melodic richness blossom.
Aya Wakizono and Maxim Mironov are two of the many singers who in recent years participated in the Accademia Rossiniana "Alberto Zedda" and each festival get to present themselves to the audience in two performances of "Il viaggio a Reims" with its many vocal parts. This year too the simple but effective staging by Emilio Sagi was resumed accompanied by the Filarmonica Gioachino Rossini this time conducted by Hugo Carrio. It was again a fine experience in which this time especially the warm voices and the interpretative talent of Carles Pachon (Lord Sidney), Petr Sokolov (Don Profondo) and Igor Onishchenko (Barone Trombook) and the presence of Maria Barakova (Marchesa Melibea) were noteworthy.
Bronze tones
Of the various concerts and recitals, I was able to attend two. The American soprano Lisette Oropresa, accompanied by the Filarmonica Gioachino Rossini conducted by Christopher Franklin, offered a recital with arias by Mozart, Verdi, Meyerbeer, Bizet, Saint-Saêns, Gounod and Rossini and demonstrated her voice control, singing art, interpretive ability and excellent text projection in the various repertoires. She is a sensitive singer who knows how to interpret, does not pursue extra vocal effects but uses her voice to bring text and music to life and does so with great style. The audience reacted enthusiastically. Her debut in Pesaro can certainly be called a success!
The Sicilian baritone Nicola Alaimo has been a regular and beloved guest in Pesaro since 2010. This time he presented some "Grandi scene Rossiniani" accompanied by the chorus of the Teatro Della Fortuna M. Agostini and the Orchestra Sinfonica G. Rossini under the direction of the young conductor Michele Spotti. He was runner-up last year in the conducting competition organized by the Opéra Royal de Wallonie. In 2017 he also conducted the performances of "Il viaggio a Reims" in Pesaro. Each large Rossini scene that Alaimo performed was introduced by actor Remo Girone, who did so with the necessary humor. Alaimo presented fragments from "Torvaldo e Dorliska", an opera which he performed in Pesaro last year, and then, somewhat surprisingly, from "Maometto II", "Il Viaggio a Reims" and "Semiramide" which are actually intended for bass. In any case, he performed all fragments with bronze tones and excellent interpretive ability, well accompanied and supported by chorus and orchestra. Of course, encores had to come, and they came from Alaimo's familiar repertoire: "Guillaume Tell" and "La cenerentola", the first fragment performed with full emotion and drama, the second with delightful comic talent and winks to the audience. The audience cheered.
For next year, Pesaro announces productions of "Semiramide", "L'equivoco stravagante" and "Demetrio e Polibio" between 8 and 20 August 2019.
- WHO: Teatro Ventidio Basso, Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI, Yves Abel, Filarmonica Gioachino Rossini, Hugo Carrio, Christopher Franklin
- WHAT: Rossini Opera Festival
- WHERE & WHEN: Pesaro 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 August 2018