Various reasons have
been suggested for the failure of Il
Signor Bruschino at its premiere at
the Teatro San Moisè in Venice
in January 1813. It was Rossini’s ninth
opera. In the sixteen months between
L’equivoco stravagante to Bruschino,
he had composed seven operas. With this
pressure of commitment he often used
individual pieces in more than one opera,
a normal practice in that period. With
no copyright legislation Rossini’s earnings
were limited to performances in which
he participated. Payments to the composer
often did not match those of the prima
donna! Thus Rossini plunged into one
opera after another. Within six weeks
of the premiere of Bruschino he was
scheduled to present Tancredi at La
Fenice, the most prestigious Venetian
theatre. Did his audience resent his
desertion of the San Moisè. After
all that theatre had premiered four
of his one act farce written between
1810 and 1813 and which Bruschino was
the last? Or, as has been suggested,
in this work he moved contemporary conventions
a little too far for his audience. The
tapping of music stands by violinist’s
bows early in the overture, for example,
might not have gone down well with conservative
opera going Venetians who knew what
they liked and liked what they knew
best.
Whatever the reasons
for its early failure, Bruschino is
now widely recognised for its innovative
musical qualities. As the Rossini revival
has progressed the work has prospered
on CD. The well-conducted Pavane
issue of 1993 was quickly overtaken
by the star-studded full price version
on DG under the unidiomatic baton of
Ion Marin. In 2000, Arte Nova issued
a vibrantly conducted live performance
from the Tiroler Festpiel. That issue,
like this studio recording, is at super
budget price with an Italian-only libretto.
There is a lot of spoken dialogue in
the work and the all-Italian cast on
this Naxos issue scores highly in this
respect. So should the fact that it
is a studio recording. No intrusive
applause that I found disturbing in
Naxos’s live recording of Rossini’s
sixth opera La
pietra del paragone taped at the
Bad Wildbad Festival in 2001. Common
with that recording is the tenor Alessandro
Codeluppi as Florville. His extremely
promising Rossini tenor singing and
characterisation is even more fully
realised here. His is a full-toned flexible
instrument with the required metal within
it (tr. 2). Regrettably, Elena Rossi
as Sofia does not match his qualities.
She has not the capacity for the florid
passages being neither agile nor true
in coloratura or steady in legato. The
Bruschino of Dario Giorgelè is
adequate if undistinguished whilst the
Gaudenzio of Maurizio Leoniis not always
ideally steady.
The Bruschino on the
DG issue is Claudio Desderi, the conductor
here. To my knowledge Desderi’s conducting
career goes back to 1992. Given that
experience, allied to his renowned singing
of the character parts in Rossini operas
in the major opera houses of the world,
and under the most renowned conductors,
I am surprised he doesn’t let his hair
down more here. His is a careful rather
than the vibrant idiomatic interpretation
I would have expected. Nor does their
backward placing in relation to the
voices help orchestral impact. The accompanying
leaflet has a brief note on Rossini’s
life, a track-related synopsis, artist
profiles and the libretto in Italian
only. Whilst I am glad that Naxos has
given this work the honour of a studio
recording, it lacks the care in casting
and recording of their distinguished
Il Barbiere di Siviglia and Tancredi.
I suggest that those who do not want
the uniformly impressive singing of
the full priced DG, weigh the merits
of this studio recording against the
Arte Nova issue. This last of Rossini’s
one act farces is well worth hearing
for its musical innovations and innate
virtues.
Robert J Farr
see also review
by Christopher Howell
I Virtuosi Italiani/Claudio Desderi 
