In the spring of 1815,
at the age of 23 with the opera seria
Tancredi and the buffa work L'Italiana
in Algeri to his credit, Rossini was
summoned to Naples by Domenico Barbarja,
the impresario of the Royal Theatres
of that city, the Fondo and mighty San
Carlo. Barbarja contracted Rossini to
compose two operas each year for Naples.
The contract allowed Rossini, supposedly
occasionally, to compose works for theatres
in other centres. Barbarja's proposals
appealed to Rossini for several reasons.
Most importantly the San Carlo had a
professional orchestra, unlike the theatres
of Rome and Venice for example. The
composer saw this as a considerable
advantage as he aspired to push the
contemporary boundaries of his own,
and opera composition in general, into
more adventurous directions. The San
Carlo theatre was also scheduled to
undergo refurbishment to include unequalled
back stage facilities. Rossini established
himself in Naples and presented the
first of nine opera seria works he was
to compose for the city on 4th
October 1815. Elisabetta, regina d'Inghilterra
was received with great enthusiasm in
Naples. However, without the Spanish
singing stars, Isobel Colbran and Manuel
Garcia, and the tenor Andrea Nozzaria
it had a lukewarm reception elsewhere
in Italy. For the opera, Rossini re-used
the overture from an earlier work and
was to re-cycle it again for Il Barbiere
di Siviglia premiered in Rome in February
1816 and by which usage it is well known
today. Such re-usage was not uncommon
as the overture was seen simply as a
means of getting the opera started and
the audience settled down. For the remaining
music of Elisabetta, Rossini made good
and imaginative use of the professional
musicians with several innovative pieces.
He continued this process throughout
the nine opera seria he composed for
the San Carlo in his seven year stay
in Naples. Musicologists note the greater
sophistication and complexity of his
Naples compositions compared with the
ten extra-curricular works he presented
elsewhere in Italy in the same period
including the buffa Il Barbiere (Rome
20-2-1816) and La Cenerentola (Rome
25-1-1817). The Thieving Magpie (Milan
31-5-1817) has many more of the characteristics
of the Naples operas as would befit
presentation at La Scala.
Ricciardo e Zoraide
is no. 26 in the Rossini operatic oeuvre
and the fifth in the sequence of nine
Naples opera seria. In the third of
the series, Armida,
Rossini concentrated much of his artistic
creativity on writing a work of visual
display that would utilise the new backstage
facilities at the San Carlo. In the
succeeding Mosè, with its portrayal
of the rising Red Sea, the composer
again aimed at visual spectacle but
also with significant musical innovation.
There was no overture, but an opening
chorus with solo contributions from
the Pharaoh, his wife and son. After
Moses turns darkness into light the
andante quartet, Celeste man placanta,
which Charles Osborne (The Bel Canto
Operas) describes as one of Rossini's
finest and most affecting ensembles,
follows. It was through an early LP
recording of extracts from Mosè
that, forty years ago, I first ventured
to investigate Rossini's opera seria.
My quest was thwarted by lack of performances
and official recordings until the Philips
series starting with Elisabetta in 1975.
Recording of other Rossini's operas
quickly followed aided by the establishment
of the Pesaro Festival in 1980, driven
by the enthusiasm of the conductor Alberto
Zedda and the American scholar Philip
Gossett. The latter has suggested that
Ricciardo e Zoraide is musically inferior
to its successor Ermione premiered as
mere three months later. Ermione is
an adaptation of Racine's great tragedy
Andromaque. I have owned a recording
of Ermione for many years and having
listened to it alongside this Ricciardo
e Zoraide I am not convinced of Gossett's
view. History reports that Ricciardo
e Zoraide was enthusiastically received
at both its premiere and San Carlo revival,
as well as at its productions in Paris,
Lisbon, Munich and Lisbon and elsewhere
in Italy. Ermione, by comparison, was
received with indifference at its premiere
and was not heard again until a concert
performance in 1977! Reluctantly I disagree
with Professor Gossett, my intellectual
mentor in this genre, and support the
populist view. I will return more often,
and derive greater pleasure, from this
performance of Ricciardo e Zoraide than
I will from my well sung recorded and
performed Ermione. It may be that the
eminent commentators who take a contrary
view to mine are influenced by the author
of the libretto, an Italian aristocrat.
Although criticised by Byron for his
libretto of Rossini's Otello, for he
was no dilettante but a serious student
and man of letters. The source of his
libretto does not compare with Racine,
but I suggest Rossini's music that had
the populace humming the tunes in the
street makes up any deficiency.
Ricciardo e Zoraide
was regularly performed until 1846 when
it fell from the repertoire until it
was revived at Pesaro in 1990. The cover
of the booklet, with its extensive and
informative essay by Jeremy Commons,
a performance history and complete libretto
with English translation, shows William
Matteuzzi as Ricciardo and Bruce Ford
blacked up as the Nubian King Agorante,
at the 1990 Pesaro revival. This recording
was made in 1995 and the work was performed
again in Pesaro in 1996 conducted, as
here, by David Parry. Rossini's confidence
and innovative nature is immediately
to the fore with the use of a stage
banda and the chorus in place of a formal
overture. Elsewhere the composer's use
of accompanied recitative and the development
of solo items into complex and concerted
ensembles is notable. The opera is set
in Dongola in ancient Nubia. Ricciardo,
a Christian knight, loves Zoraide who
is also loved by Agorante the Nubian
King who has captured her father Ircano.
Keen to protect her position Agorante's
wife Zomira facilitates the capture
of the two lovers. The opera ends with
Christian knights rescuing them and
Ricciardo sparing Agorante's life.
Rossini wrote the roles
for the particular vocal skills of the
San Carlo singers including Isobel Colbran
whose coloratura skills and variety
of vocal colouring was renowned. In
the Colbran role of Zoraide Nelly Miricioiu
gives a performance of great technical
agility, tonal variety and histrionic
skill. This is well evidenced in the
final scene as Zoraide pleads for her
father's life and that of her lover
before they are liberated (CD 3. trs.
7-9). In the high tessitura role of
Ricciardo, written for one of the San
Carlo wonder tenors Giovanni David,
William Matteuzzi gives one of his best
performances on record. He has not the
tonal mellifluousness of Diego Florez
but he sings the high florid tessitura
of the role with accuracy and only the
slightest, occasional, hint of dry tone
or nasality. All the Naples opera seria
used the glorious roster of the house
tenors to the full. The vocal demands
on Agorante, sung by Bruce Ford, are
as considerable as those made on the
role of Ricciardo, but demanding a greater
strength of voice lower down the tenor
range. For over a century it seemed
that the tenor demands Rossini made
in these operas were never going to
be met again. Bruce Ford's assumption
of a role written for Andrea Nozzari
is a veritable tour de force. Whether
in duet with Zoraide (CD 2. trs 11-13),
glorying in his power or in his contribution
to the wonderful inventive quartet Contra
cento (CD 2. trs 15-16) leading to the
dramatic ‘Let her be dragged to the
deepest dungeon' (tr. 17) his well-characterised
singing is at the heart of this performance.
Della Jones as the scheming wife Zomira
sings with evenness and a wide variety
of colour (CD 3. tr. 2). Her vocal timbre
is nicely contrasted with that of Nelly
Miricioiu as Zoraide. Whilst recognising
this is not a trousers role I did I
hanker after Marilyn Horne's chest notes
once or twice! Alastair Miles, as Zoraide's
father Ircano, is tonally sonorous and
steady and portrays the character well.
Paul Nilon and the young Alice Coote
are notable in the comprimario roles
that are without weakness. David Parry's
conducting makes the most of Rossini's
inventive and adventurous score. As
in all these bel canto operas recorded
by Opera Rara the George Mitchell Choir
play a vital part, but none more so
than here where Rossini really made
the chorus contribution really significant
to the unfolding drama. The recording
is typical with the clear solo voices
set slightly back on the sound stage.
I have indicated something
of the quality of the accompanying booklet.
In my view Jeremy Commons' essays for
Opera Rara deserve their own collection;
they contain so many gems of information.
Here, as in other issues, he also details
something of the research that went
in to deriving the performing edition
recorded here. This may well have more
music than heard in Naples at the premiere,
as pages of the autograph previously
stuck together, at some unknown time,
have been opened out and included.
This recording from
Opera Rara can stand alongside the various
other studio recordings of Rossini's
Naples period marketed in the last twenty
years. I cannot envisage another recording
of the work and even if one did materialise
it would be hard pressed to better the
performance and recording standard found
here, let alone the supporting documentation
of this issue. Just as I enjoy Aida
and Don Carlos as much as Otello and
Falstaff for their melodic beauty, without
recourse to musicological ideology,
so I enjoyed this Ricciardo e Zoraide
as much as Mosè, Maometto, La
donna del lago and Zelmira, the other
undoubted innovative masterpieces of
Rossini's Naples opera seria.
Robert J Farr
Academy of St Martin in the Fields/ David Parry,
