Rossini’s first staged opera,
La Cambiale di
Matrimonio, (see
review
of CD and also
DVD)
was premiered at Venice’s Teatro San Moisè in November
1810. It was a full year later before his next opera
L'equivoco
stravagante, appeared in his hometown of Bologna. It was musically
sound and innovative and well received. However, its plot offended
the local censors and it was quickly withdrawn (see
review).
Meanwhile the impresario of the Teatro San Moisè had been
impressed by Rossini’s first effort for his theatre and
was eager for another farsa.
L’Inganno Felice (The
Happy Stratagem) was
premiered there to acclaim on 8 January
1812 during the important Carnival Season. Within a year it had
been staged in Bologna, Florence, Verona and Trieste as well as
at the Teatro San Benedetto, second only to La Fenice in Venice.
The innate quality of the music also enabled Rossini to use the
opera as a calling card when he settled in Naples in 1815 and
then in Paris in 1824, although the work had already been heard
there in 1819. During his lifetime it was the third most performed
of Rossini’s operas. As it traveled, modifications and additions
were made to meet the skills and requirements of particular singers
and theatres.
In many ways
L’Inganno Felice is not a true farsa
or comic opera, but can more properly be seen as an early Rossini
effort at
semi seria. Rossini brought this genre to full
flowering much later in his career. The evidence is to be found
in
Torvaldo e Dorliska, 1815, (see
review
on Naxos CD and also on
Dynamic
DVD), and most notably in
La gazza ladra (The Thieving
Magpie, 1817), (see
review).
Matilde du Shabran of 1822, (see
review)
is a further example. Like
L’Inganno Felice these
works can, be seen as variants of the
rescue opera form
.
Such works usually, but not always as in Beethoven’s
Fidelio,
involve a woman faced with an unspeakable fate.
The story of
L’Inganno Felice concerns Isabella who
was banished and abandoned at sea by her husband Duke Bertrando.
This was done at the instigation of his villainous confidante
Ormondo whose advances Isabella had spurned. In this nefarious
activity Ormondo was aided by a reluctant Batone. Isabella was
found, half dead, on the seashore by Tarbatto, a mineworkers’
leader, and has since lived with him as his niece Nisa. Ten years
later Bertrando arrives with his two henchmen seeking his wife
still the object of his love though he believes her to be dead.
Although Batone has regretted his actions Ormondo has no such
regrets. Batone, having met Nisa, suspects that she is indeed
the Duke’s lost wife. While Ormondo plots to abduct and
kill Nisa, Tarabotto reveals a stratagem to the Duke to foil him.
In the finale the plot is foiled; husband and wife are reconciled,
the guilty punished and the innocent emerge triumphant. It is
rescue opera, semi seria and romantic opera with a touch of comedy
all wrapped into one. No wonder Rossini used it as a calling card;
it certainly stood him in good stead.
In 2008 I awarded the accolade of
Bargain of the Month
to the Naxos issue of the work derived from live performances
recorded three years earlier during the
Rossini In Wildbad
Festival, (see
review).
That performance was in a revised edition by Florian Bauer to
celebrate the reopening of the new theatre. It included the alternative
aria for Isabella prepared for performance at La Scala in 1816
as well as other slight differences that necessitated spreading
onto a second CD. This performance relates more to that included
in the collection of the five farse that Rossini wrote for Venice’s
Teatro Moise between 1810 and 1812. It was included in the
Brilliant
Label collection of all five (see
review).
I can state immediately that this performance is far superior
to that in every respect. It can at least stand alongside that
from Bad Wildbad and whilst also being a live recording it is
without the disturbance of applause. The small-sized orchestra
is ideal and Marc Minkowski draws idiomatic playing in a clear,
well-balanced and warm acoustic.
The singing is first class. Annick Massis is particularly characterful
as Isabella with warm-toned expressive tone and secure coloratura
(tr. 13) managing the demands of clear diction better than most
in the high tessitura and concludes her aria with a secure high
note. As her husband, Raúl Giménez is the epitome
of the desired mellifluous tenor. His flexible
leggiero
tenor, with a
mezza voce to die for, is ideal to convey
Bertrando’s character which he does so with first-rate characterisation
(tr.4). I might quibble about the vocal descriptions of the three
lower male voices. Pietro Spagnoli, designated bass here is, as
we have come to appreciate over the years as a distinguished Figaro
in Rossini’s
Il Barbiere, a true baritone. He portrays
the sympathetic Tarabotto exhibiting his always-welcome qualities
of
even singing and clarity of diction in the recitatives
and ensembles. Rodney Gilfry, darker in timbre than Spagnoli,
gets the aria when Batone recognises Nisa as Isabella and has
to get his mind around the past and present consequences. He sings
with firm, resonant and expressive tone (tr.6). Lorenzo Regazzo
takes the role of Tarabotto in the Naxos issue, sings the real
baddy of the story, Ormondo. Despite the vocal description, he
is a true bass and brings the roles’ villainy to full realisation
in his interpretation as he plans and instructs the abduction
of Nisa (trs.10-11).
The leaflet has a cast-list, track sequence and a track-related
synopsis in English, French and German. It is a pity that the
budget price does not allow for the inclusion of Damien Calas’s
informative essay that accompanied the original issue. One must
however be thankful for small mercies and welcome the return of
this recording to the catalogue as part of the Erato Opera Collection
and at a price that should ensure that every Rossini-lover adds
it to his or her collection if it is not already there.
Robert J Farr
Duke Bertrando - Raúl Giménez (tenor); Isabella, his
wife, known as Nisa - Annick Massis (soprano); Ormondo, a confidante
of the Duke - Lorenzo Regazzo (baritone); Tarabotto, leader of the
mining community - Pietro Spagnoli (bass); Batone, a confident of
Ormondo - Rodney Gilfry (baritone); 
