The thirty-nine operas
of Gioachino ROSSINI
(1792-1868)
A conspectus of their
composition and recordings
Gioachino
Rossini was born on February 29th
1792 in Pesaro on the Adriatic coast
of what we now call Italy and which
at that time was a series of separate
states under foreign occupation. He
died in 1868 at the age of 75 with his
serious operas swept from the performing
stage by the works of Verdi.
After his death Rossini was mainly
remembered for his comic operas, particularly
his eleventh work L’Italiana in Algeri
of 1813, his sixteenth Il Barbiere
di Siviglia of 1815 and La Cenerentola,
his twentieth, first performed at the
Teatro Valle, Rome, on 25th
January 1817. At the death of Beethoven
in 1827 Rossini was widely regarded
as the foremost composer of his day.
At the height of his fame he was fêted
in Vienna, where he met Beethoven, in
England where he sang duets with the
King, and in Paris where he was appointed
director of the Théâtre
Italien.
Rossini presented his final opera in
1829, thirty-nine years before his death!
It was, coincidentally, his thirty-ninth
opera and although he received many
proposals for further operatic works
he resisted them all. In later years
he composed over one hundred and fifty
pieces for performance at the ‘Samedi
soirs’ held at the Paris home he shared
with his second wife Olympe. He referred
to these pieces as ‘Pêches de
vieillesse’ (sins of old age).
There were also the significant religious
pieces, the Stabat Mater (1832
and 1842) and La Petite Messe Solennelle
(1864 and 1867). original
version recorded live at Compiègne).
These latter pieces arose from particular
circumstances and friendships.
As to the reasons behind Rossini’s
premature retirement after Guillaume
Tell, one of the most glorious and
romantic of operatic scores, there is
only conjecture. Although he worked
on at the Théâtre Italien
Rossini was in poor physical and mental
health with persistent and painful urethritis
from chronic gonorrhoea, a consequence
of too many nights in the arms of Venus
as one of his friends explained. This
condition meant frequent and painful
catheterisations as well as other stringent
and debilitating treatments; there were
no antibiotics in those days! More significantly
perhaps, was that after Guillaume
Tell, when he had taken a year over
the composition, he feared return to
the pressurised compositional demands
of his early years.
From 1811 to 1818 he composed and staged
at least three operas each year. This
pace of creativity was necessary for
a composer to earn a living. There were
no copyright laws in, or between, any
of the Italian states. Also a composer’s
score belonged to the impresario of
the theatre who had commissioned the
work. The composer received his fee
for delivering the work and seeing it
presented on the stage. He was required
to be present at the keyboard for the
first three performances in case the
orchestra lost their way, a not unusual
circumstance in Italy where only the
La Scala theatre in Milan and San Carlo
in Naples had a full time professional
orchestra. Elsewhere, as Rossini himself
noted in Rome, his barber of the morning
might be an orchestral player at the
evening performance. In Il Barbiere
di Siviglia the tenor at the premiere,
Manuel Garcia, was paid three times
the composer’s fee and the soprano twice
as much! No wonder Rossini needed to
write rapidly and travel widely to make
a living let alone secure his future.
Given the pressures of composition,
Rossini, like Bach, Haydn, Paisiello
and Cimarosa before him, did not hesitate
to re-use themes or sections of music
from an earlier work which had not been
heard in the city of the new composition.
It was a common practice of the time
and not a reflection on Rossini’s personal
predilection for socialising on arrival
in the city scheduled for his new work
and before settling down to compose
in his usual speedy and felicitous manner.
Rossini’s father was a professional
horn player and his mother an untrained,
but skilled, soprano who sang small
parts in opera. By age 13, as well as
singing in Paer’s opera Camilla
in Bologna to which city the family
had moved, the young Gioachino had composed
the admired ‘six sonate a quatro’ as
well as several overtures and masses.
At 14 he entered the Liceo Musicale
in Bologna and was reported to have
devoured the music of Haydn and Mozart.
More importantly he supplied display
arias for insertion into operas by other
composers being performed in Bologna
- a common practice.
His first opera was composed during
his time as a student to a commission
by the tenor Domenico Marbelli who,
together with his two daughters, formed
the nucleus of an itinerant operatic
group commonly found at that time. That
work, Demetrio e Polibio,
(No 1) was not staged until May 1812
by which time five of Rossini’s other
works had been presented. A CD issue
of a live performance from the 1992
Valle d’Itria Festival was issued on
the Dynamic label in 1997 (CDS 171).
On record Rossini’s operas have had
a chequered existence. In the first
twenty years of LPs only the three popular
comic operas, plus conductor Gui’s Glyndebourne
Le Comte Ory, Callas in Il
Turco in Italia and one opera seria
had anything approaching a regular presence
in the catalogue. That situation only
really changed in the mid-1970s when,
under Erik Smith’s guidance, Philips
embarked on a series of recordings of
Rossini’s Naples opera seria. The arrival
of the Pesaro Festival in the early
1980s stimulated live recordings, as
at a later date did performances from
the Bad Wildbad Festival.
The present situation is that most
of Rossini’s operas have been available
in audio recordings with gaps rapidly
being filled by Opera Rara and Naxos.
I use the past tense regarding availability
because many of the early live performances
from Pesaro, and which appeared on CBS
and Sony, are not currently available
and the same applies to a number of
studio recordings from the Universal
stable. Some of the latter are reappearing
at cheaper price.
Particularly welcome is the emergence
on DVDs of a number of works including
at least two that have no current audio
performance in the catalogue. Except
where links are provided to reviews
on Musicweb, I provide catalogue
numbers of the last availability of
a particular opera of which I have knowledge,
but this can only be a guide.
In the first decades of the 19th
century every major city in the states
of Italy boasted two or even three theatres
presenting opera, which was the popular
entertainment among the population whatever,
their social status. The audience expected
new works and the impresario would commission
several each season guaranteeing at
least three performances to each. Impresarios
clamoured and competed for new works
from established composers. The problem
for aspiring composers was getting a
foot on the ladder. Rossini was lucky
when a German composer reneged on his
contract at the Teatro San Moisè
in Venice. The smallest of Venice’s
three theatres, it was run on a shoestring
and staged ‘farse’ (comic opera) which
required little scenery or staging.
Members of the San Moisè theatre
troupe, who were friends of Rossini’s
family, successfully pressed the claims
of the young Gioachino to replace the
German.
Rossini’s first staged opera, La
Cambiale Di Matrimonio (No.
2) was premiered at the theatre on November
30th 1810; Rossini was 19
years old. The work has pace energy
and wit. It was well received and Rossini’s
career was off to an encouraging start,
its success leading to contracts for
another four. These were premiered between
January 1812 and January 1813. The four,
and their number in Rossini’s compositional
sequence were L’Inganno Felice,
(The Happy Stratagem) (No. 4),
La Scala Di Sieta, (The
Silken Ladder) No. 6, L’occasione
fa il Ladro, (Opportunity Makes
the Thief) (No. 8) and
Il Signor Bruschino, (No.
9). Claves recorded all five in the
late 1980s and 
early
1990s with the conductor Marcello Viotti
making the most of the young Rossini’s
modest innovations and scintillating
tunes. The Brilliant label have
re-issued this collection at bargain
price (review).
Despite some individual vocal limitations,
and an over-resonant acoustic for La
Cambiale Di Matrimonio, the
set provides an unequalled opportunity
to hear these works, some of which are
not available elsewhere. Of those that
are, there is an excellently cast and
recorded L’Inganno Felice,
(Erato 0630-17579-2) and a starry
cast Il Signor Bruschino (DG 435 856-2).
The latter rather eclipses the Naxos
issue except on price.
It was another year after the premiere
of La Cambiale Di Matrimonio
before Rossini’s next opera, was staged
at his hometown of Bologna. During this
period Rossini earned a sparse living
as a coach at the Accademia dei Concordi
in Bologna and by conducting 
works
of other composers. He received a commission
to write an opera for the Bologna’s
Teatro del Corso and provided with the
libretto of L’equivoco stravagante
(No 3) (A Bizarre Deception).
(review)
This work was very well received by
the audience but was withdrawn after
its initial three contracted performances
when the local prefecture considered
its plot immoral and corrupting! Rossini
re-used some of the music to good effect
in later operas but not, as is sometimes
reported, its overture for Il Barbiere
Di Siviglia. The opera is ambitiously
long for a nineteen year old with the
prominence of ensembles over solos and
secco recitatives being of particular
note. The Naxos
performance from the Bad Wildbad
Festival, which is known as the Pesaro
of the north, is a World Premier Recording
and is thoroughly recommendable.
Rossini composed two other works in
the intervals between the five Teatro
San Moise farse. The first was Ciro
in Babilonia, (No. 5). This
work, based on the subject of Belshazzar’s
feast was written by the twenty-year-old
Rossini for Ferrara and premiered there
on March 14th 1812. It was
performed at the Bad Wildbad Festival
in 2004 and a 
recording
is in preparation from Naxos. An earlier
performance conducted by Carlo Rizzi
was available on the Akademia label
(CDAK 105). The second work, La
Pietra del Paragone, (No. 7),
(review)
was premiered at La Scala, Milan on
September 26th 1812. Then,
as now, La Scala was the premier opera
house in Italy. Its commission indicates
that Rossini was making rapid progress
in the competitive business of opera
composition. This two-act opera buffa
was an instant success and performed
over fifty times during the season with
Rossini being widely hailed as Italy’s
leading young composer. The work allowed
Rossini to show off his skills as a
romantic scene painter. It was in the
finale of La Pietra del Paragone
that the public first heard the
Rossini crescendo. Most importantly,
and as a consequence of its success,
Rossini was exempted military service;
very useful when there were 90,000 Italian
conscripts sustaining heavy losses in
the Peninsular War and on the Russian
Campaign! Despite its reputation La
Pietra del Paragone has not fared
well on record. A 1971 recording featuring
the young Carreras (Vanguard) has long
been unavailable and the reviewed recording
from the 2001 Bad Wildbad festival is
welcome despite limitations. Other live
recordings, mostly deriving from Italian
theatres, are to be found on the Nuova
Era label. They list one of La Pietra
del Paragone (7132-33) conducted
by Claudio Desderi the renowned Rossini
buffa who is the non-too sprightly conductor
of Naxos’ Il Signor Bruschino.
Il Signor Bruschino [review]
is now recognised as the most musically
mature and innovative of Rossini’s farse
although at the time it was not well
received. The audience may not have
responded to there being more spoken
dialogue than in the four earlier works
in the series that they had liked and
applauded. Also it was widely known
in Venice that within six weeks of the
premier of Bruschino Rossini
was scheduled to present Tancredi
at La Fenice, the most prestigious,
and more socially elite, Venetian theatre.
Maybe his audience resented his desertion
of the San Moisè. After all that
theatre had premiered five of his one
act farse written between 1810 and 1813
of which Bruschino was the last.
Or, as has been suggested, the work
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 the
conservative opera-goers of the San
Moisè who knew what they liked
and liked what they knew best.
The clientele of Venice’s La Fenice
were more sophisticated musically than
their fellow citizens at the Teatro
San Moisè, and with Tancredi,
(No. 10) (review)
Rossini fulfilled all their expectations.
Based on Voltaire’s tragedy, but given
a happy ending, its catchy tune from
the cavatina Di tanti palpiti became
the whistle tune in Italian streets
until displaced by Verdi’s La donna
e mobile forty years later. For
the second staging in Ferrara a few
weeks after the Venice premiere on February
6th 1813, Rossini wrote a
tragic ending to match Voltaire. Both
versions provide an ideal vehicle for
a dramatic mezzo in the title role.
The bargain price Naxos issue (review)
of the original ending is superbly served
by Ewa Podles’ interpretation and characterisation
of Tancredi and where her vocal quality
is matched by the coloratura of Sumi
Jo as Tancredi’s lover. Marilyn Horne
did much to revive this opera and her
interpretation, again in the tragic
ending, was recorded live at La Fenice
in 1983 with the great singer at the
peak of her powers (CBS M3K 39073).
Also available is a 1978 studio recording
with Fiorenza Cossotto giving a well-sung
interpretation of the title role (Warner
Fonit 5050466-1814-2-8). There is a
DVD available from Arthaus Musik (100
206).
Whilst Rossini’s reputation was on
the rise in the states of Italy, Tancredi
spread his reputation more widely. It
is the earliest of the composer’s opera
seria and can be seen not only as the
epitome of bel canto but also, more
significantly, as the stirring of Romanticism
in Italian opera. It is no accident
that the work has played a significant
role in the revival of bel canto operas
that emerged in the second half of the
twentieth century. In 1992, the bicentenary
of Rossini’s birth, it was chosen for
concert performances at the renowned
Salzburg Festival.
After his visit to Ferrara to present
the revised Tancredi, Rossini
returned to Venice to write and to present
L’Italiana in Algeri,
(No. 11), at the Teatro San Benedetto
Theatre on 22nd May 1813.
It is the earliest of the composer’s
truly great full-length comedies. He
claimed to have composed the work in
a mere eighteen days and it certainly
has speed as well as felicitous melodies.
It was rapturously received and although
it fell from the repertoire for a period
early in the 20th century it was revived
for the Spanish coloratura Conchita
Supervia in 1925. It is one of the few
Rossini operas to have had a presence
in the catalogue since the early days
of LP. The overture is most appealing
with the, by now, inevitable crescendo
to go along with a tuneful brio. The
role of the feisty Isabella as the eponymous
heroine has drawn many of the great
post-Second World War mezzos to record
it. Of particular note are the recordings
by Marilyn Horne (Erato 2292-45404-2
in 1981) [highlights],
Agnes Baltsa (DG 427 331-2) in 1987
and 
most
recently Jennifer Larmore in 1997 (Teldec
0630-17130-2). Lucia Valentini-Terrani
recorded the role twice. On the second
of her recordings (Arts Archives 43048-2)
(review)
she is in full-toned voice, her flexible
coloratura and facility in vocal characterisation
combining to give an outstanding portrayal.
The rest of the Italian cast bring a
welcome clarity of enunciation and relish
to their words despite a rather resonant
recording.
Tancredi and L’Italiana
in Algeri launched Rossini on an
unstoppable career that saw him become
the most prestigious opera composer
of his time although this burgeoning
reputation did not command the success
of his next two operas, both commissioned
by La Scala, Milan. The first, Aureliano
in Palmira (No. 12) opened the
Carnival (winter) season on December
1813. Giovanni Velluti (1761-1861) the
last of the great castrati sang the
hero Arsace, as he did when the opera
was presented in London in 1826. It
was the only time that Rossini wrote
a work for castrato voice. Despite its
modest reception Aureliano in Palmira
was given fourteen times in
the Milan season. In a live recording
on Nuova Era (7069-70) the role is sung
by the Italian mezzo Luciana d’Intino.
The second of the Milan duo, Il
Turco in Italia (No. 13) premiered
on August 14th 1814, was
initially seen by the Milanese as a
repeat of L’Italiana in Algeri,
which it manifestly is not. It quickly
spread to other Italian cities, and
abroad, and was received with acclaim.
The role of Fiorilla is a gift for a
singing actress with coloratura flexibility.
Maria Callas instigated a revival of
the work in the early 1950s and recorded
it with Nicolai Gedda in September 1954.
Her infectious portrayal has been widely
admired, but the mono sound and abridged
version have been superseded and displaced
by later stereo versions including a
scintillating performance by Cecilia
Bartoli under Chailly’s baton (Decca
458 924-2) where she is partnered by
the young Ramon Vargas and some of the
best Italian buffa singers of the day.
However modestly Rossini’s two operas
for Milan were received, it was nothing
compared to the failure of Sigismondo
(No. 14) at Venice’s La Fenice on December
26th 1814. Even the composer
himself described it as a fiasco! After
a revival in 1992 conducted by Richard
Bonynge, Julian Budden, the eminent
scholar of Italian opera wrote, ‘Good
to hear once but definitely not for
the repertoire’. Rossini re-worked some
of the music to better effect in later
works. The failure of Sigismondo
mattered little as the entrepreneur
and formidable impresario of the Royal
Theatres of Naples, Domenico Barbaja,
saw Rossini as pre-eminent among his
contemporaries. He summoned Rossini
to the city and offered him the position
of musical director of the city’s two
Royal Theatres, the San Carlo and Fondo.
Barbaja’s proposals appealed to Rossini
for several reasons. Not only was his
annual fee generous and guaranteed,
but also 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 boundaries
of his opera composition into more adventurous
directions and which would also be more
acceptable to the sophisticated audience
of the San Carlo.
Elisabetta regina d’Inghilterra
(No. 15), premiered to great enthusiasm
on October 4th 1815 was the
first of nine opera seria Rossini composed
for Naples. In the music he makes imaginative
use of the professional musicians with
several innovations. Not least he dispensed
with unaccompanied recitative to give
added dramatic vigour. He also wrote
out in full the embellishments he expected
from his singers, thus avoiding their
choosing to show off their vocal prowess
to the detriment of the drama. A 1975
Philips recording (432 453-2), of Elisabetta,
one of a series of ground-breaking recordings
of Rossini’s opera seria on that label,
and featuring José Carreras and
Montserrat Caballé, has largely
been displaced by an Opera Rara issue
(ORC 22) which is totally complete.
Under the terms of the contract, Rossini
was to provide two operas each year
for Naples whilst being permitted to
compose occasional works for other cities.
In the first two years of the contract
he composed no fewer than five operas
for other venues, including four for
Rome where he went after the premiere
of Elisabetta to present
performances of Il Turco in Italia
at the Teatro Valle and to write
a new work, Torvaldo e Dorliska
(No. 16). A well cast performance conducted
by Rossini scholar Alberto Zedda did
appear on LP, but I have never come
across it on CD. Naxos has a performance
from Bad Wildbad, conducted by de Marchi,
awaiting issue. The work is also scheduled
for production at Pesaro in 2006. Previously
to the premiere of Torvaldo e Dorliska
on 15th December, Rossini
signed a contract with the rival Teatro
de Torre Argentina in Rome for a comic
opera to be presented during its Carnival
Season and to be delivered by mid-January!
It was decided that the opera would
be based on Beaumarchais’ play Le
Barbier de Séville. For Rossini
this posed a difficulty in that Paisiello
had set an opera by the same name in
1782 and both it, and the composer,
were greatly respected. Rossini moved
to ensure Paisiello took no personal
offence with his younger colleague and
the opera was presented as Almaviva,
ossia L’inutile precauzione
(the useless precaution) with the sequence
of scenes distinctly different. Despite
Rossini’s efforts Paisiello’s supporters
created a disturbance on the first night
and turned it into a fiasco. On the
second night Rossini was tactfully ill
and did not attend the theatre, as stipulated
in his contract. The performance was
an unprecedented success after which
the cast and supporters walked to Rossini’s
lodgings carrying candles and singing
tunes from the opera. After its initial
seven performances in Rome the opera
began to be called Il Barbiere
di Siviglia. It was soon performed
as such around Italy and reached London
on the 10th March 1818 and
New York the following year. It is the
only opera by 
Rossini
to have maintained its place in the
repertoire in the theatres of Italy,
and elsewhere around the world, throughout
its life. A Naxos recording, complete
with all the recitatives is an outstanding
bargain (review).
For a starrier cast the erstwhile Philips
recording conducted by Marriner with
Thomas Allen and Agnes Baltsa, has been
re-issued by Decca at mid price (470
434-2). A DVD of the 1972 Unitel Film
based on Jean-Pierre Ponelle’s production
at La Scala and conducted by Claudio
Abbado (review)
is among a plethora of audio and video
recordings of this ever-popular work
which enchanted both Beethoven and Verdi.
A 1944 live performance from the Metropolitan
Opera, New York, featuring Salvatore
Baccaloni and Ezio Pinza in the cast
is available on the Guild label (review).
On his return to Naples, Rossini found
the San Carlo had been destroyed by
fire. He composed a cantata to celebrate
the marriage of the daughter of the
King of Naples, for which he pillaged
much of the music from his own previous
works, following which he composed his
only buffa for Naples, La Gazzetta
(No. 18). It was premiered at the small
Teatro dei Fiorentina on 26th
September 1816. This premier had been
postponed because Rossini was indulging
his social life to the full, as was
his wont. Perhaps the soprano Isabella
Colbran, then the mistress of Barbaja,
was also distracting him. It was she
for whom he wrote the lead soprano parts
in all the nine Naples opera seria.
Colbran was to transfer her affections
to Rossini eventually becoming his wife.
La Gazzetta is full of
self-borrowings but is a delightful
piece. Audio recordings of live performances
have appeared on the Nuova Era and Bongiovanni
labels. A first film of a stage performance,
that from Barcelona’s Gran Teatre del
Liceu in July 2005, is scheduled for
release by Opus Arte on DVD in 2006.
Certainly Barbaja was getting tetchy
with the delays in the completion of
the next scheduled opera seria. He complained,
in writing, to the administrator of
the Royal Theatres about Rossini’s dilatoriness
in providing the finished work whilst
being active with his social engagements.
The work concerned, Otello
(No. 19), should have been premiered
on October 10th. It was first
postponed for a month before being eventually
staged on December 4th 1816.
As the San Carlo was not yet rebuilt
it was staged at the smaller Royal Theatre,
the Teatro del Fondo. While in 1816
there had been musical adaptations of
some of Shakespeare’s non-tragic plays,
Rossini’s choice of Otello
with its tragic ending was distinctly
adventurous. Press and public alike
enthusiastically received the work although
there were criticisms of the verses
and treatment of Shakespeare. Whilst
Rossini did write a happy ending (lieto
fine) for Rome in the 1819-1820 season,
the opera quickly spread throughout
Italy and maintained a place in the
repertoire until swept away by Verdi’s
penultimate masterpiece sixty years
later. In writing for Naples Rossini
had to accommodate the distinguished
roster of singers Barbaja had assembled
in the company. These included the tenors
Giovanni David, who had a range of three
octaves, and Andrea Nozzari whose heroic
voice was both strong and flexible with
a wide extension. These types of tenor
voices seemed to be in decline up to
the 1980s, a situation that made staging
of Rossini’s opera seria difficult.
In Otello there are three prima
tenor roles. On record, the 1978 recording
(Philips 432 456-2) features Carreras,
Fisichella and Lewis in these roles
with the delectable American lyric coloratura
Frederica Von Stade in the Isabella
Colbran role of Desdemona. Colbran had
a mezzo’s tonal colouring and a vocal
range from G below the stave to E flat
in alt. Von Stade assays the role with
aplomb as does the soprano Elizabeth
Futral on the Opera Rara issue (review).
Although William Matteuzzi in the David
role of Rodrigo is in poor voice, the
singing of Bruce Ford in the title role
obviates any limitation. He is more
a Rossini singer than Carreras, and
the clear differentiation in tone of
Juan José Lopera in the role
of Iago is a further advantage in listening.
The Opera Rara issue provides the happy
ending as an appendix as well as several
alternative arias that Rossini wrote
for particular singers at later performances.
Prior to leaving Rome after Il Barbiere
di Siviglia, Rossini had agreed
to return with a new opera to open the
carnival season on December 26th
1816 With the delays in the premiere
of Otello he did not arrive in
Rome until mid-December and then to
find that the Papal Censors had embargoed
the libretto provided for him by Jacapo
Ferretti. At a late night crisis meeting
with the impresario and Ferretti the
subject of La Cenerentola
(No. 20) was agreed, as was a postponed
premiere. Ferretti’s libretto owes as
much to plagiarism of another poet’s
work as to Charles Perrault’s original
‘Cinderella’ fairy tale. Likewise, in
the pressure of circumstances, Rossini
re-used the overture of La Gazzetta,
written a few months earlier for Naples.
He also employed a local musician, Luca
Angolini, to assist him by composing
all the secco recitatives as well as
other pieces. These additions by Angolini
are now omitted in performances and
recordings, which follow the conductor
and Rossini scholar Alberto Zedda’s
Critical Edition. La Cenerentola
survived a noisy first night on
January 25th 1817 to be performed
twenty times before the end of the Teatro
Valle season in mid-February. It was
heard throughout Italy by the end of
the year and in France and England within
two years. In the present day it is
second only to Il Barbiere in
popularity among the Rossini oeuvre.
On record La Cenerentola has
had a charmed life. A Sony recording
of 1983 featured Vallentini-Terrani
as the eponymous heroine together with
Francesco Araiza as a strong Romiro
and the Rossini experts Enzo Dara and
Alessandro Corbelli. A Philips issue
of 1987 featuring the tangy mezzo of
Agnes Baltsa as Angiolia together with
Araiza, Ruggero Raimondi and Simone
Alaimo, under Neville Marriner’s sympathetic
baton and is also a favourite. Although
not currently available it will surely
be re-issued and is worth looking out
for. It in turn became second favourite
to many ears with the arrival of a Decca
full-priced 1992 recording featuring
the formidable Angiolina of Cecilia
Bartoli under Chailly’s idiomatic baton
(436 902-2). This issue featured a wholly
Italian cast, orchestra and chorus.
Despite its verve and vocal strengths,
admired by many critics, I personally
found Bartoli’s Cenerentola a little
overpowering with her Angiolina likely
to make short shrift of her stepsisters.
Nor was I wholly happy with Matteuzzi
as the Don 
Ramiro.
However, I found my ideal with the 1994
Teldec recording, which is re-issued
under the umbrella of the Warner label
(review).
Jennifer Larmore initially presents
an appropriately softer and more vulnerable
Angiolina than some of her rivals. Her
Una volta is poignant
and expressive, with a lovely creamy
tone, whilst her contribution to the
stirring rondo finale is strong and
vibrant without being overwhelming or
showy. Throughout the performance her
coloratura is secure and free whilst
her phrasing and expression are exemplary.
The rest of the cast, although lacking
a little ‘Italianata’ in some cases,
sing and characterise well. There is
a welcome highlights disc of this issue
available at bargain 
price
on the Warner ‘Apex’ label (2564 61503-2).
(review).
The latest audio version on Naxos (review)
features the upcoming American mezzo
Joyce DiDonato as the eponymous heroine
and the promising Granada-born tenor
José Manuel Zapata as her beau.
Idiosyncratically conductor Alberto
Zedda adds Luca Angolini’s chorus Venga,
inoltri to the start of the third
scene of 
act
one. The popularity of La Cenerentola
is also measured in the number
of DVDs in the catalogue. A Unitel film
version based on Jean-Pierre Ponelle’s
1973 production at La Scala has Francisco
Araiza and Frederica Von Stade as a
handsome pair of lovers in a well-sung
cast (review)
under Claudio Abbado. Jennifer Larmore
appears on a 1992 recording from the
Netherlands Opera now on DVD (Arthaus
Musik 100 214)
Three weeks after the premiere of La
Cenerentola, Rossini went to fill
a new commission for La Scala, Milan.
Here he was given the libretto of his
21st opera La Gazza
Ladra (The Thieving Magpie).
It was premiered to great enthusiasm
on 31st May 1817. The work
quickly spread across Europe reaching
England in 1821 and America six years
later. With its opening drum-rolls the
overture made appropriate demands on
the professional orchestra of La Scala
which, like that of Naples was wholly
professional. La Gazza Ladra is
significantly longer than any of Rossini’s
previous operas and whilst having a
happy ending is full of drama and affecting
music. 
A Sony recording of a live performance
at the Pesaro Festival conducted by
Gianluigi Gelmetti is well cast and
recorded (Sony 45850). There is also
an abridged recording in English on
the Chandos label that has been widely
admired (Chan 3097) with Majella Cullagh
and Barry Banks as the star-crossed
lovers for whom everything, eventually
comes right [review].
Continued ... Part
2
