MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2023
Approaching 60,000 reviews
and more.. and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

REVIEW


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 

alternatively
CD: MDT AmazonUK AmazonUS

Gioacchino ROSSINI (1792 - 1868)
Il Turco in Italia (1814) [156.56]
L'Italiana in Algeri (1813) [143.30]
Il Cambiale di Matrimonio (1810) [78.10]
see end of review for soloist details
Prague Chamber Choir (Truco, Italiana)
Orchestra Haydn di Bolzano e Trento/Umberto Benedetto Michelangeli; Antonello Allemandi (Turco, Cambiale)
Orchestra del Teatro Comunale di Bologna/Donato Renzetti (Italiana)
rec. Teatro Rossini, Pesaro, August 2007 (Turco); BPA Palas, Pesaro August 2006 (Italiana) ; BPA Palas, Pesaro, August 2006 (Cambiale).
Originally released as CDS526/1-2 (Turco), 566/1-2 (Algeri) & 529 (Cambiale)
DYNAMIC CDS682 [5 CDs: 77.20 + 79.36 + 69.43 + 73.47 + 78.10]

Experience Classicsonline


Dynamic have packaged three of their live recordings from the Pesaro festival. These range from the rarity of Rossini's early La Cambiale di Matrimonio, to the well known genius of L'Italiana in Algeri and the slightly less familiar Il Turco in Italia.
 
I reviewed the recording of Il Turco in Italia when it first came out and it was fascinating listening to the discs again. The advantage that the set has is that all the soloists are singing in their native language. The result is fluent and the dialogue fairly rattles along. But you wish that more had been made of it. Similarly in the solo moments, the piece lacks a smile, lacks fascination. Alessandra Marianelli as Fiorilla is fluent and judging by the pictures, rather sexy on stage. But this doesn't come out on disc, her performance lacks the infinite variety of a Bartoli or a Callas.
 
Il Turco is one of Rossini's most subtle comedies. It is not the pure farce of Italiana,and works because of the humanity Rossini brings to the roles. Yet that quality is lacking here.
 
Filippo Adami as Narciso has a tendency to harden at the top of his range. He does not sound entirely comfortable with the tessitura and vocally he lacks allure. With Don Geronimo and Selim we have a slightly different problem. They both sound personable and creditable; in fact they sound too much alike. This is not a problem on stage, but certainly a difficulty on disc and Geronimo just doesn't sound enough like a put-upon husband.
 
Under Pavel Vanek, the Orchestra Haydn di Bolzano e Trento and the Prague Chamber Choir acquit themselves well.
 
L'Italiana in Algeri receives a pretty brilliant performance from Marianna Pizzolato as Isabella and Maxim Mironov as Lindoro. Apart from Mironov all the principals are Italian; they really rattle off the dialogue.
 
The performance has a brilliance and a ping which is lacking in Il Turco. Pizzolato's roulades are just dazzling and I was very taken with Mironov's Lindoro; his upper register has a lightness and beauty which is a necessity in the role. Even so, under pressure, a hint of steel creeps in.
 
As Selim, Marco Vinco is not quite the buffo delight; his voice has a youthfulness to it which means that his roulades are very creditable but they do not radiate orotund warmth. Bruno de Simone's Taddeo is a neat comic creation, nicely differentiated in vocal tones from Vinco.
 
It’s weakness is that it doesn't always sound like a comedy. Dario Fo's production came in for some critical complaints and this may have had some effect on the musical performance. There are many moments when stage noise makes the live nature of this recording apparent. More seriously, in the glorious large-scale ensembles the co-ordination of pit and singers is not what it could be.
 
Both of these recordings are creditable and listenable, L'Italiana in Algeri in particular. There are plenty of other individual recordings out there which would be preferable in that they display the full variety inherent in these operas; it’s a variety not present here or at least not in its full array.
 
The final set is the 2006 recording of Rossini's first opera, Il Cambiale di Matrimonio. This is a one act farse which has had few outings on disc. Rossi's libretto was based on a 5-act comedy which owed something to Goldoni. The plot concerned a merchant (Paolo Bordogna) who attempts to sell his daughter (Desiree Rancatore) to a Canadian business contact (Fabio Maria Capitanucci). She is of course in love with someone else (Samir Pirgu).
 
Il Cambiale’sabsence on disc is perhaps partly due to the extensive dialogue, here accompanied by a slightly distant and rather over-active harpsichord. Any recording needs to win the listener over via the brilliant ensembles. Rossini uses a lot of ensembles, duets and trios, with relatively few solos. Here the rather audible and evidently active stage production seems to have compromised the brilliance. In fact there are other elements which come over as heavy-handed.
 
The two baritone leads (Paolo Bordogna and Fabio Maria Capitanucci) are eminently capable but for my taste the performance is over-emphasized: full of funny voices and exaggeration.
 
Rancatore is an experienced Rossinian and navigates the roulades. Her substantial vibrato is inclined to be intrusive and her voice has a feeling of instability. I was also less than partial to the acuti which she throws in, certainly impressive but not always lovely.
 
Pirgu is an unassuming, pleasant voiced Milfort and the cast are admirably supported by Enrico Maria Marabelli and Maria Gortsevskaya as the servants Norton and Clarina
 
Where this set wins out is that it includes a complete libretto and translation, something that seems to have been lacking in other CDs of the opera. All three are impressively packaged, with libretto, translations and pictures. Those of Il Cambiale di Matrimonio show staging with some pretty scary wigs on display.
 
None of these operas is perfect but the live performances by substantially Italian casts are vivid and involving and certainly worth the low price of this set.  

Robert Hugill

Soloist details
Il Turco:
Selim - Marco Vinco (baritone)
Fiorilla - Alessandra Marianelli (soprano)
Geronimo - Andrea Concetti (baritone)
Narciso - Filippo Adamo (tenor)
Prosdocimo - Burno Taddei (baritone)
Zaida - Elena Belfiore (mezzo)
Albazar - Daniele Zanfardino (baritone)
L'Italiana:
Isabella - Marianna Pizzolato (mezzo)
Mustafa - Marco Vinco (baritone)
Lindoro - Maxim Mironov (tenor)
Taddeo - Bruno de Simone (baritone)
Elvira - Barbara Bargnesi (soprano)
Zulma - Jose Maria Lo Monaco
Haly - Alex Esposito
Il Cambiale:
Tobia Mill - Paolo Bordogna (baritone)
Fanny - Desiree Rancatore (soprano)
Edoardo Milfort - Saimir Pirgu (tenor)
Slook - Fabio Maria Capitanucci (baritone)
Norton - Enrico Maria Marabelli (baritone)
Clarina - Marina Gortsevskaya (mezzo)


 

 

 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools






Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.