Rossini The Italian Girl in Algiers
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Gioachino Rossini
Genre:
Opera
Label: DG
Magazine Review Date: 10/1989
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 127
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: 427 331-2GH2
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| (L')Italiana in Algeri, '(The) Italian Girl in Algiers' |
Gioachino Rossini, Composer
Agnes Baltsa, Isabella, Soprano Alessandro Corbelli, Haly, Baritone Anna Gonda, Zulma, Mezzo soprano Claudio Abbado, Conductor Enzo Dara, Taddeo, Baritone Frank Lopardo, Lindoro, Tenor Gioachino Rossini, Composer Patrizia Pace, Elvira, Soprano Ruggero Raimondi, Mustafa, Bass-baritone Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra Vienna State Opera Chorus |
Author: Richard Osborne
Unlike Rossini's too infrequently recorded Le Comte Ory, L'italiana in Algeri has generally fared well on record. Older sets conducted by Giulini (EMI—nla) and Vaniso (Decca) had many estimable qualities despite what must now appear to be certain textual limitations; and Azio Corghi's 1979 Critical Edition from the Fondazione Rossini/Ricordi was promptly and successfully recorded by both CBS, the set conducted by Ferro, and Erato/RCA, the set with Marilyn Home as Isabella and conducted by Scimone.
In this respect, the new Abbado recording comes rather late on the scene, though the production from which it derives, one of Jean-Pierre Ponnelle's last, has been a good deal seen and admired in Vienna and London in the past year or two and has solid theatrical credentials. Yet, paradoxically, it doesn't much sound like a perfommance with a successful stage run behind it. It is very well sung and tolerably well conducted, but in the final analysis it is neither a very vivid performance nor a particularly funny one. Of the excellent cast, only the veteran Enzo Dara really brings a smile to the lips, and his is a Taddeo already familiar from the CBS set. Raimondi is now a practised Rossinian, technically very fluent, as is Baltsa who has more character than CBS's rather jug-toned Valentini Terrani or Decca's Teresa Berganza. What she doesn't attempt or achieve is Marilyn Home's astonishing comic flamboyance, a comic flamboyance that in something like the Act 1 duet with Taddeo borders on theatrical ham but which is redeemed by Home's compendious knowledge of Rossini's theatrical style and her expertise in knowing where to make the jokes tell musically. And this is important. What distinguishes L'italiana as an opera is the specifically musical nature of many of the jokes, the use, for example, of relatively esoteric things like sonata-form recapitulations or cadenzas in cabalettas as weapons with which Isabella, the heroine prima donna, regularly forestalls her friends and overmasters her foes. No one knows better than Horne how to deploy these devices.
Abbado's conducting seems, by and large, less brilliant and less sure of touch than on his earlier Rossini sets: the Il barbiere, the Cenerentola and the stunning Il viaggio a Reims (also DG). Classic performances of Rossini comedy find their own natural pace and silken motion. Abbado gets generally articulate and spirited playing from the Vienna Philharmonic, remarkably so given their potential inappropriateness as a Rossini ensemble (Scimone uses I Solisti Veneti, Ferro the period Capella Coloniensis) but several of his tempos fall short of the mark. The Act 2 Trio goes very well but the Quintet is lumpily done, the Act 2 finale is nice but cool, that to Act 1 often well judged but with a tempo that is a shade too quick for Mustafa's bemused bumblings and a stretta that is more presto than vivace. That said, DG have the advantage of an excellent Lindoro, Frank Lopardo, a perceptibly baritonal tenore di grazia new to the international operatic record scene but a singer I imagine we will be hearing a good deal in the future.
Technically and in terms of presentation the rival sets have some drawbacks. The Erato/RCA lacks an English text in the libretto and the CBS is beginning to sound its age as a recording. The new DG is well and lavishly annotated but the recording itself leaves rather a lot to be desired. Setting aside quite a few minor quibbles, the main drawback, to my ears, is a too reverberant acoustic for the voices in many of the main scenes. Mustafa himself often appears in a cistern-like perspective and time and again the principals appear to be in a space that is too large for the opera. Rossini hated big theatres for performances of his pre-1818 operas, yet DG have used the Vienna Konzerthaus in rather a grand way. They have also made it difficult for themselves to balance such memorable comic devices as the onomatopoeic junketings in the Act 1 finale.
With its rather inflated recording and occasional obvious lack of humour, the DG set has sent me back to Horne and Scimone rather than the excellent but cooler, more classical Ferro with Terrani. Preferences alter according to mood in such matters, but I don't see myself going to the Abbado as a first choice for this dazzling, innovative, and often very funny dramma giocoso.'
Abbado's conducting seems, by and large, less brilliant and less sure of touch than on his earlier Rossini sets: the Il barbiere, the Cenerentola and the stunning Il viaggio a Reims (also DG). Classic performances of Rossini comedy find their own natural pace and silken motion. Abbado gets generally articulate and spirited playing from the Vienna Philharmonic, remarkably so given their potential inappropriateness as a Rossini ensemble (Scimone uses I Solisti Veneti, Ferro the period Capella Coloniensis) but several of his tempos fall short of the mark. The Act 2 Trio goes very well but the Quintet is lumpily done, the Act 2 finale is nice but cool, that to Act 1 often well judged but with a tempo that is a shade too quick for Mustafa's bemused bumblings and a stretta that is more presto than vivace. That said, DG have the advantage of an excellent Lindoro, Frank Lopardo, a perceptibly baritonal tenore di grazia new to the international operatic record scene but a singer I imagine we will be hearing a good deal in the future.
Technically and in terms of presentation the rival sets have some drawbacks. The Erato/RCA lacks an English text in the libretto and the CBS is beginning to sound its age as a recording. The new DG is well and lavishly annotated but the recording itself leaves rather a lot to be desired. Setting aside quite a few minor quibbles, the main drawback, to my ears, is a too reverberant acoustic for the voices in many of the main scenes. Mustafa himself often appears in a cistern-like perspective and time and again the principals appear to be in a space that is too large for the opera. Rossini hated big theatres for performances of his pre-1818 operas, yet DG have used the Vienna Konzerthaus in rather a grand way. They have also made it difficult for themselves to balance such memorable comic devices as the onomatopoeic junketings in the Act 1 finale.
With its rather inflated recording and occasional obvious lack of humour, the DG set has sent me back to Horne and Scimone rather than the excellent but cooler, more classical Ferro with Terrani. Preferences alter according to mood in such matters, but I don't see myself going to the Abbado as a first choice for this dazzling, innovative, and often very funny dramma giocoso.'
Rossini The Italian Girl in Algiers
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