Rossini at his most dazzling!
Rossini composed Armida in 1817 to celebrate the reopening of the Teatro San Carlo in Naples which had been destroyed by fire the previous year. The opera was intended to be an impressive event that would feature all that the Neapolitan company had to offer. The orchestration was to be brilliant, the singing spectacular, and even the ballet would be featured prominently. Rossini certainly did not disappoint and produced an extravagant score... a score that must have seemed to be very avant guard at the time. Incidentally, the San Carlo was blessed with an abundance of tenors, so the opera contains no less than six prominent tenor roles. There is even a trio for three tenors in the final act that is a precursor to the "three tenor craze" of recent years.
That Neapolitan premiere had as it's focal point the San Carlo's prima donna the dramatic coloratura soprano extraordinaire and future Signora Rossini, Isabella Colbran in the title role. The celebrated tenor Giovanni...
A Splendid Armida
I may be a bit bias in reviewing this new DVD of the Metropolitan Opera's new production of Rossini's charming "ARMIDA" as I have always been a huge fan of soprano Renee Fleming. Her charisma as a person and an artist are extremely attractive to me and her desire to push herself beyond what is expected of her as an artist is a quality to be admired. That being said when I saw her sing this role live it gave me chills listening to her. She beautifully fit into the role of the sorceress tempting Rinaldo away from his duties both physically and vocally. Although Rossini is not a specialty of her's, her unique timbre and the color of her voice provided some of the longer legato lines with a quality that both enchants and brings goosebumps. Her runs and faster sections were not always perfection and she seemed to struggle somewhat with Rossini's challenging ornamentation however there is no denying that the effort was a valiant one and not completely unsuccessful. If she was going to...
AN OPERA FOR VOCAL DISPLAY
With all due respect to the previous reviewer, I do not find this Mary Zimmerman production as bad as he found it. While nothing in this production would make me think of the Crusades, at least it was colorful and looked glitzy. It makes little difference anyway because it is highly unlikely that we will ever see this opera staged again (notwithstanding the repeat performances taking place at the Met next month). "Armida" is not one of Rossini's stronger operas. I'll go even further and say that it's not an important opera at all. The plot is too insane and inane to waste words on, and the piece is quite lengthy. So what does it have to offer?
If one is captivated by virtuoso bel singing, and if one is tenor-crazy, then this is definitely a piece of exotica that you should investigate. All the tenors are excellent, most notably Lawrence Brownlee and John Osborn. There are tenor arias, duets, and all are embellished with florid cadenzas and rousing conclusions. In...
Click to Editorial Reviews
No comments:
Post a Comment