Rossini: Il Turco In Italia

A delicious treat from the hometown of Rossini

     

If you’ve stumbled on this delicious iTunes offering you are indeed smarter than a fifth grader – you’re even smarter than the hopelessly dysfunctional iTunes search function [if you think I’m being unfair, just type in “opera” in the Search field and you will see what I mean]. With all the grandiose MetHD offerings, it makes for a real treat to find some exciting alternatives from smaller, perhaps less-famous opera houses. Think of this as going to a neighborhood trattoria and discovering great local dishes.

This production comes from the beautiful Teatro Rossini in Pesaro, Italy, which as I mentioned above is the birthplace of Gioachino Rossini. Not surprisingly the annual Rossini Opera Festival produces a lot of operas by…well…Rossini, which generally means easy-to-listen-to comedies with convoluted plots and mistaken identities. This is one of them from the 2007 festival.

The story itself is no great literature: set in Naples, it spins a crazy tale around a poet who uses the romantic entanglements of its inhabitants with a visiting Turkish prince as inspiration for the plot of his next play. Primarily it focuses on the rivalry of two contrastingly beautiful women for his attention.

There are a couple of production features that immediately set this apart. All the lead singers are Italian and you will notice immediately the clearer diction and enunciation, especially in the recitatives, and the rolling “r”s that Rossini loves to place in his operas to remind other nationalities that they just can’t. Another feature that I found wonderfully unusual is that both leading ladies – Alessandra Marianelli and Elena Belfiore – who are supposed to be stunningly beautiful [and sexy] in the story, really are, with voices to match! [Forgive my treading in the dangerous world of sexist remarks, but this reminds one that all too many competent singers just don’t fit their roles.]

The stage production also had some great inventions, notably the exuberant ship that brought our Turk into the story and sailed him away at the end, reminding that smaller budgets don’t necessarily inhibit invention.

This is opera as it was meant to be, especially around 1814, when it was first performed at La Scala: beautiful music; beautiful singers; beautiful opera house; lively story; fantastic masks and scenery. All that for only $2.99?

Thank you iTunes for bringing us these wonderful works. Keep them coming. [And work on that search engine while you’re at it.]