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It has been the
stars above all who have charted the fortunes of Gioacchino Rossini’s legacy at
the Metropolitan, sopranos and mezzo-sopranos, and lately tenors as well. The
exception has been Il Barbiere di
Siviglia, first staged in the company’s inaugural season, 1883-1884, and
since then the recipient of six new productions. Il Barbiere has been on the calendar in roughly half of the Met’s
by now 130 seasons and ranks thirteenth in the list of works most often
performed on 39th Street and then at Lincoln Center.
The quickening of
interest in Rossini in particular and in bel canto in general--the operas of
Donizetti, Bellini, and, of course, Rossini—was sparked by singers who could
flaunt the virtuosity of florid music, Maria Callas in the 1950s, followed soon
after by Joan Sutherland, Marilyn Horne, and Montserrat Caballé. Since then, a veritable torrent of
belcantists has been enlisted in the annual Rossini Festival held each summer
in Pesaro, the composer’s Italian birthplace.
At the Met, the Rossini
era was launched in 1974 by Marilyn Horne’s assumption of the role of Isabella
in L’Italiana in Algeri. And with
Olga Borodina and Jennifer Larmore the title has persisted in the
repertoire. In 1975, it was the turn of L’Assedio di Corinto (The Siege of Corinth), a vehicle for the
debut of Beverly Sills. Horne, once again, was the spur for the 1990 Semiramide. Cenerentola was mounted for Cecilia Bartoli in 1998; it has been
revived five times with Borodina, Elina Garanca, Joyce DiDonato, and twice simulcast
live in HD. In 2009-2010, the Met put on
Armida for Renée Fleming and the next
year Le Conte d’Ory for Juan Diego Flórez,
the first male star to lead the Rossini parade. Which brings us to La Donna del Lago. It premiered at the
Met on February 16, 2015 and will be simulcast “Live in HD” on March 14.
And the feast will continue beyond this
season. William Tell is on the
schedule for 2016-2017 when it will be heard, at last, in the original French,
in its first revival at the Met since the 1930s. Looking ahead, here is a
glimpse of the splendors of this Rossini masterpiece, the transcendent ensemble
that constitutes the opera’s finale. Tell, his family, and the Swiss patriots
hail the rising sun that smiles on their triumph over the Austrian tyranny. The
clip is from a 2003 Paris performance with Thomas Hampson and Marcello
Giordani.
Rossini’s operas demand singers with virtuosic
command of the bel canto style. This technique is founded on the most rigorous
control of the breath, essential to the free and even use of fioritura
(embellishment): melismatic trills, turns, appoggiature (grace notes),
scales, arpeggios, and other figures of the bel canto rhetoric. Marilyn Horne was
master of it all. We were present at a performance of Semiramide with Horne and Sutherland in Boston in the early 1960s that was a spectacular demonstration
of the opera’s viability. As the Babylonian general Arsace, a bearded Horne
entered and conquered with an exhibition of vocal pyrotechnics. Here she sings her
first aria in a 1980 concert in Washington, D.C.
Another of Horne’s warrior roles was
the title character of Tancredi. In one of Tancredi’s arias, here is
countertenor David Daniels as he poaches on the dramatic mezzo’s turf. In this
1997 New York concert, Daniels traverses the three contrasting sections of the
piece brilliantly, the opening dramatic recitative “O Patria,” the sweetly
lyric cavatina “Tu che accendi questo core,” and the lilting cabaletta “Di
tanti palpiti” whose coiling melody was the rage of Europe in the 1820s.
Watch for our next post on Rossini’s La Donna del lago.