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Sunday Afternoon at the Opera - Rossini: Matilde di Shabran
Sunday Afternoon at the Opera host Keith Brown writes:
Gioacchino Rossini is known to posterity through only one opera, his immortal "Barber of Seville," which has remained in the international standard repertoire ever since its premiere in 1816. Il Barbiere di Sivigilia is a comic opera--an opera buffa the Italians call it--and it's the finest example of the genre.
Akin to the opera buffa was the subgenre of opera semiseria, which combined comic elements with a serious plot leading up to a happy ending. Rossini was a master of the opera semiseria. He wrote several such works, The best known one he composed immediately after he finished the score of his "Barber:" La Gazza Ladra or "The Thieving Magpie"(1817). It has occasionally been recorded. I have presented "The Magpie" in two different recordings on several Sundays going as far back as 1991 and as recently as 2015.
There are yearly Rossini festivals in Pesaro, the composer's birthplace, and Wildbad in Southwestern Germany. The world premiere recording of the opera semiseria, Matilde di Shabran (1821) was made at the 31st Rossini in Wildbad Festival in 2019. The Naxos label issued it on three CDs in 2020. Jose Perez-Sierra conducts the Passionart Orchestra of Cracow and the Gorecki Chamber Choir, both distinguished Polish musical organizations. The solo singing cast is truly international.
Matilde di Shabran is more comic than serious because its plot is frankly ridiculous. Rossini was hard pressed to finish the score of Matilde in time for its premiere in Rome, so he got his young colleague Giovanni Pacini (1796-1867) to fill in five numbers in Act Two. Pacini's music is interpolated perfectly into Rossini's overall operatic fabric. Matilde di Shabran was recorded live in performance with some audible audience and stage noise. By the sound of the applause, the audience was delighted with this opera, and I hope you will be too. Listen carefully to Isidoro's cavatina in Act One for melodic echoes of Figaro.