Product: Sigismondo [Blu-ray] (2010)
Rating: 3.0
A Failure but Recycled into New Life
Grove's Dictionary of Opera says of Sigismondo (Venice 1814)that this is arguable Rossini's most unrevivable serious opera and I must agree. If the cast and this production can't bring it to life than nothing will. The production is excellent. It tries by setting this story of a mentally unstable king who believes he has be betrayed by an unfaithful wife and goes off kilter in an insane asylum. This means a lot of extras trotting around doing crazy things (silently) while the main characters are spouting one dizzying bel canto line after another. The king is the well established true bel canto mezzo Daniela Barcellona (a "pants" role). She is devine. I can't help but play her sections over and over again. She is a consumate artist of this style of music.The true find of this recording is rising star Olga Peretyatko who plays the king's unjustly maligned wife Aldimira. She is a superb singer of strong full voice and great physical as well as vocal beauty. I think it worth the price of the disc to hear her and Daniella sing together.There are great Rossini moments in this opera. Duets, solos, concerted numbers and some delicious bel canto male singing by the "bad guy" Ladislao, the betrayer, sung by Antonino Siragusa. Yes much of the music is good Rossini but it is not to be lost forever in this failed venture. As you are listening this or that tune sounds familiar and ah! I know that theme. As Rossini often did, he recycled much of this opera in his next work, his first Neopolitan work, the quite successful (and a particular favorite of mine) Elisabetta Regina d'Inghilterra (1815). Even the orchestral opening of the second act here will lead you to hum "La Calumnia" of the Barber of Seville (Rome 1816). This is not Rossini for beginners. The libretto (by Foppa) of Sigismondo is impossible and even the genius of Rossini could not bring it to fruition. But for the collector and enthusiast it is a must for the few pearls here and a top rate cast.