ROSSINI: L'Equivoco stravagante

Zedda, Alberto;
Czech Chamber Soloists, Brno

8.660087-88

L’equivoco stravagante (‘The Bizarre Deception’), is one of Rossini’s earliest operas, written when he was only 19. Already the Rossini fingerprints are firmly in place, with the music regularly sparkling from the Overture, with its brilliant horn triplets, onwards. The story of this drama giocoso involves a scheming servant, Frontino, who deceives the stupid suitor, Buralichio, into believing that the girl he is wooing, the heroine, Ernestina, is in fact male and whose nouveau riche father, Gamberotto, has had ‘him’ castrated so that he could become a high-earning opera-singer. The complications are many, until Ernestina is safely united with Ermanno, the impecunious tutor whom she loves. After three performances in 1811 the piece was banned for being too licentious. Rossini cut his losses, using material from it in his subsequent operas. It makes an attractive rarity, generally well sung and very well conducted in this live recording by the Rossini scholar Alberto Zedda—if unhelpfully punctuated by tepid applause. • Penguin Guide, January 2009

CD x 2

Muzyka klasyczna

Naxos

13-05-2002

730099608725