Gioacchino Antonio Rossini

“An exemplary performance” Daily Telegraph

“Bruce Ford reveals himself as a Rossinian without equal today” Sunday Times

“Rossini wrote Elizabeth, Queen of England for the star-studded San Carlo Opera in Naples in 1815. The plot is a verse reduction of a halfremembered drama by an Italian advocate out of an entertaining but historically implausible English romance. Larmore makes a formidable Elizabeth; beautifully sung, her performance has presence, character, and a real sense of ingrained authority. The lovely cantabile duet for Elizabeth and Matilde at the start of Act 2 is sung to perfection by Caballé and Masterson on Philips' rival set but there's a greater depth of emotion, a grainier, gutsier feel to Larmore's performance with Majella Cullagh's equally characterful, if not at every point inch-perfect, Matilde. There's little to choose between Bruce Ford's Leicester and Carreras's for Philips – Carreras perhaps wins on points with a certain added youthful allure – but Opera Rara's Antonio Siragusa is a more compelling Norfolk than Ugo Benelli, who sings splendidly but without much menace.
Siragusa is very fine. With such strong casting, it goes without saying that the great confrontations in the opera – Elizabeth and Norfolk, Leicester and Norfolk, and so on – all come vividly to life. The Opera Rara performance has a lovely rich, dark feel to it. This is partly to do with Carella's conducting and the London Philharmonic's playing; partly to do with the fact that orchestration is clearly different in places.
For first-time buyers, this is the set to go for.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“Marvellous ensembles beautifully performed on Opera Rara by a strong cast led by Jennifer Larmore” Penguin Guide

“Not everyone will approve, but there are ways in which this super-budget set of Il barbiere diSiviglia puts to shame just about every other version of the opera there has been. Those it may not please are specialist vocal collectors for whom Il barbiere is primarily a repository of vocal test pieces. If, however, you regard Il barbiere (Rossini, ex-Beaumarchais) as a gloriously subversive music drama – vibrant, scurrilous, vital – then this recording is guaranteed to give a great deal of pleasure.
'Performance' is the key word here. Humburg is described in the Naxos booklet as 'Conductor and Recitative Director', and for once the recitatives really are part of the larger drama. The result is a meticulously produced, often very funny, brilliantly integrated performance that you'll almost certainly find yourself listening to as a stage play. With a virtually all-Italian cast, the results are a revelation. The erotic allure of the duet 'Dunque io son' is striking. Similarly, Don Basilio's Calumny aria, superbly sung by Franco de Grandis, a black-browed bass from Turin who was singing for Karajan, Muti and Abbado while still in his twenties. This takes on added character and colour from the massive sense of panic created by de Grandis and the admirable Dr Bartolo of Angelo Romero when Basilio comes in with news of Almaviva's arrival in town.
The Overture is done with evident relish, the playing of the Failoni Chamber Orchestra is nothing if not articulate. Aided by a clear, forward recording, a sine qua non with musical comedy, the cast communicates the Rossini/ Sterbini text with tremendous relish. They're never hustled by Humburg, nor are they spared: the stretta of the Act 1 finale is a model of hypertension and clarity. This Il barbiere jumps to the top of the pile.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“ Tancredi is a seminal work in the Rossini canon, mingling a new-found reach in the musical architecture with vocal and instrumental writing of rare wonderment and beauty. The singing is splendid throughout, with a cast that's unusually starry. Podles has sung the role of Tancredi to acclaim at La Scala, Milan; the Amenaide, Sumi Jo, is a touch cool at first, too much the pert coloratura but this isn't an impression that persists.
Hers is a performance of wonderful vocal control and flowering sensibility.
Podles, a smoky-voiced Pole, likes to go her own way at times. In the event, though, she and Sumi Jo work well together, and they sound marvellous. Podles also manages, chameleonlike, to adjust to the purer, more obviously stylish Rossini manner of a singer who's very unlike herself, the American tenor Stanford Olsen. His portrait of the conscience-stricken father Argirio matches singing of grace and impetus with great fineness of dramatic sensibility. As a result, something like the scene of the signing of his daughter's death-warrant emerges here as the remarkable thing it is.
Alberto Zedda is lucky to have at his disposal another of those wonderfully stylish chamber orchestras and chamber choirs that Naxos seem able to conjure at will. The aqueously lovely preface to Tancredi's first entrance is a representative example of the players' ear for Rossini's delicately limned tone-painting. The recording itself is beautifully scaled.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“The present recording [is a] most welcome addition to the Rossini discography... Alberto Zedda‚ conducts with verve and style‚ the playing is polished‚ the singing generally accomplished.” Gramophone