Annick Massis (Matilde), Juan Diego Florez (Corradino Cuor di Ferro), Bruno Taddia (Raimondo Lopez), Hadar Halevy (Edoardo), Marco Vinco (Aliprando), Bruno de Simone (Isidoro), Chiara Chialli (Contessa d'Arco), Carlo Lepore (Ginardo), Gregory Bonfatti (Egoldo), Lubomir Moravec (Rodrigo)
Orquesta Sinfonica De Galicia with the Prague Chamber Choir, Riccardo Frizza
Recorded live at the 2004 Pesaro Rossini Festival.
CD - 3 discs
$53.25
In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day.
Rossini: Matilde Di Shabran - Sinfonia
Rossini: Matilde Di Shabran - Act 1: Zitti: Nessun Qui V'È
Rossini: Matilde Di Shabran - Act 1: Chi Vi Guida A Queste Mura?
Rossini: Matilde Di Shabran - Act 1: Se Viene Il Cerbero
Rossini: Matilde Di Shabran - Act 1: Vanno Via Come Il Vento!
Rossini: Matilde Di Shabran - Act 2: Basta Nfi A Cà .. Ho Scritto Meza Gloria Delle Mie Guapparie
Rossini: Matilde Di Shabran - Act 2: Di Corradino Il Nome Per Ogni Suoi Rimbomba
Rossini: Matilde Di Shabran - Act 2: Le Penne De I Poeti So Spade Assai Diverse
Rossini: Matilde Di Shabran - Act 2: Dove, O Misero Padre, E Quando Speri Più Il Tuo Figlio Abbracciar?
Rossini: Matilde Di Shabran - Act 2: Sazia Tu Fossi Alfine Revolubil Fortuna!
Rossini: Matilde Di Shabran - Act 2: Ah! Perché, Perché La Morte Non Ascolta I Pianti Miei?
Rossini: Matilde Di Shabran - Act 2: Ah! Se Ancora Un'Altra Volla El Ritorna Al Dolce Amplesso
Rossini: Matilde Di Shabran - Act 2: Pur Ti Ragiunsi Al Fin... Cosa Pretendi?
Rossini: Matilde Di Shabran - Act 2: E Palese Il Tradimento .. Mente Il Foglio, O Ad Arte È Scritto
Rossini: Matilde Di Shabran - Act 2: Perfida Invan Tu Piangi .. È Finto Quell'Affanno
Rossini: Matilde Di Shabran - Act 2: Fra Quattro Armigeri Immantimente
Rossini: Matilde Di Shabran - Act 2: Pietà! Mi Parli Invano
Rossini: Matilde Di Shabran - Act 2: Mandare A Morte Quella Meschina? Che Crudelta!
Rossini: Matilde Di Shabran - Act 2: Andate A'vostri Alberghi
Rossini: Matilde Di Shabran - Act 2: Da Cento Smanie, E Cento Sento Straziarmi Il Cor
Rossini: Matilde Di Shabran - Act 2: Sedotto Dall'Inganno
Rossini: Matilde Di Shabran - Act 2: O Ciel! Chi Può Resistere
Rossini: Matilde Di Shabran - Act 2: Nel Mezzo Del Cammin Di Nostra Vita
Rossini: Matilde Di Shabran - Act 2: Matilde, Ebben?
Rossini: Matilde Di Shabran - Act 2: Ami Alfine? E Chi Non Ama?
Rossini: Matilde Di Shabran - Act 2: Non È Vero?
Rossini: Matilde Di Shabran - Act 2: Tace La Tromba Altera
2010
“Here is treasure indeed: a memorable recording of Rossini's grand, exhilarating, yet down the years too-little-noticed Matilde di Shabran. A comic-heroic romp written for the 1821 Roman carnival but substantially revised for Naples later that same year, the opera is an important staging-post between Rossini's two earlier Roman entertainments, Il barbiere di Siviglia and La Cenerentola, and their Parisian successors Il viaggio a Reims and Le Comte Ory. The opera soon dropped from the repertory, dogged by travellers' tales of a bizarre plot (a raving misogynist, a mad poet, damsels being thrown off cliffs) and an impossible- to-sing leading role. This 2004 Pesaro production, based on Jürgen Selk's new Critical Edition, catches Flórez at the peak of his powers. The plot is less complicated than its genesis might suggest. Corradino, a parody tyrant said to loathe women, poets, and all other affronts to his masculinity, resides in a Spanish castle whose welcome notices include such gems as 'He who enters here will have his neck broken'. In Act 1, he is trapped into loving. With the tyrant tyrannised, Act 2 finds him in a series of even bigger fixes, from which he is eventually rescued by the poet he once threatened to liquidate and the woman he has loathed, loved and tried to kill. Spectacular as the role of Corradino is, there are no solo arias. This is ensemble opera parexcellence. His spectacular entry – pure Errol Flynn – turns into a quartet. His first meeting with Matilde takes place in the latter half of the Act 1 Quintet. Later, despite Corradino's best efforts to silence young Edoardo, their Act 2 duet remains just that: a duet. The joke fails, of course, if the singer playing Corradino lacks the wherewithal to drive a coach and horses through Rossini's cunningly contrived maze. Flórez is terrific, literally so at times. Matilde is sister to Isabella and Rosina, albeit a soprano brandishing high C sharps and the occasional top F. Unlike Corradino, she does have a solo aria, the opera's showpiece finale, vividly thrown off by Annick Massis, who is well matched to Flórez histrionically and vocally. The two other leading players are Isidoro, a down-at-heel poet who ends up running the show, and the androgynously charming Edoardo, captive son of Corradino's arch-enemy Don Raimondo. Rossini conceived the roles for the Neapolitan buffo Antonio Parlamagni and his daughter, Annetta, then refined them in the rewrite. In Naples, Isidoro was played (as here, in Neapolitan dialect) by the legendary buffo Carlo Casaccia. Decca's Bruno de Simone is the gamest of Isidoros, Hadar Halevy a mellifluous-sounding Edoardo. Isidoro bears the brunt of the stretches of secco recitative: eight minutes before the Act 1 finale, a further stretch as the plot thickens midway through Act 2. None of this hangs heavy. This being a distillation of five live theatre performances, the entire cast and fortepiano player Rosetta Cucchi are fully engaged with the drama. Riccardo Frizza's conducting is fierce and sharp-edged in the modern style. Occasionally one misses that Gui-like turn of the wrist which distinguishes the musician from the martinet but Frizza's marshalling of the all-important ensembles is rarely less than masterly. The recording has the voices well forward, the orchestra a little too much to the rear. If the stereo placings are to be believed, Flórez was always centre-stage: understandable but oddly wearisome.”
October 2006
“Spectacular as the role of the Corradino is, there are no solo arias. Flórez is terrific… Annick Massis… is well matched to Flórez histrionically and vocally. Riccardo Frizza's conducting is fierce and sharp-edged in the modern style.”
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Rossini: Matilde Di Shabran - Sinfonia
