Rossini: Il viaggio a Reims

The director Alain Maratrat transforms the flimsy story - of upper-crust travellers stranded together on their way to the coronation of Charles X - into sparkling entertainment. Bertola's cream-coloured... — BBC Music Magazine, July 2007, 4 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 2nd Apr 2007
Catalogue No: OA0967D
Label: Opus Arte

BBC Music Magazine

July 2007

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Rossini: Il viaggio a Reims

Recorded live at Le Châtelet, Paris in December 2005
Anastasia Belyaeva (Madame Cortese), Vladislav Ouspenski (Baron von Trombonok), Larissa Youdina (Contessa di Folleville), Daniil Shtoda (Count Libenskof), Anna Kiknadze (Marchesa Melibea), Alexeï Safiouline (Don Alvaro), Irma Guigolachvili (Corinna), Dmitri Voropaev (Belfiore), Olga Kitchenko (Modestina), Edouard Tsanga (Lord Sidney), Nikolaï Kamenski (Don Profondo), Elena Sommer (Maddalena), Alexeï Tannovistski (Don Prudenzio), Andreï Iliouchnikov (Don Luigino), Pavel Chmoulevitch (Antonio)
The Academy of Young Singers of the St. Petersburg Mariinsky Theatre & The St. Petersburg Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra
Valery Gergiev, stage direction by Alain Maratrat

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PICTURE FORMAT: 16:9
LENGTH: 135 Mins
SOUND: DTS SURROUND / LPCM STEREO
SUBTITLES: EN/FR/DE/ES/IT

Artists

Anastasia Belyaeva (Madame Cortese), Vladislav Ouspenski (Baron von Trombonok), Larissa Youdina (Contessa di Folleville), Daniil Shtoda (Count Libenskof), Anna Kiknadze (Marchesa Melibea), Alexeï Safiouline (Don Alvaro), Irma Guigolachvili (Corinna), Dmitri Voropaev (Belfiore), Olga Kitchenko (Modestina), Edouard Tsanga (Lord Sidney), Nikolaï Kamenski (Don Profondo), Elena Sommer (Maddalena), Alexeï Tannovistski (Don Prudenzio), Andreï Iliouchnikov (Don Luigino), Pavel Chmoulevitch (Antonio)

The Academy of Young Singers of the St. Petersburg Mariinsky Theatre & The St. Petersburg Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra, Valery Gergiev, stage direction by Alain Maratrat

Reviews

July 2007

The director Alain Maratrat transforms the flimsy story - of upper-crust travellers stranded together on their way to the coronation of Charles X - into sparkling entertainment. Bertola's cream-coloured set suggests the inside of a marquee, and a runway extending into the stalls brings the fluid action close to the audience. ...there are especially dazzling contributions here from the sopranos Larissa Yudina, as Contessa di Folleville, and Anastasia Belyaeva, as Madame Cortese. Gergiev presides with style and good humour.

2010

Il viaggio a Reims was the Théâtre Italien's offering to the celebrations surrounding the coronation of Charles X in the summer of 1825, a showcase for Italian music-making in Paris.
Since the Russians later supplanted the Italians as purveyors of high-class art to the French, there is something apt about this Russian revival of Il viaggio in Paris's Théâtre du Châtelet.
A stylishly designed concert in costume, it is a latter-day showcase for the rising stars of the Mariinsky Theatre.The orchestral players are seated at the rear of the stage. Decked out in cream-coloured evening attire, they make an effective backdrop to the primary colours of Mireille Dessingy's haute couture costumes.
Events, such as they are, are mainly played out along the front of the stage and on a T-shaped catwalk that extends into the auditorium. Since this is not a full-blown theatre staging, there is no grand visual display in the closing scene.
The opening sequence is unpromising. The staging is aimless and the words of the hotel housekeeper, delivered from a stage box, are inaudible because the sound engineer has omitted to provide her with a microphone. Things improve as the cast warms to its task and individual singers begin to catch the eye and the ear. The staging, however, continues to be variable. Don Profondo's catalogue aria manages to be both messy and dull, yet the duet between Count Libenskof and Belfiore is a delight. Corinna and her harp are awkwardly separated but the idea of having the solo flautist playing alongside the diffident Lord Sidney dressed as a silver-clad Rosenkavalier is an inspired one. Gergiev conducts in a brown racing trilby. The reading is exquisitely paced, the ensemble work often stunningly good, remarkably so given the fact that conductor and orchestra are behind the singers.
There is no attempt here to adapt the tributes to Charles X to latter-day political concerns, let alone rewrite the end as Dario Fo did – cruelly, wittily, timelessly – in his famous Helsinki production.
The Russians play the score as written, a number of small cuts notwithstanding.

August 2007

The orchestral players are seated at the rear of the stage. Decked out in cream-coloured evening attire, they make an effective backdrop to the primary colours of Mireille Dessingy's haute couture costumes. Don Profondo's catalogue aria manages to be both messy and dull, yet the duet between Count Libenskof and Belfiore is a delight. Corinna and her harp are awkwardly separated but the idea of having the solo flautist playing alongside the diffident Lord Sidney dressed as a silver-clad Rosenkavalier is an inspired one. Gergiev conducts in a brown racing trilby. The reading is exquisitely paced, the ensemble work often stunningly good...

2011 edition

the singing team and orchestra from the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg offer a sparkling account of Rossini's festival opera under their director...With such a well co-ordinated team it is hard to pick out individual stars among the young singers

Opera News

The depth of talent that the Mariinsky Academy and Gergiev have formed is impressive. Many major opera houses would hesitate before programming a Rossini opera that demands so many expert Rossinians. The academy miraculously managed to double cast the work.

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Rossini: Il viaggio a Reims

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