Meyerbeer: Ite, superbi Osmino (from Il Crociato in Egitto)

2010

“Meyerbeer, born 1791, was in Italy from 1816 to 1824. On this showing, you're tempted to think he should have stayed there. He's remembered for the big Paris operas, such as Les Huguenots, Leprophète and L'Africaine, hugely successful in their time but latterly somewhat buried in their own grandeur. The Italian period was nearer to the 18th century and Mozart. There was also the presence of Rossini (almost exactly Meyerbeer's age); and the music is that of a young man, gifted, energetic, confident and wealthy. The operas were admired and, remarkably, he was accepted by the public, despite being a German and having an unfashionable interest in orchestration.
These excellent selections include something of all six operas from the eight years in Italy, with Il crociato in Egitto returning regularly like the theme in a rondo. All the recordings are drawn from previous issues in the Opera Rara catalogue. One of the most attractive numbers is the semi-comic trio from Margherita d'Anjou in which Margaret's protectors pit their wits against those of Richard, Duke of Gloucester. In fact, it seems fairly typical of Meyerbeer at this stage: his genius seems to lie in the light touch, the graceful phrase, the felicitous orchestral scoring; if there's a weakness, it's revealed in the grandly dramatic moments, for which his music remains incorrigibly jolly.
The other great delight of the disc is the singing.
Meyerbeer's vocal line, like Rossini's, is written for virtuosos, and that, almost without exception, is a description to which the soloists can lay claim. Each has to negotiate passagework of a kind that half a century ago would have made everybody shake their head and say it couldn't be done by 'today's' singers. Bruce Ford, particularly, performs wonders in the revised (Trieste) version of Crociato; Alistair Miles is on top form in L'esule di Granata; but all do well, carrying off their respective prizes with easy competence and no fuss.”