Four Vocalizations - Gioacchino Rossini

Gioachino Rossini - Il turco in Italia - Ouverture (Neville Marriner)

I am returning, after quite a bit of time, to my comedic collection with excepts from one of Rossini\'s most "Shakespearean" comedies, "Il turco in Italia". "Il turco" was commissioned by the famed La Scala for the autumn season of 1814. Although only 22 at the time of composition, Gioachino Rossini had already reached great esteem as an operatic composer (having scored hits with several opere buffe as well as grander, more serious works, such as "Tancredi"), and the success of his "L\'italiana in Algeri" the year before spurred him to write a companion piece. Although the two cannot be considered sequels in the literal sense, the similarities are obvious: in "L\'italiana", amorous intrigues surround an Italian woman stranded in Algiers, while in "Il turco", a Turk arrives in Italy only to add himself to an existing love triangle (making a love quadrangle, perhaps?). Unfortunately for Rossini, the Milanese public was all too aware of these similarities and, although Rossini\'s score was every bit as fresh and inventive and his characterizations as well-drawn as those for "L\'italiana", they heartily disapproved. However, the quality of the score would eventually carry the day and, as Stendhal wrote in his biography of Rossini, the opera was revived just four years later to wild enthusiasm. In short, the opera involves the Pirandello-like theme of an author in search of six characters: here, the capricious married woman, Fiorilla (soprano); her buffoonish but sincere husband ...


You can download the score from the video: Four Vocalizations - Gioacchino Rossini

Gioachino Rossini - Tancredi - "Di tanti palpiti" (Ewa Podles, Vesselina Kasarova & Jennifer Larmore)

Not one compilation of Rossini\'s musical output would be complete without his first "hit tune": "Di tanti palpiti", the moderato section (a cabaletta of sorts) from the cavatina of Tancredi. In his biography of the Maestro, Stendhal wrote that the aria of Tancredi, known throughout Europe, was the most popular opera aria of its time... And also refered to as the "rice aria" because Rossini is supposed to have composed it while waiting for his risotto to cook one day in Venice (imagine: a hungry composer composing such a little masterpiece out of boredom :) )! The cavatina deals with Tancredi\'s return from exile Tancredi to defend his homeland against the Saracene besiegers (and to see Amenaide, of course). Although many recordings of the aria usually give us only the moderato, Tancredi\'s cavatina is actually a whole scene: an interlude (depicting Tancredi\'s boat dropping anchor in a port) - an impassioned recitative - a short (and rather boring) aria - a "cabaletta". It\'s also interesting to point out that the aria is quite "unrossinian" in character, it almost seems to come from another musical period: the moderato section could be attributed to any composer from the end of the 18th century. I decided to post only the "Di tanti palpiti" section for a number of reasons, chief amongst them being the fact that it is really the best part of Tancredi\'s cavatina. It\'s almost a suprise when it appears after the rather uninspired cantabile. I once had about ten versions of this ...