On June 24th, Naxos will release a 2-disc recording of Rossini’s one-act semiseria opera L’inganno felice. Filmed in Germany at the Rossini in Wildbad Festival in the Königliches Kurtheater, the opera is judiciously cast, featuring performances by Kenneth Tarver (Bertrando), Corinna Mologni (Isabella), Lorenzo Regazzo (Tarabotto), Marco Vinco (Batone), and Simon Bailey (Ormondo), and the Czech Chamber Soloists conducted by Alberto Zedda.L’inganno felice, Rossini’s 4th opera, premiered to rave reviews in 1812 in Venice when the composer was only 20 years old. Sometimes classified as a farsa, the opera tells the story of a faithful wife wrongly accused of infidelity. She is subsequently disowned only to be taken back by her husband when she is found to be innocent. Although it is rarely performed today, L’inganno felice was the third most performed of Rossini’s operas during his lifetime. Giuseppe Foppa, Venice’s most well-known librettist and specialist in semiseria and farsa, partnered with Rossini for L’inganno felice. The pair went on to write two additional operas during Rossini’s early career (La scala di seta and Il Signor Bruschino).
Born in 1928 in Milan, Alberto Zedda has been called the foremost Rossini conductor of our time. He has led performances at La Scala, San Carlo, La Fenice, Teatro Massimo, Covent Garden, the Mariinsky, the Vienna State Opera as well as in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Paris, Berlin, Munich, Hamburg, Amsterdam, Prague, Warsaw, Tel Aviv, Lisbon, Barcelona, and Madrid. Maestro Zedda is a professor, musicologist, has served as director of Italian repertoire for the New York City Opera, and has been a member of the Editorial Committee of the Rossini Foundation since its establishment. At his early début with the NY Philharmonic, Zedda encountered some unplayable passages in the published edition of the Overture to Il barbiere di Siviglia. In the 1960s he revised the score from the autograph, thus marking the beginning of modern, physiologically exact Rossini scholarship and the new Rossini revival.
The Czech Chamber Soloists, Brno, a chamber ensemble of the Brno State Philharmonic, has enjoyed great artistic successes for over thirty years. The ensemble specializes Baroque repertoire, with emphasis on composers from the Vienna classical school and in the lesser known and often outstanding works of the Czech masters of the eighteenth centuries. The Czech Chamber Soloists have toured through Europe, Canada and the United States and their performances are well documented in recording and filmed as the opera orchestra for Rossini in Wildbad.
Also in June, Naxos presents for the first time on DVD, Wolf-Ferrari’s La vedova scaltra (The Cunning Widow). Conducted by Karl Martin and filmed in February 2007 at Teatro La Fenice, this performance marked the celebration of the 300th anniversary of the birth of playwright and librettist Carlo Goldoni, whose play was adapted into a libretto for La vedova scaltra. The cast includes Anna-Lise Sollied (Rosauro), Maurizio Muraro (Milord Runebif), Emanuele D’Anguanno (Monsieur Le Bleau), Mark Milhofer (Il Conte di Bosco Nero) and Riccardo Zanellato (Don Alvaro di Castiglia).
Born of an Italian mother and German father, Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari’s life began and ended in Venice, but he spent most of his life in German speaking countries. His first opera, La Cenerentola, was a huge failure in Venice which prompted the humiliated young composer to flee to Munich. There he composed a string of melodious and eclectic operas from the adapted plays of the witty and wild farces of Renaissance playwright Carlo Goldoni, including Le donne curiose (1903), I quattro rusteghi 1906), Il campiello (1936) and La vedova scaltra (1931). La vedova scaltra is a true 18th century opera buffa in that it takes a humorous yet cynical look at the interplay in the many different types of human relationships. The opera follows the amusing antics of four suitors, English, French, Italian and Spanish, who long for the hand of the widow Rosaura. Rosaura disguises herself to meet each man to eventually choose the one that can truly prove his sincerity.
Conductor Karl Martin was born in Zurich and studied at the Geneva Conservatoire in Paris and with Hans Swarowksy at Vienna Musikhochschule. His repertoire ranges from the contemporary to Handel, Beethoven, Debussy, Wagner and Ravel, from the eighteenth century to the Second Viennese School. He has presented Brahms and Rachmaninoff on tour with the Tokyo NHK Symphony Orchestra, the music of Hindemith at the Paul Hindemith Festival in São Paulo, and more varied programs with major, Swiss, Italian, German, and Scandinavian Orchestras. He teaches at Showa University in Tokyo.
The history of the Orchestra and Chorus of the Teatro La Fenice is mostly associated with the theatre that it calls home. Teatro la Fenice held an important place in nineteenth century music with premieres of many operas, including Semiramide, I Capuleti e I Montecchi, Rigoletto and La traviata. In the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the Orchestra of the Teatro La Fenice was directed by leading conductors and composers such as Richard Strauss, Petro Mascagni, Leopold Stokowski, Lorenzo Perosi, Giuseppe Martucci, Antonio Guarnieri, and many others. The Chorus of the Teatro la Fenice is a permanent body of singers selected by international audition. Engaged in the operatic performances of the Teatro La Fenice and abroad, the chorus has a growing involvement with sacred, symphonic and chamber repertoire.
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This past Monday Alessandro Marangoni (Second Life avatar “Benito Flores”) had a live performance on the Music Academy onLIVE show at SLCN.tv in Second Life.
On June 24, 2008, Naxos releases La Cenerentola (Opus Arte BD7008D), produced at the Glyndebourne Festival in 2005, on Blu-ray disc. La Cenerentola is an update of the traditional Cinderella story which creates a tale of two incompatible views of upper class marriage at the cusp of the 18th and 19th centuries. Orchestra and cast are led by Vladimir Jurowski, music director of the festival and principal conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra. The production is led by long-time opera director
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