Rossini: Ciro in Babilonia

Audacious staging with breathtaking results
Dressing Rossini's Ciro in Babilonia up as a silent movie sounds like a bit of an arbitrary or frivolous choice, but there's no denying that Davide Livermore's production does at least inject some life into Rossini's otherwise stodgy Biblical drama. I was going to say "inject some colour" into the work, but since the colour scheme here is primarily black-and-white, that doesn't seem appropriate, particularly when all the colour the work needs is already there in the detail of Rossini's writing for the singers, and that hasn't been neglected here either. Singing and staging combined in this way, the impact achieved for this particular Rossini work - one that would unlikely ever be considered as one of the composer's greats - is simply tremendous. This is another coup for the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro.

Rossini's first religious drama for the Lenten festival in Ferrara in 1812 is, it has to be said, quite old-fashioned and probably not best suited for modernisation. By...

Recommended with reservations.
I have no reservations about recommending this DVD for the singing, though I'm less enthusiastic about the production.

I'll start with what I liked.

The cast are uniformly excellent.

Ewa Podles is in a class of her own. The voice is huge; the lower register cavernous; and the coloratura faultless. I've had the opportunity of seeing her on stage in operas ranging from Handel to Wagner (No one else could possibly make Erda so interesting!). She exceeded my expectations in her performance of the title role of this opera.

Jessica Pratt has matured as an artist since she was filmed in "Le convenienze ed inconvenienze teatrali" four years ago. Her technique is impressive, with agile runs and a trill that any singer would envy. I have always enjoyed Michael Spyres's combination of ringing tone and agility, perhaps even more than some other tenors in the same fach. His voice has more weight, but all the fleetness, of the tenorino. I'll repeat...

Not great Music but great Singing and great Fun
The twenty year old Gioachino Rossini had been writing musical numbers since he was twelve. In 1810 he assembled a first opera "Demetrio e Polibio" not performed until 1812. This was followed by a few "farces" in 1810 and 1811. Finally in 1812 he tried his hand at an opera that could be given by a theatre during the Lenten season. It had to be uplifting and preferably a biblical story. He decided on something from the book of Daniel about Balshazzar, the feast and the hand writing on the wall but this would not be long enough for a two act piece that he wanted. He the worked with a local poetaster to add a romantic element Cyrus and his wife Amira with some story lines taken from Herodotus about the triumph of Cyrus over Belshazzar a Babylonia. The work is entitled "Ciro in Babilonia".
The music is varied in quality but the arias are excellent. He was already a master of the Bel Canto style and the writing for the three principals, Ciro (Cyrus) contralto, Baldassare (Belshazzar)...

Click to Editorial Reviews