Rossini Festival Collection - Naxos Deutschland

Each year the Rossini Opera Festival celebrates the musical genius of Pesaro’s beloved native son, hosting a summer of singing in the composer’s home town on the Adriatic coast. The five stunning productions in this set span Festival editions from 2009 to 2013 and showcase the full extent of Rossini’s dramatic range. Graham Vick’s production of Mosè in Egitto (2011) is a fresh take on the Biblical tale of oppression, inspiration and freedom, with experienced Rossinian Roberto Abbado in the pit and eloquent singing from Sonia Ganassi and Alex Esposito, while the sparkling La scala di seta (2009) weaves a burlesque tale of gentlemen using a silken ladder to access the bedchamber of a certain Giulia, sung with ‘wonderful suppleness’ (Opernwelt) by Olga Peretyatko. Rossini turnsagain to the Old Testament for inspiration, writing what would be his longest-ever contralto part for the title role of Ciro in Babilonia (2012), ideally suited and skilfully taken by great Rossini singer Ewa Podles, then history gives way to histrionics and the composer’s light-hearted oneact operatic farce Il signor Bruschino (2012), transported in a ‘clever production’ (New York Times) by innovative theatre company Teatro Sotterraneo to a modern-day theme park, where a case of mistaken identities is brought to riotous pitch by Rossini’s forward-thinking comedic effects. Musical refinement and madcap invention combine in L’Italiana in Algeri (2013), the sparkling buffa that was an early triumph for Rossini and drove Richard Strauss ‘mad with enthusiasm’. Davide Livermore’s exuberant,Swinging 60s-based production features agile-voiced Anna Goryachova (‘an ideal performer, both as a singer and actor’ – Online Musik Magazin) and Alex Esposito (‘a robust and authoritative voice of supreme quality’ – Operaclick) in the story of one girl’s fearless determination to rescue her captive lover from the evil clutches of the Bey of Algiers. .

Conductor: Claudio Scimone

Stage Director: Damiano Michieletto

Artistic Company: Rossini Opera Festival, Pesaro

Artists:
Alex Esposito
Carlo Lepore
Ewa Podles
Michael Spyres
Jessica Pratt

Sound: Dolby Digital/DTS Surround (MiE/CiB/IiA) - LPCM 2.0/DTS Surround (SdS/ISB) -- LPCM 2.0/DTS Master Audio (all)

Subtitles: EN/FR/DE (all operas) + IT for SdS/+ KO for IiA/+ JP&KO for CiB/ISB