Rossini all downhill after the overture ?

[bluestateprommer]

The answer to the thread question from me is - absolutely not! One of the real musical pleasures I have had in the last decade is in exploring the operas of Rossini, including a number that are unlikely (outside Italy) ever to see a staged performance, at least in my lifetime.....

One of the qualities I admire in Rossini is how often he surprises, which might not be expected from a composer known as "Signor Crescendo". He was an opera composer of enormous versatility, encompassing comic opera, opera seria, operas of huge variation in length from one-act operas to the epic length of Semiramide and Guillaume Tell, initiating a new style of grand opera with nationalist themes. The orchestration is so often inventive and varied. In the "La Calunnia" aria from Il Barbiere di Siviglia, for instance, chattering violins and muttering violas are joined gradually by other instruments until the rumour erupts in a pandemonium of orchestral noise. The wind writing in some of his heroic opera seria, such as Armida is wonderful, with a taxing horn solo right at the start in the Act 1 Sinfonia. And there is delicacy, too, for instance in the Willow Song in Otello, which I much prefer to Verdi's better known one. The harp and individual wind instruments provide a beautiful accompaniment to the singer. And his operatic stage directions are also sometimes dramatically surprising, too: as in Moïse in Egitto where the chorus opens in complete darkness....

Rossini suffers, particularly in his opera seria, because he does not often provide memorable melodies (imv) and the music lacks emotional depth. His musical idols were Mozart and Haydn, and as in Mozart's operas the music provides ambiguity about a character's feelings (e.g. Elvira's opening aria in Don Giovanni where a threat to tear out her ex-lover's heart is accompanied by music of formal grace) so this is the case often in Rossini. And rather than writing arresting melodies, Rossini more often uses a simple theme or motif and develops and embellishes it with virtuoso writing for the voice, and sometimes very demanding writing for the orchestra too. This means that his comic operas, especially Il Barbiere, have long proved more popular than the others, though I am very glad Rossini did not take Beethoven's advice and stick to writing comic operas.

Another quality Rossini has that is quite rare among C19 composers is wit and a kind of joie de vivre that sets him closer to Haydn than any of his contemporaries or successors. Yes, there is repetition, and like other more illustrious composers before and since, Rossini reused material but that's hardly surprising given the almost impossible deadlines he was given for some of his commissions. But overall, I think he is underappreciated outside Italy, and a revival of his lesser-known operas would be as welcome as the revival of Handel and Rameau operas was in the latter decades of the C20. That still doesn't look likely here - in the 150th anniversary of his death, there is not a single work of his being performed at the Proms, so people will still have to make their own discoveries.

This is an extremely astute and fair assessment of Rossini's operas, IMHO. It must be also remembered generally also that Rossini was a man of the theater, and an entertainer, not necessarily out to create "great art" all the time. Last night, Santa Fe Opera performed L'Italiana in Algieri, in a 'pop-up' production, with some warnings from the general director at the outset of potential worries about lighting control and the computers (none of which, happily, came to pass, after a 25-minute delay to the start), the 3rd Rossini production that I've seen at Santa Fe, and the 6th Rossini opera, that I've seen over the years (counting two concert performances at The Proms). In this spirit, this was an enjoyably silly, comic romp, but with some bits of seriousness as when Isabella rallies the Italian slaves in Mustafa's custody to stand for their country (even if some comic props to "show what Italians are made of" kind of undercut the seriousness), not to mention a strong female character who winds up the winner at the end (contrary to many operas where female characters get theirs in the worst way). Is the music particularly deep? No, but there are subtle felicities in the orchestration that aeolium alludes to, and even if Rossini did fit to somewhat of a stock formula in keeping with the "Signor Crescendo" stereotype, virtually no one did that better than he did.

[Barbirollians]

I decided to give the new Opera Rara - recording of Semiramide - so highly rated in this month's Gramophone a go - on the much cheaper download option .

Just finished listening to Act 1 . My attention did not wander , singing and playing stupendous . Maybe that is what so many of the lesser known operas need - le Comte Roy did not need that grim dark production at the ROH a few years back.

[Conchis]

Rossini delights not me.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Rossini overtures tend to be somewhat samish, but I do like his Mannheim crescendi.

[vinteuil]

Rossini overtures tend to be somewhat samish, but I do like his Mannheim crescendi.

... surely the Mannheim crescendo is a very rapid affair : the Rossini crescendo in the overtures builds up over a much longer time-frame.

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[Eine Alpensinfonie]

... surely the Mannheim crescendo is a very rapid affair : the Rossini crescendo in the overtures builds up over a much longer time-frame.

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You could be right. I thought the Mannheim crescendo was like this example in Mozart's Marriage of Figaro Overture. The section between A & B building up from the lower octave; then repeating it an octave higher, reach its climax at C.

[vinteuil]

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... I thought this was quite interesting :

http://dictionary.onmusic.org/terms/2945-rossini_crescendo

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[Eine Alpensinfonie]

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... I thought this was quite interesting :

http://dictionary.onmusic.org/terms/2945-rossini_crescendo

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Indeed, very interesting.

[Beppe]

I am not so fond of Rossini anymore. I like a few of his operas, but tend to get bored with them. Donizetti and Bellini seem much better to me.