Gioachino Rossini (1792-1868)
Adina, Opera in one act (1818)
Libretto by Marchese Gherardo Bevilacqua-Aldobrandini
Califo – Vito Priante (baritone)
Adina – Lisette Oropesa (soprano)
Selimo – Levy Sekgapane (tenor)
Alì – Matteo Macchioni (tenor)
Mustafà – Davide Giangregorio (bass)
Coro del Teatro della Fortuna M. Agostini
Orchestra Sinfonica G. Rossini / Diego Matheuz
Stage director: Rosetta Cucchi
rec. live, August 2018, Teatro Rossini, Pesaro, Italy
C Major 767108 DVD [87]
Adina is one of the most obscure of Rossini’s output of nearly forty operas – the Cinderella, it might be said, of that epic series. Written hurriedly in 1818 during the composition of Mosè in Egitto, to a commission from Portugal he doesn’t appear to have been very interested in, it wasn’t performed at Lisbon until 1826 for reasons that are not clear, and was then promptly forgotten until it was revived in 1963.
Having been meaningfully rediscovered only recently, therefore, and a critical edition of the score available from the Rossini Foundation only since 2000, none of its roles can ever have featured in the regular repertoire of any singer. Nevertheless, this performance by the Rossini Festival at Pesaro in 2018 could call upon the services of Lisette Oropesa in the title role. Here she is the embodiment of the ideal Rossini soprano, fulsome in the mezzo range in her delightful first aria ‘Fragolette fortunate’, but soaring radiantly higher subsequently, and defiant in her cavatina ‘Nel lasciarti, o caro albergo’ as she seeks her escape from the Caliph’s harem.
The scenario is a typical rescue story within an Oriental setting, rather like The Abduction from the Seraglio, although with a more absurd background in that the young captive, Adina, whom the Caliph wishes to marry is discovered, just in time, to be his daughter from a past relationship. Her thwarted escape from a forced marriage is effected by Selimo following a chance encounter with him after brigands had separated them some time before, and so they seek to re-establish their relationship outside the confines of the Caliph’s palace.
Rosetta Cucchi’s production sets the semi-serious drama around a house in the form of a wedding cake that looks like a pavilion of Wedgewood Blue, complete with white filigree decorations to resemble a huge ornament made by that craftsman. As the Caliph’s dwelling, more like a folly, its outwardly cool Classicism contrasts with the more fanciful style of the rooms inside, where the work’s Orientalism is transmuted to its interior decoration in accordance with the fashions of the time when this production is set, in the early 20th century. Otherwise, the Orientalist trope is largely excluded from this essentially domesticated, if colourful, interpretation of the work. The cake-house’s setting within box-like lined walls still deftly hints at the imprisonment within the Calif’s realm which Adina and Selimo seek to flee.
Vito Priante makes a powerful but not threatening impression as the Caliph, bringing agility and ultimately a benign authority when he is revealed to be Adina’s father. As her lover Selimo, Levy Sekgapanej has a requisite range of sustained passion, if a little nasal in the upper register, and in the lovely Mozartian number ‘Giusto ciel’ the warm cor anglais solo matches his seamless, lyrical singing. Matteo Macchioni and Davide Giangregorio give more characterfully comic performances as the buffa characters Alì and Mustafà, respectively camply energetic and eloquently voluble in the patter music. Diego Matheuz conductions the choral and orchestral forces in an ever lithe and lively account of the score.
This is hardly an essential work of the operatic repertoire, but as a one act farsa lasting less than an hour and a half, it’s a charming piece that doesn’t outstay its welcome. The only previous available video of it was an old recording in hazy bootleg quality of a performance from Rome in 1992, albeit with some very solid vocal performances from Alessandra Ruffini, Bruno Praticò and Rockwell Blake under Evelino Pidò. This new version is preferable in every way, and will fill a major gap in any Rossini fan’s collection.
Curtis Rogers
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Production Details
Stage Director – Rosetta Cucchi
Set Designer – Tiziano Santi
Costume Designer – Claudia Pernigotti
Lighting Designer – Daniele Naldi
Video Director – Paolo Filippo Berti
Video details
Region Code 0 (worldwide)
NTSC DVD
16:9
Audio formats: PCM Stereo and DTS 5.1
Subtitles in Italian, English, German, Korean, Japanese
