Gioacchino Rossini (1792-1868)
L’inganno felice, a Farsa in one act (1812)
Bertrando: Antonio Garés (tenor)
Isabella: Miriam Albano (soprano)
Ormondo: Gabriele Toia (bass)
Batone: Luigi de Donato (bass)
Tarabotto: Matteo Loi (bass)
THERESIA/Alessandro De Marchi
rec. 2023, Reate Festival, Auditorium di Santa Scolastica, Rieti, Italy
Libretto is available from the cpo website
cpo 555 222-2 [2 CDs: 90]
L’inganno felice (the fortunate deception), Rossini’s one-act farce, has a plot that is mainly backstory. The villain Ormondo has amorous designs on Duke Bertrando’s wife, Isabella, who rejects him. He vengefully attempts to bribe his henchman Batone to float her out to sea, where she will die. He also destroys her reputation by making the Duke believe she was unfaithful. Tarabotto rescues her at sea and adopts as his niece, and rechristenes her Nisa. Ten years later, she is long presumed dead, but her husband loves her still. The curtain rises on a visit by the Duke, Ormondo and Batone to the village where Isabella now resides as Nisa. The Duke and Batone are struck by the resemblance of Tarrabotto’s niece to the lost Isabella. Ormondo also recognises her, and instructs Batone to abduct and kill her. But at last Isabella shows who she really is, and is reunited with the Duke, while Ormondo is arrested.
Rossini’s farsa is clearly less a farce than – in the words of Rossini authority Richard Osborne – “a romantic melodrama with comic interludes”. He also notes that “of the four solo arias in the opera” only Isabella’s Al più dolce e caro oggetto (for the dearest, sweetest person) “has real distinction”, and even that is relative. This is not essential Rossini, but the piece is an enjoyable early example of a prodigious gift soon to blossom into international fame. As such, it has much to offer, and not only to the capacious shelves of the Rossini completist.
Isabella in the recording does not dominate vocally as one would hope. Soprano Miriam Albano has an attractive voice, and sings with skill. One would be happy to encounter her on this form in the theatre, for she sounds engaged in the drama and in her part in its unfolding. If real vocal distinction eludes her here, she never lets the work down.
Duke Bertrando, tenor Antonio Garés, is satisfactory. His pleasing basic tone is occasionally audibly stretched by the music – not uncommon in Rossini’s tenor writing. The three low-voice male roles are taken well enough. In sum, though, this not an issue a collector would seek out for the singing but rather for the repertoire. The musicians of THERESIA play well enough; there is no chorus in the farsa. Alessandro De Marchi directs them with commendable balance and care for his singers, in good sound. There is a booklet with notes in English and German, but no libretto, not even the Italian text. The libretto is available online, at the label’s website, with an English translation.
This is one of several recordings of this opera. I fear it is at most the second best while one can still find copies of Erato’s 1997 version, which Marc Minkowski conducted very persuasively. His leads – Annick Massis as Isabella, Raul Gimenéz as Don Bertrando and Rodney Gilfrey as Batone – are a cut above the performers here. The Erato sound is still very good, the work fits onto one disc, and there is a full Italian libretto with parallel translations in English, French and German.
Roy Westbrook
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