Tancredi

A real Rossini Tragedy
Rossini is best known for a delightful long list of Comic Operas; less well known is the Rossini of Opera Seria. Of the several that I've seen, heard on radio or on recordings, Tancredi is on the top of the list. The present DVD recoding of the Florence May Festival of 2005 is a most satisfactory presentation of this masterpiece. Two of the singers are in really good voice and can handle the difficult and complex Rossini line. Daniela Barcellona as a mezzo in a "pants" role of Tancredi handles the music very well and has a deep rich voice to boot. To me the best singing was delivered by Raul Gimenez as Argirio one of the leaders of the Sicilian city of Syacuse and father of Tancredi's beloved Amenaide. All the rest of the cast are quite good. The production is quite modern but very well done and works well with all the scene changes demanded here. It was really pleasant to see a modern stageing work so well after so many recent disasterous productions in the "modern" mode. The...

Tancredi and Barcellona
We have not had Daniela Barcellona (except for 2 performances of an ill-fated Norma at the Met)in this country. Any fan of Rossini and spectacular mezzo singing will not want to miss this DVD. And the production is spectacular-no Euro trash!

A Beautiful Opera, Gloriously Sung ,,,
... and it gets only meager praise from a couple of reviewers! What, am I a cheap date, musically? Am I too easily pleased? There are thrilling arias, rousing choruses, duets and ensembles as fine as any of the 19th C in Tancredi, Rossini's first 'opera seria' composed at age 20 and premiered in 1813. Tancredi became a Europe-wide success within a couple of years, establishing Rossini's reputation as a serious composers as well as a writer of buffooneries. Some of the best music from Tancredi would become "some of the best" in Rossini's later works as well. Gioachino was, shall we acknowledge, always in a hurry. The final scene of Tancredi must have astonished audiences in Venice, with its simplicity and pathos. The hero Tancredi dies, the music stops, no grand finale, the curtain falls. An alternate "happy ending", using the surprise of an enemy's honest declaration, was substituted By Rossini for subsequent productions in cities that had no taste for tragedy. Giachino was, shall we...

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