Rossini: Aureliano in Palmira

I love Jessica Pratt. She is a statuesque, quietly regal woman with an incredible Bel Canto technique. She has scored great notices in six other Rossini operas as well as such diverse roles as Verdi's Giovanna d' Arco and Cunegonde in Candide.Her true forte so far has been early Rossini for which she has a true knack. She has had three Pesero Rossini Festival headliners so far; Amira in Ciro in Babilonia with wonderful Ewa Podles and great tenor Michael Spyres and conducted by Will Crutchfield. The last two in this recording also. Ms. Pratt is priceless in Adelaide di Borgogna with Daniela Barcellona. And now she is radiant in Aureliano in Palmira. This opera is listed as no. 12 of about 40 known Rossini operas. He was 21 and this was going to open the 1813 season at La Scala. It is more of an old fashioned chamber opera of the Mozart type than the current vogue of Italian hard driving spellbinders with crashing cords and bodies everywhere. The retreat of the lover Prince Arsace to the peasant Idyll and wooded grove complete with goats on stage evokes some of the best music in the score. Rossini wrote the score for his mistress (later wife) Colbran (Zenobia) and the noted castrato, Velluti (Prince Arsace of Persia). Though it ran for 14 nights at La Scala it was not well received by the critics and was soon dropped and forgotten. A complete score does not exist. However the ever practical Rossini used sections of it in the later opera Barber of Seville where the overture and other sections are familiar to all. The conductor Will Crutchfield has reassembled the score from various sources as no authentic draft exists. The opera is quite fine ,certainly in Act 1 and the first part of Act 2 but the end seems to meander a bit too much. I think some judicious pruning would help. The cast in this recording is truly great. Besides Ms Pratt as Zenobia, Queen of Palmyra , the leading Rossinian Bari-tenor of the day, Michael Spyres does wonders as the ambivalent Roman leader Aureliano (3rd. century C.E. Emperor of Rome). He is a great foil for Ms. Pratt as he was as Baldassare in their recording of Ciro in Babilonia. Arsace, Prince of Persia and lover of Zenobia is mezzo Lena Belkina. She is a fine singer but as a mezzo she lacks the heft of a contralto (we don't have castrati anymore) and she is a petite person. So in some of the scenes with her beloved Queen Zenobia it looked more like mother and son (in drag) rather than noble lovers. But all in all it is an exceptionally beautiful performance. The orchestra is top notch with conductor Will Crutchfield who also assembled the score. The production is effective, useful and it works. Sadly the beautiful remains of historic Palmyra in Syria have recently fallen victim to destruction by religious fanatics of the Islamic Nation. Religion the destroyer!

Rare opportunity

The singing is good. I found the staging very distracting; there was some kind of curtain (with material attached to look like dirt) in front of the actors for quite a bit of the time. overall a good production.

While there can be rewards when an opera production is brought forward in time, there is a special satisfaction when creative forces focus on illuminating a story taken from history in its original setting, allowing us to relate to the beauty and dignity of historic figures, in this case from 1,750 years ago. Aureliano was a Roman General, sent to Syria in 267AD to bring the Palmyrene kingdom back into the Roman fold. Zenobia was the Palmyrene Queen who had also conquered Egypt for a short period of time. Rossini wrote this opera for the opening of Milan's La Scala in 1813. Alberto Zedda in an interview here makes the point that this is the premiere of the reconstructed score prepared by the conductor, Will Crutchfield, including passages and arias that were removed before and after the premiere. As often happened, after its premiere Aureliano was performed for a few seasons until Rossini started "borrowing" from the score, notably for "Barbiere" - the opening choral prayer became "Ecco ridente" and the overture was lifted whole. Velluti, the castrato for whom Arsace was written had also tired of the role. After starting the First Act I was reluctant to stop listening. The writing approached the quality of "Semiramide", with one number leading into the next, unlike some early works where Rossini hasn't quite gotten the flow working yet. There is much great music here that is unfamiliar yet attractive. Michael Spyres as Aureliano, the Roman General, is most convincing in the heroic high tenor role, with right amount of body in the voice, while negotiating difficult writing effortlessly. Lena Belkina sings the trouser role Arsace, the last operatic role written for a castrato and performed with the facile touch of a Horne. Both Spyres and Belkina sing over several octaves. Jessica Pratt is Zenobia, Queen of Palmyra (in Syria c. 269AD), Arsace's lover, and is in many of the florid arias, duets and trios. The characters are actual historical figures and the story is of interest (see Wikipedia). There are several versions of the story after Aureliano deposed her in 271AD. The opera libretto was written with a happy ending; this production shows in superscript the tragic version of the tale's end - which seems to be closer to the truth. The staging is first rate, with historically appropriate custumes with the colors and textures appropriate to a royal court. This production shows how carefully it was designed to create the atmosphere of a royal court in a desert land - subtle but evocative - designs with quiet integrity, that many regie productions lack. The visual components here put me the mindset of the period. The staging uses semi-transparent and opaque scrim panels with the maze-like appearance of the ruins of ancient cities. One scene in Act 2 is set in a shepherds' camp and there is a small group of goats onstage. There is a harpsichord present onstage that is used for recitatives together with a cello. The orchestra pit is compact. 201 minutes + bonus. The performance took place in a lovely smaller opera house with excellent acoustics. The voices were well recorded in the ambient space, as was the orchestra. Audio is LPCM stereo and dts-HD 5.1. The stereo mix has the voices a bit more prominent, as usual. No evidence of body mikes being used. Smaller house = no need to oversing, so natural sounding. After recently being offered a Semiramide set near a chicken coop with thrift store costumes and a Guillaume Tell with white walls and stuffed horses, this production is so welcome. All elements come together here to create realistic context for a first class production of a little known near masterpiece by Rossini. Following on Spyres' excellent Arnold in Guillaume Tell from Wildbad Festival and Baldassarre in Ciro on Babylonia (with Pratt) I'm looking forward to his future offerings. Strongly recommended. This is the fifth Rossini Opera Festival (Pesaro) blu-ray issued by ArtHaus. They have recently gone back and repackaged the first four in a reduced price box.

A solid production.

This was an excellent performance. The singing and acting were very good. The costumes were traditional to fit the period, which made it superior to many other recent operas set out of period. I would assume that the budget was not sufficient for better sets. This was the only thing I did not like about the opera. There were veiled screens forming compartments. Some of the pieces in this opera, such as the overture were taken from some other works of Rossini. The overture to the Barber of Saville was played at a slower tempo. With better sets this opera could be improved.