An introduction to Rossini can be described as this delicious work, very well served by the production of the Teatro Real. Rossini, an operatic par excellence, risks being misunderstood; The façade and lightness of his music have nothing simple or easy, and we must forgive his creatures for being more figures than characters, while feelings and emotions are treated as abstract liquors. This jewel reminds us that in the master's repertoire there are other precious pearls to discover.

Here he happily deals with a plot and a point of view that puts the conventional plot in question. The librettist Romani takes full advantage of his brilliant idea, nothing less than introducing a poet, embodied by a funny Florian Sempey, who participates in the action to transform it at will. Fidelity is the point to debate, a colloquium that the impatience of the wife married to a tall man resolves at a stroke: "There is no greater madness than to dedicate oneself to a single object, the pleasure of each day is drowned in the routine of boredom, the bee, the breeze and the river are not satisfied with a single flower, a fickle genius that I share," Fiorilla says with jubilant self-confidence, although later the happy ending coincides with the marital reconciliation.

The two women, the Italian Fiorilla and the Turkish Zaida, soprano and mezzo, face each other in a fun erotic combat to share with the lovers, both in the serious position. The Turkish Selim and the Italian Geronio, while the tenor Narciso, an excellent Edgardo Rocha, prowls without reaching any crumb of female favor.

Giacomo Sagripanti communicates to the orchestra his enthusiasm for a score, whose subtle beauties are little intricate, just as the large cast dominates and revels in vocally demanding roles sung and performed with mastery. Sara Blanch communicates to the sensual Fiorilla all the panache, intensity and richness of contrasts that the core of the story requires: the revelation of the night. Paola Gardina is a determined Zaida who knows that the Turk will return to Turkey with her. Mischa Kiria is a charming cuckolded husband and Alex Esposito's impetuous Selim bivouacks about his short-lived conquest while it lasts. Magnificent choir and extras, without forgetting Pablo García López in his brief mission.

The fertile imagination of Laurent Pelly situates the humor in relation to the imagery of the photonovels that proliferated after the Second World War, introducing into the sentimental anguish of the folletín a fantasy with oriental clothing; the sheikh of Arabia and the sultan's favorite alternate with the sailor in white uniform and the middle-class bourgeois. In this case, the joke prevails over sentimentality. A brilliant idea that works perfectly.

The spectator gratefully received the gift of the Teatro Real in this last stretch of a spring of rainy political anxiety.

  • opera
  • music

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