Rossini: Elisabetta, Regina d'Inghilterra. (Video).(Video Recording Review)

[] Cuberli, Dessi; Blake, Savastano; Ch. and Orch. of the Teatro Regio di Torino, Ferro, 1985. Hardy Classic DVD HCD 4007 (VAI, dist.), 150 mins.

Formerly obscure works of Rossini are now so often produced and recorded that it's easy to forget how young the Rossini revival actually is. 1985 saw the first major modern production of Elisabetta, Regina d' Inghilterra, the work with which the composer introduced himself to Naples in 1815. That world premiere featured several impressive tenors, as well as the diva Isabella Colbran, the director's mistress and Rossini's future wife, at the height of her powers. From the outset, Rossini's writing for Colbran showed off her lowish soprano voice, with incisive and dramatic coloratura writing, in sweeping, majestic phrases. And how could Rossini resist writing contrasting scenes for two star tenors and bringing them together for a rousing duet?

For Turin's Teatro Regio 170 years later, rather than create a Tudor court style, director Gianfranco de Bosio has evoked the opera's own time with Napoleonic sets in beautiful pastels, Empire gowns, static stage,pictures and symmetrical chorus setups; the overture is played against a dreamy backdrop of a smoking Vesuvius on the calm waters of the Bay of Naples. The only element ...