Rossini: The Thieving Magpie.(Sound Recording Review)

ROSSINI: The Thieving Maqpie

Cullagh, Jones, Bickley, Scales; Banks, Kale, Smythe, Purves, White; Geoffrey Mitchell Choir, Philharmonia Orchestra, Parry. English text. Chandos CHAN 3097 (2)

Strong casting, strong conducting and marvelous playing make this entry in Chandos's Opera in English series a winner. La Gazza Ladra (The Thieving Magpie), labeled a melodramma by the composer, enjoyed an enormously successful premiere at La Scala on May 31, 1817. The libretto, by Giovanni Gherardini, is based on a French melodrame historique, La Pie Voleuse, which was in turn based upon an actual court case: a young servant girl was tried and hanged for crimes later discovered to be those of a thieving magpie. The blend of rustic characters, serious dramatic situations and an eleventh-hour rescue from the scaffold proved irresistible for Rossini and inspired some of his most wonderful music.

The Chandos performing version, devised by conductor David Parry and stage director Daniel Slater, is based on the 2002 Garsington production of the opera, and the recording retains some of the soloists from those performances. Parry and Slater opted to make the opera a viable length by cutting down its long, piano-accompanied recitatives (probably the work of a Rossini pupil, in any case), and by omitting entire numbers, rather than losing the shape of arias and ensembles by making too many internal slices. This approach works splendidly, creating, as was intended, a tight music drama with repeats intact, its numbers building as they were meant to, toward exciting musical peaks.

In a series of arias, duets and ensembles, all skillfully exploring the human condition within the accepted structure of this form, the score reflects the twists and turns of belief and doubt in the truthfulness of the heroine, Ninetta Villabella, a servant girl unjustly accused of stealing some silver flatware from her employers. From the snare-drum opening of the vivid overture --composed specifically for this work, rather than self-pilfered from the maestro's storehouse of previous compositions--La Gazza Ladra is top-drawer Rossini. In Act I, Ninetta and her beloved, Giannetto, both have charming entrance arias; Fernando and Ninetta share a stunning father-daughter ...