Rossini: Le Comte Ory.(Sound Recording Review)

ROSSINI: Le Comte Ory gonfadelli, Bevacqua, Todorovitch, De Liso; Florez, Pratico, Miles; Prague Chamber Choir; Orchestra de/Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Lopez-Cobos. Deutsche Grammophon B0002923-02 (2)

The 2003 Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro offered a modern-dress production of Le Comte Ory that was not to everyone's liking, visually at least; the live recording recently released on Deutsche Grammophon should disappoint no one, and frankly the production photos don't look terribly offensive. Jesus Lopez-Cobos brings expert leadership to a cast spearheaded by Juan Diego Florez, and while the Peruvian tenor, an indispensable star in the world of bel canto opera, dominates the performance with his bright voice and elegant vocalism, the rest of the cast also turns in uniformly stylish and dynamic singing.

Ever on the lookout for damsels, the legendary medieval playboy Count Ory has been hanging out in a cave, posing as a wise old hermit, a setup that proves irresistibly alluring to the females of the neighboring castle. He begins dispensing romantic advice to the lovesick women, whose husbands are off on crusade, and soon they are hooked. Ory's amorous intentions are complicated and frustrated by the arrival of his page, along with his old tutor, but by Act II the lecherous count and his band of buddies, innocently attired in nuns' habits and posing as pilgrims, have gained entrance to the castle and access to the lovely Countess Adele and her ladies.

Comic episodes abound, and the high-spirited score is chock-full of musical humor, from tiptoeing staccato strings to skittering, giggling wind melodies. When the tutor, seeking Ory, notices hordes of young girls hanging around the cave, he wryly notes, Leporello-like, "My master must be nearby." As the women jabber and blather their problems to the hermit Ory in a whirlwind ensemble, he replies, "C'est bien, c'est bien, c'est bien," to droll and laconic falling tones that seem to nod sympathetically ...