Dec 17 A critic’s journey

Roberta Pedrotti, Italian director of the online “Lape musicale”  and a knowlegble, fervent Rossini fan offered this choice along with a message (translated from Italian).

Dear Rossini friends, choosing just one piece is very difficult. Rossini is the author who changed my life, who accompanied me and resonates in my heart like no other, almost as if he were part of me. How to indicate just one piece? How to choose an aria, an opera, an overture?

I thought about how it all began and where it took me: the Sinfonia della Gazza ladra is the first piece by Rossini that I remember listening to as a child. This is a performance played at the Teatro Rossini in Pesaro with a great conductor who highlights all the refinements of the score but above all makes us understand that it is not “just” great and beautiful music, but the synthesis of a profound, dramatic work, in which we witness the condemnation to death of an innocent person and in which justice triumphs but almost by chance. An opera in which Rossini shows the horror of the world that we know well even today, but also offers us a way of salvation.
And then, my beloved companion plays here, whom I met thanks to music: how much happiness I owe to Rossini! I wish the same for you.