The Rossini Opera Festival will broadcast this year’s “Il Viaggio a Reims” from their website, RossiniOperaFestival.it, on Friday, August 12th. To our friends in the US, you don’t have to take a day off from work, but you either have to get up very early, or stay up late, depending on your time zone!
The performances will be broadcast at 11 AM, Italian time. In addition, the broadcast will be available on the Festival’s youtube channel.

Here’s your chance to hear the Rossinians of the future!
Would you have liked to hear Daniela Barcellona, Paolo Bordogna, Nicola Alaimo,or Luca Salsi before they “became famous”? How about Vittorio Prato, Maxim Mironov, Olga Peretyatko, or Marina Rebeka? They were all participants in Accademia Rossiniana whose graduates have been appearing ( since 2001) in the annual performances of Viaggo a Reims.! So, you never know who will make a breakthrough.

This year’s star of “La Donna del Lago”, Salome Jicia, is seen in this picture ( center) in a performance of Viaggo at last year’s Festival.

Not to be missed!

Again this year, RAI will be broadcasting the opening nights of the 3 featured operas of the Rossini Opera Festival. On August 8,9, and 10th you can listen to the webcast of “La Donna Del Lago”, “Il Turco in Italia”, and “Ciro in Babylonia”. Curtain is at 8 pm Italian time, so that’s 2 pm, Eastern, etc.

Follow the link and on the Rai Radio 3 website click on “Ascolta in Diretta”

http://www.radio3.rai.it/dl/portaleRadio/concerti/ContentItem-5fcd9d5c-9bc6-4f51-8715-4eaf4e0f3ece.html

Il Turco in Italia is NOT a “lesser” L’Italiana in Algeri!

As some who don’t know Rossini might think: “Well, first he sent an Italian girl to Algeria, and that worked so well, so now he’ll try doing it the other way!” NOT SO!

Although “Turco” is less well known, it is on the same artistic level as “L’Italiana” and we wanted to share some thoughts about this opera in anticipation of its appearance at ROF 2016.

As it turns out, we have an excellent guide in the program notes by the legendary Rossini scholar,Phillip Gossett, written for a CD recording of this opera on Phillips. By the way, the Alaimo in this recording is related to the Alaimo who will be singing in Pesaro. Rossini must run in the family.

Gossett starts by debunking the myth that Turco is filled with self-borrowing. “ Corriere delle dame “( Aug 20, 1814) seems to have been the origin of this story.

Then, Gossett declares that Turco is not a poor relative of L’Italiana.

Some of Gossetts points are:

1. L’Italiana is a zany farce with a serious side. Turco, on the other hand is a “comedy of manners” whose themes seem peculiarly modern.

2. If one wants to link “Turco” to another opera, one should look to Mozart’s “Cosi fan tutte” !

There are so many between the two operas, according to Gossett, including the librettist, some of the singers who created the roles, and so forth.

So, those of you who are joining us in Pesaro, think “Mozart” when you hear this opera. Our conductor, Speranza Scappucci, brings her Mozart sensibilities with her, and it is bound to be a memorable experience.

For those who cannot make it, we will post information about the RAI broadcast, both here, on FB and twitter.

See the bottom of this post for the great news!

We interviewed conductor Speranza Scappuccci last year shortly after we met her in Washington DC and learned that she will be appearing at the Rossini Opera Festival this summer. Since then she has been busy with performances throughout the world. Her recent performances in US included a much praised “La Sonnambula” which prompted the NYTimes music critic to suggest that it was time for her to “conduct across 65th street at the Met”!

Her most recent US performances were at LA Opera where she revitalized the musical values in the warhorse, La Boehme While at LA Opera, Scappucci was interviewed at length for KUSC and we posted the link to that interview.

In spite of her busy schedule, she has graciously agreed to answer a few more questions for RossiniAmerica, to update her previous interview.

Q. Thank you for again taking time to answer our questions. We are sorry we don’t ( yet) have the technical capability of bringing audio interview here on the site; It is one thing to see your responses “on paper”, quite another to hear you speak with such passion and commitment about your work.

Q. Recently some pages of a Rossini manuscript ( if one can call them that) were posted on FB and they looked like what one commentator called a Rorschach test. They were at least quite frantic and messy. When you study his printed scores do you feel the sense of spontaneity that the listener feels, or is this something that you must “create”?

A. Rossini wrote his operas is very short periods of time ! His genius and creativity are without limit. At the same time I think nothing is left to pure chance with him. To the listener his music of course sounds spontaneous and perfectly balanced, but I am sure that in certain masterpieces although Rossini uses some “formulas” , everything is perfectly planned out and the balance and perfection between word and music is spectacular !

Q. In your comments for the LA Opera interview you mentioned something about “young voices” being ideal for La Boheme. How much does the quality of the voice ( not the technique) matter in a Rossini Opera?

A. What I meant in Puccin’s La Boheme was not young voices necessarily , but youthful characters ! Because it’s an opera about youth,love, life and loss of innocence, sudden death. Because of Puccinis orchestration it is the conductors duty to make sure that the transparency of the heavy orchestration never surpasses the voices. You need healthy voices for Puccini. Same of course for Rossini , for which vocally speaking, it is necessary to have some qualities like coloratura and good legato

Q. We first became aware of your work from the enthusiastic review of your performances of “Il Turco in Italia” at Julliard a number of years ago. You are returning to this work for your Pesaro debut. You frequently say that you start with the score ( to find the “truth behind the notes”, if we recall) what is it like to return to a score that you have already conducted? Is there always something new to discover? How do your previous performances inform the ones you are presently doing?

A. Sudying a score always presents the opportunity to discover new things ! In this edition of Turco in Italia there will be practically no cuts , so some new music for me compared to the Juilliard version . Also I will be dealing with new singers so of course it’s a great opportunity to do things differently !

Q. A well respected American music critic recently bemoaned the quality of the present crop of young American conductors. One of his observations was that they are not mentored, and few, if any, come from a background in opera. Most of the great conductors we can think of did have a background in opera. What role has working with singers have in shaping you as a conductor?

A. For me it was fundamental. Because understanding how the human voice works and coaching singers gives me a more wide spectrum of how music phrasing goes! And it can be applied to phrasing also in the symphonic repertoire . People tend to think that if a conductor comes from opera , they are probably not as great in symphonic repertoire ! I say it’s quite the contrary . If you are able to deal with the stage the singers the chorus etc etc , it is quite likely that working on symphonic repertoire is as good or even “easier” ! Working backstage for years , training singers, next to great conductors can be the best school for a conductor in the making. That is , of course , if there is a basic talent and charisma.

Q. Is there anything you would like to convey to our Festival goers before we all meet in Pesaro?

A. I hope you will all enjoy this Turco in Italia, a real masterpiece of Rossini , often underestimated

Again, thank you for taking the time to answer these questions.

Photo credit : Marco Borrelli

After her Pesaro debut in “Il Turco in Italia”, Speranza Scappucci most recently appeared in Vienna ( conducting Rossini) where she was given this well-deserved, fantastic honor!

The news of the loss of Dempsey Rivera spread throughout social media recently. A much-loved young talent who first appeared at the Rossini Opera Festival as a member of the Accademia Rossiniana, Dempsey returned to appear in Aureliano in Palmyira the following year. Last summer he appeared in Messa di Gloria ( seen here with Juan Diego Florez). Most likely many in the audience didn’t know of Dempsey’s illness and treatment; his bravery and determination in sharing his talent now seems bitter-sweet. Thanks to ROF for providing this beautiful photograph. And condolences to Dempsey’s friends,colleagues,and family.

Fresh from a triumphant concert at La Scala, Daniela Barcellona accompanied by her husband, Alesandro Vitiello, arrived in Lunenburg,Canada,to continue the work begun by the late Alberto Zedda at the Rossini Opera Academy.

Zedda had hoped that the enterprise started by him and others 4 years ago would flourish and spread throughout North America.

Lunenburg is fortunate to have Daniela, herself a graduate of the Accademia Rossiniana in Pesaro, Italy, maintain Zedda’s knowledge,passion, and dedication to guiding the next generation of Rossini singers.

Read our interview with Daniela elsewhere on this site.