Special offer. Rossini: Sigismondo
Hera Hyesang Park, Marianna Pizzolato, Rachel Kelly, Kenneth Tarver, Gavan Ring, Guido Loconsolo, Il Hong, Olga Watts
Keri-Lynn Wilson
Awards:
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International Classical Music Awards, 2019, Nominee - Opera
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Opus Klassik Awards, 2020, Nominee - Female Singer of the Year (Park/Pizzolato)
The drive and authority of [Wilson's] conducting work wonders for the piece. I like the way she rescues the Overture (reused by Rossini in revised form for Otello in Naples in 1816) from buffo...
Special offer. Rossini: Sigismondo
Hera Hyesang Park, Marianna Pizzolato, Rachel Kelly, Kenneth Tarver, Gavan Ring, Guido Loconsolo, Il Hong, Olga Watts
Keri-Lynn Wilson
Purchase product
Awards:
-
International Classical Music Awards, 2019, Nominee - Opera
-
Opus Klassik Awards, 2020, Nominee - Female Singer of the Year (Park/Pizzolato)
The drive and authority of [Wilson's] conducting work wonders for the piece. I like the way she rescues the Overture (reused by Rossini in revised form for Otello in Naples in 1816) from buffo...
About
The Italian composer Gioachino Rossini is best known for his operas. Many of their overtures and arias were catchy tunes at the time and have remained so to this day. Although it is Rossini's comic operas that are primarily performed today, more than half of his stage works are in fact based on serious themes. One veritable rarity is the stage work ""Sigismondo"", which premiered in 1814 at the famous Teatro La Fenice in Venice but was only ever rarely performed afterwards. Presumably, the story on which it was based had no appeal for the audience at that time, because musically, the work is hardly less impressive than the ""Italian Girl in Algiers"", written during the previous year, or the ""Barber of Seville"", which followed two years later. The subject of the opera is, however, based on a long tradition. Rossini shows his protagonist, the fictional King Sigismondo, in extreme states of mental distress. Confusion and insanity reveal inner feelings, and it is only delirium that finally brings the truth to light. This ""madness opera"" is highly topical, both in its subject matter and its musical language after all, Rossini is among the top ten most-performed composers of our time.
Contents and tracklist
- Rachel Kelly, Gavan Ring, Kenneth Tarver, Marianna Pizzolato, Hera Hyesang Park, Guido Loconsolo, Il Hong
- Munich Radio Orchestra, Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks
- Keri-Lynn Wilson
Awards and reviews
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International Classical Music Awards2019Nominee - Opera
-
Opus Klassik Awards2020Nominee - Female Singer of the Year (Park/Pizzolato)
November 2019
The drive and authority of [Wilson's] conducting work wonders for the piece. I like the way she rescues the Overture (reused by Rossini in revised form for Otello in Naples in 1816) from buffo banality by giving it a rumbustious, even dangerous feel. I also like the way the performance culminates in an electrifying account of the Act 2 quartet…Both [Pizzolato and Tarver] are class acts.
November 2019
Pizzolato exhibits rich and attractively warm tone. Creating a convincing sense of psychological drama, the Italian mezzo-soprano’s delivery is relatively smooth and seems especially comfortable in her high register...A very engaging performance.
August 2020
Pizzolato in the title role is admirably full-toned, barring occasional scratchiness in the middle range. Although seldom able genuinely to enliven the character, she’s clearly born to the style, bringing especially authoritative artistry to her final ...Tarver (Ladislao) approaches all his music elegantly...The theatrically responsive conductor Keri-Lynn Wilson neglects neither the delicacy nor the grandeur of Rossini’s score.
Opera Now September 2019
Wilson’s conducting is solid and the sound is excellent – this is a live concert recording. Marianna Pizzolato is wonderfully fluent as Sigismondo, but her mezzo has a soft-grained texture that sometimes fails to ignite. Hera Hyesang Park’s high-lying soprano is true and confident. And Kenneth Tarver tackles the excruciating tenor role with bravura.
