Rossni: Demetrio e Polibio [Blu-ray]

Perhaps I'm Too Easily Pleased ...
... but if I'd heard this opera in Roma in May of 1812, I'd have gone home raving about the miraculous birth of the fully-formed Gioachino Rossini from the head of Mozart. And if I'd heard bits of it in the home of the librettist Vincenzina Mombelli and her family, for whom Rossini tailor-composed the four roles of Demetrio, Polibio, Siveno, and Lisinga, I'd have sold my palazzo and invested my scudi in the future career of the teenage genius. Domenico Mombelli, the pater familias and a well-established operatic tenor, certainly recognized the precocious genius of the 13-year-old Gioachino; he must have sung the role of Demetrio in the preliminary performances of the opera in various small theaters before its successful premier in Roma. That juicy role is sung in this production by Yijie Shi, another youthful prodigy, born in China, trained in Japan and Europe, a skyrocketing star in Rossini productions. I had always supposed that such a "squillo" was genetically restricted to Italian...

The Ghosts of Opera Past
There's a wonderful double-take moment at the start of this 2010 Rossini Opera Festival production of Rossini's Demetrio e Polibio, which turns out to be a thoughtful way to present the work and at the same time manages to strike the perfect balance between the traditional performance and more modern conceptual. The stage curtain draws back at the opening to reveal a final curtain call of a performer for an unseen audience out the back of the stage. His self-congratulations out of the way, the stage hands having moved the sets to the wings, the scene is set for some ancient 'ghosts of opera past' to arise out of the packing cases to re-enact a historic performance of the drama of Rossini's Demetrio e Polibio.

It's a clever and effective compromise that works well for this one particular Rossini opera that needs a thoughtful and considered approach. Demetrio e Polibio is Rossini's first opera, which he started to compose when he was only 14 years old. The nature of this...

clever production
I was surprised that I liked this obscure, early Rossini. The entire cast and support throws itself into the work. Certainly, in spite of few familiar names, the singing is superb.
Most often we read complaints when the "set" design seems truncated, too simple. This one is curious, for it seems to begin
only after a 'regular opera', and everything is packed up and ...lights off..turned off by a "fire marshall, who smokes cigarettes"...which gives us a clue that there is going to be a lot of fire hazard. Indeed... the players all seem to have soem kind of device in the palm of their hand and with a flick of the thumb, blazes up quite frightfully. Later, as part of the script, the palace is invaded by the enemy bent on recapturing this lost son. There are lots of guys with torches, the red lights waver, and the red curtain wavers to produce the imagery of a great fire...with "first responders coming out in their
usual gear with refelctive tape on their firemen gear, and...

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