Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)Say what you will, opera is all about music, and music is all about tuning. Apart from the choral overture, the first 20 minutes of Ermione are musically undistinguished, and in this production the principal singers in the first three scenes all seem convinced that the orchestra is consistently sharp. I'm just minutes away from running to my computer to re-sell this disc, but suddenly the singers find their tonal centers and Rossini wakes up, and the rest is pure delight, though not without imperfections. Diana Montague (Andromache) never reaches either intensity or A440. Jorge Lopez-Yanez (Pyrrhus)achieves both, but lacks the vocal athleticism to make the characteristic rapid passages of Rossini truly impressive. Anna Antonacci (Ermione)sings and acts her character with such cold hauteur that one begins to look forward to tragedy, but she sings splendidly. Bruce Ford (Orestes) is a painful twerp but he also sings gloriously. Their duets and indeed all the ensemble arias are superb, imaginative, emotionally effective MUSIC, which explains why I'm giving the disk 4 stars.
The production owes a bit to the Cabinet of Doctor Caligari. Set in the gilded boxes and velvet drapes of a traditional opera house tilted 15 degrees askew, it's unrelentingly an "opera about opera". I'm not usually keen on self-referential art, but this time it seems to make sense. Certainly it's vivid, lush, and coherent. There are a few token bits of "relevance" tossed in, including vague hints of Pyrrhus as Mussolini, but they can be ignored. It's hard to imagine that a pre-modernist production, dressing the roles in Attic bathrobes in the manner of Hollywood Homer, would be nearly as plausible. Once you accept the premises, I think you'll find the production values excellent.
Another reviewer faults the sound recording and especially the balance of singers and orchestra. The criticism is fair, but I found that by turning the volume up to the maximum comfortable, I was able to satisfy my ears.
Give it a chance! It's the only DVD of a rarely-produced opera rich with musical ingenuity. If you've never seen or heard the work before, sit through the first few scenes once and ever after fast-forward to the good stuff.
Click Here to see more reviews about: Rossini - Ermione / Antonacci, Ford, Montague, Austin Kelly, Howell, Nilon, Lopez-Yanez, Unwin, Davis, Glyndebourne Opera
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