The better Bayreuth is on the Adriatic Sea

As night falls over Pesaro, Rossini’s operas continue to shine. Their 39 titles hang in illuminated letters above the pedestrian zone, not far from the narrow house in which the composer was born in 1792. The Italian coastal city has done a lot to ensure that many of these works are known again. When the Fondazione Rossini began its historical-critical edition in 1969, Gioachino Rossini was only considered the composer of a few comic operas, above all “Il barbiere di Siviglia” and “La Cenerentola”. The creator of serious operas, on the other hand, was completely forgotten. And some were even thought to be lost, including today’s parade pieces such as “Il viaggio a Reims”, which Rossini, who was celebrated throughout Europe at the time, wrote for the coronation of the French King Charles X.

The fact that this play, along with many others, has returned to the repertoire today has to do with the exemplary combination of science and theater practice that was established in Pesaro. Since 1980, the Rossini Opera Festival has been testing sheet music editions in new productions. Discoveries are the order of the day, and so lovers of the composer make a pilgrimage to Pesaro every August – as loyal as the Wagnerians to Bayreuth.

In addition, the performances in the evening go into a unique melange with the bathing life during the day on the Adriatic – which fits in well with Rossini’s offbeat humor. Before the pandemic, two-thirds of the visitors came from abroad to the city, which not only jokingly describes itself as “piccola Bayreuth sull’Adriatico”. This summer it was 55 percent again, and Switzerland ranks third among the countries of origin after France and Germany.

Lonely damsels

After restrictions in the past two years, the Rossini Opera Festival can present three stage works by the composer as usual, two Italian and one French. At just 24 years old, Rossini wrote «La gazzetta» and his «Otello» almost simultaneously, which was later supplanted by Verdi’s version. «Le Comte Ory», on the other hand, was written for Paris in 1828 as the penultimate opera before Rossini ended his operatic career with «Guillaume Tell» at the age of only 37 (he devoted the remaining 38 years of his life mainly to cooking).

The “Comte Ory” staged by Hugo De Ana is a medieval parody that still seems cheeky today: while most of the brave knights are on a crusade, the eponymous count prefers to take care of the dissatisfied damsels at home – for which he initially subordinates himself to them the holy appearance of a hermit, then under the habit of a nun. The title role is a prime role for Juan Diego Flórez, who owes his current status as a star tenor largely to the Rossini Opera Festival.

Since Flórez stepped in here for the first time in 1996 with triumphant success in a major role, he has returned regularly. From this year on he even takes on administrative responsibility: as “Direttore artistico” he will in future work for the artistic director Ernesto Palacio, whom he – Palacio is 76 years old – may one day succeed. Of course, Flórez does not develop too many new visions during a conversation on the sidelines of the festival. His name and face – he sees it that way himself – are supposed to be used primarily to recruit sponsors and to lure more stars to Pesaro.

offspring care

Important names from the Italian singer scene can already be found in the cast lists. Eleonora Buratto can be heard this year as Desdemona in “Otello”. In «La Gazzetta», Carlo Lepore as Don Pomponio Storione masters the pitfalls of a role with a Neapolitan dialect. And in “Le Comte Ory”, alongside Flórez himself, Nahuel Di Pierro, Monica Bacelli and the French soprano Julie Fuchs, who is also celebrated at the Zurich Opera, are on stage.

Pesaro is a festival for melomaniacs that rediscovered parts of the great tradition of Italian bel canto in the first place. When it began its work, there were hardly any tenors who could have done what Rossini demanded of the best singers of his time. In the meantime, the festival can cast three tenors in «Otello» with different voices that suit the respective role. In the title role, Enea Scala fulfills the monstrous requirements of a «baritenor», the Rossinian variant of the heroic tenor, with bravura and grandeur: not only is he able to show off with a dramatic aplomb, but he is also able to deliver breakneck coloratura and top tones in series.

Dmitry Korchak, who plays Otello’s opponent Rodrigo with a youthful, softer timbre, is even harder at the top end. The Russian tenor, who with an unusual double talent could also be experienced as a conductor in Pesaro, draws the more sensitive but no less combative character in enchanting swells. And unlike Verdi, here Iago is also a tenor role – Antonino Siragusa spices up his portrayal of the intriguer with a certain grittiness and poignancy.

Since 1989, the festival has been training the next generation for such demanding tasks itself, with seminars and master classes in the Accademia Rossiniana, which annually performs “Il viaggio a Reims” with the younger generation of singers. You can experience how style-defining Pesaro works with the three conductors at this year’s festival. Most impressively with Yves Abel in “Otello”, who depicts the music in the finest internal phrasing and also masters the art of rubato, which is essential for Rossini.

cockfights

“Otello” also offers the most interesting reading of this year’s edition in terms of scenery. The fact that Rossini’s version is played less frequently than Verdi’s is partly due to the unbalanced libretto, which was already criticized by his contemporaries. The character study of the titular hero is much less subtle, also because he lacks a love duet with Desdemona. Instead, he indulges in cockfights with Rodrigo, in which the suffering woman is pushed back and forth like a piece of property. The director Rosetta Cucchi uses the rude patriarchalism of the early 19th century to take up the current debate topics of diversity and femicide no less brutally.

The Italian audience brings them to a violent conflict of boos and bravos. But completely independent of how one feels politically about the content of this production: aesthetically it is brilliant. Cucchi, who grew up in Pesaro himself and is now director of the Wexford Festival Opera, finds strong images, works out precise directing of the characters and always listens subtly to the music. The enormous atmospheric power of the music, which Verdi’s version has grown at least at this point, comes into its own in the murderous final act. The fact that Rossini strikes such a completely different tone in the cheerful «La gazzetta», written at the same time, amazes even connoisseurs at the variety of his means.

In the coming year, the Rossini Opera Festival will perform «Eduardo e Cristina» for the first time, and the historical-critical edition of the Fondazione Rossini is also due to appear soon. In a sense it will be a crowning achievement: it is the only opera by Rossini that has never been heard in his native city.