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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Another side of Rossini, 3 Jan 2003
Three reasons to buy 'Tancredi': 1. ) Most people know Rossini through comic operas like'The Barber of Seville'. Yet Rossini wrote nearly as many serious operas as he did comic operas. 'Tancredi' was the breakthrough opera that won him an international reputation - precisely as a composer of serious opera. It is worth exploring this side of Rossini. 2. ) Rossini was a master of form. He laid down a pattern of composition that was followed by Donizetti and Bellini and was only gradually modified by Verdi. In 'Tancredi' the various Rossinian forms are especially clear. (For example, the structure fast-slow-fast for a duet, or the use of a quieter section in the middle of the Act One finale). It thus provides a study for the whole scaffolding of early nineteenth century Italian opera. 3.) Rossini was a genius. He was only twenty when he wrote 'Tancredi', but it is certainly not an 'immature' work. It has all the melody, 'fioratura', ensemble work, crescendos and sheer verve of any Rossini opera. But, because it is a serious opera, it includes the pathos of a scene where a father unwillingly condemns his daughter to death, another where the heroine sings her plaintive aria from prison, and another where the hero, in exile, dwells on his feelings of betrayal by his lover. This is the stuff of Italian opera! One listener's note: following the convention of the time, everything is sung in a higher register. The villain is not even a bass but a baritone. The king is a tenor and the hero, Tancredi, is a mezzo-soprano (well sung in virile-fashion by Ewa Podles). This did slightly throw me on a first listening! I think, to be very honest, a final thing that swayed me was the price: all this without hitting that "forty quid level" of posh, boxed opera sets. I assure you: the quality is still very good.
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~ Ewa Podles
~ Cecilia Gasdia
~ Wojciech Adalbert Gierlach
~ Sumi Jo
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