Rossini – Ciro in Babilonia
Podleś; Pratt; Spyres; Palazzi; Orchestra and Chorus Teatro Comunale di Bologna; Will Crutchfield
Opus Arte OA1108D
Around 1810 Rossini ran away from home as a teenager to try his luck in Venice, where he met and fell in love with a great operatic diva of the time, Maria Marcolini. This very fruitful relationship bore many successful operas written with Marcolini’s wonderful contralto coloratura in mind. Unfortunately the biblical epic Ciro in Babilonia, Rossini’s take on Belshazzar’s feast, was a fiasco according to the composer and duly forgotten over the next century. Posterity, however didn’t agree with Rossini’s modesty and the opera was revived recently in the USA at the Caramoor Festival under the auspices of Rossini scholar Will Crutchfield, who also conducted. So successful was the revival that it was soon transferred to Rossini Mecca, the Pesaro Festival where this video was filmed.
Fortunately today we have the voices capable of singing the extremely difficult lead roles. Polish contralto phenomenon, Ewa Podleśis the ideal choice for the lead, Ciro, King of Persia, the longest contralto role in opera history. No less impressive is the virtuoso soprano, American Jessica Pratt who cuts a magnificent figure with vocal acrobatics to match as Almira, his imprisoned wife. Another American is the powerful, virtuoso tenor Michael Spyres as the villainous Baldassare, the wicked ruler of Babylon who gets his just desserts prophesied by “the writing on the wall.”
The most wonderful quality of this performance is the projected scenery that conjures up in a matter of seconds vast deserts, beautiful palaces, grand ceremonial spaces or a dungeon built stone by stone in front of our eyes. After witnessing Bill Viola’s wonderful Tristan videography, this production is a step in the right direction using up-to-date cinematic technology as a way to the future.
