This most difficult of Rossini comedies here receives a thoroughly correct and in that sense unsatisfying recording. Nothing is wrong with the production, conducting or singing except the totality. There is a great deal of comedy, but no wit; fantastic sets overdone to garishness; stage devices overused; and music without lilt or lift. Of the five lovers, only Schmid as Zaida is lovable. Specifically, Bartoli's voice is excellent but its mezzo tint and her dramatic excesses turn the character into a shrew. Raimondi works too hard to restrain his large instrument to the small scale of the house and his colleagues. Why the poet needs a (mute) Doppelgänger; why Narciso is effeminate; why Geronio is bumptious are beyond my comprehension. Overall, there is a substitution of busy-ness for action and cleverness for insight. If the case is being made to integrate the poet into the action throughout, it fails. One more instance of that notepad and his scribbling would have prompted me to throw something through the screen. That said, the recording is technically excellent - fine sound though even in DTS there is no signficant ambience; well lighted and well balanced image. Video direction is overly busy, cutting too often to provide continuity, but at times the distraction is welcome. The opera can be done well. If the Scala under Chailly becomes available, I will suggest that; if the New York under Adler should be released (though it is in English), it will prove the point. For now, we must make do with this serviceable recording.
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