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Cantate d’occasion Pesaro
Teatro Rossini
08/15/2024 -
Gioachino Rossini: Il vero omaggio
Sara Blanch (Argene), Victoria Yarovaya (Alceo), Ruzil Gatin (Fileno, Genio dell’Austria), Alejandro Balinas (Elpino)
Coro del Teatro della Fortuna, Mirca Rosciani (chorus master), Filarmonica Gioachino Rossini, Giulio Cilona (conductor)
R. Gatin, S. Blanch, V. Yarovaya, A. Balinas (© Amati Bacciardi)
In 1815, the nations that defeated Napoleon convened at the Congress of Vienna to decide the future of Europe. For that occasion, Beethoven wrote a cantata, Der glorreiche Augenblick. Seven years later, Austria hosted a reprise of the Congress for what was called “The Holy Alliance” (Austria, Prussia, Russia and Britain), augmented by a newly royalist France. The chosen site was Verona, in the heart of Veneto – the Italian region whose capital is Venice – that had fallen to Austria after the Serenissima’s demise by Napoleon in 1797. In 1822, Rossini, the star composer in Europe, was chosen by Prince Klemens von Metternich, the Austrian statesman and diplomat, to write a cantata, Il vero omaggio, for the occasion. It is said that the French delegate, the diplomat, historian and author Viscount François-René de Chateaubriand told Rossini: “The Holy Alliance was neither holy nor an alliance.”
Rossini proceeded as he often did, by recycling previous works. Il vero omaggio is no exception. It’s a rewriting of his previous cantata, La riconoscenza, written for Naples the previous year. Nonetheless, Verona’s Chamber of Commerce paid a fortune for it, despite it being mostly recycled material. But happily, it evolved into a mini‑opera with glorious arias and ensembles. As it was a pièce d’occasion to be performed just once, Rossini further reworked it, morphing it into yet another cantata, for neighboring Treviso, to commemorate the recently deceased sculptor Antonio Canova (1757‑1822).
The protagonists in the cantata are shepherds that pay homage to the “Genius of Austria”, a character in the cantata. The four allegorical shepherds are said to represent the four other monarchies in “The Holy Alliance”. The bombast of the Austrians was to be crushed less than a century later. By the end of WWI, the vast Hapsburg Empire would be reduced to the diminutive Austrian Republic; a warning to the powerful on the ephemeral nature of power.
At its premiere, Il vero omaggio boasted the pinnacle of the day’s opera singers, including Giovanni Battista Velluti (1780‑1861), the last great castrato, who starred in Rossini’s Aureliano in Palmira (1813). The castrato part of Alceo was sung in the present performance by the Russian mezzo Victoria Yarovaya, who also sang the part of Andromaca in Ermione at this edition of the Pesaro Rossini Opera Festival (ROF). One cannot always assume that a mezzo or a female contralto can do justice to a role written for a castrato. As delightful as Yarovaya was in the lower register, she did not soar in the higher parts of the role, such as the high lying passage “Al conforto inaspettato”. Nonetheless, she dominated the cast, as one would expect, since the castrato Velluti had the most virtuosic role in the cantata.
Spanish soprano Sara Blanch, admired at last year’s edition of ROF as Zenobia in Aureliano in Palmira, sang the part of Argene in the cantata. Though only featured in one solo aria, the polonaise “De’ gigli nel candor,” which she sang brilliantly, she shone brilliantly in the ensembles.
Russian tenor Ruzil Gatin was the cast’s weakest link. Though well‑cast in such performances as Almaviva in Il barbiere di Siviglia in Florence, and Tybalt in Roméo et Juliette at La Scala, he was shrill in his upper register passages. The problem may be intrinsic with the cantata, as the tenor sings two roles, Fileno and Genio dell’Austria, the former for a high tenor and the latter for a baritenore.
Spanish bass Alejandro Balinas impressed with his deep basso cantante in the part of Elpino, but sadly seemed to show no comprehension of the text. While the bucolic setting is largely superficial and irrelevant, especially in the bombastic political context of the cantata, a feigned effort would nonetheless have been appreciated.
Despite some beautiful music, Il vero omaggio is not a masterpiece. In large part, the vacuity of its topic eliminates any passionate aspect. Nonetheless, it’s a pleasure for Rossini lovers who frequent ROF to discover works by the great composer they would not have the occasion to hear elsewhere.
Ossama el Naggar
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