LE COMTE ORY @ Wahnfried

At Wahnfried

On Sunday 13th at 4pm in memory of Rossini who died on this day 230 years ago, we have his penultimate opera LE COMTE ORY (2h20mins).

Cecilia Bartoli stars in this ebullient Zurich Opera House production of Rossini s French-language comedy opera described by the international press as pure, unadulterated fun. Bartoli reminds us of her comic gifts and her naturalness as a stage actor as well as her total sympathy with the music of Rossini. Muhai Tang conducts the historical performance ensemble La Scintilla, and the cast includes the acclaimed young Mexican tenor Javier Camarena in the title role.

‘’From Zurich we have directors with a real talent for comedy and a team of brilliant singing actors. The action is updated from the Crusades to World War 2, but otherwise the story is not messed around with. It is, however, genuinely funny and musically it’s superb. The Orchestra La Scintilla (Opernhaus Zurich’s resident period-instrument band) play thrillingly for conductor Muhai Tang and the chorus sing with tremendous gusto. Javier Camarena as Ory sings brilliantly. He’s (almost) a match for Juan-Diego Florez but a much better actor. Cecilia Bartoli is in her element as Adele. As well as singing superbly, she displays enormous skill as a comedienne – for example getting more comedy out of dropping her handbag than the Met managed in a whole evening. I was lost in admiration for the way she sang her beautiful Act 1 aria “En proie a la tristesse” with a straight face given what Camarena was up to just behind her - and around her - and underneath her! The other roles are also done very well - I especially enjoyed Rebeca Olvera's slightly Cherubino-esque Isolier and Liliana Nikiteanu's Ragonde. The three-in-a-bed scene is tricky to stage effectively, but it's particularly well realised here.
I can’t praise this highly enough. The whole thing has a tremendous exuberance sadly lacking in the other versions, and proves what a masterpiece of sparkling comedy this opera can be in the right hands.’’ Amazon.co.uk reviewer