Customer Reviews

Rossini - La Cambiale di Matrimonio / The Bill of Marriage

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you appreciate Rossini, you'll surely enjoy this production of one of his smaller, less well-known operas. Most of the music will be fresh in your ears, not appropriated from other compositions, and many of the ensemble pieces rank with Rossini's most brilliant. The staging in the antique theater of Schwetzingen is the height of elegance, with distinctly English period costuming for an English story. The acting is excellent, and the camera-work captures that expressive excellence. The orchestra is top-notch, particularly the horns and flutes, and the conductor is worth the price of watching for his expressive face. The singing is highly polished, though no single voice seemed to me to surpass excellence and achieve brilliance.

If your idea of opera is "heavy" and epic music developing heroic themes, then, this Rossini farce is not for you. But, if you want to lay aside your cares and just enjoy a good time, then by all means buy this DVD. I couldn't help thinking about modern musical comedy, which fulills the same purpose as this earliest effort by Rossini: just provide an escape for a reasonable length of time. This production makes a good case for type-casting singers who not only can sing and act but are believable because they are more or less the ages of the characters they portray on stage. The entire production is suited to the small Rokokotheater used in the Schwetzingen Festival, and what's more important in this case, to the small home theater. Delightful entertainment!

It is a typical Rossini opera buffa, light, funny and frosty. Not grand, but fun. It is well recorded and sung.