Rossini - Le Comte Ory (Rossini Opera Festival, Pesaro 2003) [Live, Import]

Gioachino Rossini (Composer), Jesus Lopez-Cobos (Conductor), Orchestra del Teatro Comunale di Bologna (Orchestra), Juan Diego Florez (Performer), Stefania Bonfadelli (Performer), Marie-Ange Todorovitch (Performer), Alastair Miles (Performer), Marina De Liso (Performer), Bruno Pratico (Performer), Rossella Bevacqua (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Juan Diego Florez, Stefania Bonfadelli, Marie-Ange Todorovitch, Alastair Miles, Marina De Liso, et al.
• Orchestra: Orchestra del Teatro Comunale di Bologna
• Conductor: Jesus Lopez-Cobos
• Composer: Gioachino Rossini
• Audio CD (July 15, 2004)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 2
• Format: Live, Import
• Label: Dg Imports
• ASIN: B000295TXW
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #34,971 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #21 in Music > Imports > Opera & Vocal

Track Listings

Disc: 1

1. Le Comte Ory, opera: Prélude

2. Le Comte Ory, opera: Act 1. Scene 1. No. 1 Introduction. Jouvencelles, venez vite / Scene 2. Quand Madame la Comtesse

3. Le Comte Ory, opera: Act 1. Scene 3. Que les destins prospères accueillent vos prières!

4. Le Comte Ory, opera: Act 1. Scene 3. Moi, je réclame

5. Le Comte Ory, opera: Act 1. Scene 3. De grâce, encore un mot

6. Le Comte Ory, opera: Act 1. Scene 4. Je ne puis plus longtemps voyager de la sort

7. Le Comte Ory, opera: Act 1. Scene 4. No. 2. Air. Veiller sans cesse

8. Le Comte Ory, opera: Act 1. Scene 5. Vous, notre appui

9. Le Comte Ory, opera: Act 1. Scene 5. Cette aventure fort singulière

10. Le Comte Ory, opera: Act 1. Scene 5. Cet ermite, ma belle enfant / Scene 6. Je vais revoir la beauté qui m'est chère / S

See all 19 tracks on this disc

Disc: 2

1. Le Comte Ory, opera: Act 2. Scene 1. No. 6. Introduction. Dans ce séjour calme et tranquille

2. Le Comte Ory, opera: Act 2. Scene 1. Noble châtelaine, voyez notre peine

3. Le Comte Ory, opera: Act 2. Scene 2. Quand tomberont sur lui les vengeances divines?

4. Le Comte Ory, opera: Act 2. Scene 3. Ah! quel respect, Madame

5. Le Comte Ory, opera: Act 2. Scene 3. Ce téméraire qui croit nous plaire

6. Le Comte Ory, opera: Act 2. Scene 3. Voici vos compagnes fidèles

7. Le Comte Ory, opera: Act 2. Scene 4. No. 8. Choeur. Ah! la bonne folie!

8. Le Comte Ory, opera: Act 2. Scene 4. Eh! mais quelle triste observance! / Scene 5. En voici, mas amis - C'est Raimbaud!

9. Le Comte Ory, opera: Act 2. Scene 5. No. 9. Air. Dans ce lieu solitaire

10. Le Comte Ory, opera: Act 2. Scene 6. Elle revient... silence! / Scene 7. Quel doux recueillement! / Scene 8. Qui, c'est

See all 13 tracks on this disc

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars As good as Rossini gets!, June 28, 2005

By 

Henry Thoreau (Olathe, KS United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rossini - Le Comte Ory (Rossini Opera Festival, Pesaro 2003) (Audio CD)

Don't be dissuaded by the prior reviewers' incomprehensible restraint and provisos!

I'm admittedly no musicologist, but my music collection is large, and I'd previously listened to (virtually) all of Rossini's other operas, and I remain very fond of (virtually) all of those.

But this edition of Le Comte Ory has suddenly become my new "favorite"! To my sensibilities, there is nothing here amounting to a significant negative: the singing (across the proverbial board), the instrumentals, the recorded sound... everything is achieved exactly the way I like my Rossini!

Of course, these things are matters of taste. But, with the very first play, I continually felt my eyes half closing, my head swaying from side to side, and (now and again) my hands "conducting" or tapping with rhythmic rapture. And, for me, that is about as good as it gets when listening to early romantic opera!

This recording is the real deal. If you can't relish this, you must not fully relish Rossini.

35 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Juan Diego Flórez welcomes COMTE ORY to the Post-Modern Age, September 15, 2004

By 

Joseph Newsome (NC, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Rossini - Le Comte Ory (Rossini Opera Festival, Pesaro 2003) (Audio CD)

This recording was taken from 'live' performances (how many I do not know) at the 2003 Pesaro Rossini Festival. Tried-and-true Rossinian Jesús López-Cobos leads the Prague Chamber Choir and Orchestra del Teatro Comunale di Bologna, neither of those being especially polished groups but contributing without serious defect to the fecundity of the performance(s). López-Cobos' conducting does not draw attention to itself, and perhaps that is praise enough in this score of which no less than Gui is the acknowledged master (on records at least).

The production was apparently minimalist: this is the impression I take from the recorded sound, at least. There is a bit of typical live-performance bumping and thumping in the quiet moments of the recitative (handled without any great effort at liveliness, admittedly), but the sound is admirably clear and well-balanced. The voices are slightly to the front as one expects from live-performance recording conditions, but I never strained to hear orchestral felicities beneath the din of singing. Kudos to the team at Emil Berliner Studios for clean, gimmick-free editing.

Alas, some of the singing is best described as a din. Poor Bruno Praticò as Raimbaud seems utterly lost: the voice is breathy, and the patter is embarrassingly ragged. His Dulcamara alongside Devia and Alagna for Viotti on Erato did not inspire torrents of praise (Dulcamara emerged, as a result of the compromised vocal resources, as more than usually a charlatan), but this performance is even less accomplished. At least with his Dulcamara one had the benefit of his native Italian.

Alastair Miles as the Comte's 'Gouverneur' is more than adequate. The tone seems slightly dry and 'northern' in color, but the performance is assured and fleet in the difficulties of the first-act aria. Marina de Liso (Dame Ragonde) and Rossella Bevacqua (Alice) are both very competent and effective in their contributions. Miles seeks to avoid sounding a standard-issue operatic tutor (translation: dull old stick) and achieves an effect of seeming to seek to avoid sounding a standard-issue operatic tutor: one can easily admire the effort.

Marie-Ange Todorovitch is, by turns, excellent and exasperating as Isolier. In her duet with the Comte, she is fantastic: secure throughout the range, tackling the firecracker roulades and top notes with aplomb, and combining well with her partner. In the later trio with Ory and the Comtesse, she shows to lesser advantage: here she seems uncomfortable with the tessitura of her lines and is only fitfully convincing. She is involved and involving throughout, however, and she seems to relish her pivotal role in the plot.

Stefania Bonfadelli's Comtesse is an anomaly: hers is a voice of some agility, possessing a generally secure upper extension and some notion of how to sing Rossini fiorature. Yet the whole never adds up to more than the sum of its parts. There is some occasional good singing (as in the aforementioned trio), but much of her performance lacks that indefinable slancio that could render the wily Comtesse a figure of sparkling brilliance. In that, Bonfadelli is not alone: neither Sumi Jo on the Gardiner/Philips recording (despite the uncompromising agility and brightness of the timbre) nor Sari Barabas on the Gui/EMI Glyndebourne recording captures the listener's imagination as one suspects Rossini intended. Perhaps Anna Netrebko will one day give us a thinking-man's Comtesse de Formoutiers. In the end, Bonfadelli shirks few of Rossini's considerable demands and provides enough showy top notes to avoid being utterly dismissed and forgotten.

Finally, there is of course Le Comte himself. In the name-part, it must be conceded that Juan Diego Flórez trails all the clouds of glory the hype would lead one to expect. There are occasional missteps, but these are very minor and detract from the overall effect of the performance only if one dwells too much upon them. Flórez' singing in his first-act 'aria' (Rossini made no such distinction, but the shape of the score asserts itself undeniably) is poised, precise, and technically first-rate. His singing of the rapid-fire patter in the ensuing quasi-cabaletta is accurate but not especially amusing. In general, Flórez leaves the comedy to the music itself though there is a smile in the basic sound of his voice. This Comte Ory is clearly more of a lover than a schemer. Taken merely as a vocal performance, Flórez is very much in his element and easily out-classes his recorded competitors, the competent but fussy John Aler for Gardiner and Gui's Juan Oncina, whose instincts are front-and-center but whose frequent flights into falsetto are off-putting to all but those who are unquestioning converts [Purists and Purveyors of other Curious Musical Minutiae, please note that there is a great difference between Oncina-esque falsetto and the genuine voce mista required of tenors by the great bel canto composers].

On the whole, this set does not quite outrank the Gui studio recording as the COMTE ORY par excellence: it does, however, make a good case for the musical distinction and stage-worthiness of the score, a case which I sincerely hoped is not overlooked by the managements at some of our more adventurous American opera companies. At least we all now know in whom we can find a top-rank Comte Ory for the twenty-first century.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Only a few notes, November 29, 2006

By 

Reynaldo Pulido "reynaldus" (Caracas, Venezuela) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Rossini - Le Comte Ory (Rossini Opera Festival, Pesaro 2003) (Audio CD)

It's important to say that Le Comte Ory is a revised work of Il Viaggio a Reims, being the last a cantata scenica intended for a special occasion: Carlos X's coronation. Rossini, knowing that this cantata would have a brief life, he withrew Il Viaggio from stages, and reserved part of its brilliant music for a more stable theme: Le Comte Ory, adapting almost the whole cantata to the french taste, and composing few new numbers but equally splendid. This story could be known by the most of Rossini music's fan, but i wrote to explain that, when you are a fan of Il Viaggio, is interesting to listen a opera that interpolate female and male parts or entires numbers (Raimbaud sings the Maddalena introduction, Ory sing the Madama Cortese first aria, La Contesse read the letter that is read by Don Profondo before, etc), to delight again the duets and arias enjoyed before in a party of frustrated travelers, and unavoidable to compare with Il viaggio. I have to say, musically, Il Viaggio a Reims is better. Le Comte Ory is dramatically superior, and this recording -as other reviewers claims- does not make you feel in a theatre, but is well sung by all the cast: You will be sure that Florez will do his work and more (when you listen Horne, Ramey, Sutherland or Pavarotti), Bonfadelli with her high notes, and so. Only, I can protest for the Pratico's ugly voice; nevertheless i have to ackowledge his accurate coloratura in his only air. I would wish a box set for this not-budget recording, but the booklet notes are written by the excellent Rossini scholar, Richard Osborne, whose some opinions are included by reviewers of this recording here.