Programs · Episode

ROSSINI: The Turk in Italy

Program: At the Opera
Aired: Saturday, August 10, 2019 @ 6:00 pm
Hosted by Lisa Simeone

With A Turk in Italy, Rossini turns the narrative tables on his own, more popular comedy, The Italian Girl in Algiers.  This opera may be less familiar but it's every bit as funny.  At The Opera showcases the score in a pair of excellent recordings, both led by the same conductor — Riccardo Chailly — and featuring standout rosters of performers.  From 1997, we'll hear bass Michele Pertusi in the title role, opposite mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli as Fiorilla. And to start, we'll go back to 1981, to hear bass Samuel Ramey and soprano Montserrat Caballé.

FEATURED RECORDINGS:

Riccardo Chailly, conductor
Orchestra and Chorus of La Scala
CAST: Michele Pertusi (Selim); Cecilia Bartoli (Fiorilla); Alessandro Corbelli (Geronio); Ramón Vargas (Narciso); Roberto de Candia (Prosdocimo); Laura Polverelli (Zaida)
(London 289 458 924)

Riccardo Chailly, conductor
National Philharmonic Orchestra
Ambrosian Opera Chorus
CAST: Samuel Ramey (Selim); Montserrat Caballé (Fiorilla); Enzo Dara (Geronio); Ernesto Palacio (Narciso); Leo Nucci (Prosdocimo); Jane Berbie (Zaida)
(CBS 37859)

MORE ABOUT THE OPERA:

In the world of modern movie making, sequels can be seen as a blessing, or a bane — and the line between the two can be a thin one.

In the 1980s, for example, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and Harrison Ford hit it big with Raiders of the Lost Ark, creating an entire franchise. Yet many questioned the wisdom of a grandfatherly Indy turning up in 2008's Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. And there are other examples of sequels falling flat: Jaws II, the third Terminator movie, and Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace come to mind.

Still, despite the pitfalls sequels can bring, it's easy to see the appeal — especially in the profit-obsessed world of Hollywood studios. Why pay a lot of bothersome creative talent for new ideas when you can take an old premise, tweak it a little, and hit the box-office jackpot all over again? Thinking in those terms, the sequel scheme — or scam — makes a lot of sense. And the idea certainly wasn't born in Hollywood.

In 1814, Gioachino Rossini came up with a comic opera called Il Turco in Italia — The Turk in Italy. At the time, Rossini was among the most popular and prolific opera composers in Europe, and it seemed that everything he wrote immediately turned to gold. But the reaction to The Turk in Italy was decidedly cool.

It's possible the new opera left the ticket-buying public felt a bit shortchanged. That's because the year before, Rossini had a smash hit with a comedy called L'Italiana in Algeri — The Italian Girl in Algiers. The titles of the two works make it sound like Rossini took the first opera and simply reversed its premise to come up with a new one — and that's basically what he did.

In retrospect, Rossini may well have created a new opera out of an old story, taking an artistic shortcut in the process. But he also did something that's rare in the world of modern-day sequels: He used the recycled premise to create an entirely different sort of work.

The Italian Girl in Algiers is a brilliant comedy, full of sparkling melodies, blockbuster solo arias and strings of slapstick scenes that are laugh-out-loud funny.

The Turk in Italy, on the other hand, has a different set of strengths. Musically, it relies less on arias than on complex ensembles — duets, trios and even a quintet. Surely, the opera draws plenty of laughs. But, like many fine operatic comedies, it also has more than a few uneasy moments. The opera's humor often comes at the expense of its less fortunate characters, who appear flummoxed and emotionally disoriented. Their dilemmas may seem outwardly silly, but the feelings underlying them go beyond comedy, combining banter and confusion with a sense of helplessness that at times gives the opera's humor a disturbing edge.

On AT THE OPERA, host Lisa Simeone presents The Turk in Italy in a pair of recordings. Both were made in the 1980s, both are led by the same conductor — Riccardo Chailly — and both feature standout rosters of performers. From 1987, bass Michele Pertusi sings the title role, opposite mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli as Fiorilla, in a recording made at the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory of Music in Milan. And, in a 1981 release, we'll hear bass Samuel Ramey and soprano Montserrat Caballé.

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