A horny count in drag crashes a castle full of lonely noblewomen. Rossini knew what he was doing.
Cecilia Bartoli stars in this ebullient Zurich Opera House production of Rossini’s first French-language comedy opera described by the international press as “pure, unadulterated fun” and reminds us of her comic gifts and her naturalness as a stage actor — as well as her total sympathy with the music of Rossini.
Acting
Bartoli's physical comedy matches her vocal brilliance beat for beat.
Direction
Caurier and Leiser stage bedroom farce with genuine operatic intelligence.
Score
Rossini's final opera buffa — every aria is a vocal obstacle course.
Director
Moshe Leiser
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Rossini recycled his own music: the opera's overture was originally written for 'William Tell' and several numbers were lifted from his earlier 'Il viaggio a Reims.'
This 2013 Zurich production deliberately emphasized the opera's gender-bending possibilities, making Isolier's trouser role even more thematically loaded than Rossini originally intended.
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