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Gioachino Rossini: L’Italiana in Algeri, Garsington Opera at Wormsley, 20 June 2016.

The 2016 season of Garsington Opera in its temporary structure in the grounds of the Paul Getty Estate at Wormsley offered four musical events, the operas Eugene, Onegin, Idomeneo, L’Italiana in Algeri and a performance of Haydn’s The Creation accompanying dancers of Rambert and Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance. Of the three qualifying as ‘the extended eighteenth century’ I chose to attend the Rossini which I had not seen before. On the day we chose there was tempestuous rain in the morning but the sun came out in the afternoon and we were able to enjoy champagne and smoked salmon sandwiches in the garden before the early evening start. Confined to a wheelchair, access to the auditorium posed quite a challenge as the lift broke down so it was necessary to follow an extended route back stage and through the artistes’ entrance to the restaurant tent in the interval and at the end.
 L’Italiana in Algeri is an early opera by Rossini first performed to great acclaim in Venice in 1813 when the composer was twenty-one and three years before The Barber of Seville an opera of much greater profundity. It has continued to have great success in spite of the utmost silliness of the plot. This, in a nutshell, concerns Mustafà the Bey of Algiers wishing to marry an Italian girl, passing on his wife Elvira to a recently captive slave Lindoro. The Italian Isabella, searching for her lover Lindoro, is conveniently shipwrecked in Algiers but proves too much of a handful for Mustafa who is in the end relieved to let her go and returns to Elvira.
The set and the lighting designers George Souglides and Guiseppe di Iorio provide a simple but effective background for the action. The set is dominated by a wide white ramp leading up to a broad staircase with changing lights along the edges of the steps. A steeper spiral staircase at the extreme left forms an alcove with red benches where the more intimate action takes place. The director Will Tuckett makes full use of this space to provide disciplined, tightly choreographed motion of both soloists and male-voice chorus which goes a long way to give backbone to the triviality of the story. Unfortunately, the bright evening sun made the surtitles unreadable during the first half so it took time to figure out who was who. It did not seem to matter.
The conductor was David Parry who gave a stylish rendering of the score throughout. It opened with the well-known overture, familiar to anyone who had ever played in a youth orchestra.
Act One opened with Mary Bevan as Elivira dressed in red and Katie Bray as her attendant Zulma, in blue, Elvira moaning about the state of her marriage. The action continues with the entry of the slaves dressed in white with red sashes, among the Lindoro (Luciano Botelho). Elegantly dressed Mustafà (Quirijn de Lang) commands the captain of his guard to find him an Italian girl. Fortuitously survivors of a shipwreck then arrive. Isabella (Ezgi Kutlu, with a glorious voice), in search of Lindoro, accompanied by an elderly admirer and chaperone Taddeo (Riccardo Novaro, a late substitute) and two smart stewardesses and a mass of luggage. Isabella flirts with Mustafà, beginning to get the upper hand and setting the stage for Act Two.
After the dinner interval, in the dusk, it was possible to read the surtitles which was just as well. Mustafà is persuaded that, in order to win Isabella, he must join the Italian Brotherhood of the Pappataci, loosely translated in the surtitles as ‘Sugar Daddies’, which has Lindoro and Taddeo as members. Celebrations involve the consumption of much food and drink, allowing the unguarded Italians to escape. Mustafà realises he has been tricked and is well out of it. Chastened, he returns to Elvira.
This is all delightful nonsense. The combination of Rossini’s music beautifully sung and played with no weak links, a scintillating production. beautiful weather and an excellent dinner provided by Feasts led to yet another memorable Garsington evening.

23 June 2016

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