What a pity that il Turco in Italia was such a disappointment this year. Davide Livermore, director of several operas in Pesaro for several years now, transports the opera into a Fellinian movie. Similarly L’Italiana in Algeri of last year was transported into the 60’s, where Livermore had to be careful on keeping the decade’s style. Differently, in Il turco in Italia, by sticking to the fellinian idea, he transforms the Turco-characters into Fellini-characters, adds several characters from the movies and has to match all the different characters among each other and with the libretto. And this sometimes leads to a boring confusion and forced situations that annoy on the long run. The set is beautiful, as are the costumes designed by Gianluca Falaschi. Musically the things don’t enthuse either. Speranza Scappucci does her best to underline the details of the score but directed the singers and orchestra without vivacity. Completely! Erwin Schrott as Selim is more interested in the setting than looking to sing in Rossini’s style…another disappointment. 
Rene Barbera has all the notes but leaves a bit cold. Olga Peretyatko, who is gorgeous on stage, could have been a good Fiorilla but she does not convince in the first act, let alone in her big aria Squallida veste bruna, which she finishes (badly) with big effort (partially excused by a note she issued saying that this was due to an allergy). Excellent, on the other hand, Pietro Spagnoli and Nicola Alaimo, who, except for an amazingly clear diction, vital for a comic opera, and the only two main characters that care pronouncing properly, understand how to sing Rossini, but alone cannot save the show from a sense of averageness.
Ciro in Babilonia was given with a set, also by Davide Livermore, conceived for the ROF in 2012. The setting is created around the slient movie theme, with spectators in liberty style, projected intertitles, simplistic acting with emphasized body language and facial expression, and intentionally unrefined projections. it is a very clever direction which is easy to follow and extremely pleasant to watch. Musically Jader Benjamini gives a dramatic though airy and light imprint to this score of the young Rossini and accompanies the singers well. It would be very interesting to hear him in a more mature Rossini. The big star is Ewa Podles. The voice has still an amazing range, I am always impressed to hear both the almost manly-deep and the almost soprano-like high notes in one single voice. Podles is expressive and a very good actress and impersonates not only a Persian prince but a loving father and husband. 
This is singing with a capital S and shows that Podles has, with over 60 years, still many strings in her bow and she received the ovation she deserved. Siragusa is always quite good with his luminous timbre, fluency in the colorature and attentive to diction. Petty Yende was a nice surprise. The quick florid passages were not as articulated, but she showed a good control in the extreme high register and was overall convining in the Rossinian style. A bigger attention to intonation would have completed her interpretation.
La donna del lago was, in my eyes, the most refined of Mariotti s conductions so far. From the first bars of the introduction it is clear that he pays much care to the details of the score, giving much attention to soli’s and accompaniment, uncovering the sounds of gurgling water, “morning dawns”, etc. etc. His tempi are perfect, dynamic and swift, without indulging in superfluous oversentimentality, still tender and warm where required, with an incredible play of rubati and attention to details as rarely heard. It is true what one says about Florez and the coloratura that it is less fluid, but what is lost in flexibility is gained in the search of softness and phrasing, colours and accents. Unmatched. Michael Spyres interprets the extremely difficult role of Ridrigo, cockily shooting high and baritonal notes and leaping over the pentagram as if there was no tomorrow. 
Very good also Salome Jica in the role of Elena, good coloratura and good range. Varduhi Abrahamyan is very good, though lacks, in my eye, these Podles-like fullness in the lowest part of the range. Very good also the minor parts. Michieletto sets the action as flashback. The opera begins with Malcolm and Elena living together in old age, with Elena thinking with regret to the times she met the king. And Michieletto shows what Tottola and Rossini only hint at, a loving relationship between the two, so the whole direction centres around a love that could have been and is (maybe) still there. In the world of subject matter experts a well known theory but Michieletto makes it visible with the attention to details and coherence that is his trademark.
Il turco in Italia: Direttore-Speranza Scappucci, Regia e Scene-Davide Livermore, Videodesign-D-WOK, Costumi-Gianluca Falaschi, Progetto luci-Nicolas Bovey, Selim-Erwin Schrott, Fiorilla-Olga Peretyatko, Geronio-Nicola Alaimo, Narciso-René Barbera, Prosdocimo-Pietro Spagnoli, Zaida-Cecilia Molinari, Albazar-Pietro Adaini
Ciro in Babilonia: Direttore-Jader Bignamini, Regia-Davide Livermore, Videodesign-D-WOK, Scene e Progetto luci-Nicolas Bovey, Costumi-Gianluca Falaschi, Baldassare-Antonino Siragusa, Ciro-Ewa Podles, Amira-Pretty Yende, Argene-Isabella Gaudí, Zambri-Oleg Tsybulko, Arbace-Alessandro Luciano, Daniello-Dimitri Pkhaladze
La donna del lago: Direttore-Michele Mariotti, Regia-Damiano Michieletto, Scene-Paolo Fantin, Costumi-Klaus Bruns, Progetto luci-Alessandro Carletti, Giacomo V/Uberto-Juan Diego Flórez, Douglas-Marko Mimica, Rodrigo-Michael Spyres, Elena-Salome Jicia, Malcom-Varduhi Abrahamyan, Albina-Ruth Iniesta, Serano/Bertram-Francisco Brito, Elena anziana-Giusi Merli, Malcom anziano-Alessandro Baldinotti
Florian Leopold Gassmann, although nowadays practically unknown to most, was one of Vienna’s court composer and organized one of the first associations of public concerts. Admired by Mozart, he was a prolific Bohemian, composing 25 or so operas, more than 50 symphonies, overtures, chamber music etc., who worked with famous librettists and composers such as Metastasio, Goldoni, Salieri. He composed operas for Vienna, Venice, Florence, and was able to merge the characteristics of the Venetian style and the German taste. The opera L’opera seria, written on a libretto by Ranieri de Calzabigi, is not seria at all, but a brilliant and hilarious rendering of the rehearsal and staging of an opera, the vanity of singers, the greed of impresarios, and the whims of dancers, composers and librettists. It is part of a widespread and appreciated satirical genre that flourished between the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century and describes the inconveniences of opera companies and which has examples galore in prose, drama and opera alike (Il teatro alla moda by Benedetto Marcello, Le convenienze e inconvenienze teatrali by Donizetti, La prova dell’opera by Da Ponte, L’opera in prova alla moda by Latilla, L’impresario in angustie by Cimarosa, Prova di un opera seria by Gnecco, and many others). 
The plot evolves around the impresario Fallito (!) who commissions an opera to a pretentious composer and librettist (Mr. Sigh and Delirium), three primadonnas (Miss Off-Key Trill, Miss Simpering, and Porporina, which show up with their respective mothers), the primo uomo and the dancer, and who are all only driven by their personal and individual glory. Act I and II sees them complain abut the libretto, the music , the costumes. They rehears among disastrous directions, singers complaining about the orchestra and ornamentation….chaos: The final act finally sees them catastrophically perform the opera on stage only to finally realize that the impresario run off with the money.
Some of the singers are excellent. Spagnoli is simply wonderful, his style, his pronunciations, the nuances he puts in every line, his taste in phrasing, every inflection, every word is in its right place and his voice doesn’t seem to have lost any of its brilliance. I found Alex Penda and Mario Zeffiri equally good, both with their own qualities, they charm with actorial talent, and musically nail their hugely difficult roles, Zeffiri clearer in his diction and jauntier on stage, Alex Penda impressive with her wide vocal range. I also enjoyed Robin Johannsen, especially in her “son fatta cosi”. Sunhae Im was an acceptable Porporina, but I would have wished a more understandable Italian and a fuller voice. A vocally correct but scenically unmotivated Marcos Fink and an good Thomas Walker complete the cast with 3 decent countertenors in the role of the primadonnas’ mothers and Nicolay Borchev as dance master.
