Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #168580 in Music
• Released on: 2004-10-26
• Number of discs: 3
• Format: Box set
• Dimensions: .45 pounds
• Running time: 165 minutes

Customer Reviews

Even young Mozart is great
The subject is love, love again, love forever. No other intricacies or depth. An Italian charming entertainment. Then what makes this particular recording or even Mozart's music interesting? The first element that attracts our ears is the light and brilliantly flexible music. Definitely not too many notes but all the little notes make the musical flow smooth and harmonious. But then you are not submerged under all kinds of vocal endeavors and exploits. Simple and yet charming musical sentences that sound just right and on a par with the subject: light and smooth. The second element is the voices. I find the two basses absolutely outstanding. Mozart uses their lower range in order to create some somber atmosphere to densify a subject that is not exactly dramatic. And he even plays on the contrast between one bass and a tenor, one going down into the lower and somber range of his voice, the other going rather up into the higher range of his, to create some dramatic tension only with the voices since the plot is not exactly tragic and that leads to the marvelous aria of the tenor who weaves a whole thick cloth of impossible choices, "vogliate or non vogliate", going up and down like some funfair ride that could make you land sick or air sick, as you like it. I must also admit that Rosina is quite convincing in her slightly elaborate singing. Yet I find the recitatives slightly long. Mozart is telling us a story but he uses too many words instead of arias and duets. Still young, probably, but also following his time, not yet stepping ahead of it. He is learning his trade, and is yet so brilliant even if caressing the Viennese social cat in the right direction and avoiding any ruffling gesture. But the arias sound so beautiful when they come, even if slightly too short. The second act is supposed to bring havoc on the stage and it does. Too much wine, all kinds of antics, a duel and many fights. But altogether it sounds rather peaceful and calm. With a few very expressive arias. The duet of the eighth scene sure is dynamic and it wakes up the slumbering music and that leads us to a fast, vivacious final scene in which all characters are taking part. The third act is short because the end of the opera is simple. Love is rewarded and negative feelings are sidetracked. Simone opens the act with a slightly martial aria which fits him since he is the local sergeant. Then back into love and love pangs and other big bangs. Ninetta is just mesmerized by love. Giacinta makes it a lot more dramatic. And Fracasso more or less encourages people into a way that could lead to a tragedy. Fracasso, as a captain, sees love as a war and when he speaks of it he becomes slightly mellow in his battle plan that has to lead to the victory of love, but the fight does not announce itself as heroic in any way, rather a weak, even kind of messy, campaign. The Finale is just clear and cloudless like a summer sky. Polidoro and Rosina, the supposed mentally disabled people, get married even if rejected by many. Mozart plays with our good sense and shows that real love has nothing to do with money or reason, and this is a fact beyond any kind of sanity. Love is in-sanity and can only be achieved by insane people. That's his wink at us telling us that the world is little that cannot live to this simple concept that love is the beating heart of life. And then we are pushed aback by the last swinging turn in the opera when Rosina decides to marry Cassandro and to reject Polidoro. And there Mozart is still tied up to his world. The woman falls for the miser and we can wonder why. Money? Can, a miser love a woman more than his money? Mozart dreams an insane change in a world that imposes its vanity to the poet and artist.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines