Rossini: Il Turco in Italia Blu-ray

Rossini: Il Turco in Italia

 (2009)

Rossini: Il Turco in Italia Blu-ray delivers great video and superb audio in this exceptional Blu-ray release
A man moves his two daughters to Italy after their mother dies in a car accident, in order to revitalize their lives. Genova changes all three of them as the youngest daughter starts to see the ghost of her mother, while the older one discovers her sexuality.

For more about Rossini: Il Turco in Italia and the Rossini: Il Turco in Italia Blu-ray release, see the Rossini: Il Turco in Italia Blu-ray Review published by Jeffrey Kauffman on February 20, 2010 where this Blu-ray release scored 4.5 out of 5.

Starring: Colin Firth, Catherine Keener, Hope Davis, Willa Holland
Director: Michael Winterbottom

» See full cast & crew

Rossini: Il Turco in Italia Blu-ray Review

One of Rossini's lesser known works gets a splendid Genovese production on this great new Blu-ray.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman, February 20, 2010

Gioachino Rossini would probably not make anyone's list for most forward thinking composer. Despite having a rather impressive oeuvre covering a variety of genres, Rossini is still best remembered for The Barber of Seville and, especially for middle aged men who grew up in the era of television's The Lone Ranger, William Tell, from whose Overture that long running series culled its famous opening theme. Even the liner notes for this new release of one of Rossini's most charming, if lesser known, pieces, Il Turco in Italia, mention how "mechanical" Rossini's music is in the opera, spinning out shall we say less than revelatory harmonies and melodies as it mines some traditional buffa material.

And yet, as the liner notes also aptly elucidate, this is really an amazingly prescient piece, at least from a libretto standpoint (Felice Romani). Rossini and his collaborator establish an unusual format, where a "poet" (read: playwright) is experiencing writer's block and needs inspiration to complete his new drama. Enter a band of Gypsies, whose tangled love lives provide the fodder for what then becomes Il Turco's rather recondite plot. Through the ensuing two acts, however, in a sort of precursor nod to the Heisenberg principle in physics or the dramatic ingenuity of Pirandello, the poet (Vincenzo Taormina) continues to interact with his "characters," shaping their reactions and the overall movement of the story. Therefore, Il Turco breaks free from some of the stereotypical expectations of buffa and actually provides a surprise or two along the way.

The Turk

If I may be permitted a probably culturally inapt and slightly comic comparison, Rossini was perhaps unfairly lambasted for pulling a sort of Green Acres reversal to his Beverly Hillbillies opera L'Italiana in Algeri with Il Turco in Italia. While, like those two bastions of CBS television in the 1960's, there are certainly "mirror images" in terms of basic ideas, Il Turco is the decidedly more innovative piece, though L'Italiana continues to be Rossini's more enduringly popular work, at least in terms of this particular pair. Part of that disparity can probably indeed be attributed to Il Turco's less than inspired score, though Rossini does include several nice and unexpected touches if you know where to listen for them. One comes relatively early in the evening, with an unusually chromatic Overture featuring a lovely extended horn solo. But really this is pretty "by the numbers" composing (those numbers being pretty exclusively I, IV, and V7 and their diatonic passing tones). All of that aside, Il Turco is a fun and often quite funny spritely trip through a whirlwind of operatic "types," highlighted by this particular production's emphasis on Commedia dell'Arte.

This 2009 production from the Teatro Carlo Felice di Genova is a colorful romp that is part festival, part farce and, lying just beneath the surface, part surprisingly facile examination of what the creative process means. Rossini's allure and insight in this regard has attracted some unexpected followers through the years. Though the opera was initially dismissed and soon fell out of favor, some 150 years later it was rediscovered when two productions in the 1950's were helmed by future film giants Luchino Visconti and, at La Scala, Franco Zeffirelli. (It's worth noting that Maria Callas was Fiorilla in both of these productions). The fact that two so very different directors would be interested in what had been dismissed for over a century as a lightweight minor piece gives some indication of the wealth of ideas Il Turco offers, often disguised by familiar farcical situations of confused identities and mismatched lovers.

But Rossini and Romani completely exploit and expand the fine line between the real and imagined, as well as between Art and Reality, making it concrete in a way usually not even attempted in traditional buffa. Stage directo Egisto Marcucci brings these elements brilliantly to the foreground with this offering, without ever making them seem didactic or dry. As such Commedia types as Pierrot traipse about in the background, this huge carnival unfolds with gaiety and a riot of color. Lovelorn Gypsy Zaida (Antonella Nappa) has barely escaped with her life after being accused of being unfaithful to her beloved, Selim (Simone Alaimo), the eponymous Turk of the opera's title. Arriving in Italy, she gives advice to the Poet's rather buffoonish friend Geronio (Bruno di Simone). When Selim suddenly shows up in Italy, Geronio's winsome wife Fiorilla (Myrto Papatanasiu) of course immediately falls in love with him.

Rossini was evidently highly influenced by Cosi fan Tutti, which had just played La Scala before Il Turco premiered there in 1814, and mismatched and unfaithful pairs of lovers are front and center here, as they are in Mozart's masterpiece. A whole second subplot of mismatches and subterfuges also plays out in Il Turco, upping the farcical ante to epic proportions. What keeps this piece from devolving into absolute anarchy, is the subtly guiding hand of the Poet, who arranges for a somewhat unexpected ending, at least in the annals of traditional buffa.

I had a completely delightful time watching this bright and breezy production. It's true that Rossini's music in this piece is not going to set the operatic world on fire, but it's perfectly suited to the machinations of the plot, and is often neatly nuanced and colorful, within the rather rigorous confines of the traditional style in which Rossini confines himself. The performances here are splendid, hitting just the right notes (pun intended) of winking self-deprecation and naivete. The playing of the Orchestra and Chorus of the Teatro Carlo Felice is exuberant under the excellent direction of Jonathan Webb. And the set design by Emanuele Luzzati and costume design by Santuzza Cali are simply exceptional, bringing an explosion of color to the proceedings.

This lesser known piece may well be thought of as a sort of Seven Characters in Search of a Composer, to paraphrase one of Pirandello's more famous pieces. It's a neatly constructed meditation on the repercussions the creative process can have. It's also a lot of fun in this spry production which should help the opera attract a new, appreciative audience.

Rossini: Il Turco in Italia Blu-ray, Video Quality

 

As you will see from the screen captures included with this review, this production of Il Turco in Italia arrives with a scintillating AVC encoded 1080i 1.78:1 image. This is one of the more wonderfully colorful productions ArtHaus Musik has released in the Blu-ray era, and for the most part things resolve splendidly here. We're greeted by a lot of hues at the red and blue end of things, especially the Turk's gorgeous purple outfit. Long stretches of the opera play out against a wonderfully saturated cobalt blue backdrop. Colors pop nicely here, even when they're relatively bland beiges and whites. Contrast is very good and black levels remain consistent. There is some brief artifacting, with shimmer appearing on the Turk's finely patterned knit top and elaborate jacket. But overall this is a sharp and excellently detailed offering that provides a lot of visual delights.

Rossini: Il Turco in Italia Blu-ray, Audio Quality

 

This may in fact not be Rossini's most memorable or innovative score, but it receives a splendid performance and recording on this Blu-ray, with an exemplary DTS HD-MA 7.1 track that is clear as a bell and offers really superb fidelity and dynamic range. This recording also makes the most of the frankly deliciously outré continuo which accompanies some of the recitatives. The harpsichordist in these moments is having a ball, going for broke with a lot of keyboard effects which are at once funny and completely character appropriate, and the mix here is appealing and very lifelike. Truth be told, there really isn't a huge opportunity in this piece to exploit a lot of surround activity, but when the stage does get busy with manifold characters, directionality is superb. Hall ambience is pretty much spot on throughout the piece, and balance between the singers and orchestra is top notch.

Rossini: Il Turco in Italia Blu-ray, Special Features and Extras

 

The BD itself only contains trailers for other ArtHaus Musik releases. The insert booklet contains a couple of nice, linked essays providing historical context, as well as a synopsis.

Rossini: Il Turco in Italia Blu-ray, Overall Score and Recommendation

 

Rossini is often seen as a second tier composer, and I guess Il Turco in Italia won't change that perception, at least from a musical perspective. But there really is a lot going on here and this production is full of a certain joie de vivre that makes even the middling score seem more ebullient than it perhaps really is. If you haven't ever seen Il Turco, this is a delightful production, full of color and pageantry. If you have seen the opera previously, you're still sure to get a kick out of this very delightful offering.