Rossini: Maometto Secondo [Box set]

Maometto II, opera
Composed by Gioachino Rossini
with Bruce Ford, Gloria Scalchi, Cecilia Gasdia, Samuel Ramey, Ernesto Gavazzi
Conducted by Gabriele Ferro

Rossini: Maometto Secondo,Gioachino Rossini,Gabriele Ferro,Bruce Ford,Cecilia Gasdia,Ernesto Gavazzi,Gloria Scalchi,Samuel Ramey,Serenissima,Classical,Italian Romantic Opera,Opera

Average customer rating:

A Rossini Grand Feast For Voices: Another Hit !!
Musical splendor for Rossini and Ramey fans

Rossini: Maometto secondo

Manufacturer: Philips
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Rossini - Il Turco in Italia / Bartoli, Corbelli, Pertusi, Vargas, Teatro alla Scala, Chailly
Rossini - Bianca e Falliero / Larmore · Cullagh · Banks · D'Arcangelo · LPO · Parry (Complete Opera)
Rossini - Armida / Gasdia · Merritt · Matteuzzi · Ford · F. Furlanetto · Workman · I Solisti Veneti · Scimone
Rossini: Otello
Rossini: L'Assedio di Corinto

ASIN: B0001HOY0Y
Release Date: 2004-06-15

Customer Reviews:

A Rossini Grand Feast For Voices: Another Hit !!.......2006-02-01

It was only after hearing Rossini's Viaggio A Reims and Maometto Secondo on this recording that I became a fan of the lost art of Rossini opera. It is sad that today the only popular and performed Rossini work is Barber of Seville. A perennial classic, it is nothing like say this opera, about the grand, victorious Muslim conqueror Maometto (Mohameed in Italian) sung by the greatest bass-baritone of our time Samuel Ramey. And look at the extensive cast -June Anderson as Anna Erisso, Margarita Zimmermann as Calbo, Ernesto Palacio as Paolo Erisso Laurence Dale [Condulmiero] Laurence Dale [Selimo]. The Ambrosia Opera Chorus can always be counted on for excellent work and the conductor has enough Italian in him to understand Rossini.

This recording is a vocal feast of voices. Samuel Ramey and June Anderson have glorious voices and sing their roles with enough mastership of the repertoire to make the opera exciting and beautiful. All fans of this type of singing, which is a dead art, and fans of Samuel Ramey will eat it up. This vehicle is a great one for Ramey. It allowed him to challenge himself as a bass-baritone, it showcases all aspects of his singing. He has a rich, dark, textured and florid singing voice, while still maintaining a vigorous masculinity and dark edge. Before he made it big in his famous Devil personaee, he was the greatest Rossini baritone, a fact that seems to have faded. This role he considered his best and most challenging. June Anderson may ocassionally sound strained, but that's because the part is heavy and taxing, with much fioritura to boot. I also agree with the other critic that this role would have suited Beverly Sills, but perhaps this would have been too much for her as well. It is vehicle for a true Rossini soprano with both lyric, coloratura and even mezzo qualities. Mezzo soprano Margarita Zimmerman makes a terrific account of Calbo, and one would only imagine what Marilyn Horne could have done with the part. The music is grand, and full of vertiginous scales up and down the staff. There is even an old-school charm about this piece, as if the singers were from an even older period. Singinng Rossini, particularly this type of opera, is not easy and the singers should be credited for their outstanding abilities to stand there and sing this difficult music. If only I had been around to see Samuel Ramey sing this role!!!!

Musical splendor for Rossini and Ramey fans.......2004-12-03

The darkly resonant basso cantante of Samuel Ramey and his considerable powers of interpretation are the joys of this three-CD album. According to Ramey himself, the title role of "Maometto Secondo" is the most difficult part he has sung to date, so this 1983 Philips recording with Rossini expert Claudio Scimone conducting is a must-have for Ramey fans. I believe it's the only recording of this great bass singing his most demanding role.

When the eponymous Turkish sultan comes onstage with his victorious troops for the first time in Act One, he immediately launches into his florid cavatina, 'Sorgete, sorgete' where he acknowledges the obeisance of his followers--think of Mehmet II as the Muslim Alexander the Great. In this particular opera, he is engaged in capturing the Venetian colony of Negroponte in Greece. His most famous conquest, for us Christians at least, was Constantinople.

In Rossini's version, Mehmet II fails to conquer the Venetian colony because Anna, the woman with whom he fell in love while he was disguised as the student, Uberto, betrays him. In order to save her father, the governor of Negroponte and her fiancé, Calbo, Anna lets herself be abducted by the Turkish conqueror. But after an aria and duet, and before he can proceed with his love-making, Mehmet II has to trot off to another battle. Anna obtains his imperial seal of authority, which allows her people to trick and drive off the Sultan and his army. In her mother's burial vault, Anna is married to Calbo (powerfully sung by mezzo-soprano, Margarita Zimmermann) by her father, and when the Sultan comes looking for revenge, she admits her deception and after the thrilling 'Madre, a te,' stabs herself in the heart.

As you might guess from the plot, the soprano really gets to chew up the stage in this opera, and June Anderson sings a competent, though stressed Anna.

Rossini: Maometto Secondo (II) - Complete Opera

Average customer rating:

One of Ramey's most difficult roles
Very Excellent Recording

Rossini: Maometto Secondo (II) - Complete Opera
Gioacchino Rossini , Samuel Ramey , June Anderson , Philharmonia Orchestra , Claudi Scimone (conductor) , and Margarita Zimmermann
Manufacturer: Polygram Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Matilde Di Shabran - Juan Diego Florez

ASIN: B00000E2S0
Release Date: 1990-10-25

Customer Reviews:

One of Ramey's most difficult roles.......2005-01-27

Very Excellent Recording.......2003-10-07

I believe that this was the first complete recording of this opera, and it came out quite a while after Beverly Sills made her recording of "L'assedio di Corinto." I mention this because Maometto Secondo was rewritten for Paris and became Le Siege du Corinthe, and only later when brought back to Italy in Italian translation did it become L'assedio di Corinto.

Like with some of Rossini's other early operas where the first writing of the material was wonderful, this opera improved with the rewrite making it hard to listen to this one objectively. What makes it even more difficult is in the Sills recording much of the music you will hear (like the Anna's final aria, Si ferite) that was NOT transferred to the Paris rewrite is added to the score but in quite dramatically different places than in the original. The afore mentioned aria no longer is the aria just before Anna's death, but becomes the introduction aria of Act 2 leading to her romance with Maometto. Even the famous prayer (the one recorded by nearly every soprano or mezzo doing "Rossini Rarities" -- Giusto Ciel) falls into a very different dramatic setting between the two operas.

The best way to approach this opera, and this recording is to forget you have listented to and enjoyed the recording of L'assedio. Once you can get your mind around the differences (and the dramatic improvements in the Paris rewrite are unbelievable) then you can begin.

The plot is different but similar to the other work. The lead love interest is sung by a contralto (in the Paris rewrite Calbo became Niocle and was written for a tenor; when the opera returned to Italy in Italian Donizetti transferred the role of Niocle back to a contralto as we are used to hearing it today), and some of the most wonderful music is written for that voice. However, we must not forget that the part of Anna was written for Rossini's wife, Isabella Colbran, who had a very dark nearly contralto sounding soprano and an amazing ability to sing rapid ascending scales. Maometto is a far more decorative rendition with tons more fioratura than L'assedio (probably the reason so much of the florid arias and trios were added back to the score of L'assedio when Sills sang it) and thus it is harder to capture the true drama of the opera.

This is where we get to the recording itself. June Anderson is a very well known colorature soprano noted for some very good high notes very much like Sills was. One would wonder how well she does in a role that is not actually written all that high with most of its most difficult passages well within the staff and below. Well, she does remarkably well. It is very interesting how Anderson's voice does not disappear or weaken in the lower passages, but she loses nothing in her brilliance in the higher ones. She does a very excellent job, vocally. For me, though, the real drama of the piece is lost. Actually, it is very hard to feel the drama of this opera at all. It is really up to the singers to bring the drama to life, as the vocal writing is so florid this opera can easily degenerate into nothing more than empty vocal display. Anderson tries valiantly to make sure she doesn't slip into empty vocal display, but she is not always successful.

Samuel Ramey is simply wonderful, and at the time of this recording probably the only really excellent bass with a super accurate ability to sing fioratura. Ramey is a fabulous actor on stage, and he certainly tries with this opera to make his character come alive, but again, sometimes the fioratura gets in the way.

The other singers, though less familiar to me, do a wonderful job, and sing their hearts out in a very exciting way. The contralto who sings Calbo does a super job and one is not left wishing Marilyn Horne were singing the role (though at times one wishes she had recorded the entire thing just because she caught our interest through her commercial recording of the grand scene for Calbo, combined with that of Niocle from L'assedio, and we have the live recording of her singing the role with Sills at La Scala, and the opera is heavily cut in places). Unlike the L'assedio recording, you will not find super huge flights of fancy and added vocal difficulties, for this recording stays fairly close to the written score. Sometimes, and only because we are used to the shower endings in arias, that takes some of the life from an aria, or a stretta that ends the acts.

The recording is very good, and the opera is very exciting. It is true, Rossini made vast improvements when he rewrote it for Paris, and the drama of the work becomes far more involving, but this version is worthy of its fame. I recommend buying this recording, especially if you already own the L'assedio recording with Sills, for it gives you a more complete picture of what Rossini was tring to do. Also, you get the wonderful experience of comparing those parts of this score that Sills brought over to the other recording and seeing just who you think sings this music the best.

Rossini: Maometto Secondo
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Rossini: Maometto Secondo

Manufacturer: Serenissima
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B00008FQMY
Release Date: 1994-12-16