In Pesaro, everything comes in the name of Rossini! The mall, the main street, the pizza, the theater of course and of course the festival! It is to say if the birthplace of the Italian composer venerates his hero. Each summer, three or four of the master's 39 operas are performed there. If we know the
Barber of Seville
or the
Cenerentola well
, Rossini's repertoire contains many other nuggets that deserve to be better known to the general public. This is the task that the French Olivier Descotes has been working on since he took the reins of the Rossini Opera Festival three years ago.
The program for the 2021 edition bears witness to this. We thus gave
Il signor Bruschino
, a beautiful 1h30 farce in the superb little theater in the city center which is, with its forty boxes, a kind of Scala in miniature. For reasons of social distancing, the 300 or so places in the pit were not accessible to the public; and we took the opportunity to install the orchestra there, too cramped in the pit. This choirless work, staged by the Quebec tandem Renaud Doucet and André Barbe, gives pride of place to the interpretation of singers who, like in a vaudeville, have fun playing their roles while singing perfectly. Another show given at the Rossini Theater,
Le Voyage à Reims
in a production created twenty years ago that the public still appreciates. It is an opportunity for young singers, after a residency there, to confront the stage, some for the first time.
Due to the lack of space, the festival is exported to a covered stadium in the middle of a shopping area that is not very poetic.
Fortunately, the technicians manage to recreate in this Arena the atmosphere and acoustics of a real small theater, which allowed them not to add sound to the works.
We have seen dazzling Karine Deshayes in
Elisabetta, Regina d'Inghilterra
, like a staunch and convincing Rossinian.
Finally, the last work in this year's program,
Moise et Pharaon
,
with
a libretto in French and premiered at the Paris Opera in 1827. A rarity.
Until August 22