Mosè

 

Rossini Mosè opera to a libretto (I believe) by Luigi Balocchi and Etienne de Jouy. Directed by Cecilia Ligorio and Tiziano Mancini in semi-staged version at Milan Cathedral. Stars Ruggero Raimondi (Mosè), Bogdan Mihai (Elisero), Filippo Polinelli (Faraone), Luciano Ganci (Amenofi), Giovanni Sebastiano Sala (Aufide), Christian Starinieri (Osiride), Maria Cioppi (Maria), Lydia Tamburrino (Anaide), and Isabelle Kabatu (Sinaide). Francesco Quattrocchi conducts the Veneranda Fabbrica del Duomo di Milano Orchestra and Choir (Chorus Master Emiliano Esposito). Costumes by Franca Squarciapino; lighting by Valeria Tiberi; visual designs by Unità C1. Directed for TV by Tiziano Mancini. Released 2016, disc has 5.1 dts audio. Grade: NA

It appears Rossini wrote 3 versions of this: (1) Mosè in Egitto (in Italian), (2) Moïse et Pharaon (in French), and (3) an Italian rendition of the French opera. The Rossini Opera Festival produced an updated and controversial Italian version (#1) in 2011 that lasted 150 minutes. Subject semi-staged version that played in the Milan Cathedral was based on version #3 and was cut to run only 80 minutes. To add to the confusion, the Milan Cathedral show is simply called "Mosè." So what you get here is a truncated version of the opera in costume in a church with special video projections on the church building.

Patrick Dillon in the June 2016 Opera News at pages 64-65 calls this "a brutal condensation" and "a static, stilted, overresonant effort with few strong musical assets."

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