JAVS Spring 2013

A D OUBLE -B ARRELED R OSSINIAN V IOLA S TORY

ance, which took place in nearby Ferrara on March 14, 1812. Here it is, as told many years later by Rossini himself to the German composer Ferdinand Hiller: For one opera, Ciro in Babilonia , I had a terrible second soprano. Not only was she ugly beyond belief, but even her voice was well below decency. After a thorough examination I discovered that she possessed only one note that did not sound awful, the B-flat on the third line of the stave. So I wrote an aria for her in which she had to sing just this one note, I put all the musical argument into the orchestral part, and since the piece was liked and applauded, my mono-tonous singer was thrilled by her triumph. 1 In the Italian operatic world of Rossini’s time there were many rules, both written and unwritten, and one of them specified that the seconda donna of a cast was entitled to a solo number. This was always placed in such a way as to provide a few minutes’ rest for the principals, and the audience traditionally used it to sneak out for some refreshment, hence the name aria di sorbetto by which it was usually known. This particular aria in Ciro in Babilonia is accordingly placed toward the end of the opera, just before the title character’s final scene. I knew the piece only by reputation but had never actually heard it performed, so I was particu larly keyed up as the aria approached. The recitative was over, and the orchestra struck up an agreeable ritor nello , scored for strings. And then it happened: after a few bars, a solo viola raised its voice for several bars of serene E-flat-major bliss. I was expecting just about anything at this point, except for a viola solo! Presently the singer came in on her B-flat and did all that could be done with it, with the solo viola continually coming back to comment on the proceedings. Not even when the tutti returned did the viola fall silent: it doubled the first violins at the lower octave, and even had the last word at the aria’s end. (Exs. 1a–1c.)

Gioachino Rossini

by Carlos María Solare

One of my favorite summer spots is the sea resort of Pesaro, on the Adriatic coast of Italy. Not just because of the sea, I hasten to add, but also because every August it hosts the Rossini Opera Festival (ROF) (Rossini, of course, was born there in 1792). Since its inception thirty-three years ago, the ROF has been quietly working its way through Rossini’s output, operatic and otherwise, always performing from the critical editions that emerge regularly from the archives of the Fondazione Rossini, also based in Pesaro. This past August, the ROF presented an opera that had never before been performed there: the biblical blockbuster Ciro in Babilonia , which deals with the defeat and overthrow of the blasphe mous Babylonian king Belshazzar by the Persian ruler, Cyrus. The one thing most Rossinians know about this opera, even if they have never heard a note of it, is an anecdote relating to its first perform

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