Matilde di Shabran
Royal Opera House
Aida
English National Opera
Iolanta
Royal Festival Hall
Matilde di Shabran is one of Rossini’s least performed operas, and having seen the Royal Opera’s production, which derives from the Pesaro festival of 2004, I understand why. Broadly speaking, it is a comedy without jokes or other humour, and in well over three hours of music there is not a single memorable tune, quite a feat for this composer. It was written in a great hurry, of course, and for its second production Rossini provided music that had for the first been written by a kind friend but undistinguished composer, Pacini. The plot concerns the wearing down of a misogynist by the title character; and there are several other important roles, ranging from the misogynist’s physician to an itinerant poet, and a Countess who is also wooing Corradino, the morose central character.
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