Torvaldo e Dorliska (complete opera recorded in 2006)

Torvaldo e Dorliska stands between the "dramma serio" Elisabetta, regina d'Inghilterra ("grand debut" in Naples at the San Carlo theatre: 4th October 1815) and Il barbiere di Siviglia (Rome, Teatro Argentina, 20th February 1816), a comic pièce, indeed the Rossini comedy par excellence. There are many clichés that need to be swept away about this opera, long considered modest yet of enormous interest. One concerns the orchestration indicated as vague but which is indeed very rich: preludes of infallible expressivity, pre-romantic horns and clarinets halfway between Mozart (Torvaldo's concertante aria "Fra un istante a te vicino") and the nineteenth century. The present production if the one of the famous Rossini Opera Festival. This world première DVD recording features singers that have attained world-wide renown, such as the bass-baritone Michele Pertusi and the soprano Darina Takova, and others that are rising stars, such as the tenor Francesco Meli.