Rossini: Ciro in Babilonia (complete opera recorded live August 2012)
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GIOACCHINO ROSSINI
Rossini: Ciro in Babilonia (complete opera recorded live August 2012)
Rossini Opera Festival, Pesaro / Ewa Podles, Jessica Pratt, Michael Spyres, Mirco Palazzi / Will Crutchfield (cond)
[ Opus Arte DVD / DVD ]
Release Date: Wednesday 20 February 2013
This item is currently out of stock. It may take 6 or more weeks to obtain from when you place your order as this is a specialist product.
Suitable for General Audiences
The Biblical story of Belshazzar's hubristic arrogance set against the valour of the young warrrior-leader Cyrus provided the 20-year-old Rossini with a dramatic story with West-Eastern resonances which still speak to us today. For the title role of Cyrus, Rossini wrote what would be his longest-ever contralto role, to which the great Rossini singer Ewa Podles is both naturally attracted and ideally suited. She is partnered by two young American stars of Rossini singing, Jessica Pratt and Michael Spyres, and a conductor-scholar, Will Crutchfield, of immense experience and sympathy.
World-premiere filming of this Rossini masterpiece.
Rossini was only 20 when he wrote Ciro in Babilonia.
Stage director Davide Livermore sets the action in the 1920s, with period black-and-white film inserts.
Features Ewa Podles as Ciro.
From the Rossini Festival at Pesaro, Italy - the only festival devoted exclusively to the works of the composer.
Extra features include: Cast gallery.
Running time: 165 minutes
"Livermore initially opts for pure comedy in staging it as a 1920s silent movie...Never has opera seria been such a hoot...Podles makes for a feisty Ciro, her black treacle contralto imperious, even if her coloratura is now a little effortful...Pratt's Amira is excellent...The audience's matinee idol here, though, is Michael Spyres...a bari-tenor if ever there was one!" International Record Review, September 2013
