In review: Katonah, NY

Opera News, October, 1999 by Freeman, John W

KATONAH, NY

This year's semistaged bel canto opera at Caramoor was La Gazza Ladra (1817), Rossini's opera semiseria about a servant girl who narrowly escapes execution for the theft of silverware that was actually taken by a pet magpie. The plot is drawn from an actual event in France, which ended badly for the accused. Giovanni Gherardini's libretto, with a happier turn of plot, translates the setting into a prototypical Italian village.

Opera semiseria as a dramatic genre has not weathered the test of time. Even Gilbert and Sullivan had a hard time with it. In La Gazza Ladra, consider Gottardo, the local mayor: though menacing, he's also a fatuous laughingstock, and each characteristic gives the lie to the other. Farcical stand-still ensembles of the "Ah! qual colpo...

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