Classical 20: Rossini’s Il Turco in Italia

(A) Introduction

I searched on the Naxos Music Library for any recording featuring Myrtò Papatanasiu and I only came up with this one.  So I’m going to inflict it on you because Myrtò is my new best friend and favourite opera singer.

(B) Gioachino Antonio Rossini (1792-1868)

Rossini was another Italian opera composer.  He was born on a February 29 (leap year!) to musical parents and was exposed to music right from the start.  He was successful and prolific – he wrote 39 operas in total in a career that started in Italy and moved to Paris.  His best known operas are the Barber of Seville (which he wrote at 24 years of age) and William Tell.  His first opera was performed when he was only eighteen, and his breakthrough success was Tancredi, performed first in 1813.  He retired from composing operas when he was only 37.

The guy was apparently lazy, a womanizer and he loved to cook.  He used to throw parties all the time, and composer Franz Liszt was one of his buddies.  He married twice, both times to opera singers – way to dip the pen in the company inkpot, dude.

(C) The Opera Buffa

Il Turco in Italia (A Turk in Italy) is an opera buffa, that is, a comedic opera.  What, you thought all operas were tragic?  Well, so did I.  I got that idea from What’s Opera, Doc? where Bugs Bunny asks us at the end, “didja think there was gonna be a happy ending?”

The opera buffa developed in Naples in the first half of the 18^th century, as a reaction to the seriousness and dramatic excesses of the tragic opera.  In fact, it started out as a little one-act piece that would usually be performed in between acts of a serious opera, to lighten the mood of the audience during the break.  In time, entire operas were written in this style.

The primary intention of the opera buffa is to be popular, not musically groundbreaking – an opera for the regular guy.  You’d think that Verdi, Mr. Opera Populist, would be all over this; in fact, his opera Falstaff is considered both the last great opera buffa and Verdi’s own last great work.

Don Giovanni also has some opera buffa scenes, mostly involving Don Giovanni chasing a girl or a bunch of people chasing Don Giovanni.

(D) Il Turco in Italia (1814)

This is a shorter opera than the tragic ones we’ve looked at so far – it’s only two acts.  But there’s more action and plot twists in this than there were in La Traviata’s three acts.

A band of gypsies run into a Turkish prince disembarking from his ship and seductions ensue.  The gypsy Geronio is having marital problems with his wife, Fiorilla (played by Papatanasiu).  Zaida, a gypsy woman, pines for her lost love, the Turkish prince Selim.

Selim disembarks and Fiorilla starts flirting with him, which understandably upsets her hubby Geronio.  Selim agrees to meet Fiorilla later, and runs into Zaida instead.  Selim and Zaida renew their love for each other.  But when Fiorilla appears, Selim can’t make up his mind which woman he wants.

Complications ensue, predictably enough: Narciso, a friend of Geronio’s, is also hot after Fiorilla and makes his own play for her, Selim offers to buy Fiorilla from Geronio (thus solving his money and marital problems).  Oh, and there’s a costumed ball where everyone dresses like everyone else in order to thwart each others’ plans!  After a few more dizzying plot twists, Selim and Zaida get back together and sail away, and Geronio and Fiorilla reconcile.

Act I No. 1: Overture

This introduction takes forever.  It’s eight minutes long.  I guess, being the populist opera buffa that it is, you want to give everyone plenty of time to buy their beer and grab a seat.

Act I No. 3a: Cavatina: Non si da follia maggiore (Fiorilla)

Fiorilla makes her introduction.  This is the reason I wanted to listen to this – Myrtò Papatanasiu’s voice.  She doesn’t disappoint.  What fantastic vocal control!

Act I No. 3b: Chorus, Cavatina and Duet: Voga, voga, a terra, a terra (Chorus, Fiorilla, Selim)

There’s a nice moody choral part at the start, and then the soloists come in about a third of the way in.  It picks up in tempo and enthusiasm about two-thirds of the way through; it’s as if the song has an identity crisis.  There’s some nice riffing by Fiorilla.

 Act I No. 7: Finale I: Gran maraviglie (Chorus, Zaida, Selim, Poeta, Narciso, Fiorilla, Geronio)

This is the big messy end of the first act.  Everyone gets a role in this 20-minute extravaganza – no doubt to detail the wily schemes they’re preparing to unleash in the second act.

Act II No. 8: Duet: D’un bell’uso di Turchia (Selim, Geronio)

This is full of rapid-fire tongue-twister lyrics that would make Busta Rhymes proud. 

Act II No. 14: Quintet: Oh guardate che accidente (Geronio, Narciso, Fiorilla, Selim, Zaida)

Verbal tripping, quick riffing and really cool harmonies all going on at the same time.  These singers would make good rappers! 

(E) Commentary

One character that’s pretty interesting is the Poet, a friend of Geronio’s.  He watches the story unfold before him, but doesn’t take part in the hijinks.  He’s searching for a good plot for an opera buffa he wants to write – it’s a cool little metatextual device used by Rossini.

Sounds like everyone’s after Fiorilla, making me reminisce fondly of watching Ranma ½ episodes.

I get the impression that the opera buffa is something that you need to watch – the music on its own doesn’t seem to carry the romantic comedy vibe that the plot conjures up.

(F) What I’ve Learned

-Not all opera is tragic and angsty.  Opera buffa gives you the lighter, wackier side of the opera.  It is the Friends to opera’s Battlestar Galactica

-Rossini shows that you can be a lazy, indulgent jerk and still be an artistic success.  There’s hope for me yet!