Rota: Il cappello di paglia di Firenze

Rota: Il cappello di paglia di Firenze

Rota: Il cappello di paglia di Firenze
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Composer: Nino Rota
Composer: Francis Poulenc
Conductor: Elio Boncompagni
Conductor: Reynald Giovaninetti
Performer: Magda Olivero
Performer: Federico Davia
Performer: Mariella Devia
Performer: Edoardo Gimenez
Performer: Augusto Pedroni
Performer: Manuel Gonzalez
Performer: Dolores Crivellari
Performer: Katarina Moesen
Performer: Hartmut Schmiedner
Performer: Jean-Jacques Schreurs
Performer: Gianni Socci
Edition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2000-06-06
Music Label: Gala
Soundtracks:
Music CD 1
  1. Il cappello di paglia di Firenze: Introduction
  2. Il cappello di paglia di Firenze: Act I, Scene 1: May I Come In?
  3. Il cappello di paglia di Firenze: Act I, Scene 2, Unhitch My Horse There! (Fadinard)
  4. Il cappello di paglia di Firenze: Act I, Scene 3, In an Hour I'll Be Married. (Fadinard)
  5. Il cappello di paglia di Firenze: Act I, Scene 4, Come Right In, Boldly! (Fadinard)
  6. Il cappello di paglia di Firenze: Act I, Scene 5, It's All Over Now! (Fadinard)
  7. Il cappello di paglia di Firenze: Act I, Scene 6, Elena! (Fadinard)
  8. Il cappello di paglia di Firenze: Act I, Scene 7, But What A Lovely Situation. (Fadinard)
  9. Il cappello di paglia di Firenze: Act I, Scene 8, Signora, Come Out. (Fadinard))
  10. Il cappello di paglia di Firenze: Act I, Scene 9, It's All Over! (Fadinard)
  11. Il cappello di paglia di Firenze: Act II, Part I, Scene 1, Rapidly Flies Flies The Needle.
  12. Il cappello di paglia di Firenze: Act II, Part I, Scene 2, Signora Modiste, I'm In A Hurry. (Fadinard)
  13. Il cappello di paglia di Firenze: Act II, Part II, Scene 1, O My Dear Baroness. (The Baroness Of Champigny)
  14. Il cappello di paglia di Firenze: Act II, Part II, Scene 2, May I Come In, signore? (Fadinard)
  15. Il cappello di paglia di Firenze: Act II, Scene 3, Viscounts, Baronesses. (Fadinard)
  16. Il cappello di paglia di Firenze: Act II, Scene 4, Dear Signore, You Must Excuse Me. (Baroness, Fadinard)
  17. Il cappello di paglia di Firenze: Act II, Scene 5, A Winter Carnation? (Fadinared, Baroness)
  18. Il cappello di paglia di Firenze: Act II, Scene 6, Maestro, The Concert, If You Will. (Barnoess, Fadinard)
  19. Il cappello di paglia di Firenze: Act II, Scene 7, In Five Minutes I'll Slip Away With The Hat. (Fadinard)
  20. Il cappello di paglia di Firenze: Act II, Scene 8, The Baroness! (Fadinard, Baroness)
  21. Il cappello di paglia di Firenze: Act II, Scene 9, Baroness, But This Is Black! (Fadinard, Baroness, Elena)
  22. Il cappello di paglia di Firenze: Act II, Scene 10, Minardi! (Baroness, Elena, Fadinard)
Music CD 2
  1. Il cappello di paglia di Firenze: Act III, Scene 1, It's An Incredible Thing.
  2. Il cappello di paglia di Firenze: Act III, Scene 2, Here She Is, Finally! (Fadinard)
  3. Il cappello di paglia di Firenze: Act III, Scene 3. Who Has Ever Had.
  4. Il cappello di paglia di Firenze: Act III, Scene 4, What Are You Doing In There? (Fadinard)
  5. Il cappello di paglia di Firenze: Act III, Scene 5, Signora You Must Come In. (Elena)
  6. Il cappello di paglia di Firenze: Act III, Scene 6, My Father-In-Law! (Fadinard)
  7. Il cappello di paglia di Firenze: Act III, Scene 7, There You Are. I've Found You Finally!
  8. Il cappello di paglia di Firenze: Act III, Scene 8, Help! Help!
  9. Il cappello di paglia di Firenze: Act IV, Scene 1, Part 1, Through All Paris We Go
  10. Il cappello di paglia di Firenze: Act IV, Scene 1, Part 2, Now It's Eleven O'Clock
  11. Il cappello di paglia di Firenze: Act IV, Scene 2, There's A Storm Coming
  12. Il cappello di paglia di Firenze: Act IV, Scene 3, Ah, What A Terrible Hellish Day
  13. Il cappello di paglia di Firenze: Act IV, Scene 4, Psst! Hey There, You Rascal!
  14. Il cappello di paglia di Firenze: Act IV, Scene 5, Papa, I Love Him So
  15. Il cappello di paglia di Firenze: Act IV, Scene 6, Ah, My Spleen, My Spleen!
  16. Il cappello di paglia di Firenze: Act IV, Scene 7, Here Are The Presents
  17. Il cappello di paglia di Firenze: Act IV, Scene 8, He's Fit To Be Tied
  18. Il cappello di paglia di Firenze: Act IV, Scene 9, Hurry, Hurry, My Dear Lady
  19. Il cappello di paglia di Firenze: Act IV, Scene 10, Stop, Coachman!
  20. Il cappello di paglia di Firenze: Act IV, Scene 11, What An Uproar...It's Infernal!
  21. Il cappello di paglia di Firenze: Act IV, Scene 12, Everything's In Place!
  22. The Human Voice

Music reviews of Rota: Il cappello di paglia di Firenze

Music Review: An entertaining, live "Straw Hat"
Rating: 4 Stars

SOURCE: Live performance at the Petite Salle in Brussels, March 6, 1976.

SOUND: Details are not provided by the publisher, but this seems to be a true pirate recording. It was clearly recorded from the audience, as demonstrated by the close proximity of a horny-handed, bravo-shouting enthusiast (who, thank heaven, manages to restrain himself until the appropriate moments.) The orchestra is front and center, while the performers are noticeably distant and sometimes overwhelmed by the sounds emerging from the pit. All that notwithstanding, the mono sound isn't all that bad. It is certainly better than many of Callas' live recordings or almost anything emerging from the Salzburg Festival in the 1950s.

CAST: Fadinard, a young, would-be bridegroom - Edoardo Gimenez; Nonancourt, Fadinard's short-tempered father-in-law to be - Gianni Socci; Elena, Fadinard's bride-to-be - Marielle Devia; Anaide, a lady who takes off her hat at intimate moments - Dolores Crivellari; Emilio, Anaide's lover - Manuel Gonzales; Beaupertuis, Anaide's jealous, well-armed husband - Federico Davia; The Baroness of Champigny, a lady with very definite ideas about violinists - Magda Olivero; Uncle Vezet - Augusto Pedroni; The Milliner - Katerina Moesen; Corporal of the Guard/The Viscount of Rosalba - Harmut Schmieder; A Guard/ Fadinard's servant - Jean-Jacques Schreurs. CONDUCTOR: Elio Boncompagni with the Orchestra of Theatre Royal de la Monnaie.

COMPOSER: Nino Rota (1911-1979) was a member of a musical family. His mother was his first music teacher. Toscanini was a family friend and advisor. He was formally trained in both Italy and the United States. In Philadelphia he took classes in the orchestra from Fritz Reiner. Rota is, of course, best known for his film scores but he composed ten operas, five ballets and numerous orchestral pieces.

THE OPERA: "Il cappello di paglia di Firenze" (The Florentine Straw Hat) is based on a famous 1851 farce by Eugene Labiche and Marc Michel called "Un chapeau de paille d'Italie." The great French film director Rene Clair used the story in 1927 for one of the best of the French silent film comedies "An Italian Straw Hat." In 1944, Nino Rota and his mother Ernesta wrote the libretto for "Il cappello." Rota worked on the score for a year or more but put it aside unfinished, with no prospect of a performance. In the mid-1950s, at the prompting of a friend who had heard parts of the score, Rota finished the piece and saw it premiered in Palermo in April 1955 with Jonel Perlea conducting.

STORY: "Il cappello" is a farce about misunderstandings. Fadinard begins his wedding day by driving his carriage across Paris to check on the state of his new apartment. While passing through a wooded area, his whip gets entangled. He stops the carriage to retrieve the whip. His horse uses the pause as an opportunity to snack on an attractive straw hat conveniently hanging from a tree. Fadinard returns to be confronted by an indignant and very much married lady and her lover who is very much not her husband. The lady had removed the hat during an intimate moment with her lover. She cannot return to her suspicious husband without her hat. Fadinard, she and her lover insist, must provide a replacement and they will not listen to any trifling quibbles from him about his forthcoming wedding. Produce the hat, they say, or face a duel. The plot is now wound up like a top and ready to go spinning away. The wedding guests approach as Fadinard rushes off to find a replacement hat. Along the way he blunders into many misunderstandings, including one in which he is taken to be a virtuoso violinist, all to the growing annoyance of his prospective father-in-law.

COMMENTARY: "Il cappello" is pretty much what one might expect from a mid-Twentieth Century Italian composer who was a close friend of Stravinsky but who did not buy into either the atonality of that century's music or its icy indifference to the human condition. For a hint of the sound of the opera and the approach it takes, consider the first scene of Puccini's "La Boheme," before the entry of Mimi and the lush melodies she brings in her wake. Extend that over the whole length of the opera and you have something very like "Il cappello."

Although she is in a supporting role, the star of this performance is the great Magda Olivero, still in first youth at a mere 64 years of age. That lady was, and is, everything that an opera star ought to be. The very fine Marielle Devia, impresses as always, even in the too-small part of Elena. Edoardo Gimenez was, I think, one of those performers who is a delight to see, but one, alas, not blessed with a beautiful voice. On CD, he offers a workmanlike job. The rest of the cast is competent. The conducting and orchestra seem perfectly satisfactory in this not very heavily orchestrated work.

I was drawn to this "Il cappello" by the negative Amazon reviews. Frankly, I wondered how any performance that boasted of both Olivero and Devia could possibly rate a single star. To tell the truth, I am still puzzled by Mr. Dowling's obviously honest and heartfelt disdain. For the moment, I can only assume that my reaction is so different from his because I have heard more truly lousy Twentieth Century operas than he has.

I give "Il cappella di paglia di Firenze" full marks for being that rarest of commodities, an entertaining Twentieth Century opera--less one star for the lack of a libretto and the so-so sound. Four stars.

A PERSONAL COMPLAINT ON PACKAGING: Gala has filled out Disk 2 with Olivero singing an eleven-minute bleeding hunk from Poulenc's "La voix humaine," recorded in San Francisco in 1979. Since "Il cappello" is about 104 minutes and "La voix" about 40, both could have been squeezed onto two disks. I, for one, would not have been bothered in the least by an awkward break in "Il cappello" in return for a complete "La voix."
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