ROSSINIANA #21

Not for the first time Rossini lifted a piece of one opera and put it in another (but then again so did another supreme master of the theater--Handel) when he took the Count's last act aria in BARBER and gave it to heroine of his newer work LA CENERENTOLA--where it has  permanently remained. The BARBER version is sometimes performed but is most often cut (as it is in BLO's upcoming BARBER.) In the video below Juan Diego Flores discusses and performs the aria as first written with his usual panache (albeit with, in my opinion, some lingering unease around the edges)

But the real reason to discuss this is to get a performance by Frederica von Stade onto this blog. She is the best ... a lovely flexible voice, impeccable musicianship ... utterly charming, relaxed, funny but always full of the deepest humanity and feeling.

So here is that BARBER aria now as the more famous "Naque all'fanno" from CENERENTOLA.

As for the vision of Rosina in a wheelchair at the beginning of the Flores video check in tomorrow ... all will be explained.


--John Conklin, Artistic Advisor