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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Today, though, there is a growing interest in Rossini, and last week Milan's La Scala revived one of his most difficult operas: The Siege of Corinth. A papier-mache tragedy about the Turkish conquest of Greece in the 15th century, it was not well liked at its Naples premiere in 1820; the audience expected Rossini's usual opera buffa, not blood and fireworks. The work fared little better elsewhere in Italy. Audiences found it too moralistic; singers were terrorized by its complexities. In fact, it was last heard at La Scala more than a century...
Searching the Dustbins. In large part, the new Siege bore a made-in-U.S.A. stamp. American Conductor Thomas Schippers was on the podium, and his three principal singers were also American. Soprano Beverly Sills of the New York City Opera made a stunning La Scala debut as the Greek heroine Pamira. Mezzo-Soprano Marilyn Home displayed her rich vocal resources as the young Greek army officer Neocle (in the 19th century,female singers were often cast as young men). Puerto Rican-born Justino Diaz of the Met filled the basso role of the Turkish sultan with majesty and brilliance...
Invited by La Scala to conduct a Rossini work for the centenary of the composer's death, Schippers spent months scouring the operatic dustbins of Europe and the U.S. for a workable score of The Siege. He finally discovered a copy of the original Naples version among some old manuscripts in the Library of Congress. A French publisher lent him fragments of Rossini's orchestration for the first Paris performance. The Rossini library in Pesaro, Italy, the composer's home town, produced a score of the initial La Scala production. Schippers took what seemed...
...revival, says La Scala's Co-Artistic Director Bindo Missiroli, has all "the nobility of an epic religious poem." Schippers himself regards The Siege of Corinth as "the most inventive opera Rossini ever wrote." Hard-to-please Milanese opera buffs are paying the ultimate compliment to the Michigan-born maestro: they say that it is really the work of a new composer named Rossini-Schippers...
...Amer ica, the bourgeois dismissed her as a wan ton. It was in Europe that she won her recognition - and lost her life when her trailing scarf wound around a racing-car wheel. Her last words seem written in art-nouveau script: "Adieu, mes amis, je vais à la gloire...